Saturday 15th April - Shearwaters, Black Caps and Jools

So today is another sea day, which went as per every other sea day except:

At about 12.45, we went upstairs to The Grill on deck 12 for lunch only to find a very long queue, and the staff were encouraging us to go to the main dining room on deck 6. We'd shared the lift with the chaplain, Paul, and his wife Jackie, (who are really nice company), and we unanimously agreed we'd give it a go as Peter and I were a bit anxious that we needed to be ready for the class at 2.

Now, one of the reasons we like The Grill is that we can get our food quite quickly. Being waited on sort of slows the process, and unfortunately, the dining room proved to be a lot slower than waiting in the queue for The Grill. We managed to get our lunch in time, but we won't be doing that again.

In the afternoon, whilst Peter was teaching, I decided to investigate some birds I'd seen off the back deck, and a rumour that some smaller birds had landed on the top deck. Armed with binoculars and a camera I wandered around the decks a couple of times, looking out to sea. There is an odd sensation sometimes, where it seems like the ship is still and the sea is rushing past. Curious.

It didn't take long to find the hitch hiking birds, because a man with a very large camera lens was taking photos. It's a small world. It turned out we both knew the same wildlife reserve and person that had created it.

Anyway, the guy was really knowledgeable, and saved me the problem of identifying them, there were four Black Caps. He was also able to tell me that the shearwaters I'd been watching off the rear deck were Mediterranean Shearwaters. Also known as Yelkouan or Levantine Shearwaters. Herewith pictures of the Black Caps - the female is first. She didn't want to pose and stayed hiding under a sun lounger. 

Female Black Cap

Male Black Cap

And the final thing of note was tonight's show. We got to see Jools Holland live. How cool is that! I'll admit I didn't know that he used to be a member of the band Squeeze (Cool for Cats and Up the Junction), but I remember him from Johnathon Ross and his own chat show. I always liked his style.

I couldn't tell you what makes him and the people he works with sound better than the rest of the musicians on the ship, only that he does. The sound was just quality, and we thoroughly enjoyed the extended hour of his show. Brilliant!

And tomorrow we are in Syracuse. We've been before and loved it. We plan to visit a different area from last time, so let's see what tomorrow brings.