Today, Wednesday the 18th, is a 'sea day', i.e. a day at sea (sorry), in this case the Caribbean as we cruise west towards Panama.
The Caribbean is as sunny as one might expect, BUT, with a force 5 wind pushing us along, the sea state is 'moderate'. In this photo I thought I might be able to show the wave sizes, but with nothing to compare them to, it's difficult to judge their size.
Then, over lunch, Barbara spotted a ship on the horizon. Within a short time it was close enough to see that it was a tanker, oil or gas probably, and it gave a much better idea of the size of the waves!
She looked to be heading straight towards where we were soon going to be, but the captains knew what they were doing and it soon became obvious that she would pass astern of us, coming relatively close though.
Now I could see that she was the MV Aktea, 248 x 43 metres, a crude oil tanker registered in Greece and heading for Cartagena. Unlike us, she was heading across the wind and waves and it was heavy going.
We are very lucky to be heading downwind and the ship is hardly rolling at all. Considering that these seas are worse than anything the North Atlantic threw at us, things could be a lot less comfortable.
Going back to lunchtime, not exactly a foody photo, but one of the spectacularly beautiful fruit carvings the chef and/or his staff produce as a centrepiece for the buffet areas.
Going back again to the exciting seas outside, one of the diving seabirds came into view while I had the camera pointed out to sea, so I tried following it with reasonable results:
We're still not certain what the bird is, but we think it's probably a gannet. Happy to be corrected if anyone knows better?
The Caribbean is as sunny as one might expect, BUT, with a force 5 wind pushing us along, the sea state is 'moderate'. In this photo I thought I might be able to show the wave sizes, but with nothing to compare them to, it's difficult to judge their size.
Then, over lunch, Barbara spotted a ship on the horizon. Within a short time it was close enough to see that it was a tanker, oil or gas probably, and it gave a much better idea of the size of the waves!
She looked to be heading straight towards where we were soon going to be, but the captains knew what they were doing and it soon became obvious that she would pass astern of us, coming relatively close though.
Now I could see that she was the MV Aktea, 248 x 43 metres, a crude oil tanker registered in Greece and heading for Cartagena. Unlike us, she was heading across the wind and waves and it was heavy going.
We are very lucky to be heading downwind and the ship is hardly rolling at all. Considering that these seas are worse than anything the North Atlantic threw at us, things could be a lot less comfortable.
Going back to lunchtime, not exactly a foody photo, but one of the spectacularly beautiful fruit carvings the chef and/or his staff produce as a centrepiece for the buffet areas.
Going back again to the exciting seas outside, one of the diving seabirds came into view while I had the camera pointed out to sea, so I tried following it with reasonable results:
We're still not certain what the bird is, but we think it's probably a gannet. Happy to be corrected if anyone knows better?
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