Day Twelve – At Sea [Passing Sicily]

After the double disappointment of yesterday, both missing Korcula and the poor weather, it was a pleasure to wake up this morning with land in view. The ship was about to pass through the Straits of Messina, between the toe of Italy and the Island of Sicily. We went on deck to try to get some good photos of both sides of the straits but there was a very strong wind, so we returned to our cabin where we had good views of the island.

The captain explained over the public address system that he had tried to get us into Gibraltar early as compensation for missing the last stop, but the limiting factor was getting a pilot to take us through these waters. Having said that we should arrive some two to two and a half hours earlier than originally scheduled on Sunday morning. As the morning passed the sun came out and so did the sunbathers, filling the sun beds that were out of the wind quite quickly. As with all ships the perennial problem of people saving sun beds with their towels is an issue here on Azura. I’m not sure what you can do about it without causing trouble. 

We skirted the island all day but were not fortunate enough to see Mount Etna as the mountains were covered in low lying cloud. A splendid sight though. As the day progressed small islands all formed by volcanic action appeared on the starboard side of the ship, like those pictured here.

Apart from passing islands Sylvia and I had quite a busy day with two Tate lectures to attend, both expertly presented by Linda Bolton. The subject of both lectures were paintings of Venice, the first concentrating on Turner, while the later one on others such as Sergeant, Whistler and Monet. The overall standard of the Tate presentations are excellent with today’s speaker, the best of the bunch.

In addition to table tennis other games on board include shuffleboard which we had a go at today. With the sunshine beating down on our backs we attempted a few games. Sylvia likes this game as she beat me fair and square, although she did finally wake the man at the back with her shouting.

Of course, it was another sea day so it was another quiz. We did well today and are up there with a shout if we continue at this level. One question that I should have got but didn’t was Who released an album entitled POST ? , answer as usual tomorrow. I thought you may be interested in the rest of the team, they are from left to right :Lawrence, Elizabeth, Eileen and Derek.

Tonight was formal night, with a black and white theme, an opportunity for me to wear my white dinner jacket. No photos as we had some done by the ship’s photographers, we’ll have to wait to see what they are like.