Window to the World - 2016 European / Baltic Sea Voyage

We are off on another world adventure. This is day 1 at sea. We left Port Everglades, Pier 26 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida around 6:00 PM on April 18, 2016 headed for the Azores. For the next 29 days, the MS Zuiderdam of the Holland America Line is our home; a balcony stateroom number 5028, port side, deck 5 forward.

We are joined on our adventure by longtime friends (over 40 years), Jack and Gail McGinn who are also retired and live in Viera, on the east coast of Florida. We first met them in the fall of 1975 as part of the Mallard Camping Club of East Northport, Long Island. We travelled to many camp outs with them but this is the first vacation adventure to other parts of the world.

Jack & Gail are in their early 80's and are our "heroes". They are both still physically fit, play golf and travel the world on an adventure every year. They full-timed in a motor coach for 5 years and then did it part time for another 5. It's challenging to keep up with them!

So here we are with 1,800 other souls and a crew of 800 off to see the west coast of the European continent and up into the Baltic Sea. Our first stop will be over 2500 nautical miles east of the US mainland. The Azores belong to Portugal and are a chain of islands. Our first port of call will be Horta in 7 days.

We left over an hour late we suspect due to either weather or late arriving passengers. We've not yet been told exactly why. The captain announced we were being held in port by direction of the "home office". The gangway had been rolled back and we just sat in port.

There are several low pressure systems in the Atlantic that we will have to avoid. Our route has been altered already a bit further south to hopefully miss reported 20'+ seas and very strong winds. Our first night gave us mild seas of about 6-8' in height with an occasional bigger swell but the ship is an ocean liner, not just a cruise ship and we fared well.

The accommodations are more than adequate with a king bed, plenty of closet space and a roomy ensuite. There is a couch which could double as a pull out bed, chair and desk. Clean, comfortable and well appointed. Two recliners on the balcony which unfortunately it has been too windy to use very much.

The food and menu selection has been superior both in the Lido Buffett and the Vista dining room. Our preference has been for breakfast and lunch on the Lido deck and dinner, around 7:00 PM in the dining room. We generally ask for a table of 6 which gets us another couple to meet and talk with.

First day highlights besides unpacking included some exploring, a welcome aboard champagne party (Jack and Gail are 3 star Mariners, we are only 2 stars and they snuck us in) a good lunch, a personal indulgence in a hand, wrist and forearm massage with a manicure. The massage of hot stones did wonders for my arthritic wrists! A dinner of grilled snapper for me, an introductory show and a great night’s sleep in a very comfortable bed completed a long but fun day.

Day 2 has us again sailing east but we've picked up speed to 18.5 knots, still on a lower southern path than planned and rolling with 6-8' seas. The weather has been warm, in the mid 70's, sunny but windy. We slept late and barely made breakfast. A 2 pm lecture on the salvage of the Soviet submarine Kursk from the Barents Sea topped of a lite lunch poolside. We strolled around the deck later that afternoon and joined the other guests for an Edwardian Tea in the dining room. Our table mates turned out to be Beverly and Ed who was retired 30-year Navy and sub-mariner. They came from the Oregon coast and had just settled down after 13 years full time on the water in a 55' Carver converted commercial dive boat. Fascinating folks.

The first formal dress-up night was today and since we were still in sub-tropical waters a white dinner jacket was appropriate. My bride was dressed elegantly as usual and we enjoyed the company of Jerry, a retired IBM executive and former USAF radio technician. His wife Sharon was a bubbly, talkative gal who ran a doctor’s office in Cary, NC. A very tasty steak and shrimp combo was my entree of choice.

A fun show of song and dance rounded out the evening. The waves lulled us to sleep again!

Day 3 saw the dawn (well we never really see the dawn ourselves) of the same sea heights and pleasant temperatures although the Captain has warned us that it is going to be a bit rougher.

A morning lecture on the Vikings was interesting subject matter, but the speaker an academic was monotone and boring. There were more than a few snoring folks in the auditorium, lunch poolside was buffet of Caribbean foods. The wings were outstanding as well as the Mahi-Mahi in a vegetable laced broth.

During breakfast in the morning we met a couple from Fairfax, Virginia and Ray was retired from the Senior Executive Service (SES) and did a lot of work with the company my brother worked for, MITRE. We swapped stories and Ray doesn't quite remember my brother but his memory is fading at 86 years young!

My entree for dinner was a delicious linguine carbonara and Laurie enjoyed chicken cordon blu. A very well brewed espresso complimented a blueberry crisp. Yes, I know, I talk about food a lot. Our dinner companion was a retired lady from San Diego who was traveling alone.

We moved the clocks ahead an hour at 3pm this afternoon. I extracted 163.50 from a slot machine while Laurie and the McGinn's had their afternoon ice cream treat.

The evening show was a talented sleight of hand magician who did amazing playing card "tricks" that kept you paying attention. Again the sea lulled us to a pleasant night’s sleep.

This morning, day 4 we awoke to a bit angrier sea and 12-15' swells and a force 7 or 30+ knot wind! We are "rocking and rolling". A morning tour of the kitchen proved a fascinating behind the scenes look at how they make it all look easy to feed almost 3000 people (crew and guests) 3+ meals a day!

Laurie is enjoying an indulgence of a "top to toe" massage for 75 minutes. A short visit to the casino, returned $10 back to the slot machine! Our afternoon lecture followed a lunch poolside. Capt. Nixon, MS (Ret) provided a fun and learned account of the Mutiny on the Bounty from the vantage point of Capt. Bligh and his life story. Fascinating.

Our evening dinner of roast turkey provided a nice change of pace before an outstanding performance by the Barricade Boys. A quartet of young men who all had starring roles in either the West End or movie production of Les Miserables as well as the West End production of Jersey Boys. Their name of course refers to the "barricade" so prominent in Les Mis!

A soft slumber with the crashing waves will rock us to sleep.

On day 5 we slept in and had breakfast delivered, a nice treat. The seas are getting bigger, averaging 15' with a force 6 wind but the ship is handling it well and so are we. The temps are still warm in the high 60's and with the roof closed over the pool and the bright sun it is quite comfortable.

Our favorite lecturer, Captain Nixon led us on the life and adventures of Sir Frances Drake. Navigator, pirate, slave trader and expert seaman. The room again was filled to overflowing in to the halls. He's become a main attraction onboard.

We spent the afternoon playing cards with Jack & Gail in the forward lounge overlooking the bow and the whitecaps.

An excellent dinner of Coq au Vin topped off with cherries jubilee sundae for dessert. Our evening performance was by Synergy, twin brothers who were classically trained violinists and now mix that with pop music in an energy charged performance.

A little reading after I finish this and then a gentle sway of the ship to lull us to sleep.

Good morning and welcome to Saturday. The skies are grey, the waves are still up in the 15' range and we are having rain squalls. Not a pleasant morning. We had breakfast in again at a relatively (for us) early hour since we've been invited to a Mariner Society luncheon beginning at 11:30 am. This society is based on how many days you have travelled on board a HAL ship. We are at the 2-star level, which is 30+ days. Jack and Gail did a 39-day trip to Australia several years ago and are at 3-star level. Discounts, better cabins and other perks become available as your star numbers increase.

Following our bigger than usual lunch on Saturday, the afternoon featured another lecture by our favorite Captain. This was part 1 of 2 on Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson. His life, his loves and his famous battles. Thoroughly enjoyable. Dinner was a wonderfully grilled steak with risotto and veggies. One of our dinner companions was a pair of educators from suburban Chicago who were 5 Star Mariners, having amassed more than 500 sailing days/credits.  Our evening entertainment was the card magician who did a lot of great tricks but was somewhat boring and predictable. The seas are still quite rough with winds approaching gale force, but mainly from the west and the roll is not too bad, or we are getting real used to it.

We arose on Sunday morning to grey & threatening skies, gale force winds and impending rain showers. Breakfast on the Lido deck then our part 2 lecture at 11:00 am. We took a dispensation from church this morning and skipped the 8:00am Roman Catholic mass.

Our lunch companions were from Selden, LI and we talked about mutual love/ hate reasons to be on Long Island. Our after lunch walk was preempted by a rain squall and we opted for cards with Jack & Gail.

Tonight was a Gala dress night and full tux was appropriate. I enjoyed duck pate, quail on a bed of Portobello mushrooms and spinach with risotto. Laurie feasted on jumbo prawns with fillet mignon and potatoes. Our entertainment was again by the Barricade Boys with a whole new production of songs. Alas they leave the ship in Portugal which is where we drop anchor tomorrow morning on the Lee side of the Island and tender in. We have been warned that the seas, even on the leeward side will be rough and the 10-15-minute ride will be "uncomfortable". Since we have been to Horta before we have not scheduled an excursion but will wander around independently with the McGinn's