Hello from day 4 of five consecutive sea days crossing the Atlantic on the NCL Escape.  The last time we saw land was Saturday afternoon leaving Madeira, and the next land we will see is the Leeward Caribbean island of Antigua on Friday morning.  The ship crossed the mid-Atlantic ridge this morning, so we are “officially” in North America now. 

I used to dread sea days, and the idea of five in a row would have been daunting, but I’ve gotten better at structuring and preparing for them over the years.

It’s been interesting to cross time zones every day or two. Yesterday was Greenland time, today is Brazil time (two hours ahead of Eastern Standard, four hours behind Central European where we started). I’ve been able to get some beautiful sunrise and sunset photos. 

I’ve even done a little plane spotting ✈️

One fun activity I participated in on Tuesday morning was a behind-the-scenes tour of the vessel. On a ship with a capacity of 5200 passengers (3500 currently on this repositioning cruise), it’s amazing to see how the crew keeps it all running. 

We toured the laundry and main galley (where pictures were allowed) and the theater backstage, crew lounge and crew dining room (where pictures were not allowed). 

It was also cool to see what the ship calls “I-95”…the corridor running the length of the ship the crew uses to move from place to place without going through guest areas. 

I was concerned about how rough the seas might be on this crossing, but they’ve been pretty mild with some medium swells at night.

Besides the tour, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading. I have Bella Mackie’s newest book “What a Way to Go”, a couple history-related ebooks and a couple of books related to the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism.  

I’ve also kept up with exercise – nice to have this view from the elliptical machine in the ship gym. I’ve spotted more flying fish than I can count.

Enjoying my days at sea, final phase of this journey to come!