May 12 - at Sea

I woke up early and went to explore the ship in the wee hours. there were a few crew about cleaning and preparing for the morning. I took photos of each floor of the ship hoping that would help me to be abel to find my way around better. We kept getting confused and walking the wrong way until we found the maps and realized that we were walking the wrong way.

I ended up back in the room and Margie was up and getting ready for the day. We went to the hot tubs. The sun was already up and the hot tub was hot and lovely. We luxuriated in our decadence of cruising and then more people started to show up. still lovely but not so private. we went into the pool for a swim and then into the hot tub again.
Breakfast in the big aft restaurant "Windows".

Today was a spa day and we had appointments for the morning seaweed wrap and aroma massage. Mine was earlier than Margie's.  I showed up on time and was shown into my room.  Quiet music played and a young  lady came in and we began with a massage and then the wrap which she said would become hot. Well, seaweed stuff and saran wrap, I guess hot would be something that would happen. A shower to get rid of the seaweed stuff and then the sales pitch. I ended up leaving with about 150 dollars worth of stuff.


 A relaxing lunch from the outside restaurant  and suddenly an announcement about our day at sea. A fisherman has spotted a refuge ship floating in the Mediterrean. the Finnish coast guard has been called in but as we were the closest ship, the law of the sea said that we had to go and stand to until the coast guard got there. What?

The Finnish Coast Guard? OK so it seems they all take turns taking care of the refugees situation in Europe. there are a lot of Refugees from Africa.
It felt weird being on a cruise ship with lots to eat and drink and being safe while 300 people were crammed onto a tiny boat trying to get to Italy. Eventually the Coast guard did come and assess the situation. some folks who were in bad shape or ready to give birth were brought on board but they were quarantined from the the rest of us and so we never actually saw anyone. A helicopter came and got them to bring them back to Italy. and then we continued onto our now rearranged journey. We would not be going to Mykonos but would instead proceed onto Athens and have an extra day at Sea. we were sad but we certainly understood that taking care of the refugees at sea was a much more important endeavour.
Margie and I went to the art auction and Margie ended up bidding on and getting a set of paintings that were very pretty in the impressionist style. We will arrange to get them mailed home so we do not have to carry them on our journeys after we leave the ship. It was a relaxing but eventful day life change=ing for the refuges and fulfilling for us.