Friday – May 1, 2026 – at sea to Mindela day 1
The featured photo for today is a still taken from the time lapse of today’s sunrise. We haven’t seen as many sunrises this trip as in 2025 because we are on the starboard side of the ship and the majority of mornings that doesn’t face East. It isn’t that this is an extraordinary sunrise, but each one I see reminds me that no day is guaranteed – each one is a gift and I need to take the time to appreciate it as such.
Today is the first of 7 days we will be at sea as we sail from Walvis Bay to Mindelo in Cape Verde. Our route takes us away from the West coast of Africa both to make the shortest distance and to reduce the chance of piracy. Last year we made port at Dakar, Senegal – which is not far from Cape Verde. Residents from Senegal come to Cape Verde to sell hand made items like clothing, baskets and wood carvings. When we reach Mindelo we may see some of these at the African market.
Days at sea are similar for us. First activity is the World Cruise game at 11:15 am on deck 13. Today’s game was to use a nerf gun to knock over empty aluminum cans on a table about 10 feet away. Need I say it again – Air did not win the competition today.
We met near Guglielmo’s office at 12:30 on deck 5 and walked up to the restaurant on deck 6 for lunch. Jan, Kelsey, Guglielmo and I were joined in the restaurant by Joel (Guest Services manager), Lorena (Future Cruise Manager), Cristian (musical director) and Sonia (Cruise Director). Guglielmo has a table and waiter assigned to him when he dines in this restaurant. There were no passengers in the restaurant so it was much quieter than we are used to and we were able to converse in normal volume – that was a welcome change. We had a nice lunch and learned more about each of the staff. They had fun stories to tell about other cruises they have worked. It would be nice to have lunch again with any of them.
Kelsey likes to attend all the musical events at sea. Today in the afternoon there was a presentation in the theater titled Broadway: A Celebration. She contributed a couple photos from that show to the gallery.
Following dinner there was a show in the theater titled Under African Skies. This was also presented during the 2025 World Cruise.
The routine for Jan and I usually ends with the evening show (around 9:30 or 10:00 pm). For Kelsey it is later – sometimes into the early morning. She likes to visit the buffet and go to the activities in the lounges or on deck 13. These usually begin around 10:30.
That’s all for today – only 6 more at sea and 15 more until we return home.
Here you will find today’s gallery.