Lisbon to Canary Islands

An overnight stay in Lisbon allowed the next group of passengers to join the ship, 100 from the previous leg so approximately 450 newbies. The cruise is fully booked so it might be a bit of a challenge to get a lounge around the pool deck on sunny sea days. This leg is 16 days, 9  being sea days.

We sailed from Lisbon early afternoon. Again calm seas 👍,will it last through the Atlantic crossing. We headed to the gym followed by a sauna. It was very popular. Hopefully the novelty will wear off with most so it can get back to normality.

Formed a new trivia team. 3 Aussies, 2 Belgium and 2 Israelis. We did rather well, coming in a distant 3rd (winning another Silversea point each 👏). I had a Guinness to help concentrate while Julie had a frozen strawberry daiquiri.  

Headed off to dinner. Julie had a pre-ordered deep fried seabass (I just had some duck and caviar for starter followed by a Caesar's salad and then roast duck). All washed down with some nice wine. 🍷🍷

That night we were treated to a comedian for entertainment. He was extremely funny and talented. Not only a comic but could sing, play a trumpet as well as the banjo. An excellent show.

Day 2 at sea. Calm but cloudy. Planned for a lazy day and slept in for the first time on the cruise. Definitely more people around the ship.  The pool deck is becoming very popular due to the weather.

Still have not read 1 page of a book. Too many things to do.

The sea is like a mill pond.

Trivia was a disaster. We are making the rest of the teams appear very clever. And there are now a lot more teams after Lisbon. The Cruise Director helps giving 1 answer 😂 each game.

The next day we arrived in Arrecife which is part of the Canary Islands. It is an island formed by over 100 volcanoes (none of which are currently active). It is very arid and only experiences about 15 days of rain yearly. Relies on a desalination plant for domestic water (as well as tanks). 28C today. 

We elected to take a winery tour . The tour took across the weird terrain of the island.  Covered in volcanic ash. Very little foliage due to the absence of rain. Yet they grow a significant amount of grapes. 

The vines are grown in the soil with a covering of ash and protected by rock walls to protect from very strong winds. Watering is achieved during through the dew at night seeping through the ash into the soil. During the day the ash insulates the soil and a demonstration showed how the soil under the layer of ash was quite moist..

The wine produced is very good although the only export that is done at present is to Spain.

Some very interesting landscape on the island

Returned onboard to lounge around the pool, into the jacuzzi with a cold Guinness.😎

We had a late sailing to our next stop of Las Palmas. Another smooth crossing to an early morning arrival at Las Palmas. We tied up behind the P&O Venture which is around 116,000 tonnes and a passenger capacity of 3190. Very much bigger than our 40,000 tons and 596 passenger capacity.

We didn't go on an excursion here but elected to take a shuttle into town centre. With the Venture crowd in town as well, it was crowded with tourists (major source of the Island's revenue). We (Julie) shopped for clothes and jewellery. I had a wonderful time 😏. But nothing purchased.

Back on board for a very nice Japanese lunch.

That night the comedian gave his second and final performance exceptional and very entertaining.

The last port in the Canary Islands represented the final stop before we start our 6 day crossing of the Atlantic. We knew the fine weather couldn't last as we awoke in Santa Cruz de la Palma to a misty windy morning. It is another volcano dominated island. 

We again tied up behind another large cruise ship. This time it was the Mein Schiff 2 which is another 110,000 + tonnage with around 3000 passenger capacity. It definitely something that we would not sail on - far too big

This Island was an important stop during the European expansion into the New World back in the 1400 - 1500's. (just little bit earlier than Australian colonisation 😊).

Due to the weather we decided to stay on board. However just before sailing away the sun broke through and warmth returned. Too late to go ashore as we had an early sail away into more calm seas.

That night we went to the disco and finished the night just after midnight. Plan to sleep in for the first day of the Atlantic crossing.