Eight Days at Sea with Nothing but the Atlantic Ocean – Part 1
Life aboard the Valiant Lady after we left Bimini has been much busier than I anticipated. How would one pass eight days of time when there’s nothing but beautiful blue Atlantic Ocean in all directions as far as one can see?
The Valiant Lady Moves
Step outside and the first thing I noticed was the steady, straight-line forward movement of this large sea-going vessel on windy but mostly calm seas. Then I noticed a not so steady but somewhat rythmic mild side to side and fore and aft movement. I discovered that this rythmic rocking made it just a little bit challenging to walk without a bit of the drunk sailor look. Early in our first day out from Bimini a few passengers were looking for sea sickness pills. I never got fully sea sick but it took me a couple of days to not feel a bit queasy when moving about the ship. Fortunately my mild symptoms faded and it was often humorous to me when I would be walking along and find myself “wandering” in a not so straight line.
English Not Spoken Here
Right away I realized that the vast majority of the crew, while exceptionally pleasant and almost overly helpful, did not speak English as their first language. And, for me anyway, often their accents – sometimes heavy – made it challenging to communicate with them. I found it especially difficult and sometomes frustrating to try to exchange information with the restaurant wait staff. Add the seemingly constant background noise from the ship’s operation and the constant and endless music – either recorded or live and broadcast over the ship’s speaker system and I often had to ask the waitperson to repeat themselves. I was not the only passenger who noticed this but how can one complain when the staff is so pleasant and attentive?
The Weather & The Storm
The first few days sailing from Bimini were absolutely beautiful. Blue skies, warm temperatures, and a pleasant warm breeze. This brought the sun-lovers out in droves. Everywhere there was somewhere outside to sit, lay, lounge, or even walk there were people taking advantage of the tropical conditions. Inside the ship’s general public areas it sometimes seemed no one was on board. Then I’d go outside for a walk and discover there were crowds of Valiant Lady Sailors.
Then, about five days out the storm hit. The captain and his crew knew it was coming and sent out a warning text message on the Virgin Voyage app. Unfortunately for me, the seas got so rough that the one show I really wanted to see – Dual Reality, “a circus on a whole new theatrical level” – was canceled so as to not put the circus performers at risk with a ship moving about unpredicatively.
The peak of the storm happened at night. I was asleep in my interior cabin when I was awakened by the sounds of very nearby lightening and thunder. Some of the Sailors with exterior cabins were “entertained” by quite a show by seamother nature. Some shared photos and videos of cushions flying out to sea and of deck chairs in a tangled mess. Some mentioned that a few cabins in the front of the ship – the most expensive “Rock Star” cabins – even experienced a bit of flooding. The following morning the cruise Facebook group page was full of photos, videos, and descriptions of the number of sea spouts that developed near the ship. Some people were delighted with nature’s demonstration, some were simply scared. Unfortunately I never saw one but did see lots of Facebook videos of the spouts.
Now, nearing Lisbon, the seas have calmed and the deck chairs, lounges and outdoor eateries are again full of Sailors.
Sailors of All Types and Stripes
It was very obvious even before I boarded the Valiant Lady that this was going to be a very everyone-is-welcome cruise. The Facebook cruise group quickly was populated with a number of sub-groups including a fairly large LGBTQ+ group. And they are clearly on board. What’s interesting to me is how everyone seems to be fine with the incredible variety of people who occupy the ship.
Nonetheless, us homo sapiens do tend to gather in our respective “tribes”. The foodies can be found happily eating and drinking in the excellent specialty restaurants, the exercise junkies gather in the various exercise facilities, and those who are what I would call “very large” – 250 lbs and often more – seem to have chosen a certain number of hot tubs near the pools with which to slip into to the exlusion of thinner folk like myself. What I find so interesting is those “large folk” – men and women – seem to be very comfortable wearing the same type of bathing attire that the less large folk wear. No body shaming on this ship!
