Ship’s Position:

44°0′52″ N 7°54′1″ W

Today we spent the entire day at sea. We arrive in Bilbao, Spain early tomorrow morning.

It was very calm but windy all this morning. I was beginning to think that the weather forecast had changed overnight & that we would not encounter the rough seas that the Captain had been talking about last night. However, when we entered the Bay of Biscay shortly after 12 noon the water conditions changed dramatically.

As soon as we “rounded” the cape & entered the Bay of Biscay the waves rose to between 3 & 4 meters & the apparent wind often peaks near 50 knots. Fortunately the ship is headed almost straight into the wind & waves so the ship’s ride has been pretty comfortable.

Today was a pretty laid back day. All passengers were required to report to the U.K. Customs Officials to be interviewed & get our passports stamped. That advance processing allows us to simply walk off the ship when we land in Southampton. So that was time well spent – compared to the potential chaos of going through all that on Saturday morning.

I have booked a walking tour of some of the sights in Bilbao tomorrow & am very much looking forward to seeing parts of the old city and the Guggenheim Museum.

Cheers!