We woke up early, intending to work out again, but the fitness center was closed. The weather had worsened again during the night, with winds alone up to 40mph, and they understandably did not want people unstable on treadmills or holding free weights as things became more rocky. We had to hold on to chairs and other furniture to move around the room. There were now more tasteful Scandinavian leather pouches holding seasickness bags on the stairway and in the elevators as well. As we went down to breakfast I had to use my cane for the first time since the flight from home, as the danger of falling was quite real. The servers were being very careful, only filling water glasses and coffee cups half-full. After breakfast we got some nice video of the waves breaking over the ship, and the captain came on the audio, announcing that all outdoor deck areas were closed until the storm passed. We caught up on a few more video lectures, and noticed that the sliding glass door to the veranda was also locked, perhaps something they could do automatically, ship-wide.
We then went back to the 7th floor bow Explorers Lounge and got some even more dramatic video with spray shooting over the deck and onto the windows. Just after I wrote that, a huge wave came up and there was a concussion sound, and one of the glass panels along the stairway to the upper lounge shattered, a few glass shards hit the floor nearby, and part of the handrail fell as well. A crew quickly showed up to assess the damage, close off the area, and they started to wrap the shattered glass panel in some sort of plastic to secure it. The intensity of the storm continued for another 4 hours, as we had open-faced sandwiches and read for a while in two very comfortable chairs. Every so often the thump and shudder of a trough could be felt followed by the impact of the next wave and enormous amounts of spray that went all the way down the side of the ship for about 100 feet.
We enjoyed another wonderful art and archaeology lecture on Scotland, and I need to look at which museum to go to in Edinburgh. In the evening there was a Viking BBQ, which unfortunately did not mean barbecued reindeer or moose but American-style grilled meats and corn n the cob. We encountered some of the folks we’ve met on the trip, which was nice. Afterwards we dove back into our books, and the seas calmed a tiny bit. By the time we went to bed early, it was about 50% better than at midday, just as the captain had predicted.
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