DAY 54 Mar 7 - Sea Day Southern Atlantic Ocean

This is our last day at sea before we reach the mighty Amazon River.

We have been advised by the Captain that we should conserve water after today. From then on and for the duration of our Amazonian Experience the ship will be unable to make its own water, due to excessive silt in the river, until we again reach the Atlantic in a weeks time.

I must say that the ship's hotel staff perform a fantastic job. Even after 52 days at sea the service and attitude from all the crew is consistently perfect. Cabin Steward Deden, for example, appears at our door early most mornings with laundry, mail and/or newspapers and always has a welcoming smile on his face and a warm tone in his voice.

All credit must go to HAL for its staff training and to our own Hotel Manager, François Birarda, for his day-to-day management of the army of staff under him. They refer to him as 'Chief' and they are of course all responsible for our everyday needs.

It is inter-esting that François's background includes working in two French 3-star Michelin accredited restaurants, the Lesserre and the Taillevent-Fouquet's. He also brought some much needed expertise to the London food scene with a spell at the prestigious Tante Claire, another Michelin 3-star establishment of some considerable reputation.

His cuisine training is therefore impeccable.

Just like on the previous two sea days, the waters are reasonably calm, just a slight chop, the skies are partly cloudy and it's going to be hot. At least on the ship we have the benefit of refreshing cool breezes.

After this length of time away from direct contact with the family it is inevitable that the heart can grow a little heavy with this enforced separation. Maria in particular finds moments when she would gladly give-up everything to be with her daughters and grandchildren.

In late morning we ventured onto the aft deck for a lie in the sun after covering ourselves appropriately with a high factor protection sun screen.

It was certainly hot out there although the breeze just helped that little bit.

Surpris-ingly on this deck only three other couples were to be found on the sun loungers. Maybe it was too hot or the pull of the various travel lectures going on round the ship was taking passenger attention.

Others might well have secured their place in the sun at the Lido pool which is situated midships.

After an hour and a bit we decided that we had probably had enough as the sunshine here can be very fierce on the body.

In any case as the sun swung round to the west in the early afternoon we would have plenty of its rays on our balcony.

We lunched early and then sat with Gary and Gerry for a time while they finished their meal. We didn't see them at dinner last night, as we dined in the Lido, so we exchanged news on our day in Fortaleza.

Today, as on the last sea day, milk shakes (or smoothies) were served made to order with real fruit. This has proved a popular item on the lunch menu in this type of hot and humid climate.

Tonight is a formal night which leaves just three to go after tonight.

In the Crow's Nest bar tonight, bar staff waiter Charles said that his wife was enjoying reading the blog and had seen a couple of photos of her husband that had been posted. Charles is one of the very best beverage staff on board the Prinsendam although it would be difficult to fault any of these hard working Filipino crew.