Day 7: Saturday 12th October 2024: At Sea
I came awake early and when I looked out of the windows I could see the docks of the port of tangier in Morocco. After a quick scramble I threw on some clothes over my PJ‘s and headed out onto the upper decks.
From deck 16 I went to 17 and then 18 to get a better view of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Atlas mountains. There were quite a few of the passengers getting early views of the rock.
I was concentrating on a long view of the rock when the passenger next to me started vaping. And obnoxious sweet smelling cloud has smoke developed me.
It was only as I was coughing and trying to get away did they stop vaping. This prompted my earlier only asthma attack of the holiday.
The captain announced that Iona would be passing Gibraltar in about 20 minutes. From our balcony we had an excellent views of Morocco as the traffic system in the Straits had all the Eastbound ships close to Morocco.
Our neighbours have been away much earlier than us and I told us about the two large pods of dolphins that have been close to Iona earlier.
As this was a se day the restaurants were open till 10 am and we had breakfast again in the restaurant on deck 6. My plan for the day was to take it easy after our two busy days in Lisbon. Between reading chapters of my book, I looked out for dolphins. The dolphins were there and the ship passed several small pods that came right to the surface.
After lunch in the Quays on deck 8 I was back on our balcony alternating between my book and watching the sea. Just as earlier there were dolphins but none that I watched were leaping out of the water.
Our afternoon was broken up by a lecture in the Limelight Club about an artist, Phillip Gray, who painted in the most extraordinary places including skydiving ,diving in the Bahamas, the jungles of Borneo, the Himalayas and diving in the of cenotes in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsular.
Evening on Iona
Rather than go to the busy Anderson’s Bar, we went again to the bar of the Keel and Cow. This was definitely popular with me as I could order draft pale, Shipyard. Another round of trying to get a table in either of the restaurants using the ship’s booking system provided 30 minutes of “free “entertainment! With our friends we ate as a group in the deck 6 restaurant.
Later in the evening we were disturbed again by revellers on the deck below.
Our next port was Valencia.