It’s hard to appreciate the vastness and loneliness of the sea unless you have been out on it.
Today was a day at sea.
It didn’t matter which part of the ship I was on, in whatever direction I looked I saw nothing but water.
In seeing this it is hard to believe the Vikings set out into this vast watery wilderness in their ships, yet it was the advancement of their shipbuilding skills that enabled them to travel such long distances and successfully raid and pillage across such a broad geographical area. If it wasn’t for their shipbuilding skills, the Vikings would have been just another lost, angry group of pagans.
The Vikings even travelled so far as Constantinople and attempted to attack an undefended city (the fleet was away), but the Christians used Greek fire, which saved the day—not for the first time—for the Christians. However, it was the gospel, not Greek fire, which finally conquered the Vikings—“civilized” them, as our RIB boat guide suggested back in Flam.
We spent a lot of time reading in the lounge in our first day at sea. The Wife’s father attempted to sit down in the lounge and his legs gave out, he missed the chair, and took a tumble. Everyone gasped but fortunately he was fine. He’s a tough 89-year old. I told The Wife later he probably just didn’t have his sea legs yet. I’m not really sure what that means, but I always wanted to say it.
As it turns out his doctor had prescribed a patch he put behind his ear to prevent seasickness. Apparently, one of the side effects is dizziness and nausea. Now, I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think I would prescribe something whose side effects were the symptoms I was trying to alleviate. But what do I know?
There were two lectures. The topics were interesting but only one of the lecturers was. Lectures should be more than just conveying information, especially in the information / Internet age. And just because someone can talk doesn’t mean they can speak.
We had dinner at the nice Italian restaurant on board. Each guest gets to eat there once on the voyage. The food was excellent.
Ok, now I am just conveying information. I have no historical insight or inspiration about Kingdom principles to communicate. So, I better close this down before this gets really boring and start preparing for the Faroe Islands. GS