Passage to Durban – Through the Porthole…

1-34pm

Wow! What an amazing (almost) 24 hours it has been! Yesterday evening at 6-30pm, Ronnie collected all 7 of us from home and took us to Cape Town Harbour where we strolled across a very quiet pier beneath the backdrop of an amazing Table Mountain…

The weather was perfect. Hardly a breath of wind. The ship we were to sail on is the MSC Melody – quite a small ship – as ships go, only about 7 floors. This is looking towards the back (stern) of the ship….

 We were to spend most of the evening on the pool deck which is at the back. We admired the sunsetting behind Lion’s head. Not often you see this view…

Here’s Mike & I enjoying a spectacular Cape Town evening…

We are not doing this trip alone. In fact it is a long awaited family holiday. Here’s Mike with (l-r) my brother Julian, David, Jessica (my niece), Stacey and Adrian! It is such fun travelling with them all!

The ship left port at about 9-15pm and slowly made it’s way out of Table Bay towards the open sea. By 11pm, we were well on our way as we headed towards Cape Point. The sea got a bit rough and with it Helga got a bit ‘green around the gills!’ LOL! Up to that point we had felt  a bit woozy but not nauseous. It was when I sat down on Stacey’s bed that suddenly this weird revearse peristalsis thing happened and I suddenly found myself saying ‘ooooh, I got to get out of here!!’ I took a brisk walk back to the pool deck (on the stern) and breathed in the fresh sea air. That worked! I also took a stugeron and soon was settled comfortably in our cabin feeling a whole lot more comfortable. At least I didn’t feed the fishes! :-O When I woke this morning, I was back to normal – hail and hearty, in fact!

Up just after 6am, I did my Bible reading and then showed and dressed. Shortly after 7am we went in search of coffee (and family). We all congregated in the Galaxy Restaurant for breakfast and did the spread justice! Then Mike & I got changed and went to find the jogging track. We enthusiastically went round it 12 times (walking 9 & jogging 3), a distance of 2.4km! Then it was into the pool, followed by the jacuzzi and the day was underway in a fabulous
fashion. Not long after that there was an emergency drill and we all donned our life jackets and were told what to do in a real emergency. That done, we wandered back to the pool deck to find a place to read, but soon found it to be a bit on the crowded side…

We settled in the lounge, and that’s where I sitting right now. Cricket this afternoon and we’ll be watching. A lazy afternoon is planned. The gastronomic amount of food is living up to the cruise reputation. Don’t expect me on My Fitness Pal before Monday! 🙂 All that is left to show is the view from my cabin – through the porthole…

Sometimes you get a sliver of a beautiful sight…just like this picture through the porthole. In the Bible, Lamentations 3:22-33 gives you a sliver of a beautiful message from the Lord…

“The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day”.

Wherever we are, the Lord is with us!

God bless you loads!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂