The Southern Crossing: Good Omens Ahead

We are on our way, crossing the South Atlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to the coast of Normandy, stopping in Bermuda and the Azores.

This will be our third Southern Atlantic Crossing. The first was in the early Nineties on the Song of Norway. I remember several days of that journey when we woke and walked the promenade deck as we gazed over calm sunlit seas, as quiet as a windless day on a Wisconsin lake. (So far, the seas are nearly as calm on this trip.)

Our second was twenty years ago when we took the Grand Princess on its maiden voyage back to Venice, Italy where it was constructed.  At the end of that journey, we sailed into Venice on a beautiful June evening. It seemed all of Venice had come to the plaza in front of St. Marks to watch the ship sail in. From atop what was then the world’s largest cruise ship, we could see all of Venice lay below us like a magical fairy land. On the upper deck, a band played music in the moonlight, and it was an evening like no other.

This trip promises to be another wonderful journey. The initial signs have been promising. When we picked up our Avis rental car in San Luis Obispo to drive down to LAX (it’s cheaper than parking a car for a month), we were told, “The black Mercedes is yours.”

At the airport, there were five American Airlines flights to Miami showing on the board. One was canceled, three were delayed, but ours was right on time. When we got to the gate, our names were called. We had been upgraded.  The desk agent explained, “A family of six failed to show. That never happens. I was able to upgrade everyone on the request list.”

Then even the food was good. I finally managed to watch Bohemian Rhapsody. And the plane landed twenty minutes early.

Now we’re on board our Holland American ship. The suitcases are unpacked. We have found a spot for everything. We can head out to the verandah. (For this trip, with its many sea days, we splurged for the open air.) And I can begin to tackle reading the big stack of books I carried aboard.

Dennis is getting ready to read.

First up . . .  volume 3 in the series by Elena Ferrante that began with My Brilliant Friend.  We’re meeting up with a friend in Amsterdam later in the trip who just devoured all four books.  I need to be prepared to discuss.

Sail on.

 

 

Kirkus Reviews describes my latest novel as “a finely crafted story about late-in-life regrets.” The Long Table Dinner, is available on Amazon and other bookseller sites. Please check out all my novels in paperback or Kindle format, including:  Tales From the Loon Town Café, The Finnish Girl, andThe Devil’s Analyst.

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