Oct 13: Day 11: Scheduled for Marseille, France

Since leaving port yesterday we have experienced more ship movement than usual. On the elevator last night as we were going to dinner a man got on going to get his wife some sea sick meds only 30 minutes after leaving port. She may be in for a long ride home across the pond. When we got up this morning we found very high seas and strong wind. We figured we might not be able to make port today but we got up and ready and meet our private tour companions for the day at the designated place. Soon after our expected 8 am arrival time the Captain announced that we indeed would not be able to dock in France today and would head south by SW to get out of the mistrial winds we are in. He said we were experiencing gale force winds (55-65 nautical miles per hour) and the path we would have to navigate into Marseille was less than 200 meters wide and would be impossible to do. In fact we were going to speed up to make the ship easier to steer since we had slowed down in case we could get into the port. I am a little sad we are missing this port because this is where I had planned on buying a lot of spices at the market in Gordes today and this was to be our only stop in France. We made plans to meet up at lunch with our friends today since it was now a sea day and Tim and I usually eat at the hamburger place or in the buffet for lunch on the ship. Since the ship was still rocking quit a bit this turned our great. After lunch we hit the casino for a while and then to the Jeopardy trivia game with Ramah, Bill & Donna. Ramah and Bill suggested we use Gladys’s strategy for final Jeopardy and bet 0, but we were greedy and bet it all on a wrong answer. Turns out we had $100 more than the winner before the final question. We will change strategy next time. We met up with friends for dinner and had a great time with lots of laughs. Although today didn’t turn out as planned, it was a nice day! Earlier tonight we finally found some smoother seas and are now making our way to Barcelona where the forecast is for a beautiful day.