Sea Legs

It is surprising how long it takes to acquire ones “sea legs.” I remember when I first had a boat in Berkeley that it took me a couple of months to get used to the lurching and grabbing for stability. Well, it’s been 10 days now and my legs hurt. Word of warning: always wear something with a minimum of support on your feet. We have not had anything that resembles rough seas but even the gentle rolling on a very calm day can catch you unawares as you are about to place your foot and the “ground” shifts. It’s as if you are living in a permanent earthquake. I can’t imagine what it’s like for some who gets seasick. Coupled with the close quarters double staircases and narrow passageways getting from one place to the next can be quite a workout. Due to my consumption of vast quantities of food I have vowed to take the stairs exclusively. The restaurant is on Deck 8 and I am on Deck 2. I probably get a better cardio-vascular workout on days when we are at sea than when we are in port.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is our next port and it is Spain. The Euro is king. I haven’t checked on the exchange rate since I left; I hope it hasn’t gotten much worse. I plan to shop. Reading about Los Canarios I am struck by the diversity of landscape, climate, culture and population. It seems almost idylic. Seven large volcanic islands and many smaller ones are all within an hour or so of each other. All of them offer something very unique. Now I am not much of a nature lover as you all may know but most of you are and I would highly recommend studying the vacation possibilities of this archipelago.
I will give you my personal insights tomorrow.
We are apparently on a very busy shipping route. I have seen no less than a dozen ships today. I just got tomorrow schedule. The ship is exchanging at 0.59 Euro to the dollar… I will have to check on line to see if they are gouging or not. That means 1 Euro is $1.69; it was $1.59 when I left two weeks ago. Just checked on-line the Euro is at $1.58. I am sure there are fees attached if one uses an ATM or Credit Card. I still have a good supply of cash as there was nowhere to spend it so far.
We arrive at noon tomorrow, but we will be sailing through the Islands so it should be very picaresque.