Mid-Atlantic: "The Deeper the water. . .

. . .the better we float," quips our Captain Gerry Larsson-Fedde, Master of the Celebrity Solstice.

We are, quite literally, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, having reached the mid-point between Florida and the Azores around midnight.  In the distance the horizon wraps itself around our ship in a semi-circular fashion; a seam binding the deep blue of the ocean to the turquoise sky.

The Atlantic is the second largest of the world's four oceans and the most heavily traveled, yet, we've seen no other ships since the first day at sea when we saw one in the far distance.

Our days at sea are going far too fast!  One of our favorite past-times we find is watching the cloud puffs pass overhead and the waves massage our ship's hull.  At noon Wednesday we were 1,220 nautical miles from Florida and with the slow process of easing us into new times zones at an hour at a time, we are now six hours ahead of our Pacific Northwest home.

The water's depth is 15,000 feet, prompting our Captain's daily reminders of how well our ship does in such deep oceans.

I did invite you to 'come along' with us and the nice folks at Celebrity even provided some precious computer time for me to provide you posts and photos as we sail from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona, unfortunately (and this isn't news to those of you who've tried to use computers at sea) the computers are a finicky business.

 I've got a lot of posts and photos sitting in my Netbook (which is connected to the internet at full force in our room but not in the computer lab - nor will it connect me to the internet in the room. At least it isn't us, as the computer room is filled with tales offered by frustrated computer users.) So those posts will appear at the moment that broadband capacity and satellites are in the correct position. That means you may not see them until we reach the Azores or the Techno Gods smile upon us.

Then you'll join us as we dine at the Captain's Table, walk barefoot across the half acre of green grass at the top of the ship, run a gourmet gauntlet, meet the environmental officer who hails from Boston and the hotel director in charge of the guest accommodations. . .and that is just a start.