Bahamas 2021:
Day 6 - At Sea

	Thursday, July 29, 2021: We slept in again for our second day at sea before heading up to Giovanni's Table for breakfast. Debbie had the French toast, and Tom had the full breakfast. We were starting to repeat our favorites since the menu was the same every day.
	It must be Thursday. These elevator floors are never wrong.
	A little before 9:00 AM, we headed down to the Sapphire Dining room on Deck 5 for our pre-disembarkation COVID-19 test. We would need to present a negative test result to be able to fly home on Saturday. There were three lines for check-in. Some people were fast, with no questions, and others were a little slower, especially people who were not flying home immediately after the cruise ended.
	We were in line for about 10 minutes before heading into the testing area. Tom was thrilled to see that Eurofins was performing the testing, as that used to be one of his clients.
	There were lots of individual booths set up, and the testing was over within a minute or two. We were told to expect the results by email an hour or so after the testing.
	We headed back up to our cabin to await the results, and Tom was thrilled to be able to stream NASA TV's coverage of the Russian module Nauka docking to the ISS. The docking was successful and seemed to be uneventful.
	Right on time, we received our negative test result. Hooray! Our plan of staying on board and making the most of our glorious cabin was working.
	We decided to head up to the pool deck to get our daily Diet Cokes. There was a terraced section of the pool deck reserved for concierge suite guests with luxuriously padded chairs, but unfortunately, they were also the only wet chairs on the deck.
	Instead, we decided to sit at a table in front of the completely empty Sky Bar, drink our Diet Cokes, and look out over the sea.
	With only 1,200-ish passengers on board, the ship seemed very empty, which was nice. Normally on a day at sea, the pool deck would be overrun with people. Royal Caribbean was doing very well providing space for everyone during the pandemic, and we definitely appreciated it.
	Back in our cabin, Tom was watching ESPN's coverage of the Hundred, a new cricket format involving a single innings made up of 100 balls per side. The new format was intended to appeal to more audiences, with each match expecting to last about two hours or so. The matches would be broadcast as a back-to-back double-header of a women's league match followed by a men's league match. We had watched our first cricket match in Bermuda five years earlier, and agreed that this new format worked much better for the non-die-hard cricket fans.
	We went back up on deck to the deserted forward area to read and relax for a while, before heading down to the Windjammer Marketplace for lunch. It was surreal being the only ones up there.
	Lunches were the usual buffet fare with a mix of standard American foods, like Debbie's sliced pork, as well as some international foods, like Tom's Mexican spiced pork chop. Both of us enjoyed the roti every day.
	We continued our tradition of picking out several deserts and taking them back to our cabin to eat later. Today we chose too many, and the caramel custard in the center was held over in our refrigerator cooler until the next day.
	Shortly before 2:00 PM, we watched a thunderstorm pass to the south of us. It was wild to watch lightning strike and hear thunder while it was not raining where we were. About this time, Debbie saw a Facebook post about trouble on the ISS from the recently arrived Nauka module, and we tuned into NASA's press conference from the balcony. We were very happy with the internet service while aboard. It seemed much faster than previous cruises, and we felt like we were able to stay connected to the outside world.
	We love to watch the ship's position on the TV in our cabin. We were going to be passing near the Florida Keys before heading north along the Florida coast toward Freeport on Grand Bahama island, our next destination.
	For dinner tonight, Debbie had the shrimp cocktail, something that was available every day, and Tom had the minestrone soup.
	That progressed to the broiled lobster tail for Debbie and the pan-seared barramundi for Tom. Our waiter, Simone, removed the lobster from the tail, showing us how easy it is if you make a cut at the very end of the tail first. Nice!
	Dessert was baked Alaska, a near-the-end-of-the-cruise staple. We always look forward to this night, and especially the parade of all of the waitstaff and chefs. Alas, due to the pandemic, they had discontinued the parade, but at least they still served the super-delicious dessert. Yum!
	We went out on deck after dinner and saw several small fishing boats, likely deep-sea fishing charters from the Keys.
	We zoomed in with our camera for a closer look.
	We were all alone on the Promenade deck so Debbie snuck an artsy photo of us reflected in a window.
	This artwork was very similar to the one from the day before.
	Dwi left a towel monkey, the next day's program, and our debarkation information including our luggage tags. We were in group 4, which would be one of the earliest to leave the ship.
	Sunset at sea is always a beautiful thing, and tonight was no exception. Day 7 >