Wk 12 it's a hoot


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Europe » Portugal » Azores
April 6th 2012
Published: June 13th 2017
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Geo: 37.7463, -25.6668

Saturday 31/03/12 At Sea 20c warm & sunny

Times now getting short with so many events on and trying to see everybody to arrange farewell drinks nights, there's scarcely enough time to fit relaxing in.

Sunday 01/04/12 At Sea 19c warm & Sunny

Today the entertainment crew put on a village fete again and as before it was well attended, with an enjoyable time had by all. Other than that it was a fairly lazy day I just need to finish my last book from the library, this is the 19th book I've read since we started the cruise, whilst not in any way intentional it's been surprising how many of the books I've read have a relationship with this cruise, usually relating to the ports we've visited. The book I'm currently reading "The Silent Landscape" is about the expedition of HMS Challenger in 1872 which took 3 ½ years charting the depths of the world's oceans and obtaining both temperature recordings at varying depths as well sea life samples from the seabed below where it was widely recognised by the learned of that period that life couldn't exist at the depths they were recording! Many of the discoveries they made are still recognised as groundbreaking and directly led to man continuing quest to investigate the deep seas, some of the Sth Atlantic ports mentioned in the book are those covered by our cruise.

A previous book I selected which was first released 10 years ago turned out to be based around the rise of Anti British feelings by the Argentineans, who, recognising a down turn in our defence budget decided the time was ripe to mount a second attempt to reclaim the Falklands. This was completely unknown by me when I chose it, but how relevant it was considering both our cruise and the problems we encountered because we visited the Falklands; and of course the recent and ongoing Anti British feelings being whipped up by the Argentinean Prime Minister as we approached the 30th anniversary of the conflict.

Monday 02/04/12 At Sea 19c warm & Sunny

Unbelievable after another bad night I overslept, by the time I came to it was 09:20 so it was a quick wash dressed and down for the camera club meeting, not even enough time for breakfast, and I never miss breakfast.

Today is a special luncheon for all those passengers who are in the gold tier (electively meaning anyone who's completed 180 nights cruising with P&O). It's a semi formal dinner and usually your table is hosted by a senior officer, in our case it was the senior electrical officer who was good company telling us about his career through the Royal Navy and onto P&O. We made new friends who only live in Northampton so only a stone's throw from us and agreed to meet up for drinks later. Well served with good food and free drinks it was time to leave and do something more strenuous like lounge out up on the skydeck.

I'd forgotten that there was a charity auction today 15:30 until it was announced over the PA system and so decided to wander down there to see what lots were available. The auction was late in starting but at least it gave me time to browse the lots most of which were unique, such as the official Argentinean departure certificate from Puerto Madryn with failure to recognise the Falkland Isles (it later went for £500). A signed cartoon by Bill Tidy (who's on board) depicting us holding the Argentinean pilot hostage on a small pilot boat towed behind the ship as the Argies refused to let us land at Ushuaia (Later sold for just over £350 pounds) A popular one for the ladies was lunch with the young and endearing deputy captain (£65) (sorry girls he's actually gay) or afternoon tea with the captain and his wife in his cabin (£105) (cosy) as well as 1-2-1 singing lessons with one of the on board cabaret artists (£65), and a signed watercolour of the ship from the ships artist (£250).

There were plenty of other ship related lots such as navigational charts (£160), parts from the ships engine parts polished up and mounted on wooden bases, as well as a VIP bridge tour with the captain on departure from Ponta Delgarda (£160), and finally a bridge tour with the captain and the chance to blow the ships whistle as we depart our final port of call in Vigo.

Having seen the lots for auction there were a couple of things I wanted such as the Argentinean port certificate, but I'd been trying to think of what to get Linda for her 60th birthday and wanted something memorable. I had originally thought of a weekend in Paris or alternatively a weekend in London taking in a show and had pretty much decided that it would be one of those, and then it hit me the auction was a once in a life time opportunity.

The items I bid for early on went for my than I really wanted to pay and I was concerned that the item I really wanted for Linda's birthday wouldn't come cheap so had to resist bidding too high for other items. Suffice to say as soon as the bidding on my selected lot started I blew the opposition out to the water by tripling the starting price, the room went quite, I thought for a moment I'd gone in far to high but wanted to eliminate the slow incremental process that people get embroiled in when having started bidding get locked in a bidding war and forget when to stop. Well I'd certainly stopped them in their tracks, after a minute someone made a bid £10 higher but it was obviously half hearted and I wasn't going to get into an escalating bidding war so topped it by another £50; that was it game set and match to me, Linda gets to go on the bridge tour and blow the whistle as we depart our final port. Now I know it's not as romantic as a week end in Paris but we've done that many times and can still do it again later, however sounding the ships whistle as we leave port is something money normally can't buy, and will be truly memorable. The final amount raised by the auction in aid of sport relief was £3392.00

Tuesday 03/04/12 At Sea 18c cool and overcast

Wednesday 04/04/12 Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores 18c cool and overcast

Having been here before we would never prebook any excursion as the weather can be very temperamental with the higher parts of the island often being covered in mist and low cloud. Last time 3 coach loads of passengers went to view the famous Sete Cidades with the two lakes, one blue and the other green but because of the low cloud they saw nothing.

With that in mind we thought that weather permitting we'd take a private whale watching trip which we knew departs from just along from the cruise terminal a bit of a busman's holiday but there you go. When we looked out this morning the tops of the hills we're completely covered by black and grey clouds, no way are we going out to sea whale watching so we settled for a walk around the town. Last time we were here it was on a Sunday with hardly any shops open so today we were able to browse to our hearts content.

Talking to people back on board later we discovered that once again many people went to see the twin lakes but because of the low cloud saw nothing, such a disappointment for them.
Whilst the captain was informing us that we're ready to leave the berth he gave us the weather update for tomorrow, high winds with a sea state of 2-3 m in the morning and 3-4.5 m in the afternoon, here we go again batten down the hatches!
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Thursday 05/04/12 At Sea 16c high seas and over cast

Well the captain was right it's been a bouncy sort of night so much so that despite being nearly dead centre of the ship the continual pitching has meant a night of hauling myself and the quilt back up the bed as for some reason the pitching keeps slowly but surely nudging me to the bottom until me feet pop out.

Outside decks are pretty much closed off at present as the swell is still running at around 4 m the sea's a steely blue / grey at present and as you watch massive waves form out of nothing and suddenly crash into the ship.

In view of the weather we decided to pack what we could and finally managed to get 3 cases packed, it was simple at home but in the confines of the cabin it's different, and even when you packed the cases there's nowhere to stick them. We originally fitted the cases into one another and stuck them under the bed so we actually only had the two cases under the bed, no problem, but now they're filled their too heavy to manhandle under the bed so we've now got three suitcase blocking the cabin off, with more to come. With all this stress and the rocking and rolling I need a drink, so I've started to finish off the Irish whiskey which would have placed me over the limit, and my love of whiskey or whisky won't let me dispose of it and I'm certainly not paying UK excise duty on the ½ litre remaining, so remembering it also has the advantage of being a well known anti sea sickness remedy so I'm having my medicine and that's all there is to it!

Friday 06/04/12 At Sea 16c high seas and bright

I was somewhat late getting into bed this morning and despite many a farewell drink spent most of the night sleeping inside what I thought was a drum, at least that's what it sounded like. The continual pounding of the ship as it first rides up the wave and then comes down with a resounding boom which can be heard through the ship on average once every 45 seconds doesn't do much for a decent night's sleep. In addition to that every so often (around every ½ hr or so) there's an enormous wave hitting us either front on or at an acute angle whichever it is the ship seems to almost stop momentarily, then correct itself but both the noise and the vibration of the impact travels the full length of the ship. So there passes the night with the continual booming and me trying to hoist myself back up the bed; Linda, she's fast asleep at my side!!


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