Blogs from Atlantic, Oceans and Seas - page 64

The most interesting talk of the past two days was The Unsinkable Molly Brown, by Janet Kalstrom, who presented in the first person. It was standing room only in the lounge where she spoke. The estranged wife of Mr J.J. Brown, Margaret Brown, was travelling alone from France to New York to visit her sick grandchild whom she had never seen, when the disaster happened. Known as Maggie to close friends (the name Molly was created by Hollywood), she was in bed reading a book when the Titanic struck the iceberg. She ventured in to the hallway when she thought it was odd the ship’s engines had stopped, however it wasn’t until she returned to her cabin and saw a “bug-eyed” man looking through her window telling her to put on her lifejacket and get outside. ... read more

The wild weather at the start of this cruise that caused about half the 1300 passengers to be seasick has settled. The sea has calmed and it’s been two days since I’ve needed medication, so in Captain Robert Bamberg’s words: “All is well.” We’re now about 500 nautical miles from the wreck site and need to maintain a speed of at least 14 knots to reach the spot by Saturday night. We’re currently moving at 16 knots so should get there with a few hours to spare. We’ve been turning our clocks back one hour each day but on Saturday (tomorrow), we turn the clocks back another one hour and 27 minutes. The odd number of minutes is because our time needs to equals that of 100 years ago when we hold the memorial service. At ... read more

My goal to get through this cruise without barfing came to an end yesterday while attending a lecture ‘The Irish Aboard Titanic’by Senan Molony in the Neptune Lounge. Apologies to Senan – the lecture was interesting, but with the Balmoral battling rough seas and the lounge being close to the “pointy end” where movements of the ship, and the contents of my stomach, were more pronounced meant my goal was short-lived. Thank God for barf bags. Strangely, I’ve felt better since then and I think I’m actually finding my sea legs … but I won’t gloat too soon! It could just be the sea is calmer today. Unfortunately BBC newsman suffered symptoms of a heart attack yesterday and our ship had to back-track for 1.5hrs to reach a point where a rescue helicopter from ... read more

Tuesday 10th April 2012 Ship's Log – MS Balmoral Here we are – on the MS Balmoral, currently cruising towards the site of the Titanic's sinking. Boarding on Sunday was a great day – lots of people turned up in period costume, which was great – the Ocean Terminal was decked out with displays, and a string quartet was playing music from the era. What fun! There were a couple of displays of some rooms on the Titanic – a “bedroom” and a “dining room”. The furniture was genuine, from the Titanic's sister ship “Olympic” as was the cutlery and decorations. It was a wonderful opportunity to see and touch the same sorts of things that would have been on the Titanic. We docked yesterday afternoon in Cobh (pronounced “Cove”) in Ireland – what an experience!! ... read more

Monday 9th April A little local difficulty – or how to meet your neighbours Firstly, you need to have some picture of where my house is a new 2 bedroomed bungalow with (as most houses on the island have) a corrugated roof. The land slopes sharply towards the sea and, so, a terrace had been dug out of the slope for the build. The garden is completely undeveloped and when I arrived, after what had been a considerable dry period, it reminded me of those almost finished villas in Greece or Spain in the sixties or seventies. To access the grounds I have to take a narrow track and then swing into the garden and follow a steep slope to the terraced area. Once you know what to look out for, not a problem. After a ... read more