Month: September 2017

Sam has resolved the error message that some of you had reported receiving when attempting to go back into my blog archive or when you tried to make comments on the blog entries. I should have known it was a matter of resetting the .htaccess! The man is a genius and as a reward I am sending him and his bride to Hawaii tomorrow for their honeymoon!

We have just left Gibraltar. The weather has been glorious all day and we are now heading West before “turning right” for home to quote the Captain. .
Close by us while berthed in Gibraltar were 2 superyachts, the Clio,
which seems to be a very small cruise ship and ‘Yacht A’
which has apparently been impounded by the authorities following a dispute between the boat yard and the Russian billionaire who commissioned it. A small dispute over a final payment of about €5million, it seems, but my information may be out of date.

Yesterday my Godmother Ethel Child was 100 years old. She was my mother Wyn’s best friend and was the most remarkable god mother. Throughout my life she sent me a calendar every Christmas – usually a Lincolnshire calendar. She lived for as long as I can remember in Grimoldby, near Louth. As we were away I couldn’t make it to the party yesterday but her daughter Cherry tells me it went well. It was probably not as lively as the party here.

We had the comedian John Evans on first – a brilliant comic and later we had the Crew Talent Show. Some amazing singers and dancers from amongst the crew, followed by some well known corny old Cunard sketches. The theatre was packed.

Today the departure from Gib was billed as the Great BRITISH Sailaway. We left at about 1400 and bearing in mind that most of the guests are older than me, it was pretty hectic. Drinking, singing and Union Jack waving under hot sun. I was hoping to see a Spanish gunboat, but there were none to be seen.

Commodore Ron started the day with a presentation from his scrapbook of cuttings recalling incidents in the career of Queen Elizabeth 2, which is the way in which he always refers to that ship – rarely does he say QE2.

He was followed in a Q&A session by the present Master of the Queen Elizabeth, Captain Aseem Hashmi. He was brilliant.

I had lost track of the days. Today was a Saturday and that means Premier League football on TV on the ship subject to the satellite working satisfactorily. It did and one of the games shown live was the Saints against Man United. Although they lost 0-1 the Saints played very well and were the better side in the second half. Sadly they don’t have the fire power at present.

It was the last formal night on this voyage. A wonderful menu and exceptional wine. And the evenings show featured the ships singers and dancers, so of course we were near the front.
This is our table. Maureen from Bishops Waltham is at the front left and then clockwise it is Gordon and his wife Barbara from York, Diana from Henley, Kim, Jane and me. And our waiters and sommelier.
And this was the Captains table on Wednesday

Well it is now.

We arrived in Southampton in the dark on Monday morning. The Red Funnel ferry was getting ready. Lorries were in position to start revictualling QE.It was dull and drizzly but the activity around the ship was startling. The luggage was being taken ashore. During the final evening luggage is collected from outside cabins between 5 and 10pm and stored down below. Literally thousands of cases.

Once the ship is tied up, swarms of fork lift trucks buzz about the dock side taking cages full of cases from the ship to the ground floor of the terminal building. There a crew sort them into various colour groupings, so that when passengers come ashore they can find their cases according to the colour allotted to them. Massive numbers of people are involved in the process on the ship and ashore.

By the time we got ashore it was very easy to find the suitcases, and Gary with the taxi and Ian in the Vauxhall arrived simultaneously to whisk us home. Until the next time!