At about 3.00pm the Captain broadcast to passengers and crew to announce that a member of the crew was not well and needed to be airlifted by helicopter and taken ashore.
He told us to clear the decks and remain inside. He said that the helicopter would be arriving in about 15 minutes time. There was clearly a well prepared plan in place to deal with such incidents.
Shortly afterwards the helicopter could be seen and the operation was carried remarkably swiftly.
We were in our cabin at the time and no doubt we will hear from fellow passengers who were closer to the action.
After 3 days at sea we arrived in our first port – Funchal in Madeira. Day one was slightly drizzly in the afternoon, but we ventured off in a shuttle organised by the ship. No delay and a swift journey along the front. We then walked into town with Jane in the push wheelchair.
It’s a pretty town and we enjoyed the buzz of the place. Plenty of tourists but crowds of locals as well.
We had the usual coffee and then wandered back to the ship. We were overnight in Madeira and next day explored the ship. I had not seen much of it last year! Some of the layout has been criticised in social media and I can understand some of the moans. It is different and many of us don’t like change!
After a relaxed day at sea, we arrived this morning in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When we awoke Queen Anne was already alongside her berth and these two vessels were docked nearby. There is a prize for the first reader to identify both of the vessels correctly..
I’m sorry that the photos are not as clear as they might have been but the sun did not shine through until 30 minutes later.
I have not been as diligent as I should have been in writing my blog over the last 18 months. Blood tests and transfusions were not very exciting news.
But when I did start up again I made a mistake – a slip of the pen really – so the 2nd competition relates to an error that was pointed out to me by Stewart Wilson. He is not allowed to compete. We met Stewart and his late Wife Elizabeth many years ago, sitting at the Captains table on the Maiden voyage of Queen Elizabeth. By the way in the competition spelling mistakes and poor grammar do not count. It is a factual error you are trying to find!
That meeting is set out in the blog in November 2016 if you scroll back. But the mistake – the slip of the pen – was in the last 18 months . Answers and any other reactions, not on a postcard please, but in Comments.
But back to Santa Cruz. The sun shone and after a visit to the buffet for breakfast (everything you can imagine to eat, all freshly cooked in front of you – but noisy because it’s packed with passengers who have failed to get up early enough for a civilised breakfast in the restaurant and are rushing to feed themselves before they set off on their tour!).
We always have breakfast there because it’s impossible to get Jane up and showered and dressed before the restaurants close for breakfast. We use our restaurant for lunch if we are on the ship and always for dinner. The food is wonderful and the staff are very caring. Many of them remember us from as far back as the World Voyage on Queen Victoria in 2014. We bumped into Albert today in the street in Santa Cruz – 12 years since he was our waiter on QV!
Although we have been to Tenerife numerous times on holidays and to play golf over the years, we have always been in the south where the beaches and golf courses are to be found. So the city is mostly a walking tour and as it is on the side of a hill it is tiring. But we survived.
Tonight we set sail at 11.00pm for the short voyage to Gran Canaria where Jane and I spent our honeymoon in 1973.
