Saturday 11 January 2014
For the last 3 days the weather has been lovely. Calm seas with a slight swell, gentle following winds and plenty of sunshine. The Queen Victoria has been speeding west at 18/20 knots and eating up the miles to Florida.
It has been a week of parties – four in all, including a full World voyage party and the Senior Officers party. At the latter party last night, I was searching for a second glass of wine and returned to find Jane in conversation with the very amiable Master of the ship Captain Peter Philpott. We had not met him before because he transferred to Cunard from P&O last year after we were last on this ship. He is a great ambassador for Cunard and a natural with a microphone in his hand. And a sailor supreme having guided the ship safely through a storm that he said ranked in the 5 worst storms that he had encountered during the whole of his career at sea.
The lengthy period at sea has meant that the on board lecturers have been very popular. One man in particular has given a number of excellent presentations – Adrian Hayes (www.adrianhayes.com) – who describes himself as an adventurer/explorer. He is an Englishman who lives in Dubai and his claims to fame include treks to the North Pole, the South Pole and to the top of Everest in the shortest time span ever. He is a motivational speaker and has given a number of excellent talks supported by brilliant videos.
I have just looked him up on Wikipedia and have discovered that he went to school at St Marys College, Southampton! I must seek him out before he leaves the ship in the morning.