Day 10 Thursday 15th January - More than half way across the Atlantic, temperature 26C.

The sea depth is now 4500m, sea temperature 20+ degrees C, quite choppy again, but very beautiful.  Mainly clear skies. On the ship everyone is out in the sun and there’s generalised good mood.  The clocks have gone back three times now, which feels like a special gift.

What did we do today? Up at 8, very gentle yoga, eat, art lesson, deck walk, coffee, crossword, eat, guitar talk, deck walk, tea, dance class, art in the cabin, eat, deck walk, cabaret, telly, blog, bed.

Highlights! We started a snowy landscape today and plan to finish in the next lesson. Not easy, but very uplifting, absorbing and relaxing. As always will share pics if it’s not too embarrassing. It’s lovely to do this with Khachik. So much of what we normally do is parallel, e.g. I practise yoga while Khachik follows football.  But we both seem to love the art.

The guitar talk was extraordinary. Paul brought his custom made acoustic guitar, 22 strings no less, made by the same guitar maker who used to build guitars for Led Zeppelin.  He described all the different acoustic styles, chords, finger picking, country, flamenco, jazz and blues, Eastern and Asian sounds, explained commonalities and then went on to demonstrate everything, surprisingly really well, including short performances like the Beatles Norwegian Wood in different styles.  Today he finished with Jose Feliciano’s version of Light my Fire. This hour was a real treat.  

Well, after today there’s one more sea day until we reach St Maarten, where we will feel land again (not that I’m in any hurry to do that) and can share the latest set of photos while we enjoy what the island has to offer.  So I will sign off for now and share tomorrow’s highlights, once again I really hope to have some sizeable sea life reports.  Bye for now from mid-Atlantic.

Day 2 7/1/2015 Post Card from the Bay of Biscay (Living up to its rock and roll reputation)

Well after the months of excitement, planning, visa hunting, pessimism, optimism, disbelief and complete and utter gratefulness, we set off at 6 a.m. from Glossop yesterday (6/1/2015) classed as day one of our  our 106 day extravaganza, as we set sail in the evening. Talene dropped us at junction 18/19 Knutsford M6 service station where we were really surprised to be picked up by a Southampton FC Corporate Entertainment Coach (!) used by P&O for transfers. Five hours and 2 stops later we were at the Cruise Terminal in Southampton. 

With 1,500 guests to check in and embark it took us a while, but by 3 p.m. we were through security and in our lovely cabin, D130 on deck 5, soon watching the sun set beautifully in a cool blue sky over a very calm sea.  Everything falling into place.  Capsule wardrobes and home comforts unpacked, there we were comfortably, breathing, relaxing, it was really happening at last.  Facebooking, texting and phoning followed before we lost our regular mobile contact, as we knew there would be a 12 hour wait for our internet access to become active.  We have been warned that contact might not be what we are used to and so we are advised not to use it to upload and download photos until we have access to higher speeds (e.g 2 days to Vigo).

Internet Access comes in various packages, so we have bought a package of 1100 minutes for £200  – which means about ten minutes a day if it lasts us for the cruise. This is quite a tough ask for someone who has instant access normally, 24 hour a day.  It might be a good thing. But nobody wants to be paying more than that for the net on board.

Apparently, as we left Southampton there was a firework display and a band playing at the port just for our cruise,  we missed both.  We did however pass the ship that ran aground on the sand on the Isle of Wight. :(  Below is our cabin and our route.



Then our lovely cruising activities began -  so far these have included the walk on the deck, the exploration of the decks (some of the 11 anyway), getting familiar with the directions, the deck names. 


Then it was time to have a look at the gym and spa, book 6 yoga classes, enjoy one, book painting classes (therein lies a story!!!!! worthy of its own paragraph below), and everything that goes with restaurants – gorgeous food with lots of choice, and meet lovely new and fascinating people at every meal time, at the tables, in the queues, everywhere. There was a compulsory emergency drill and how to put on your life jacket, but nothing too onerous.  We have a muster station in one of the restaurants near the big gangways on deck 3. On one of the deck 3 walking pictures you can see the lifeboats hanging above our heads, some take 100, some fewer, but there are plenty of life boats.

The Wash (spectacular and very loud)

The view is the sea, and we are travelling South Westerly at 11 nautical miles an hour.  We’ve done around 200 and just left the comparatively calm English Channel, into the more robust nature of Bay of Biscay.  Some passengers have already found the choppiness and sway a bit much and are seasick.  So far we are ok, but the rolling movement makes us zigzag around. We still have 500 to go till Vigo

Now, its 47 years since Khachik was a student at Manchester University and all who know him well will have heard the anecdotes (the sheep and an A35 van for example).  What’s this got to do with cruising?  Well this.  We were queuing for our artist’s packs today ready for our first painting lesson tomorrow and Khachik asked the teacher a few personal (I thought impertinent) questions.  Were you a flat mate of Ali at Manchester? Can you remember me and Saeed? The poor man didn’t know what was going on.  He said “How do you know all these things about me?” So then Khachik introduced himself and there was an amazing moment. Khachik quickly laughed and said “Remember the sheep and the van?”  What a reunion! Recognising him after all those years, and being here at the same time!  Details of the Sheep story can be obtained directly from Khachik if you need to know them or be reminded of the feckless behaviour of students in the 1960’s ;). As for the reunion, it’s to be continued…

Khachik on left of the photo, Easa on the right

Just a bit of insight into the holidaying antics of a committed DIYer, Can I just ask if anyone else’s husband takes a screwdriver with them on holiday? Didn’t think so, but Khachik has brought one and has already used it to rearrange the wardrobe shelving so his box of red wine will fit. 

Signing off for today. May or may not be sharing our efforts as artists.