Last Day

We are a day away from home. It was the Chefs' parade last night which is always an excuse for lots of clapping and cheering in the restaurant. After all, those guys have been cooking 12,500 meals per day. I am pleased to report that we are still on the sun deck in fact, in 23 days we have had sun every day which is very fortunate and pretty much unheard of on any of our cruises. The sea has been very calm too so we are so lucky (apart from that damn swell on its way to Biscay).

The Captain mentioned in his speech last night that he hasn't lost his No Claims Bonus despite us bumping the ship's sides in a lock in the Panama Canal - blame the Panamanians - it was their job! All evidence is now removed via lots of white paint. He assures us we will see him in Poundland when we arrive at Southampton; most of the crew will be in West Quay - it is their favourite shopping stop off - I hope they have good stocks of Toblerone!

Highlight for us have been the Panama Canal (we bought the DVD of our transit - it isn't that good a production and in some respects amusing but will do to remind us of that day) and the airport/Maho beach at St Marteen. Mexico also goes down in our memories as the time Spencer took to the stage - very funny indeed. We have met some really nice people and made some good friends. Spencer walked 180 miles but there's still some work to do on our return home to lose some calories.

It is now midday and I have just heard the clapping and cheering of the World cruisers as it was announced that the 40,000 nautical mile barrier has just been broken. That's a lot of miles! Here are some last day piccies including Suresh the wine waiter and Melody who gets us our hot chocs and Cointreau plus pre dinner drinks in the evening.













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Location:Nearing the UK

Last 2 days

So, as we travel ever closer to Southampton the seas are lovely and calm which is a godsend. In fact the weather has been overall superb the whole way. I am just watching the ship produced Panama Canal video - it is very interesting but you needed to be there to truly understand what it is like.

So here's our route map. We will have covered 8218 nautical miles when we arrive home. The whole world cruise is about 40000 nautical miles which is a very long way indeed.





And here are a couple more Panama Canal transit pictures I purchased. Very cool indeed and a great momento.







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Location:North Atlantic - 600 miles of coast of Portugal

Ponta Delgada

After 5 sea days, we made it here. It is about 17 degrees which seems a bit chilly now for shorts. We had a walk around town and bought a few more bits for our souvenir collection. Time seems to have flown. Casting our minds back to Aruba we saw a strange ship which seemed to have nobody aboard or at least they were all hiding and emerged at night en masse. The ship was called Freewinds and we just looked it up; it is the Church of Scientology's ship. It all stacks up.

Anyway, we have three days now until we return to Southampton. Weather should be getting warmer in the UK which is a bonus. Overall it has been an amazing trip and we have enjoyed every minute of it.







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Location:Avenida Infante Dom Henrique,Ponta Delgada,Portugal

One day till Ponta Delgada

Weather calm which has surprised us and we are still on deck in the sun with one day to go before the Azores. Weather is expected to be 18 degrees in Ponta Delgada which is just fine. We now respect those who row or sail across the Atlantic - there just isn't a thing to see. Seen about one yacht and one aircraft. Must be very hard on the mind alone at sea - thank you P&O for this floating hotel.

Times going fast since we lose an hour a day most days - we are only two hours off UK time now.

Tonight, we are going for a meal in the Ocean Grill with friends for their wedding anniversary which is a first for us on any ship. It is so friendly on board here and really easy to make good friends.

Our Head Waiter said last night that we would be able to get on board for lunch when they are in Southampton sometime as long as we give him 72 hours notice. That would be really good to do. We will bring him some Toblerone which is what they all buy in Poundland simply because they love it and it is three times the price back home. So next report should be tomorrow in Ponta Delgada - there is some religious festival on so we expect it to be unusually busy.




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Location:Atlantic Ocean (somewhere)

Eat drink sleep repeat

Time is going fairly quickly because we are losing an hour most days at midday to get us close to the Azores time ASAP. Out here, I have seen one yacht on the horizon and nothing else. Makes you really appreciate the earth is round when you look out to the horizon 360 degrees; sorry Flat Earth Society. Not much else to report at the moment. The Captain seems very thin - there is no way he eats on here and must get 'air drops' of salad at regular intervals or maybe he catches sea weed?

Weather is good at 24 degrees and sea state quite calm with a little swell. I hope we don't run out of fuel or wine. One of our friends was telling us how they lost the engines on one ship they were on and drifted for two hours - scary. But I reckon we could all row like Vikings to get some of the weight off.

Here is a picture of Sarah and in contrast, the mooring deck. What more could a man want?








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Location:Atlantic somewhere

St Marteen - Maho Beach

Well, what a day - another awesome day of a lifetime. Firstly, the cruise terminal is amazing and really geared up for us tourists - lots to see and buy at very cheap prices - you can't get t shirts many places for 5 bucks (apart from other Caribbean islands).

We got a taxi (which are all quality minibuses) with a couple of Americans who were really chatty and nice. Our port of call for all plane worshippers was Maho beach where the planes land so close you can almost touch them.

The Sunset bar there is excellent and large and really caters for the tourists plus the beach is great. Anyway on to the fun.

We saw loads of planes land including 737s, 757s and an A340. The most fun planes were the smaller ones who I think tried to get as close to the crowds as possible - unsafe but a great sport.














I decided to go onto the beach when an older Insel Air plane with older powerful low bypass ratio engines took off. Other modern planes were not such and issue but the thrust concentration was very high indeed - Bad move. My whole body was shot blasted with sand and the sea was full of hats, a couple of rucksacks and quite a few people being blown down the sand. Now I see why it warns you of 'Danger - Jet Blast'. I got some good video whilst I was running for cover. Still picture below shows the carnage. I had pockets of sand and anywhere I had sun tan cream on was covered in a layer of sand too!


We met our mates there and had lunch with them. We are now back on the ship reviewing our amazing photos and videos. Yes it is a bar at the end of a runway but it is one of the most amazing places we have every visited!

Tonight is Caribbean night so on with our new clobber for party time!


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Location:St Marteen

Aruba

We have made it to the lovely Dutch island of Aruba. It is beautiful but so very hot. The lady in the shop was telling us it is the hottest it has been at this time of year for a long time and unusually, I am feeling the heat so it must be hot!












We went on a tour today which was good. We went in a submarine, via boat from De Palm Pier to look at a shipwreck and fish. Unfortunately it was fairly murky due to the wind and currents but it was fun all the same and the fish were good to look at. We then did a general island tour mainly seeing the volcanic features, lizards, wild goats etc.


Best bit is the shops. Embroidered shopping bags only five bucks! Caribbean shirts only fifteen bucks so I got a new one.

The staff are painting out some Panama Canal lock damage which is inevitable since our ship was a tight fit. It is mainly a few knocks on the lock's polyurethane rubbing strips so nothing major - going to look pristine once again - hurrah!




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Location:Aruba