Wednesday 11 December 2024 Santa Cruz de Tenerife

After missing a day's sailing due to bad weather and helicopter evacuations, the captain managed to get us here to be docked by 9.40 am and just a couple of hours late.

For us, it was a lie in, after getting up every morning at 7.30. Today, we surfaced a little after 9, and that was only because we needed to make sure we got breakfast as The Grill closes at 10.

It was a lovely warm day, and our plan was simply to have a walk. Peter had a look at Maps.me and spotted some paths up the hills behind Sante Cruz, and we thought we'd check them out. Now, we've been here loads of times, often walking along the sea front to the Opera House and beyond where there has always been plenty to interest us. This time we walked through the city heading out to a hill, and came across a wonderful little park that we'd never seen before. Parque Garcia Sanabria was delightful, with fountains, butterflies, birds and flowers. We really liked it there.

We explored for a bit before continuing on our way to the northern edge of the city. The path Peter had found turned out to be an old road which snaked up the side of a little peak called La Meseta. There used to be houses and little farmed terraces each side of the broken tarmac, but not anymore. A couple of the buildings were lived in, but they were ramshackle, repaired with bits of board, railings and corrugated metal. Others were completely derelict, surrounded by piles of fly tipped rubbish and rubble. Then there were patches of flowers and cacti, little lizards running across the road and a kestrel hovered. A steep sided gorge in the landscape was full of caves - some of these seemed to be lived in too.

All of this kept us interested. The climb wasn't too steep and the weather wasn't too warm, so we kept going up. There is a satellite tower at the top, but to be honest, our aim was to reach a point where we could enjoy the views across the city, port and mountains nearby.

Which is exactly what we did.

Walking down was of course much faster than walking up, and we got back to the ship with a couple of hours to spare. We took advantage of the self-service whipped ice-cream machine first, before indulging in drinks, peanuts and crisps in the Brittania Lounge.

A good day. (11 000 step target well exceeded). The walk was much needed after 4 days on board.

Now it'll be 6 days of good food, warm sun and gentle waves before the port of St John, Antigua. As Peter sez, "Bring it on....."

Tuesday 10th December - Following the storm

Sunday 8th December The rock n roll continued, as we've followed behind the worst effects of storm Darragh. The captain has been carefully negotiating between keeping us out of the really rough waters ahead, and the need to move as fast as possible since we're nearly a day behind schedule, and we have to dock into Tenerife on the 12th. 

Waves are apparently 6-7m high, which means you need to work hard to stay upright and keep moving forward sometimes. Peter's classes happened as usual - numbers were down for the first class, but we put that down to the weather and the fact it's a Sunday and there's a church service. 

As an apology for getting us out of bed last night, we found a box of chocolates in our cabins when we returned from dinner.  All I can say is, "No apology necessary." - I think any one of the passengers would prefer to be turned out of their cabin rather than the possible alternative. Apparently, the poorly passenger got to hospital and is all right, so it was well worth it. 

The sea has calmed down as the day went on and was almost unnoticeable by the time we got to bed  and I've not felt seasick, (although I did take a few pills from reception). Cool eh?

Monday 9th December Well, we could make it to Tenerife in time, the sea is calm and the ship is fair belting south past Portugal. Weather is good, quite calm actually and warm enough for me to take a walk around the deck in a t-shirt.  They changed formal night from yesterday, making for a better night, and Peter and I went to watch Ralph Allin - an absolute master of the violin - in the playhouse.  Quite awesome and well worth the watch. 

Tuesday 10th December The ship is still speeding along, I spotteed 18.3 knots on the screen in our room.  The weather is good and I've promenaded around the promenade a few times this morning.  We chatted with the crafters in the craft room late morning whilst the Marylou finished our room. At lunchtime the Captain announced that we'd get to Tenerife by about 9.30 tomorrow, so only a few hours late, (Hurrah!), and I had a chat with the Sugar Craft lass, Lindy, and her husband this afternoon whilst Peter was teaching. This evening, we bumped into the dance instructors, Heidi and Simon, on the top deck whilst we were having a little wander around. (10,000 steps achieved!), and finally, after dinner, we ambled into a very full Brittania Lounge, where after finally finding a couple of seats, we watched most of the ship's passengers get on down to the bad sounds of Soul Satisfaction.  I even got to dance with one of the art students.  A good day, and tomorrow we get a lie in.  Yaaaaay!

Saturday 7th December - Patient Helivac? Evacuate!

Technically, it was a sea day. Peter and I got up early to get breakfast and set up the room ready for the first class. We were in the Amalfi restaurant as usual and quickly fell into routine. The captain announced we were going to leave about 10.30am and told us that although the ship would stay close to the (English) coastline, to expect choppy seas and a moving ship. This captain is called Kim and is quite cheerful and chatty, which sort of disuades any worries in the passengers.

Actually, the sea wasn't too bad, the class went ahead as usual in the afternoon. At lunch the captain told us that we had yet to drop off the "seasick" (joke),pilot who had guided us out of Southampton, and we'd do that at Falmouth (the Southampton pilot station was closed). We could expect a lull in ship motion whilst that happened and then we'd venture out from the shelter of land into deeper water. We were told that the waves would get bigger and the ship would move in a "corkscrew" motion.

Peter and I were tired at the end of the day, and went to bed relatively early, before the Falmouth drop off and rocky seas.  Tucked up and dozing off nicely, the Captain's voice came into the room, announcing to the crew to prepare for a helicopter evacuation! Then he woke us again with an announcement that the passengers at the front of the ship would have to evacuate their cabins. We hoped that didn't mean us, (in cabin D004, not right at the front), and we started to doze off again.  Then came a gentle knock at the door. Yes, we would have to leave our cabins.

So we pulled on some clothes and joined many other weary looking passengers in the lounges, some in pajamas and dressing gowns, and we all waited. It was around 11.30pm.  At the front of the ship, a helicopter arrived, and some poor patient was winched up to be taken to hospital. Our cabin evacuation was necessary due to the fact that this sort of winching off the front of a ship by a helicopter is one of the most dangerous manoeuvre's a pilot will undertake, if something goes wrong, a helicopter with all its fuel could really do some damage to the ship and the people on board, which is why the fire crew were also mobilised and were stood ready, in full gear, at the top of the ship.

After about an hour, the evacuation was successful and we were able to go back to bed and sleep. That was until the ship went out into deep water and started to pitch and roll. The movement woke me up, and kept shaking me awake every time I started doze off. So when the alarm went off at 7.30am, I felt like I'd hardly slept at all.