Friday 6th January - Sea day

Friday morning I woke with someone muttering in my ear. Since I am not used to anyone but Peter talking in the bedroom, it woke me faster than any alarm could.  It was semi dark in the cabin, and it took me a minute to work out where I was.  Once I had, I realised there wasn't anyone there, the muttering was the woman in the next cabin who was complaining at her husband again!

Once they'd woke me up, Peter had to get up too.  It's the first day, and though we know the ship well, we've got to sort out Peter's classes.  He was only scheduled for one, but we knew that wouldn't be enough.  There was a muddle up with conference room usage and Peter's class got delayed, which raised his blood pressure a little.  But it all worked out in the end, and we managed to fit in two classes by 1 o'clock and everyone was happy.

This left us in the unusual position of having the whole afternoon to ourselves to fill, so we filled it with a 'short' nap of three hours.  I didn't know we were so tired!

In the evening, we ate in the Bistro as usual. The ship hadn't travelled that far south yet, and it was still pretty cold and blustery outside.  Peter and I have a preference for sitting near the windows, and we ended up sat looking out on the back deck where the smokers are provided with a relatively sheltered area. But the freezing wind still gets them, and they have to wrap up.  Peter noted the hoody now seems to be appropriate smoking apparel, and the guys outside all looked like they had escaped from Assassins Creed.

We decided not go to the evening show, on Friday and I picked up a book and started reading.  Now.  The thing about me reading is......  I don't stop.  Once I have started a book I find it very hard to put down which is why I only read when I know I have the time.  As expected, I'm now over-indulging, and Peter finds it hard to drag me out of the pages.

Cruise and Maritime Amazon and the West Indies - Day One. Embarkation.

So we're hunkered up on the beds in our cabin.  Like most of the cabins on the Marco Polo, this one has twin beds, so I have to wave at Peter across the gap.  It's a nice cabin though, we feel like we've come up in the world, literally.  Normally we get one in the bowels of the ship, but today we are a couple of floors up on the Atlantic Deck.   This may mean that the cabin is smaller than we are used to, but the plus is that they are less likely to batten down the hatches on us, which means more daylight.  Yippeeeee!

Our neighbours on my side seem particularly noisy.  I'm wondering if they are deaf, because they are very loud.  Perhaps they can't hear themselves shout at each other?  And then the couple across the hall are opening and slamming their door "IS IT LOCKED?", and the neighbours on Peter's side are noisily unpacking and I think the staff are having a party in the hall.  There is so much noise going on it's like being in a hospital ward!  Maybe going up in the world is not all it's cracked up to be.

We've had a good journey down.  We set off yesterday so that we could fit a family visit in on the way down, and stopped in a Travelodge last night.  This is a 6 week cruise, and we've bought so much luggage with us, the house is empty. So when I had this nagging feeling that I might have forgotten something, I thought I couldn't have done, since there was nothing left in the wardrobes.

Once we'd got a good way down the A1, I remembered what I hadn't packed.  Binoculars!  We have 4 half decent sets and some freebies from the the National Trust, so it's not as if we couldn't find any whilst we were at home!  Doh!  A trip to PC World was opted for and now we have 6 sets of binoculars!  On the plus side, the latest set are much better than any of the others, which sort or makes up for the additional expense.

The noise has changed a little now.  The couple on Peter's side are watching the tele, and the couple on my side are still unpacking.  I'm thinking about all the noisy cabins we've had in the past, with engines and gears whirring so hard that everything rattled.  I'm wondering if that was better?

As Peter says though, we are grateful to get a cabin, and this is going to be a good cruise,  I am so looking forward to the wildife in the Amazon.  The ship sets sail at 11.30, and I have my seasick tablets ready.  Bring it on! 

Shock! Voyages of Discovery and Swan Hellenic gone into administration!

We've just found out today.  What a shame, we liked the Voyager and the Minerva.  Peter was booked to work on the Minerva later this year.  Doesn't look like that will happen now.

I know it's bad for the passengers, but they should all get their money back . I really feel sorry for all the staff - they've lost their livelihoods.  We wish them luck and hope they get more work soon.