Tuesday 13^th May 2014

Opened the curtains this morning to a heavy sea mist. Temperature will be about 19°. Hopefully the mist will clear as we sail further into the Med.

Breakfast at 9:00am followed by a quick 2-lap walk round the promenade deck

(2 laps = 1.5klms) before heading to the theatre for a talk on Genoa at 10:00am.

The sea mist started to clear and we can see land from our balcony. As far as I can make out from the map on the TV it is Morocco.

Morocco (we think) from our balcony

Our course has changed more to the east (77.6° to be exact) as we continue to head for Barcelona. Out on deck it is very blustery due to a 20knot wind blowing across the forward port quarter of the ship. This caused us to sit inside one of the cafes and read our books for an hour before heading to the Horizon buffet for lunch and then making our way back to the theatre for the port talk on Marseille.

At 3:00pm we attended a wine tasting of French Champagne, 2 Californian whites, an Italian red (very much like a pinot) and 2 Californian reds.  Surprisingly Lynne tasted them all. None would hold a candle to our Aussie wines and they were also very expensive. The Poms that we sat with also agreed.

It’s now time to get ready for dinner after which we will go to the live show.

Tomorrow we dock in Barcelona for our first shore excursion -should be interesting.

Monday 12^th May 2914

Overnight we sailed out into the Bay of Biscay. After a good nights sleep we woke to a sunny sky, calm seas and only a light breeze.

Breakfast in the Horizon buffet. Healthy this morning - fruit and cereal.

With breakfast over we headed to the Princess Theatre for a port lecture on Rome.  Interesting information, including being warned about pickpockets being very active in the city.

Lynne had some retail therapy and bought a top and matching vest, (obviously needed for shore excursions).

After lunch in the Horizon buffet we went to see a demonstration of fruit and vegetable carving by the ships fruit and ice-carving specialists. They were absolutely great.

Fruit carving

Back to the Princess Theatre for a port lecture on Florence & Pisa which is also one of our day excursion ports.

Next was some much-needed exercise around the deck 7 Promenade, about 750 metres.

Back to our Stateroom to write up the events. Room service have just delivered a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of sauvignon blanc and as the weather is great we are sitting on our balcony having a drink, watching the ocean go by and writing up todays events.

Tonight is formal night so it will soon be time to put on our finery and head down to the Piazza atrium (decks 5,6&7) for the Captain’s formal welcome and Champagne waterfall followed by dinner and another live show “I got the music”.

We expect to sail into the Med through the Straits of Gibraltar sometime late this  afternoon. It does not get dark until well after 9pm here, so the days seem quite long.

View from the top deck of the ship looking aft

Sunday 11^th May 2014

Despite the heavy seas and a rolling ship overnight we had a good sleep and woke this morning to more cloudy, overcast sky with winds gusting to 50 knots.

Overnight we sailed well out into the English Channel and looking outside the seas remain very rough with a 5 metre swell running. Easy to see why the  Channel had protected England from invasion over the centuries.

Breakfasted in the Horizon Buffet then did some exploring around the ship including the shopping mall. No doubt there will be plenty of retail therapy moments during our time onboard.

As it was very cold out on deck the main saloon areas were very crowded.

Not much more to report for the day. Dinner in the dinning room again, only 3 of us tonight as Joanne said Glen was unwell, most likely from seasickness.

The meal was lovely, 3 courses again followed by coffee with a dash of whiskey for me and a boring English breakfast tea for Lynne.

We then headed to the Princess Theatre for the live show at 9:30pm. The artist tonight was a wonderful violinist, Craig Owen, who played all genres of music including an excellent Irish medley that included Danny Boy.

Saturday 10^th May 2014

Weather report for today; overcast sky with possibility of rain showers and gusty wind at times. Temperature expected to be 18°.

Following a lovely breakfast at the White Star Tavern, we checked out and caught a cab to the Mayflower Terminal where our cruise ship, The Emerald Princess, was docked. After checking in, going through all the security etc, we finally boarded about 2:00pm and made our way to our Stateroom B509 on the Baja deck, (deck 11). The Stateroom is a great size with plenty of storage space and a good size balcony. Lifeboat drill was at 3:30pm and we were due to slip the mooring cables and sail at 4:00pm, however our departure was delayed by 3 hours due to 2 medical evacuations, which then meant the Captain had to wait for the tugs to come back from assisting another ship out of the Southampton channel.

We finally sailed from Southampton at 7:00pm heading down the Solent and then out into the English Channel.

Leaving Southampton Harbour

We could not see much due to cloudy sky and the wind that was quite strong at 35 knots. The Captain said the wind strength was going to make the trip down the Channel a tad rough and recommended that we not put a glass of water on the bedside table unless we wished to wear it during the night.

Time was marching on towards dinner, (our booking is for 8:15pm each evening) so we got changed and headed to the dining room.

We are seated at a table of 6 but only one other couple, Glen & Joanne, a lovely Aussie couple from Forster turned up. Joanne is on the cruise to celebrate her 50^th birthday.

Our State room

After dinner we headed back to our Stateroom and got the last of the unpacking done. The Captain’s prediction of rough seas proved correct and it was a little difficult to walk in a straight line (certainly not the wine!!). We also had to put our clocks forward 1 hour.