Sunday evening, 9th May

So far, so good.

The coach journey to Southampton was good, but embarkation was slightly delayed as there had been an outbreak of Norovirus on the previous cruise, so they were doing extra ‘sanitising’ before we all got on. Whilst waiting in the long queues that formed, we were handed leaflets stating that we could only bring onboard one bottle of wine or champagne per person per voyage – which made us slightly anxious for a while, as between us we were carrying 9 litres of wine in boxes, 1 bottle of fizz, a large bottle of gin and two cans of ready mixed G&T. Still, most of it was packed in the suitcases, which had been whisked away by the porters, so we’re OK for pre-dinner drinks for a few days!

We’ve been crossing the Bay of Biscay today, in not ideal conditions. Grey seas with big waves, and grey skies with occasional heavy showers of rain. Julie seems to now accept that the Curran’s fleece and waterproof jackets weren’t such a stupid idea after all! We’ve explored the ship and will no doubt be reporting on some of its more quirky areas in due course. We ate in the buffet last night, as our table reservation in the main dining room had been screwed up (they’d put us on separate tables!) The food was truly excellent, the Daves had rib of beef, and the Js had a Malaysian vegetable spicy stew thing, with rice. I daren’t tell the Weight Watchers amongst you the things I’ve eaten in the last 24 hours, except to say that calories consumed in one day must equal those that I normally would eat in a week.

Activities so far... not a lot. Dave C has started a new book, done some creative writing, and had a bath. Janet has been to a painting class and a line dancing session, and eaten a lot. Not sure what the others have been doing but I suspect not much!

Hope all is well in Blighty and beyond... Hello to Gareth in the Caribbean, Ste in LA or Seattle, and Mark & Marie in Neuchatel. Hope you had a lovely birthday Marie!

Janet