Bantry Bay

In Bantry, TSH and Diva took an excursion to Gougane Barra National Park, which resembles parts of the English Lake District. The roads were very narrow with no passing places. Diva sympathised with the (female) driver of a car which met the coach and had to reverse for some way in an awkward place. Other (female) guests spent the time howling with laughter at her plight.

The driver sang ‘Danny Boy’ and ’40 Shades of Green’, which is an unlikely Johnny Cash song written when he toured in Ireland. He finished with some yodelling. 

On the tender, a US guest was heard to ask an Australian guest how long it would take to ‘see’ their country. She had ‘seen’ New Zealand in 14 days and wondered if the time would be comparable.

In the evening, TSH and Diva decided it was just warm enough for their third (and last) pizza night in (outdoor) Spaccanapoli. Excellent as ever. They were told that late every evening a huge pizza is prepared for crew members, who are all ravenous after their day’s hard work.

Dressing Down

The Silver Spirit was extended some years ago – it was cut in half and a new section inserted. TSH wondered if the leak from the ceiling in the entrance to Dolce Vita coincided with the join. Two crew members were working on a repair – the sections of pipe laid out in the corridor looked like a Lego project.

On passing a Silver Spirit management meeting where the participants all greeted him as he passed, TSH decided to interrupt properly to tell them how impressed he was with the cleaning and maintenance of the toilets in the public areas. Makes a change from people praising the butlers and the glamorous waiters!!

The dress code is now over. On an ‘Elegant Casual’ night in Atlantide, Diva saw denim jeans, T shirts, sweat shirts, many many trainers and a fleece. She wondered if people had changed into these outfits or whether they had just come in for refuelling at the end of the day. Hopefully they had washed their hands at least.

One of Diva’s gel nails came off.

3rd

On the sail away from Killybegs, TSH and Diva saw a large group of dolphins around the Silver Spirit. Perhaps not quite as spectacular as seeing orcas.

At the Venetian night on the 4^th and final leg of their cruise, TSH and Diva dropped down the league to 3^rd place. There are about 380 guests on board Silver Spirit, including 204 Venetians, which is a much lower proportion than on most voyages in the past. Dinner was with the Guest Relations Manager and the Reception Manager.

On the way into the cocktail party, Diva reassured Captain Ivo, who greeted her by name and was concerned about her welfare in the light of her failure to take a poncho and an umbrella.

In Galway, they cancelled the planned excursion and walked around the city on their own. The tender journey was a little rough at the end and they were pleased that it was driven by an experienced seaman and it was not an Officer Training Day (as has occasionally happened before).

Morning Music

Going ashore in Killybegs, there was a line-up of Captain, Hotel Director, Cruise Director etc wishing them a good day out. Captain Ivo tried hard to make Diva take a poncho or an umbrella but she insisted that her waterproof coat and hood was more than capable of dealing with Irish weather.

The excursion was to Leo’s Tavern, a pub owned by a musical family which produced Clannad and Enya. TSH and Diva enjoyed the music but refused the Irish Coffee. Caffeine and alcohol. In the morning!

Into Ireland

The crossing from Iceland to Ireland was via very rough seas, as Diva had discovered in advance. It was difficult to walk around without veering or staggering. Absolutely nothing to do with the wine. So it was a relief to all to reach the anchor point at Greencastle. This was nominally the port for Derry but after TSH and Diva had gone ashore via the tender, they discovered that the shuttle bus (which took about 45 minutes) did not connect with the tender timetable. They returned to Silver Spirit after buying plasters for TSH’s cut finger. Don’t ask.

Making a purchase was interesting. TSH and Diva know that Derry is in Northern Ireland – part of the UK – and expected to pay in UK currency. The advice in the Silversea chronicles was to use Euros. Which turned out to be correct in Greencastle itself, which is in the Republic of Ireland. Fortunately, TSH had both currencies in his wallet.

Whilst anchored, they were lucky to see three (?) dolphins just below their balcony.

When the technology started to reset, there were 23 messages from Silversea on the TV system all at once. Some relating to events from several days earlier.

For the first time in several weeks, there were a few hours of darkness.

Trouble with technology

On this leg of the cruise, TV reception has been patchy, due to ‘low elevation of the satellite’. TSH and Diva think that means they are in the middle of nowhere with low population density and it is not worthwhile to provide satellite internet. They have not been receiving the usual daily crop of on-board messages about spa treatments, restaurant reservations and future cruises, which implies that these messages are stored centrally and there is currently no connection. When they switched on the TV one mornng to a message about ‘basic mode’, they assumed it was more of the same until Diva consulted her smartphone and discovered that there were world-wide IT outages. Their butler delivered a typed copy of the Room Service Menu (usually accessed via the TV), so that if they found themselves unexpectedly hungry they would know what to ask for.

Mars in the Mist

The weather in Djupivogur was cold and misty and TSH and Diva stayed on the Silver Spirit. The Panorama lounge was only a few degrees warmer than outside and it stayed that way despite several guests (including Diva) and crew reporting the situation. They were told that it was equally cold on the Bridge. If the senior officers cannot keep themselves warm there is not much hope for anyone else.

Concerned about the North Atlantic crossing to Ireland, Diva consulted the Met Office shipping forecast. She has no experience with this information and does not really understand it but 2 large deep red rectangles right in the path of the Silver Spirit did not seem good. She considered informing Captain Ivo, just in case he was not aware of the dangers ahead but TSH advised against this, as he was sure that Captain Ivo would have his own sources. When the Captain spoke to the guests he indicated that the sea would be ‘moderate to rough’, so Diva issued Stugeron and they hoped for the best. The necklace that Diva chose for the evening was likened by one of the crew to one that was found on Titanic – not a good omen on a cruise ship!!  At the time of writing, nothing too bad has been experienced.

Here is a picture of Viking Mars – anchored quite close to Silver Spirit in Djupivogur. This is not a bad photograph, this is exactly how it was.