Change all the clocks

In Portland, Diva decided she wanted an easy day, so TSH went alone on an excursion - the first such solo outing since his stroke and partial sightedness. Just a short sight-seeing trip, but he managed the photostops and always got back to the correct bus on time.

The naval Pontus was in port - its job is to check on underwater cables.

On formal night, TSH was one of a very few men in a dinner suit. Several people remarked on how smart he looked.

Silversea is an efficient operation and on previous voyages clocks around the ships have accurately reflected the correct time for the current locality. Not this time. The clocks are showing random times - the irony being that they are now supposedly all connected to, and controlled by, the Bridge. It cannot get much worse when the time zones change later in the cruise.

TSH and Diva have asked for Merlot or Malbec to be supplied in their suite. Their butler has assured them that there is no supply of either wine on the Silver Spirit!! They have now requested Shiraz but are still waiting for it to arrive. Bulgari body lotion has been supplied by the suite attendant and face soap purchased in Falmouth. TSH also bought some pencils to use for Silversea sudoku. 

Launching the holiday

 After an easy journey to Southampton, TSH and Diva achieved the usual objective of being in La Terrazza with lunch and champagne well before 13:00. Check-in had taken a little longer than usual because Silversea have changed the official start of embarkation to 11:00, instead of 14:00, as before. So there were unfamiliar queues of guests who realised it was possible to embark early! A pleasant aspect of the queue was meeting guests they had sailed with before.  And once onboard they were greeted by crew members, including the Hotel Director, they had met before.

A disappointment in the suite was the change away from Bulgari toiletries. A selection was supplied on request but there is no Bulgari body cream on board and they have no hypoallergenic soap for Diva's face. Fortunately there are several British ports to come and shopping will be possible.

And there is now a kettle in the suite. For guests to make their own hot drinks. TSH and Diva are on holiday and will continue to use the bars when they want tea or coffee.

The food so far is excellent. A seafood buffet for lunch and SALT (the restaurant that serves food inspired by the locality) for dinner. TSH was impressed by his venison wellington but could not resist pointing out to the waiter that sticky toffee pudding has nothing to do with Southampton but was invented in Cumbria. 

Embarkation - 2 days

 TSH was busy preparing all the electronic devices and chargers needed for the holiday. During the check of his laptop, he discovered that the Adobe suite of programs, including Photoshop, was not working. And these are crucial for the processing of his holiday pics and the operation of his website.  Disaster was looming!

Diva has never been called upon to be involved with these facilities but, as the IT (ex-) professional of the team, she felt obliged to offer help. She worked out that several different programs were involved and, with a little help from Google, that the best option was to reinstall them. But they would not uninstall through Settings. And their own control program, which can theoretically do an uninstall, would not load or run. TSH's Adobe account page would not load properly, even though his subscription is current. So she turned to the AI online assistant, which offered a variety of solutions, all involving the methods she had already tried. She regards it as a personal triumph that her follow-up prompts were so clueless that the AI summoned a human before she ordered it to do so. 

The human was great, taking control of the laptop and correcting everything. The Adobe suite now works, the day is (eventually) saved and TSH can go on holiday!!

Getting ready

 There are only a few days to go now until TSH and Diva board the Silver Spirit. The clothes rails are up and optioneering has begun. Selecting clothes suitable for the unpredictable weather in Northern Europe is not easy and this process might take some time. 

There is a hole in a seam of one of TSH's favourite tops. Diva does not do sewing - she pays someone to do any essential repairs - so he is on his own on this one. After all, his mother was an accomplished needlewoman who thought everyone should be taught to sew. (Diva was a great disappointment to her in this respect). Half an hour later, TSH had still not managed to thread a needle. In his defence, he is partially sighted as a result of a stroke. Diva took pity on him, and to the great surprise of both of them, she inserted the thread into the hole of the needle!! 

The seam has been repaired by TSH and the top is wearable once more.

Door drama

 TSH and Diva did not plan to blog about their short break in genteel North Wales. What could possibly happen?

Their room is very comfortable with a large modern bathroom. With a sliding door which requires to be locked into position if it is to remain closed. After dinner, when TSH was in the bathroom, the lock refused to engage. Diva also tried it and could not make it work. In an uncharacteristic moment of frustration, they both stood outside the bathroom and Diva slid the door hard. It closed and the lock engaged perfectly. With no way of unlocking it from the outside. 

They tried turning what appeared to be the release mechanism, using whatever they had with them. Scissors, nail clippers and the edge of a comb. Nothing worked and the duty manager was called.  Normally Dive is very conscious of her image. So this is the first time she has had dealings with hotel manager wearing no makeup and a sleep tee. Fortunately he had dealt with this situation before and soon restored access to the bathroom. 

Maintenance staff were in attendance the next morning to make a more (hopefully!) lasting adjustment.

Nearly there

The departure from Kristiansand eventually happened more than 24 hours later than scheduled. The Spirit of Discovery now has 3 working engines and the technical staff - who have worked incredibly hard to resolve the problems - are still working on restarting the fourth. TSH and Diva are concerned about how the 'dirty fuel' was taken on in the first place.

Because of the delay, the berth at Dover is no longer available and disembarkation is now expected to  take place at around noon on Saturday in Portsmouth  instead of around 8 am on Friday in Dover. This must have created huge logistical problems for Saga on shore and onboard, as well as taxi drivers and guests on the next cruise and the current one. 

The 36 hour delay will be filled with food, drink and service. The North Sea is calm. 

Bonus holiday

 At 18:00, the expected departure time from Kristiansand, the Captain announced that the Spirit of Discovery had engine problems and could not sail. Further announcements over the evening and the following morning explained that 2 of the four engines had problems, probably caused by 'dirty fuel'.  Spare parts have been ordered from Germany. Diva hopes that the suppliers have not heard about the 'Rule Britannia' incident. (See blog post 'no ghosts')

It is now impossible to reach Dover by Friday morning and hence the arrival home is delayed by at least 24 hours. Guests have not been told what is happening about those booked on the next scheduled cruise, which is only 5 days long.

Diva has moved the home food delivery order time from Saturday to Sunday morning.

On the instructions for disembarkation, TSH and Diva were amazed to find that it seems that they are not sharing transport with the other 2 guests who live on the same avenue as they do.

A Regent Seven Seas ship had to find a new berth, as its booked one is indefinitely occupied by the Spirit of Discovery.