Scheduled Sabotage

 In Zeebrugge, TSH went ashore on an excursion which included a canal ride in Ghent. This was made easy for him because the guide wore bright pink (easy to pick out), the meeting place was the Marriott hotel (prominent location) and everybody was supplied with a card containing an emergency phone number. 

Meanwhile, Diva was sitting in Panorama lounge when a group of armed Belgian Custom officials appeared and carried out a detailed inspection of bar stocks. There was a discussion about discrepancies between the declared stocks and the actual stocks. A total recount was proposed but the matter must have been settled in some way because Silver Spirit was allowed to depart on time. 

Scheduled TV maintenance was carried out, meaning there was no TV for a few hours. During the night. During the England World Cup game against Mexico. Despite this, England won.

Norway via the North Sea

 The first leg of TSH and Diva's voyage is finished, many guests have left the Silver Spirit and many more have embarked - this leg will be slightly fuller than the previous one. 

They happened to be sitting in the Panorama lounge when the towel folding demonstration started and they were too polite to leave whilst members of the Housekeeping Department constructed 'towel art', including a rabbit, an elephant and a crocodile.  Far too complicated for Diva. 

TSH and Diva make good use of the complementary laundry service, so each afternoon 3 or 4 clean garments, each on a wooden hanger, are delivered to their suite. So the number of coat hangers in their walk-in wardrobe is increasing fast. As usual on a Silversea ship, they leave surplus hangers on the bed to be taken away but on this voyage the butler has decided they might need extra hangers and he returns them to the wardrobe.  So TSH's hanging space is reducing and his clothes are crammed together. They have explained the problem to their butler but with limited success.

One of the waiters now introduces TSH and Diva as his parents.

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.