TSH makes a prediction

 The night before the last full day of the cruise, TSH looked at the weather forecast for the last port.  'The captain will not run tender service in those conditions'. Sure enough, at 8am, the Captain announced that the call to Guernsey was cancelled and the day would be spent at sea moving slowly through the Channel. The Cruise Director hastily invoked Plan B - bean bag tossing, shoe shining and the English pub lunch. TSH and Diva took no part in any of these but instead put a deposit on a cruise for 2028. 2027 is already booked with Saga. 

Crazy Captain

 

There are not many announcements on Saga ships, so TSH and Diva knew that it was not good news when there was an announcement from the Captain during breakfast. The port of Visby was currently closed and the Princess which was to dock alongside the Spirit of Discovery had already left the area. This was due to high winds and a choppier sea than they have so far seen on this holiday.

But the Saga risk-taking captain had decided to persuade the authorities to reopen the port for his vessel so that the scheduled tours could proceed. Diva was shocked by the attitude and felt very uneasy.

‘Feel like you’re on a ship’ mode

For TSH and Diva’s first time in the Isles of Scilly, they visited the famous Tresco tropical gardens. The clue was in the name. Diva wore her raincoat because the transfer to Tresco was in a partly open local boat, which, although it was not raining, was likely to be breezy. So by the time she had walked to the gardens she was very hot and exhausted. Fortunately, Saga had supplied a packed lunch so, along with most other guests, they treated the garden visit as an extended picnic. TSH covered himself in glory for once, as, despite his reduced vision, he was the first to spot a red squirrel. A few others appeared later but moved too quickly for there to be any chance of a photo.

Over dinner, TSH and Diva chatted to a couple whose male half was distressed at the loss of a pair of specs. They had retraced their steps around the ship and were unable to find them. Diva advised a call to Reception, who in the past had carefully looked after lost specs belonging to TSH. The female half was sitting on a cushion and when she came to leave she wanted to take it back to the cushion store. Fortunately she ignored TSH’s advice to leave it for the waiters to deal with. There under the cushion was the specs case – she had been sitting on it throughout the protracted wailing.

Some of the guests thought that there was a lot of motion of the ship during the night crossing to Eire. (TSH and Diva didn’t notice anything in spite of being 5 decks higher than their preferred location on Silversea). Some people mentioned this to Captain Jason and he explained that the additional movement was because he had set the autopilot to ‘feel like you’re on a ship’ mode. 

TSH stars in the blog already!

The day started with a rush. TSH and Diva got up early to have plenty of time before the car arrival slot of 8:25 – 8:55. At 7:20 came a text message to say that the car would arrive at 8:00. Which was better but slightly challenging. By 13:30 they were seated in the Grill on the Spirit of Adventure. The embarkation arrangements at Dover are second to none. Many many Saga employees to help and show the way. Security staff who are helpful and polite. Airports who have staff barking unintelligible commands could learn a lot from this.

The suite is a mirror image of the one they had last time. Interesting for anybody – daunting for the partially sighted. After unpacking her mountain of luggage, Diva realised that although she had charged her spare electric toothbrush before leaving home, she had not packed a brush head for it. She asked the butler if he could help. He thought that the shop might have one and the times when the shop would be open could be found in the daily schedule. Not an impressive start. Fortunately the shop did indeed have a toothbrush.

The first event was the mandatory safety drill. International Maritime Law. Captain Jason informed everybody several times that they would need to take their keycards to the muster so that they could be ‘swiped’ as having attended. TSH arrived at the muster point without his card, to much consternation all round. Fortunately they agreed that Diva’s ‘swipe’ could count for both.

First SAGA excursion

 

TSH and Diva went on a short excursion to see the Northern Lights Cathedral in Alta. It is a spectacular building inside and out. It was surprising to hear the cathedral guide declare that she could not explain the plaques on the wall – no-one had been able to make any sense of them. The cathedral is only around 20 years old, so someone must still remember!

The excursion was marred by the guide’s inability to provide clear instructions about when to return to the bus. So the people who understood the earliest time waited 20 minutes for the ones who understood the latest one. The early departure from the cathedral was followed by a panoramic drive through the Alta industrial estates.

TSH and Diva also saw another large pod of orcas.

Per ardua ad astra

Diva is still making heavy weather of the logistics on the cruise. SAGA made the mistake of giving 24 hours advance notice of the change to Norwegian time, so she made the mistake of implementing it 24 hours early. So …..early breakfast. Many other people made the same mistake, so the cruise director made an official announcement notifying everybody of the correct time.

Another official announcement came into every cabin at midnight. This was related to a sick guest being winched off by helicopter. The ship grapevine said that this was to wake everybody in case of any accident and a requirement for muster stations!!

Despite the misty and drizzly weather, TSH and Diva walked a couple of laps round the outside deck. Outdoor clothes, but not too cold yet.

A pod of orcas was spotted at lunch-time – quite a number of them appearing partly out of the water.

Diva attended the astrophysics lecture (on the Solar System) given by a very skilled science communicator and NASA ambassador.

TSH and Diva had no idea that SAGA has its own archbishop – Barry Morgan – who holds regular sessions in one of the bars.

A New Beginning

 

Following TSH’s stroke and loss of vision, there will be no long-haul travel, no flying and as little stress as possible from now on. So the latest cruise is on Saga’s Spirit of Adventure – pick-up from home with luggage and all voyages UK-UK.  A big venture after 670+ days with Silversea but TSH and Diva are determined people.

The pick-up and journey to Dover went well and embarkation was smooth.