‘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. 

Sinking ships

On arrival at the Irish port of Cobh, Captain Jason put the Spirit of Adventure into a manoeuvre called Stop and Spin. This is exactly what it sounds like. The port welcomes cruise ships by encouraging their passengers into the Titanic exhibition and the heritage museum with a section about the Lusitania. TSH and Diva were assigned boarding cards with the names of two of the passengers – one from each ship. They never discovered if they survived but as Irish people in third class it seems unlikely.  

At breakfast, Diva asked for a brown roll to go with her Cumberland sausage. The sausage arrived but the roll came some time later because a waiter had to go to another restaurant for it – 7 decks away! And then they brought two rolls, which was too much for requirements.

The first use of TSH’s camera did not go too well – he had charged the battery at home but forgot to insert it back into the camera.

There have, as usual been timing issues. TSH’s phone decided it was in France and moved its time forward. So the alarm went off very early. It has now been instructed not to do it again.

Spirit of Adventure shows no sign of sinking and the food is excellent and the wine plentiful.

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.

Light and shade

 After dinner, TSH and Diva watched a large group of more than 12 whales – presumed to be orcas – swimming around the ship’s bows. The sound of their ‘blowing’ could be heard clearly.

It has been light for 24 hours for days but TSH and Diva have not seen the Midnight Sun because of the cloud cover. Until last night, when the sun shone brightly for the hours around midnight. Until the sound of the Spirit of Adventure foghorn alerted them to what Captain Jason calls ‘the f-word’.

On arrival in Bodo, the weather was sunny for the morning walk but for the rest of the day, first one part of the view and then another was obscured. The views include snow-capped jagged mountains.

TSH is making more unescorted trips to the buffet. Even when he cannot immediately find his way back to the table he is able to remember its number. Unlike the lady overheard telling a waiter that she did not know her table number but she had left her blue bag with a decoration of pink butterflies there.