Day 94 14th April 2011

This is the last day of the cruise. When we awoke his morning we were docked in Southampton. On our side we could see many small boats moored in mid-stream and some tankers and other supply vessels coming alongside to begin the process of getting the ship ready for its next voyage back to the Caribbean. We went down to breakfast since the timetable for leaving did not allow passengers to leave until 9.30am but actually they started at 8.50am with an announcement over the ship’s loudspeaker system. This filled us with optimism that we would be off the ship early but it did not happen since after the early start it slowed down.

After breakfast we waited patiently in the cabin for the announcement that  were next but the lifts were very slow since everyone was on the move so we started off early. We arrived at deck 5 to hear our group announced so could proceed immediately to the gangway. It was still slow process since there is only a small lift for wheelchairs which takes one at a time. The lift brings you out into the enormous baggage hall where we needed to get a porter and then find five suitcases and the manual wheelchair in the several hundred other bags. We located them reasonably quickly and set off through customs to the waiting taxi. John, the taxi driver had rung a couple of times to co-ordinate his actions with ours. When we emerged he was waiting for us.

Three hours drive and we were home. The house had been decorated with ballons and bunting to welcome us back. The pile of mail was simply enormous and the house felt quite strange after three months absence.

Day 93 13th April 2011

This is our last day on board the Aurora. We are now sailing rapidly towards Southampton and will be arriving in the early hours of Thursday morning. The ship is rather like one large waiting room with people seeking different ways of passing the time. There are many people reading in every public room while the cinema is full and many others are attending the last in the series of lectures. We went to listen to a talk on the Falklands War by a former navy officer who had served on the staff of the commanding admiral. It was a bit technical but clearly well informed if rather biased in favour of Margaret Thatcher. Chris went to the cinema to see the Last Three Days while I attended the last talk about 15^th and 16^th century pottery by David Barby.

We have successfully packed everything and can only wait until the morning to collect it. Hopefully the taxi arrangements will work and we will be home in the early afternoon.

Day 92 12th April 2011

It’s a bit of a grey day and quite cool (i.e. 13C). This is no surprise since we are heading north towards the western approaches. The normal end of cruise activities are underway such as completing the evaluation form, receiving the preliminary statement of account for us to check and collecting envelopes for tips. There is a routine for giving people a tip and it is to place the money in an envelope and then hand it to the individual. This is normally done on the last day but you have to get ready. In our case we have identified five groups of people we want to give something to.

They are starting to collect luggage from today. This is very early but is due to people having far more items than on a short cruise. The suitcases are taken from the cabins (we leave them outside) and they are then stored below so that they can be unloaded early on the last morning. No one can leave the ship until the bags have been unloaded and checked so it is important that it is done efficiently. We are all issued with a coloured ticket that gives us a time to disembark. In our case it is green or 10.15am. They often do it faster than the plan so I would anticipate being off the ship and in the taxi around this time.

We gained another hour at 12am so we are now at GMT+1, that is we are at the same time as the UK. We have come the full cycle of time. This afternoon we finished packing three of the five suitcases and sent them away. In between packing we listened to John Barby speak about the age of William Hogarth. I walked my normal 13 laps today and worked out that I had walked 750 laps of the ship during the voyage or around 220 miles.

Day 91 11th April 2011

The Quay

The Square

This is our last port of call so we are a little sad but also looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone. Three months is a long time to be away. Ponta Delgada is a small island and we docked at St Michael which is the largest town on the island. The ship is berthed at the cruise terminal, a new building set in a curved quay with a range of shops and restaurants. The quay leads you into the town. We had a walk around the town and a cup of coffee. The people were very friendly and it is a pleasant place for a stroll but little to do. It looks Portuguese in places but also Baltic in some of its buildings. It is a bit hilly but also has nice flat areas for pushing a wheelchair.

The port has a container area that serves relatively small vessels perhaps for inter-island freight transfer. There is also a marina for pleasure craft and we saw a large catamaran sail past Aurora on its way in. The tranquil weather has continued. It is a warm and sunny day. Some (including me) of the passengers got the temperature wrong thinking that 16c was cool and put on coats but in the sun it was hot.

We were only in port for the morning and by 1.30pm we were at sea again. During the afternoon we went to listen to a talk about the history of P&O. This was followed by a tour of the galley. What surprised me was how small was needed a space to cater for 1800 passengers. After the tour it was the chocoholics buffet which as the name suggests is a chocolate themed event with a chocolate fountain, chocolate cakes and even chocolate bread and butter pudding. You have to like chocolate to appreciate it.

We have been sorting out suitcases to check we have enough space for everything. We do!

Day 90 10th April 2011

We are now in the middle of the Atlantic. It is remarkably calm and peaceful for the middle of an ocean. We did have a few showers earlier today but it is now warm and dry. It has been a quiet day and we have been to hear the last Peter Purves presentation. He talked about Blue Peter and his life after the show ended. He appeared in many pantomimes and presented a range of shows including Kickstart. For over thirty years he has been involved in the Cruft’s dog show. Last night we went to see Tom O’Connor. He is doing a couple of shows before Southampton.

Tomorrow we have our final short stop on Ponta Delgada.

Day 89 9th April 2011

Our drinks party went well with a full cabin. We had many people sitting on the bed since there was not enough room to be anywhere else. We were lucky that it was very calm if the ship had been moving it might have made things difficult. We had asked room service for ice and lemon slices but they did not arrive so not everything works on the ship.

We started today with queuing to be seen by British immigration. The process only took a few minutes but queuing took far longer. They always carry out these operations in the Alexandria restaurant which is probably the least accessible space on the ship so we have to queue then take a lift, enter the restaurant through the door everyone else is leaving and then rejoin the queue. This is the first time on a cruise we have had to go through UK immigration on the ship. We can only assume the rules have changed or they treat longer voyages differently. Anyway we can now enter the UK.

We gained another hour at 12am so we are now at GMT-1 or two hours behind British summer time. It is another warm day with little breeze and a calm sea. We felt compelled to start packing so one suitcase is now done. Chris went to see the film Black Swan which she described as a load of old twaddle while I watched the live broadcast of the Manchester United versus Fulham game.

It is another formal night and I cannot escape the view that they are trying to pack as many of them in as possible. We have one more day at sea tomorrow before we arrive in Ponta Delgada on Monday.

Day 88 8th April 2011

It is a calm warm day with a smooth sea as far as you can see. It is a quiet almost subdued day with everyone now talking about going home. We have met several people who have already started to pack their suitcases. It does seem a little early to me but we will probably have to make a start in the next day or two. Some passengers have clearly bought a lot and doubt they can fit their belongings into their existing suitcases.

We went to another talk by David Barby who reviewed the changes in fashion, housing and furniture after the Second World War. It was interesting presentation and well attended. Later this evening we are having a few people around for a drink before dinner. We have been invited to several during the voyage. We are going to the Indian theme dinner tonight after our soiree.

We gained another hour today at 12am so we are now at GMT-2 which is another indication that we are getting nearer home

Day 88 7th April 2011

It is another warm sunny day with a calm blue sea around the ship.  We went to the Pennant Grill last night with our table companions Gordon and Janet for dinner. We both had the bison burger and it was excellent. It is a rather special setting since it is outside on the back of the ship. It indicates the night temperatures are still high. There was a deck party going on below us and the music drifted up. We spoke to the restaurant manager who always seems to be around about how long she was working and she told us about 11 hours that day. In my observations she works at least this amount most days. There is no concept of a day off at sea.

We are still moving the clock forward and yesterday and today we moved one hour forward at 12am. We are now at GMT-3 which means we are 4 hours behind UK time due to the extra hour for summer time. I am not sure which method of gaining an hour is best in the middle of the night or at midday. The first means you get less sleep the other makes the day rather short. You find yourself rushing when you thought you had lots of time.

We attended the second talk by David Barby about antiques. It was amusing and informative. It got a good audience on a warm day and at what essentially is lunch time. Chris went to see the film 127 hours. She enjoyed the film but it was bit gruesome at the end. Earlier we had walked through an exhibition put on by the crew explaining what happens in Aurora behind the scenes. It was interesting not least because of some of the facts. Apparently we have eaten 10,575 litres of ice cream, 270 tons of vegetables/fruit, 18 tons of bananas and drunk 26,000 bottles of wine. The later suggests that everyone drank about 13/14 bottles each.

It is a formal dinner tonight. I think we will have one more before we arrive back in Southampton.

Day 87 6th April 2011

It is fairly obvious that most people are preparing for the end of the voyage. We decided to buy some of the photographers’ general photographs of the ports of call. You could choose 24 and they would be presented in an album. It took us over an hour to select 24 images and we were far from alone in going through literally thousands of pictures. They were also showing a DVD video they can shot of the Panama Canal transit. We had already decided to buy the film so did not go and see the preview but they showed the video several times to meet the demand. The shop has also sold out of the cheaper suitcases and only has the more expensive left. We had already bought one some weeks ago to cope with the extra goods acquired along the way.

This afternoon we went to two presentations. The first was from Peter Purves and is the second in a series of three that covered his life as a Blue Peter presenter plus his time on Doctor Who. He did ten years on Blue Peter and 44 episodes of Dr Who. It was very enjoyable and his short video illustrations were well chosen. The second was from David Barby who appears on Bargain Hunt and other antique programmes. He focused on his life as an auctioneer and valuer. He spoke at length about the discover of a house owned by a Mrs Mellor which was capsule of valuable antiques and painting. The contents sold for £1.5 million at auction about 10 years ago. He also gave an insight into the collapse in prices of items such as brown wood furniture and the rise in Chinese items. The later is funded by the enormous growth in wealth of individuals who want to but objects fr0m their past.

It has been another bright warm day although one with a strong breeze. We now have four more days at sea before our last port of call.

Day 86 5th April 2011

The Pitons

Rum Punch and Piton Beer

Entrepreneurs

We arrived at St Lucia at around 8am this morning. It was not are normal sunshine and clear skies but rather a tropical rainstorm that you could hear before you saw the rain. It did not last long and we set of for our trip on a catamaran around the island to see the Pitons. These are two mountains over 2500 metres high which are the emblems of St Lucia. The catamaran was full of passengers and we slowly travelled along the coast stopping for 30 minutes in a bay to allow people the opportunity to swim in the sea. While we were there the local entrepreneurs came alongside in small boats and tried to sell us small souvenirs with shouts such as “happy hour two for one” and Asda Prices”.

The trip lasted for four hours and although we did get some showers at the start it was mainly dry except for the sea spray. The Pitons were impressive since they rose very steeply to form an inverted cone. They were separated from each other by a high valley. The coast showed many signs of tourism with hotels and marinas as well as many sea going yachts. We saw an enormous yacht complete with helicopter landing area which must have been the toy of a billionaire. We were astonished at the capacity of some of our fellow passengers for rum punch and Piton beer.

The Aurora had moored in a duty free port which simply means that there were lots of shops selling jewellery, alcohol and souvenirs. We walked around but it was an artificial place made far worse by a karaoke bar that beamed amplified off tune singing around the area. Unfortunately the ship was tied up with the starboard side facing the land so we could hear the singing all afternoon. It was awful.

This is our last port of call on this side of the Atlantic. Tonight we start to cross the ocean on our way to Punta Delgado, the last port of the voyage. This is Portuguese territory and we are only staying for a few hours.    

Day 85 4th April 2011

It is another warm day with temperature around 28C although the breeze blowing over the ship makes it feel cooler. The visibility is limited with a haze around the ship probably providing only a few miles sight. It is also a little humid. We are sailing towards St Lucia and we will arrive tomorrow morning. In the last 24 hours I have heard and witnessed that we are running out of some products. These are not terribly important but interesting. Apparently they are having to ration stilton cheese, have no flowers on board (i.e. you can normally order a bunch or a display for a special occasion) and no birthday cards. From time to time you notice that they switch brands and at the moment we have a lot of New Zealand and Australian products that early in the voyage would have been sourced from home. These are, for example, cold remedies, orange juice and ginger beer plus a lot of New Zealand lamb. At times I think P and O bought the whole supply since we have been offered it as an option for most meals.

Last night, our waiter Sandeep surprised us by bying us all a glass of champagne last night as a thank you because he had enjoyed serving us during the last three months. We saw the in-house company, Headliners perform a show called Blame it on the Boogie last night. It was to there normal high standards. We had already seen it once before earlier in the trip. Today we listened to a talk from Peter Purves, the actor who is probably best known for working on Blue Peter. He is doing a series of three talks about his life. He covered his early years in the theatre and how he got a part on Doctor Who. I enjoyed his presentation. He is a good speaker and works without notes. Tonight, we are going to hear the in-house company singers do songs from Andrew Lloyd Weber.

It is obvious that the trip is coming to an end so we are starting to think about taxis and packing as is everyone else.

Day 84 3rd April 2011

Iguana

Aruba Shops

Today we stopped at Auroba, an island in the Dutch Antilles. It is a Sunday so the local town is quite quiet. It is obviously a duty free place since it is full of jewellery shops and other high value goods. Most of them are closed since it is a Sunday. We walked along the marina to a local park that overlooks the sea. It was full of iguanas running across the grass or climbing the palm trees. They had obviously been photographed by thousands of people since they were not frightened. It was 27c but there was a strong wind blowing so it seemed cooler. We stopped for a drink overlooking the marina and watched a fishing boat. One of those that you hire to take you out to fish return and show off their catch. Some very large fish had been caught and they held them up for everyone to see. The road around the marina has many small stall type shops so we popped in several of them on the way back to the ship. 

The ship is moored near to a cruise terminal and compared to many other ports security is light and almost invisible. In New Zealand we were endlessly asked for passports and our ship cards. In contrast at Aruba a security officer accepted a wave of your cards from a distance as proof that you could come in. On the ship they were scrutinised and all bags scanned in the normal way.

The ship is secured on the port side so from our side (i.e. starboard) is the open sea once you cross the reef which is only a few hundred yards away. We sat on the balcony during the afternoon allowing time to drift past.

Day 83 2nd April 2011

This is another warm pleasant day although the sea is rougher than in the Pacific. The clock went forward one hour at midday to GMT-4 which means we are five hours behind UK time since it is at GMT+1. This time stuff is quite complicated. We attended the Grand Voyage lunch today and that started at 11.30am to allow for half an hour later being 1pm due to fiddling with the clocks.  These lunches are for everyone who are doing the whole voyage and you are invited twice once on the outward journey and another on the return. Today’s lunch is obviously the return one. It was reasonable but perhaps because we have got use to good food it seemed nothing special.

The Indian crew are very happy since Indian won the Cricket World Cup. Many of them started to watch at 4am this morning sacrificing their sleep for their team. I expect that as the night progresses we will see a lot of tired waiters. Their normal shift pattern requires them to work hard which combined with little sleep will be exhausting.

We attended the last talk from Johnny Ball today which focused on floating and ships. He is very enjoyable to listen to and I am surprised that he attracted relatively small audiences. This was made more obvious by his presentations being in the Curzon Theatre which is the largest venue so even an audience of a hundred looks tiny. At the end of the show he started to give his views on climate change which indicated he was sceptical about some of the evidence. However, he did not get a chance to explain his opinions.

Tomorrow, we will be in Aruba where we intend to wander around and do some shopping although it is a Sunday.

Day 82 1st April 2011

Bridge of Americas at Sunrise

Balboa Port

Culebra Cut

Centennial Bridge

Dredging Culebra Cut

Evacuation Miraflores Lock

Approach to Gatun Lakes

Gatun Lock - Steps

Today started very early at 6am when the alarm went off in time for us to see the beginning of the journey to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans in one day. The start is marked by the Bridge of the Americas which carries the Pan-American Highway. Even before sunrise you could hear the heavy traffic that was thundering over the bridge. Sunrise was not until 6.15am and in the dawn light you could just see the skyline of Balboa, the city that marks the Pacific end of the canal. The Aurora sailed under the bridge with only about 12 feet of clearance and proceeded towards the Miraflores Lock which we arrived at 7.55am after passing the port of Balboa.

We were following the MSC Container ship Monterey. In order to enter the lock the ship needs help and this is provided by powerful locomotives called Mules which run on tracks on both sides of the lock. Eight mules (i.e. four on each side) pulled Aurora into the lock along with some power from the ships engine. There is only a couple of feet of room each side so great accuracy is needed. The lock raises the ship by 54 feet so when you leave you are now above sea level. During the trip through the lock we landed a passenger so that he could go by ambulance to a hospital.

As we left the lock we enter the Miraflores Lake which has been created by damming the Rio Grande river. There are several tugs around us to help if we need it. It is a 30 minute trip to the Pedro Miguel lock and we repeat the process except that we only raise the Aurora by 31 feet this time. We are now 85 feet above sea level. In order to raise the ship the lock must be flooded with 11 million gallons of fresh water.

There is little sign of any animals on the bank which is heavily built up but there are some pelicans and other birds and large yellow butterflies as big as your hand. The banks are covered with piers, landing stages and many small boats. As we left the Pedro Miguel lock we could see the Centennial Bridge opened in 2004 to relieve the pressure on the Bridge of the Americas. We have more clearance as we pass under this bridge and sail towards the Culebra Cut. This is the place that cost the most lives during the building of the canal. It is 9 miles long and you can see how the sides have been cut away to form terraces in many places. They are still working to widen the canal and have been doing so since it was first opened. We saw both dredges and what look like drilling rigs working on the canal.

During the transit of the Culebra Cut other ships are not allowed to pass us since it is too narrow (i.e. about 640 feet at its widest). However, once we are though this section we meet a series of container vessels and the Celebrity Infinity, a liner. This area is Gamboa and is the approach to the Gatun Lakes. This is a lake created by the canal and is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. There are several ships moored in this area waiting their turn to move through the canal.

We reached the Gatun Locks at about 2pm. They are three step locks that lower ships down 85 feet so they are again at sea level. There are two side by side locks so on our right the MSC Container ship Monterey went through alongside the Aurora. It took an hour and a quarter to descend the steps. We are now effectively in the Atlantic or rather the Caribbean Sea. The whole process began at 6am and was completed at 3.15pm so taking 9 hours and 15 minutes.

For me the final process of descending to sea level was amazing since we could see the container ship going down while being followed by another cargo ship which was in a higher step of the lock. We spent almost the whole day on the balcony popping inside the room to hear the comments of the port presenter who narrated the trip and also looking at a camera positioned in the front of the ship showing the forward view. It has been another hot and humid day probably one of the warmest of the whole trip. The trip through the Panama Canal has certainly lived up to expectations.

We now have a day at sea on our way to Aruba.