Posted by sean on September 15, 2019 at 10:00 pm in Holiday with No Comments


Woke up in the middle of the night to discover Claire wide awake and troubled. As I came round from my sleepy state, I learnt from my wife, plus the movement of the ship, that we had entered choppy waters.

I have always maintained that should we experience bad weather at sea, I would stay in our cabin, led on the bed. I find the ship’s movements relaxing whilst lying down, so would me more likely to catch forty winks, than be in need of a sick bag.

We were both awake for an hour, as Claire checked the television for weather updates. The wind speed was 50 nots – about 57 miles per hour – which does sound fairly strong.

The weather and rocking eased, after about an hour. This allowed us to turn the lights and television off, before making a welcome return to sleeping. It was about 5am at this time.

Awoke some hours later by Claire. We had arrived at the first port of our cruise – Vigo. The ship had already navigated its way into harbour and moored.

Claire was eagerly trying to connect to the internet using her mobile phone. We had both been missing Roman, and although aware that our parents were dropping in twice a day to feed and pay him attention, had both been worrying about him. We connected to the internet and the webcam I had setup back home. Roman looked fine.

This morning, we decided to have breakfast in our cabin. With the lifts being out of order for a couple of hours from 10am, we didn’t want to take any chances of becoming stranded, so any visit to the buffet or restaurant was out of the question.

Brekkie arrived early. A selection of fresh juice, hot drinks, toast and pastries – all well received.

As time was getting on, we felt the need to vacate the cabin. Our wonderful steward, Lawrence, would probably be waiting to clean and tidy our living quarters.

Without fail, as soon as Claire placed the sign on our cabin door, requesting it be cleaned, Laurence tapped at the door, eager to come in. I do hope that we weren’t the last cabin on his list.

Wandered, or in my case, rode, around our deck (remember, the lifts were still off limits), while we waited for Laurence to finish.

Later that morning, we had a buffet lunch, including a mix of bread, salad, chips and vegetables.

Back in the cabin after lunch and attempted to watch the Leeds game on my mobile phone. Eventually found a way in order to watch the match. Everything started well, until disaster struck! No, surprisingly Leeds didn’t concede a goal. For whatever reason, the internet decided to throw a hissy-fit and stop streaming video.

Surrendering to the stubborn forces of modern technology, I instead opted to enjoy the Spanish afternoon and have a siesta of my own.

Vigo looks to be a very busy and, without wanting to sound disrespectful, unattractive port town, compared to other Spanish and European destinations. However, it certainly wasn’t too noisy and the silence of the harbour made the afternoon really relaxing.

Discover Leeds are winning 1-0. Nope, make that 2-0 – a full time result, which catapults my mighty club to the top of the league. Remind myself that I saw a man in a Huddersfield Town shirt this afternoon. His team lost 2-0 and sit joint bottom of the table. I guess I’m the one having the happier evening.

Make use of the internet access to download a couple of audiobooks – Cruise Confidential. Real life stories from a former cruise ship worker. I also picked out a book about the Tiranic’s final hours. Perfect listening for a holiday primarily based on water.

We are now leaving Vigo. Reliability informed by Captain Allen that we will travel 640 nautical miles (just over 730 regular miles), to Maderia. Clearly, given the distance, this was never going to be a journey we could make overnight, so another day at sea beacons.

This evening, we plan to visit the Havvanah Bar, where Jon Clegg – a comedian and impressionist, from no less than the 2014 Britain’s Got Talent Finsl – will be performing. Space in the bar is limited and with Claire and myself both having to shower and change, we made the mural decision to treat ourselves to a meal in the cabin, before hitting the town.

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