THE LAST DAY

It’s been our final day at sea.

We’ve spent it packing, drinking tea, watching the last two lectures featuring slideshows of the trip, by Ian M. Butterfield and Sue Walsh, drinking more tea, and enjoying the vocal talents of Mitch the Cruise Director in the Show Lounge this evening.

The sea has been quite choppy all day; it was rough all through the night, with things banging and crashing about to the rocking of the ship, and at breakfast it was a case of hold on to your plate. It was unfortunate that both cold drink machines were out of order, so there was no orange juice to be had; it didn’t seem to matter, though… everyone seemed de-mob happy…

It’s been a terrific cruise, not to mention an extremely long one. Despite todays rockin’ and rollin’, we’ve been ridiculously lucky with the weather throughout, and Tracey and I are just two among 800 passengers who have a shedload of extraordinary memories to take home with us. For myself, the raw material I’ve accrued along the way is only the start of further projects, not to mention the networking opportunities the trip has afforded me.

We are due to pick up the pilot for Bristol Avonmouth at 4am, and disembarkation will begin soon after 7am. It’s a long drive home to North Yorkshire… but as far as I’m concerned; as soon as we step off the Marco Polo, we’ll be home.

My next sea-going adventure will not be until the 16th of October, when we will be joining the Columbus for the first time, on a two-week voyage back to the Canary Islands.

In the meantime, there’s work to be done…