EMBARKATION – TILBURY

Today, we boarded the good ship Columbus at Tilbury in London, for a two-week voyage to the Canary Islands and back again.

We have a central heating boiler at home that seems to know exactly when we are due to come away, and always manages to go on the blink just before we do so. Sure enough, two days before having to head south for Tilbury, our boiler left us with a cold house (fortunately, much to the relief of our house-sitters, we were able to get it fixed before leaving home).

I mention this because we’d booked a room in Brentwood East Travelodge, which gives us a little leeway and breathing room when it comes to getting to Tilbury in good time for embarkation. In total contrast to our cold house, the Travelodge room was piping hot, and remained so even after the in-room heater had been turned off and the windows opened.

Embarkation was 11am until 2pm, so we rolled up at just gone 11am, having been taken via a weird and inexplicable scenic route to Tilbury by my wayward and independent-thinking satnav, in the hope of being fast-tracked onto the ship. This didn’t go quite as smoothly as has happened in the past; we ended up having to queue for a while anyway, and then, once we’d got onto the ship, there was a problem with our cruise cards which meant we couldn’t get into our cabin straightaway. Not that this was a problem, since we spent the time catching up with Ian the photography lecturer and drinking tea.

The Columbus is a slightly bigger ship than we’re used to, and feels slightly more luxurious as a consequence. The corridors and stairwells all seem particularly spacious and we’re very happy wth our cabin, which has a lovely large window but with only the only view being that of a lifeboat.

And so we’re on our way towards our first port-of-call, Rotterdam, where we are due to arrive tomorrow. This evening, I had to appear on stage along with my fellow lecturers and tutors, as part of the Welcome Show, which I hate. Since the show is repeated to cater for the two restaurant sittings, it meant I had to do it twice.

Also, because we’re heading in an Easterly direction, towards the Netherlands, the clocks go forward tonight (I’m pretty sure we get the hour back tomorrow night, though).