MBP&O2/O

I looked at trains from Northumberland .....everyone needed a change at Birmingham from whence it was a straight single no change journey.

Similar story here. Tanker post-typhoon. Rolling endlessly for several days. No hot food. Not allowed to sit down on watch so it somewhat uncomfortable 🤭 Reefers in 'owt but a calm sea .... N Atlantic in December was vile. A few hours in an open lifeboat in a Force 7 - again post-typoon - wasn't pleasant.🙂

SS for me. I have only done one SB ... Odyssey / Alaska .... and was unimpressed. F&B let it down badly. Many staff seemed to lack basic knowledge of the ship and facilities. SS / Ray is my next one.

Cruisetimetables.com may assist.

It could be interesting if you get into any serious pitching 🤭

We booked it for the itinerary. The ship was fine, but, in my opinion, let down badly by the F&B department.

Yes, last year. Alaska was good but not impressed with Seabourn. Personal opinion of course.

Which made me think .... completely off topic .... Wild boats and such .... apart from Puerto Bolivar, were there any other ports that loaded bananas, manually, through the side doors? Odd question but grandson doesn't believe me🙄

With the state of British Railways at the moment ? 😁 Strikes are becoming frequent Not living in that area, but having visited it, I personally wouldn't risk it. If you are sailing at 6pm you will probably need to be on board by 5pm ... rush hour.

One of our HQ office 'experts', who had never even seen a company ship, suggested the best and quickest route from Uddevalla to Baltimore was the transatlantic route using a Great Circle course, starting when we had sailed around the top end of Scotland ........... in December? The isobaric chart looked like the scribbling of a demented child😁 We went South 🙄 ( fao Andy .... Wild Marlin and a full load of tractors👍)

We used Loganair from NCL to SOU. No problems. We were there in an hour and much better than the train ..... cheaper too😁

Back to the original question ..... I was watching a programme about cruising in Antartcica. Passengers were told they would take nothing whatsoever ashore. Their clothes and footwear was inspected before they went and when they came back ..... to reduce any chance of cross contamination either ashore or onboard.

Thanks for all the answers. My concern is that my wife did not supply a mobile number to Crystal so where they have got it from is anybodies guess 🙄 Either way I have informed Crystal of my feelings and instructed them to remove all our personal details from their database. We shall see!

Three things .... (1) We have recently booked another cruise with Silversea , but due to yet another Silversea IT issue, my wife ended up as the lead on the booking. (2) On every other cruise I have been shown as the lead. (3) When covid hit we had a cruise booked with Crystal (in my name) ....the self same company that folded. Said company was later bought my the previous owner of Silversea I believe? For no apparent reason my wife is now getting daily phone calls from Crystal UK. At no time were they supplied with her telephone number? Question: Are Silversea selling personal data? They are the only holiday related company that has her number? Suggestions for alternative theories welcome ... before I ask SS.

Be wary about taking food of the ship.....it is a can of worms and could upset the authorities.

It used to take us 30 days .. ish ... for a UK to Arabian Gulf run. Obviously depended on where from and where too. We used a starting speed of 15 knots. Circa 15 days to the CoGH and same again to the Gulf. Bunkering in the Gulf took 8 hrs. No need to stop for fuel en route. Same timings coming back unless we were told to travel at economical cruising speed. Ie shut down one boiler, speed reduced to 11/12 knots ... 40 + days then 😵‍💫 As an aside I can see all Gulf Ports being removed from all schedules. Getting too risky.

Example .... at 18 knots. (Dubai is 5 days less)

We live on the coast just across the North Sea from southern Norway ...not that dissimilar in latitude. Our two main weather forecasters ... the BBC and the Met Office can't even get it right on the day so forecasting months in advance is pure guesswork. Nearest low pressure area? Nearest high pressure area? What is the jet stream doing? Is the wind off the polar ice cap or up from the North Sea? I have sailed in the area many times and have had everything. Rain, fog, sun, gales, ice etc. Hope for the best and plan for the worst🙂

Our Indian crews did not celebrate Christmas per se, but they were paid 'double time' the same as European crews. The officers received zero enhancement or, if working 12 hour days in port, Christmas day or no Christmas day, no overtime whatsoever. An Indian lass I worked with - shoreside - loved Christmas for the same reason ..............£££££ 😁

I have a similar issue..... UK machines will not read my UK passport. I have to speak to immigration who say it may be a glitch in the passport hip 🙄 Equally the last three times I flew to tha USA I was pulled aside for 'secondary screening' before being allowed on the plane. My boarding card has the dreaded SSS on it ... I was told this was just a random thing ....

We always kept local time. It often proved inconvenient for us as on shorter trips it could mean advancing one day and retarding the next. In those days it was regarded as courteous to the host nation.

My opinion, having been in that area many times, would be 'unpredictable'. It will be what it is on the day.

Probably an hour before the ship sails? Allow a couple of hour's travel each way ... to allow for hold ups and problems.

Agree with the above in respect of beam seas etc. My last tanker had an unwanted and uncontrolable ingress of water into the ER. All power lost on main engines. Water continued to flood the ER and within the hour the emergency generator was lost. Ergo .... no power whatsoever. Totally 'Not Under Command' .... We ended up beam on to the sea ..... rolling like a pig in muck 🤭 Unpleasant.

Bridge watchkeeping. 4 on 8 off 12 x 4 Interspersed with frequent 12 x 6 's 🥴 The first time I saw the midnight sun I was on the 12 x4 watch .... midnight to 4am. A weird feeling. I was so used to this watch being in virtual complete darkness my teeny brain to a while compute what was happening. It felt so wrong 🙂 Interesting though.