Capnpugwash is going to the Canaries

[capnpugwash]

OK, we had a Smithsforairports mini-bus booked for 10am today to take us to Southampton. We had a further 3 inches of snow last night on top of the 6 to 8 inches that we had last week so I was worried in case the driver had problems getting up the steep hill that we live at the summit of. Summit sounds awfully grand but it is more descriptive than living at the top of the hill. Anyway they are so reliable that when I phoned the office at 9.45 today to enquire whether he was having problems getting to us, they called him and he reported that he was 5 minutes away. When he arrived and packed our 9 suitcases and 2 briefcases in the van we discovered that he had sat for an hour down in our local village rather than arriving too early at our house. We set off and negotiated the snow laden local roads safely. Once we hit the bus routes the roads were fine and they continued that way for the 90 minute journey to Gate 10 at Southampton Docks. In front of us was the Independence of the Seas which I happen to be booked on for a cruise in late January 2011, so I can’t say a word against it; but it does look like a block of Council flats laid on its’ side. I will report on that trip at a later date.

Having boarded we went up the Conservatory which is the buffet restaurant on the Artemis and I had an excellent meat vindaloo curry with just enough bite to be interesting, that is one of the great things about travelling with an mostly Indian crew.

Among our suitcases I did also bring a case of 6 bottles of Champagne which was also loaded as luggage. We have had one bottle already at the sail away. Absolutely marvellous it was. The dockside was filled with a choir from Southampton Philharmonic choir and they were accompanied by the Hampshire Constabulary Police Band. I don’t get very emotional but this was, without doubt, the very best sail away that I have ever been party to. There were carols and street entertainers and the last song before we pushed off was Hark the Herald Angels Sing which was fantastically rousing. As we pushed sideways from the dock the Band struck up “Anchors Away” and I filled up. Thankfully I had a third of a bottle of Champagne left to quaff so I managed to get away without anyone noticing. It was a truly fantastic event. The glister was taken off by my son being worried that his suitcase containing the bulk of his clothes not being delivered to the cabin. We all tried to put some perspective on it but he was convinced that it was sitting on the dockside in Southampton. I thought that it had been incorrectly delivered to another cabin. We were both wrong, it was in a crew area at the stern of the ship on our deck. It was delivered 5 minutes ago to his and our relief.

The ship is lovely, really small and compact. We are towards the bow of the ship and it takes way less than 5 minutes to walk to the stern. Someone said to me that it was looking tired and needed refurbishment but it looks pretty damn good to me considering it is being sold in 4 months. A little rust around the windows but very minor stuff really. It is still one of my favourite ships.

It is almost 6pm and our dear children are getting ready for their first sitting dinner. I have just pre-ordered our wine for dinner; we normally have an off dry white to start and then a medium bodied red to follow. I went for the German Niersteiner and a Chilean Merlot. Having ordered it the Sommelier on the phone asked if I wanted anything else, I told him that I thought two bottles was sufficient for dinner. If, as usual, we have unfinished bottles they will look after them until dinner tomorrow evening. Lovely isn’t it!

I went to Tiffany’s Bar on Deck 3 for pre dinner drinks and bumped into a bartender who we had met on a previous cruise. He mixed me a nice Margarita followed by a spicy Bloody Mary, very nice too. We went to dinner at 8.30 this evening and they let us in 15 minutes late which I imagine was a consequence of the first sitting running late, no big deal really. We are on a table for 8 and our tablemates seem very pleasant. I think that we have met 4 of them before on other ships but we couldn’t pin down where and when. Our waiters are very attentive and I think that we are set for a very pleasant cruise.

The night passed uneventfully with fairly calm seas, it is still quite cold but we have almost reached Ushant at the northwest corner of Brittany so quite soon we should turn to port and head south, south west across the Bay of Biscay or BoB as it is known colloquially. I normally hope for quite turbulent seas but on a small ship such as this I feel that smooth seas might be the order of the day. It is approaching 6.45am and I have been awake for the last 30 minutes and I am thinking of heading off to the Gym for a bit of exercise. I am not really a fan of these places as I prefer to get my exercise in a pool, trouble is that on a ship they are so small as to be fine for a dip but not really for swimming..

More later

[tom_uk]

Good morning Capn! Thank you for the review of the beginning of your cruise, and I hope you continue to enjoy it. I'm looking forward to more posts.

[u2cruiser]

Morning Cap'n. A 'live from' GREAT!

I'm interested in this Christmas itinerary: particularly the weather (how long before it warms up in Dec) and sea conditions.

Sailaway sounds great. Bet they were cold on the dock side.

 

Nice to hear the drinks are flowing; it is Christmas after all :D

Look forward to more posts if you have time. Have a great cruise.

[Host Sharon]

Have a lovely cruise Jim. Sorry I didn't see you yesterday to say hello but we got thrown off at 3pm !!

[capnpugwash]

Update No 1

 

I first went to the Cyb@Study to upload my musings and after that I headed up to the Spa and gym area. Well as you can guess the best laid plans had their normal result, I walked through the gym but didn’t bother any of the equipment there and then I had a walk along Deck 9 and saw the largest moon I think I have ever seen, it was low in a cloudless sky and spreading it’s reflected light in a broad swathe across the barely rippling sea. I wish that I had my camera with me, but maybe tomorrow. I went back to our cabin at about 7.50 and woke Mrs P.

 

We headed down to the Coral Restaurant for breakfast and after a bowl of porridge I di d have a fried breakfast, they neglected to serve either black or white pudding and there was an absence of liver. It still hit the spot and has set me up for the day. We are being tracked by the Balmoral from Fred Olsen lines that was about a mile astern of us and gradually crept past about 600 yards away. In the far distance on the horizon I think I can see the Independence of the Seas but it is just too far away to be certain, it seems big and white so all the boxes are ticked. Who knows?

 

After eating I went up to deck 9 to the Horizons lounge where I sat for an hour listening to a book on my IPod, then it was time for Solo Passengers coffee get together up there. I joined about 30 women and 2 men in a general meet and greet and a chat. I know I am not travelling on my own but it is a free coffee so I go anyway. After that I went to deck 4 to play Quoits and there were about 25 or so people there braving the chill of the open deck. I was paired with a nice lady called Sandy and we comfortably won our first game and just as comfortably lost our second! It is a game of inches and playing on damp decks doesn’t help, not that I need excuses for my poor play. Tomorrow is another day! That was followed by Shuffleboard and that is something that I cannot play at all, so I went back to our cabin and spoke to our stewardess and she has agreed to change our mattresses for something less like a Ryvita cracker.

 

We have just had the noon bell and announcement from the Bridge and we are a third of the way across the Bay, the weather is fine, force 5 winds and slight seas. Heading south west towards the North West corner of Spain, leading down to Portugal where we are scheduled to stop at Lisbon the day after tomorrow, Christmas Eve. Hopefully this weather will continue until we depart the Bay during the early hours of tomorrow and continue our southward journey.

 

They have changed our old thin mattresses with a pair of thick, much softer new ones and they are at least double the thickness of the old ones. This should result in a more comfortable night tonight.

 

We are going to skip lunch today and probably have afternoon tea at around 4pm and then dinner at 8.30pm. It is a semi formal evening tonight which on P & O means a jacket for gents but no tie, and an elegant dress or smart seperates for ladies.

 

At 2pm today we have our first Progressive Whist meeting and we are both looking forward to this game. There is normally a crowd of good people attending and it is also usually good fun..

 

More later

[ovccruiser]

:DI am already jealous captain:D I did the Canaries recently and it really is a very nice cruise. The wrm weather will surely help:D

[LibraLass41]

Hi Jim

Haven't seen any posts from you for ages? Perhaps I missed them. Semi formal on evening number two is unusual isn't it? Thought you would of had a formal tonight?

[capnpugwash]

Hi Jim

Haven't seen any posts from you for ages? Perhaps I missed them. Semi formal on evening number two is unusual isn't it? Thought you would of had a formal tonight?

 

Formal tonight, lady Captain wanted to get through the Bay before dressing us up. I am mostly on Cunard s area now. Still posting. Happy Christmas to you. :)

[capnpugwash]

Update No 2

 

We both went up to wait for the whist to start and my attention was drawn to a couple of cider drinkers sitting on separate tables with their respective partners. Now some believe that cider drinkers are odd, the following may strengthen that belief. Man 1 was drinking Magner’s which is normally served in a pint glass full of ice, he dipped his napkin in the half full glass and wet the end of it, he then proceeded to dab at his right arm with this cider soaked cloth. I have no idea what he was hoping to achieve by this peculiar action. Man 2 meanwhile was drinking a can of Strongbow and his wife was drinking a glass of Coke or something similar, when he was half way down his glass he picked hers up and then poured half of the Coke into his own glass, this turned the golden cider a very unpleasant and muddy colour. He then proceeded to drink this liquid. I have never seen or heard of that being done. Maybe it happens all the time and I have led a very sheltered life, or maybe cider drinkers are a little strange. You must be the judge!

After these incidents we were joined by 23 other whist players, so we had a good crowd to play and they seem like a good crowd. We didn’t come close to winning but we did have a few good hands, which is something I suppose. But there are no prizes for second place are there. After that finished we did pop in to the Conservatory for a cup of tea and some sandwiches and a scone with real clotted cream and some very strange unidentifiable jam, it could have been cherry, strawberry or some other small fruit but I wouldn’t put money on it being any of them. It was nonetheless quite tasty! We have now returned to our cabin as Mrs P has an appointment at the Spa for a pedicure in 45 minutes time. This will be followed by an individual general knowledge quiz to be held in Tiffany’s Lounge which we will go to as we enjoy that sort of thing. That will finish a little after 6pm which with luck will leave us just enough time to check out our new mattresses before we have to get ready for our late sitting at dinner.

The ship has been nicely decorated for Christmas and the main area in what is the Atrium of the ship has a beautiful tree and a display of Christmas cakes with a train circling them, quite bizarrely, and a ginger bread village.

The tree and the cakes and train are shown here. (problems uploading so I will do so at home. Sorry

 

Christmas Cake, ginger bread village and railway train display on Artemis at Christmas 2010.

 

Christmas Tree on the Artemis at Christmas 2010.

We both did the individual quiz and without any cross pollination, we managed to get a score of 18/20 each. I didn’t know that the longest earthworm is the African Giant Earthworm with a length of up to 6.7 metres or that Pollux is another name for your thumb. I thought heel but was sadly wrong. Mrs P got the worm question right but slipped up on another one and didn’t know the thumb question. We ended up joint second, but again no prizes or cigars, but we did feel quite good about it.

Our dinner was very pleasant last night, 4 of our tablemates are very nice and pleasant to talk to but two of them are quite miserable and moan a great deal about fairly inconsequential things like the state of the rubber anti-slip bathmat was looking a little old and tired, I know how it feels! Rather than just mentioning it to their steward who would immediately replace it, they made a song and dance about it and spent 15 minutes describing the event to us all. Then her steak wasn’t cooked thoroughly as she wanted, sadly there was a tick end and a thin end. The thin end was perfect, apparently, which meant that the thick end was slightly less well cooked, not a world ending tragedy I thought and easily remedied by either asking for it to be further cooked or leaving the offending 3 ounces of meat and getting on with her life. This was the course that she chose except she spent 10 minutes moaning loudly to us all about how cold and inedible the steak had been. I had also ordered the steak and mine was cooked nicely and was as warm as I would ever want it, so I was unable to offer any support when she asked me about the condition of my piece of steak. One of the other ladies is intolerant to cheese and cream and was worried that her menu choices might contain these ingredients, to assist her I called our head Waiter over, explained the problem briefly to him and he then discussed the matter with her and brought tomorrows menu to her to enable her selection to be prepared during the day without the inclusion of the offending ingredients. Simple, problem solved. The waiters and head waiters bend over backwards to assist passengers and to make the mealtimes special, nothing is too much trouble for them but, of course, they do need to know about the “problem” in order that they can solve it. They are not mind readers after all.

We have reached the bottom of the Bay without incident although we did notice that as we walked back last night the ship was moving about beneath our feet, I don’t think it was too much drink as I had a peppermint tea in the bar, quite pleasant and light!

We joined some friends in the Horizons lounge on deck 9 and had the 20 question Syndicate Quiz, which is a P&O regular nightly event. Two teams scored 18/20 and we were well positioned with 16 correct. The tie-breaker for the two teams was “when was the Berlin Wall erected”. We thought that it was 1952 to 1954 but the correct answer was 1961 which was much later than any of even considered. Doubtless some of you will be sitting there thinking that it was a simple question that we should have known, but we didn’t.

The weather is fine at the moment although the sun has not risen yet as it is only 7am, the seas are moderate and we have a following wind at force 6, which should make deck quoits interesting this morning at the stern area. The air temperature is currently 9 degrees Celsius which is 48 degrees in old money. The ship’s speed is only 16 knots as we are due in at Lisbon tomorrow so we have plenty of time. I have said how compact the ship is and she is only 750 feet long and 126 feet wide. She weighs in at slightly over 44,500 tons. I really like her.

More later

[capnpugwash]

Update No 3

 

I had a slight domestic disaster first thing this morning. I had a nice shower, the bathroom fittings are very technical and there is a hand and a fixed shower accompanied by all of the necessary controls to switch between the two. Anyway I digress; after the shower I put my foot on top of the closed toilet to enable me to dry my leg, at that very moment the ship lurched and so did I, and the seat slid sideways breaking the plastic hinges and ending up on the bathroom floor. In my defence it seems a very flimsy construction.

 

I had smoked haddock and poached eggs for breakfast after a warming bowl of porridge. It was very nice but a little bit dry. I then went to the single travellers coffee morning and suitably refreshed I made my way down to deck quoits where again we got to the second round, but no further. I tried shuffleboard and got knocked out in the first round. It was bitter cold so I was not too disappointed to have an early release and get back into the warmth of the ship. Returning to the cabin in time for the noon bells and announcement, I found that all the damage had been repaired. I could do with these maintenance guys at home really.

 

We are steaming due south at the moment at 16 knots, the maximum speed is only 21 knots anyway and apparently we only have 260 miles to go to reach Lisbon tomorrow morning. This is a lovely City with a tremendous nautical history but we have been there 4 or 5 times so I am unsure what we will do in the morning. We may just wander around the centre and look at how the Portuguese decorate their streets for Christmas. It is hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, where does the year go?

 

I am going to skip lunch again today, to ensure that I have room for dinner this evening. I looked at the menu last night and whilst I can’t recall the details it struck me that it was a very nice selection of food.

 

We have whist again this afternoon and I hope that we get better cards today to give us a better chance to score highly.

 

More later.

[Somerset Cruiser]

I am pleased you are back at sea again Cap'n, not as much as if I were but it will do for now.

 

Artemis is a lovely ship, I'm glad you are enjoying her, it's a pity others can't take the same stance.

 

Regarding the cider, may I just point out that as the brands you mention are fizzy they can't be considered 'real' cider. They are in fact just alcoholic apple juice. However years of regular consumption could be an explanation for the aforementioned drinkers actions.

[capnpugwash]

I am pleased you are back at sea again Cap'n, not as much as if I were but it will do for now.

 

Artemis is a lovely ship, I'm glad you are enjoying her, it's a pity others can't take the same stance.

 

Regarding the cider, may I just point out that as the brands you mention are fizzy they can't be considered 'real' cider. They are in fact just alcoholic apple juice. However years of regular consumption could be an explanation for the aforementioned drinkers actions.

 

I agree totally.:)

[ColumbiaSC]

Capnpugwash and Mrs. P. --- you do things right and with such joy and equilibrium! I treasure your account of your voyage at this Christmas especially. I relish every diamond second and every golden minute.

 

A dear friend of mine is at the Swan Hotel overlooking the magnificent Wells Cathedral for Christmas (been there for four days already), and I hope she is able to get back to London on Boxing Day to spend some time there before flying back to SC on January 2nd from Gatwick to Atlanta.

 

Lord Kay of Shandon.

[Host Sharon]

A dear friend of mine is at the Swan Hotel overlooking the magnificent Wells Cathedral for Christmas (been there for four days already), and I hope she is able to get back to London on Boxing Day to spend some time there before flying back to SC on January 2nd from Gatwick to Atlanta.

 

Lord Kay of Shandon.

 

I drove through Wells on my way home from Southampton and Artemis on Tuesday. The main roads are clear so hopefully she should be fine. I can't answer for the airport though !!!

[LibraLass41]

My friends Heather and Malcolm are on this cruise, Heather is a very tall lady you can't miss her, as its such as small ship, you must of met her by now, can you say hello from me;):rolleyes:

[Bispham Boo]

Capn, good to read your review, as ever. Maybe you could check out the P&O martini menu - we're sailing P&O in August & I was wondering if they have anythng resemling a Milky Way martini from QM2? ;)

Have a great holdiay and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to you and your family.

[Gerrym]

My friends Heather and Malcolm are on this cruise, Heather is a very tall lady you can't miss her, as its such as small ship, you must of met her by now, can you say hello from me;):rolleyes:

 

 

LOL Sue!

 

I am sure she must be the only tall lady on the ship! :)

[u2cruiser]

Very entertaining reading, thanks.

Bet the maintenance men wondered what you've been up to :rolleyes:

Funny how you go to the singles meetings LOL!

 

Hope you're having a lovely Christmas Eve in Lisbon. How is the temperature ashore? Happy Christmas :)

[BrianI]

Capn, good to read your review, as ever. Maybe you could check out the P&O martini menu - we're sailing P&O in August & I was wondering if they have anythng resemling a Milky Way martini from QM2? ;)

You can see a P&O bar menu here for all ships other than Artemis

https://ask.pocruises.com/resources/carnivaluk/fleet/po_bar

 

There is also loads of other information, including menus, on the revised P&O FAQ's pages

https://ask.pocruises.com/help

Brian

[Gerrym]

You cruise sounds wonderful.

 

Mind you if we ever go on a cruise at Xmas it will have to be somewhere hot. Can't do cold cruises!

 

 

Have a great Xmas all.

 

 

Gerry

[capnpugwash]

Update No 4

 

After a good and healthy breakfast, well slightly healthy with porridge and a slight lapse with two bacon rolls, I went to Horizons lounge to listen to my new audio book, it is written by Ian Rankin about a Scots policeman called John Rebus who is best described as an old fashioned detective who likes to do things his way. I have never read him before although I am familiar with his character which is portrayed very well on TV by an actor named Stott, I can’t recall his first name but I think it may be Ian as well.

 

At 10am I was joined by three older ladies for the solo travellers’ coffee get together, we got chatting as usual and I mentioned that I was travelling with Mrs P and our two grown children. They were highly amused that I would do this and I explained to them that I like a free cup of coffee and enjoy talking to them. I think that they accepted that explanation and laughed heartily when I told them that last night at dinner this habit of mine was discussed and I explained that things were totally above board as I didn’t know many of the ladies names but limited my knowledge to their cabin numbers. One doesn’t like to pry!

 

Having finished coffee a three masted sailing ship flying the Portuguese flag sailed by followed by a small flotilla of other sailing vessels. There were a crowd of blue suited sailors on the ship so I think it may be a training vessel or perhaps a historical craft. It had no name painted on it so I don’t know. There was a helicopter flying alongside the ship which I believe was a TV crew. It will either be on the news tonight or a documentary in the future. I went on deck to take a picture and I found myself outside the gym. This pricked my conscience so I went to our cabin and changed, returning to the gym to do 20 minutes cycling and 1500 meters on the rowing machine. I then had a 20 minute sauna and have just come back to the cabin squeaky clean and feeling very smug and well exercised.

 

I may venture ashore this afternoon or maybe not but I do intend to skip lunch again to try to minimise any weight gain. Cruises are very difficult to experience without gaining weight as there is food available 24 hours each day and it is all very well prepared and tempting beyond belief, so like the recovering alcoholic I take things one day at a time.

I tried this morning to upload my latest update for this report but the connection wasn’t great so I will try later this evening when we sail, for some reason satellite reception seems to be better when we are under way.

 

The sun is shining at the moment although strangely the temperature is unchanged. I am going to sit on the deck outside our cabin so Mrs P will see me through the window when she returns from her exploration.

 

My plan worked and I had been sat for about 30 minutes when I heard a mad banging on the window and I assumed that they had returned. I was sat by the rail and the man who was sat directly in front of the window almost leapt out of his skin when he heard this unexpected banging and of course he had no idea where it was coming from. I went inside to find that they had found a good Pastelaria which is Portuguese for cake shop and had purchased 6 wonderful custard tarts for which this Country is famous. They have a special name but I can’t remember what it is. They are delicious and are only 5 Euros for six of them. So whilst I missed lunch I did have a couple of them. In my mind it is a draw so far today as I went to the gym earlier. We played whist this afternoon and there were 12 of us, they really are a great crowd, all very witty and chatty. It is truly a pleasure to meet people like that. Their glass is always half full rather than half empty!

 

Tonight is a semi formal evening so a jacket and shirt is the order of the day, I will probably wear a tie as I prefer that to an open necked shirt with a jacket. Mrs P went for a swim on deck 8 and unfortunately the water is just too cold to go in. That is quite unusual as the outdoors pools are normally quite warm and you are only cold before you get in and more so when you get out.

 

We went onto deck to see Santa Claus emerge from the funnel and to listen to the passenger’s choir. They were very good and it was all very festive until the rain came which rather put a damper on the occasion. We came in to shelter and went to the individual quiz which is held in Tiffany’s there were over 30 people taking part and I managed to score 17 out of 20, Mrs P was superb and scored an unbeatable 19 and picked up the prize.

 

I am going to try to upload this again now as we are sailing back down the River Tagus and heading south towards Casablanca where we are due to arrive on Boxing Day.

 

Tomorrow is a sea day which is excellent.

 

I would take this opportunity to wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and a great New Year.

 

More later.

[Aquaphobic]

"I went inside to find that they had found a good Pastelaria which is Portuguese for cake shop and had purchased 6 wonderful custard tarts for which this Country is famous. They have a special name but I can’t remember what it is. They are delicious and are only 5 Euros for six of them."

 

Greetings Capn,

 

I'm enjoying your posts very much as always; thank you. Those wonderful egg tarts to which you referred are 'pastel de nata' (plural: pastéis de nata). I ate way too many of them on our Artemis cruise to Lisbon last November as they are highly addictive.

 

I'd like to wish you and your family a Happy Christmas onboard the Artemis!

[heywood]

Happy Christmas to you and your family Cap'n. Your posts are a delight to read.:)

[Highly Sociable]

Update No 4

 

I went to Horizons lounge to listen to my new audio book, it is written by Ian Rankin about a Scots policeman called John Rebus who is best described as an old fashioned detective who likes to do things his way. I have never read him before although I am familiar with his character which is portrayed very well on TV by an actor named Stott, I can’t recall his first name but I think it may be Ian as well.

 

 

Hi Jim.

 

It's actually Ken Stott, and I always preferred John Hannah in the role myself, but that is just personal choice.

 

Love reading your posting each day. It brings everything alive for the those of us who haven't been able to get away this Chrstmas, for one reason or another.

 

Love to all the family and look forward to reading toorrows episode and seeing you in April.

 

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas Day.

 

Jane & Norm

[capnpugwash]

Thank you all so very much, I enjoy posting my thoughts and am delighted that you seem to like them.