Fletcher

Beautiful view of the Moon at Falmouth today - https://falmouthhaven.co.uk/falmouth-quay-webcam/

He can always borrow one from a waiter. 😉

Whereas in the UK everyone worked from home and sales of suits and other formal attire have fallen off the proverbial coat hanger.

On my last Seabourn cruise I never bothered to take a jacket. And I won't on my next, on the Sojourn in the Med. To each his or her own.

TrulyBlonde - 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.'

Funny how things look depending which side of the jetty you are on. Next month we have four nights at the Idle Rocks Hotel in St Mawes, Cornwall. We have very mixed feelings about Cornwall - the crowds and the very narrow lanes aren't appealing. But other things are. And on two days out of the four we have two cruise ships next door in Falmouth and they will surely spill over to our side of the bay. One is the Island Princess, the other is the Silver Whisper. GO AWAY!!!

Yes, the Kiril Islands/Russia were probably scheduled well before the current war in Ukraine (sorry, special military operation). I'm sure the brochures were printed long ago but the email version could have been amended. However, there are some brilliant itineraries here, especially the SW Pacific. I could easily climb on board in Kobe and sail all the way to Papeete, except that the ship does a few turnarounds within this route. I see that Pitcairn Island is, at the moment, just scenic cruising as the island is closed for Covid reasons to everyone except supply vessels. That will probably change. Also, I can highly recommend the South Atlantic run with Falklands, South Georgia, Tristan and Ascension. These ships just look fabulous. Game-changers. I might sell my house and just live aboard. Think of the saving on energy bills!

Interesting piece in today's Telegraph about a Covid-affected April trip on a new Saga ship, Spirit of Discovery. The itinerary was Southampton to Spain and back and they failed to land at a single scheduled port of call. The Captain thought this was possibly a record for the entire cruise industry. They did make it to a couple of unscheduled ports.

You are partially right. The Falklands can be tricky on a big ship like any of the Seabourn fleet, especially if your itinerary only calls at Stanley, but choose an expedition ship (including of course the new Venture) and you will go ashore by zodiac, including the outer islands. I got to places on my bucket list which you cannot fly to (Tristan, Pitcairn etc) by choosing the right ship. A great shame about the Israel cancellations. There are currently great tensions in the Jerusalem area, even more than normal.

No, I don't think so, though it was quite scary. The reason I don't think so is because Kennedy and Khruschev were rational men, acting in the firm belief in opposing ideologies. That is not the case today. Putin is not a rational man, he is not an ideologue, just a vicious gangster interested in power and money and personal survival. I'm sure he thinks, 'If I go, we all go' whereas Nikita always believed in the 'greater good,' the survival of communism and its ultimate triumph.

No, but as grim as it must have been, it didn't threaten world security.

Some years ago I read a sci-fi story that hinged on an interesting theory - the reason why alien civilisations are never discovered is because they never reach the necessary level of development. In other words, they self-destruct before they can make sense of the universe. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, considering the state we are in. There has never been a time, in my lifetime at least, when the world looks so bleak and to be a member of the human race is frankly rather embarrassing. So one looks for globules of delight swimming in the fetid soup and after many weeks in the UK the sun has come out, the temperature is warming up and the bluebells are here. What a joy.