Capnpugwash is finishing his season of crossings July 20 2011

[Salacia]

Update No 19

 

The result of the USPH inspection which was carried out today was very positive at 92, the problem areas that were identified were apparently in the King’s Court area and were technical in their nature with temperatures not being reached in such things as dishwashers and similar matters. The very good thing was that there were no possible contamination issues in any of the bars or restaurants. The inspection was carried out by the most senior of the PH inspection staff and reportedly they were very happy with what they found. The QM2 was built in 2003 and mechanical failures/problems will occur over time and unfortunately no-one can foresee when they might arise, I believe that these matters will be addressed between now and the conclusion of the dry dock in November which should return the ship to its former glory.

 

The Chart Room bar was very quiet this evening and dinner went without a hitch, I was still quite full from lunch so only had a salad and a piece of fish. After dinner I checked out the Commodore Club and G32 and both were fairly quiet even for a first night.

 

We don’t lose an hour tonight which is a rarity when we are heading east so we will certainly be losing an hour each night for the next five, which is not a very attractive prospect.

 

It is 11.30pm and the current weather shows a temperature of a balmy 76/25 degrees, we have a force 4 south westerly breeze and a flat calm sea.

 

More later

 

Hi Capn. Thanks for the update regarding the CDC Inspection. A score of 92 is "very positive"?

 

Quoted from http://www.cunard.com/About-Cunard-Line/News-Room/Cunard-News/?art=7588

 

Statement re Queen Mary 2 CDC Scores

 

 

24 June 2011

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 received an uncharacteristically low score of 84 following her voluntary Vessel Sanitation Programme (VSP) inspection in New York on 10 June. On most previous inspections she has scored over 95, on three occasions achieving the maximum of 100....The Company is confident that failings of this nature will not occur again, and that the ship's VSP scores in the future will return to the customary consistently high level.

 

Based on the Company's statement of confidence, it seems to me that a score of 92 would be a disappointment.

 

BTW, Cunard's statement (quoted above) stated that the VSP inspection was voluntary. But it would seem that is not accurate; such inspections are required.

Quoted from http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/desc/aboutvsp.htm

Which Cruise Ships Are in Our Jurisdiction?

 

 

Cruise ships under our jurisdiction:

• carry 13 or more passengers, and
  
• have a foreign itinerary with U.S. ports.
  

Full disclosure: I am a CCL stockholder. I have taken 9 voyages on QM2, and a deposit is on the tenth voyage. I enjoy ocean voyages, but snow jobs - not so much.

 

Salacia

 

Edited to add: definition of "snow job" can be found here:http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snow%20job (it isn't nasty)

[Salacia]

:oSorry, trying to edit previous post to remove reference:o

[north east girl]

Hi Capn, Have really enjoyed your posts, it does seem that your crossings are going really fast. Deos it seem that fast to you?

 

Hope your table companions are more friendly that some of the previous ones.

 

Catherine

[capnpugwash]

Hi Capn, Have really enjoyed your posts, it does seem that your crossings are going really fast. Deos it seem that fast to you?

 

Hope your table companions are more friendly that some of the previous ones.

 

Catherine

 

Catherine, unfortunately they do seem to be zipping by. Fingers crossed on tablemates. I do have the pleasure of dining with Lady Hudson from CC who I have sailed with before and she is a very pleasant person.

[missfrankiecat]

He does sometimes mention it but the timings are pretty standard, it takes about 40 minutes from the bridge to see the Statue clearly etc.

 

Update No 16

At 7pm there was a show in the Theatre featuring Annette Wardell, the soprano and Kenny Martyn before dinner. They are both very accomplished but I only stayed for the singer who was fantastic.

It is now 11.40 EDT and I have come back to say what a fantastic atmosphere there was in the Chart Room this evening, there were passengers 3 deep around the 270 degree bar and they had to have 5 bartenders working almost non stop mixing drinks. It was what a bar should be like, absolutely wonderful. There were kisses and hugs between passengers and crew members and some tips changed hands, it was truly delightful.

After that was our last dinner, the table has not been the most successful that I have sat at, there were two Americans who were absolutely charming and four Brits who unfortunately started most conversations with the phrase “when we were on the QE11”. They were two couples who had met on that ship and now travelled together and were almost inseparable from each other. Even the individual couples seemed joined at the hip, one of them were both keen golfers for example, but because the husband had a bad knee and wouldn’t have surgery; the wife wouldn’t play golf on her own. I may have a strange view on matters such as these but surely there should be a degree of independence in any relationship. I found the other couple were very difficult to talk to on any subject so basically we didn’t talk at all after about the fourth evening.

That is the end of my moaning for tonight.

After dinner I popped up to the Commodore Club which was surprisingly busy and then down to G32 which was surprisingly empty and then headed to bed so that I can get up early to see the sunrise over Manhattan.

More later

 

Hoping your final leg for a while is in very congenial company with interesting table talk. Dining with strangers is always a risky business. Sometimes strangers become good friends, often they are just interesting but passing company, and sometimes they turn out to be plain tedious. It can make a real difference to the trip.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 20

 

Today is Thursday July 28 and the time is 6.20am. It is a warm morning at 76/25 degrees, humidity is low at 76% and there is a cooling south westerly force 4 breeze and our speed is a mere 18 knots. We do have 2964 nautical miles remaining on our eastbound crossing.

 

I had my normal morning on board and breakfast was very nice in the buffet as there were few people up there, once again I found that I had inadvertently walked down to deck six. I got the lift up to 10 and having changed I went to the spa. It was only 7.50 as I passed the laundrette and already a man was using it, now that is dedication and I thought that he must have boarded in New York with clothes that were already dirty! Maybe he had been on holiday already before getting on the ship.

 

I can’t recall having ever seen the surface of the ocean so absolutely flat, it looks like an aquamarine mirror that is ever so slightly creased, it is phenomenal really. Of course it is also totally misleading and it will lull the new passengers on board into a false sense of security so that if the sea becomes a little more boisterous they will all take to their respective beds.

 

As the ultimate destination on this crossing is Hamburg, we have about 800 German passengers on board; this has become quite commonplace and all the announcements are made in English, German, French and then Spanish. It has all become very multi cultural indeed.

 

More later.

[Slow Foxtrot]

....we have about 800 German passengers on board; this has become quite commonplace and all the announcements are made in English, German, French and then Spanish. It has all become very multi cultural indeed. ....

 

Is this becoming standard practice or is it just because Hamburg is a destination? And French and Spanish?

Costa Cruises were often avoided because of the endless announcements covering everything from Urdu to advanced Mongolian. But Cunard??

[BigMac1953]

Is this becoming standard practice or is it just because Hamburg is a destination? And French and Spanish?

Costa Cruises were often avoided because of the endless announcements covering everything from Urdu to advanced Mongolian. But Cunard??

 

Whatever happened to good old Esperanto?

[cunardqueen]

On my cruise with MSC Melody the British passengers only numbered 50 or so and we were last to be told everything. They did however print the menus daily programmes,newspaper and tour guides in English.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 21

 

The noon announcement has just been made and we have apparently just passed off the continental shelf so we now have about 600 feet beneath our keel. There is a great deal of marine life swimming around dolphins and porpoises seem to make up the majority as they leap from the ocean close to the bow of the ship.

 

We have the Cruise Critic meeting this afternoon at 2.30 in the Commodore Club, there are 14 members on board so I am unsure quite how many will attend.

 

The meeting started on time and there were only 9 of us there, after a little over half an hour most of the group dispersed and a few minutes later the Commodore joined us, which was very good of him. We all spent a quarter of an hour or so talking about various things and then disappeared to do whatever we had to do. I thought that I would go down and do the UK Immigration; I went to deck 3 in the lift and found that there was no queue at all so I was through in two minutes.

 

Tonight is the first formal night with the Welcome Aboard cocktail parties and after the meal the Black and White ball will be held in the Queen’s Room. I am at the Doctor’s table for this crossing and I think that he should have a wealth of stories for us.

 

It is now 5pm and the temperature is 66/19 degrees, humidity is 85% and there is a north westerly force 3 breeze. The sea is still very smooth with just the slightest of wavelets on the surface. I understand that the long range forecast is for very similar weather throughout the entire crossing.

 

More later.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 22

 

Despite having 2600 passengers on board the overall impression is that the ship is quiet, at least the bars certainly are. It is no real surprise that the Chart Room was quiet before dinner as the cocktail party was taking place and a lot of people go to that event to meet the Commodore and his officers.

 

Dinner was very nice and the Doctor is French but lives in Kent in the UK, he was a very nice host but has a couple of in-patients in the ship’s medical facility that needed his attention so he had to leave us just after 10pm.

 

Both the Commodore Club and G32 were fairly quiet so I am heading to bed at 12.30 including the hour forward. The weather is a balmy 65/18 degrees with a slight sea but quite a wind at force 5 from the North West. Humidity is 85%. We are sailing at 21 knots and have covered 580 nautical miles since leaving New York. Our position is south east of Halifax and we are heading towards the Grand Banks.

 

More later.

[Somerset Cruiser]

Good news Capn, the tunnel is fully operational. Not that you will be thinking about that for a few days :)

[capnpugwash]

Good news Capn, the tunnel is fully operational. Not that you will be thinking about that for a few days :)

 

Thanks.:)

[capnpugwash]

Update No 23

 

Today is Friday July 29 2011 and the sea remains slight with a north westerly force 5 wind. The barometer is steady and the temperature is 61/16 degrees with 84% humidity. Our speed is currently 21 knots. The sun has been up for 3 hours and there is a clear area in the clouds over the ship that looks just like a monk’s tonsure, if they still have such things. We have 2466 nautical miles to run.

 

Whilst heading for breakfast I noticed a large sign on the door of the laundrette announcing that it was necessary to use an alternative one as the room on deck 10 was being mechanically serviced. I had no intention of doing any laundry but the fact that I couldn’t did bring it to the forefront of my mind. Anyway I had breakfast and in a weak moment gave in to a fry up. I am now regretting that decision as it was quite filling, I should know by now of course but when there is a chef and all that bacon, mushrooms and other goodies, what is a weak person supposed to do.

 

Having got my extra dose of hot food I headed to the spa, quite soon after I arrived it filled up with a crowd of very vocal Germans, many of whom had green paste smeared on their faces, quite reminiscent of Boadicea and the other members of the Iceni. I am not sure that they are meant to use the water in the pool to remove this face pack, but that was precisely what they all did. It probably doesn’t have any adverse effect but who really knows.

 

Heading back to my cabin I noticed that the laundrette was open and empty so I felt compelled to grab my bits and pieces and utilise this opportunity to add to my diminishing Martini fund. It is washing as I write and in ten minutes I will transfer everything to a tumble dryer for another half hour.

 

The weather is unchanged, other than the wind strength which has reduced to a force 3 breeze, we still have broken cloud cover and we are making 21 knots.

 

More later.

[Jimsgirl]

Removing face packs in the spa pool is disgusting. why did the spa staff not stop this?

It must have been obvious to the staff when they walked in that they had the product on their faces.

 

You do seem to have had your share of unsuitable behaviour on your recent trips. As I have said in a previous post, I have thought (and been told on CC) that less than satisfactory behaviour only happens to me, that I was picky and difficult.

 

I can only hope that I will not met up with such pasengers.

 

On my last trip on QV I found the Chart Room was not so much quiet, as strange. Many of the passengers did not purchase drinks, they sat and played cards or even played scrabble. whilst waiting to go into dinner at 6p.m They also ignored the dress code of course. Most odd!

 

When I am on board in a few weeks time I will look for the English Immigration staff early and avoid the queue. that is a good tip to know that I can go any time not wait for my deck.

 

Be careful in the spa!

[Bispham Boo]

I'm sure Mrs Pugwash will appreciate your laundry efforts! Enjoying your posts as ever. We are on our first P&O a week tomorrow so getting quite excited. Enjoy the rest of your crossing.

[Cosmic Rays]

I'm sure Mrs Pugwash will appreciate your laundry efforts! Enjoying your posts as ever. We are on our first P&O a week tomorrow so getting quite excited. Enjoy the rest of your crossing.

 

Which P&O? I booked our first on P&O yesterday - a Transatlantic repo on the Azura from Barbados to Soton next march!! This is in addition to our QE trip in October........exciting!!

[capnpugwash]

I'm sure Mrs Pugwash will appreciate your laundry efforts! Enjoying your posts as ever. We are on our first P&O a week tomorrow so getting quite excited. Enjoy the rest of your crossing.

 

Thanks Bev, hope that you both have a good time. I like P&O, they do a good job. Where are you off to and which ship?

[capnpugwash]

Update No 24

 

The laundry is all completed and everything is either clean or in the process of being cleaned, I have 3 shirts away with the ship’s laundry which will come back tomorrow so I can sit here feeling quite pleased and self satisfied.

 

The Chart Room bar was quite empty and then filled up just before dinner, our host was busy elsewhere so we were left to our own devices; nonetheless we managed to get through the meal. Afterwards I went to the Commodore Club where there was a reasonable crowd although the majority left a little after 11pm.

 

The weather is quite balmy with 89% humidity but the force 5 easterly fresh breeze doesn’t really cool things down. The sea state is slight and we have total cloud cover. It is a typical evening in the North Atlantic. The time is now 12.15am which in reality is 1.15am so I am off to my bed.

 

More later.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 25

 

Today is Saturday July 30 2011 and it is 6am. We are south east of Newfoundland and have just started our great circle route across the Atlantic on bearing 62° which will take us the most direct and shortest way to the western approaches of the English Channel, we have a force 5 headwind and we are pushing on at 21 knots through a slight sea. The on board system shows the outside air temperature as 390/200 degrees which will probably turn out to be a computer glitch, it feels nearer to 60/16 to be honest. The barometer is rising and the sky is very hazy, which possibly may be the precursor of a foggy morning.

 

During the night we passed within 65 miles of the final resting place of RMS Titanic, next year is the centenary of the sinking of it and I believe that several ships will be specifically travelling to the site in order that they can commemorate this incident. There seems to me to be something quite mawkish or perhaps ghoulish is a better description of this pre-occupation with this vessel. Undoubtedly it was a tragedy of massive proportion yet the Atlantic and most other oceans are littered with wrecks of ships that also foundered and sank in horrifying circumstances. Possibly it may stem from the belief that the incident was all so easily avoidable and of course the fact that it did lead to the legal requirement mandating the provision of an adequate number of survival craft being carried on board ships. Enough of the gloom and doom, it is getting close to breakfast time.

 

I am going to Todd English for lunch today as the dress code for this evening is only semi formal, I don’t really know why that should make any difference but realistically it just makes it easier for me to remember to go to the restaurant.

 

More later.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 26.

I took a walk this morning on deck 7 and the deck was soaking wet and the atmosphere was equally damp and misty. I went to the spa as usual this morning and whilst I was there a exercise drill started which involves the entire crew, they have a simulated fire in a paint locker and the drill is to send an assessment party to the scene who report the situation and then the Officer of the Watch will take whatever action necessary. The crew members are all called to their emergency stations and then to the muster stations. The final act is that they must report to the boat and survival craft deck as the simulation will involve the ship being abandoned. It is obviously really good that they practice this whole thing regularly and thankfully there is absolutely no passenger involvement at all. Unfortunately today they are standing out in the cold and wind on deck and the rain is literally pouring down on them.

We are making 21 knots, it is raining hard. The temperature is 68/20 degrees but this is cooled by force 3 headwinds. The sea is boringly slight and very flat indeed. We have sailed 1332 nautical miles from New York and have 1870 remaining. Tonight we shall pass the halfway mark on this crossing and we are due to arrive in Southampton on Wednesday morning. We have 12,000 feet of water beneath out keel. Having had two hour time shifts already, we are now only 3 hours behind the time in the UK.

We have just had the announcement at noon and there was very little to report. I am going to change for lunch and make my way to t ever stern of the ship on deck 8 for my reservation at Todd English.

More later.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 27.

 

Lunch was very good as usual and I was joined by Lady Hudson for the meal and we had a nice time, of course it was all very rich and I probably will never want to eat again! At least not until tonight that is.

 

The rain continues to fall on the calm sea that we are sailing through at 21 knots. The wind is unchanged and the outside temperature is 68/20 degrees.

The rain continued unabated all day and eventually stopped after 10.30 this evening, by that time I had visited the Chart Room for cocktails and also the dining room for a bowl of chowder and a Caesar Salad. It was very light fare but was exactly what I needed. I went up to the Commodore Club and then went to G32 as it was Saturday night. Both venues were packed and I finally got back to my cabin at a little after 2am, which as you will realise is 3am, but what the heck, it is one night out of seven so it is not the end of the world. I may have breakfast tomorrow in the Britannia as Eggs Benedict seems an attractive prospect at this juncture.

 

The current weather is slight seas with an air temperature of 65/19 degrees and 90% humidity. We have a north easterly force 3 breeze and hazy skies. We have passed the half way point and only have 1561 nautical miles to go, having covered 1641 from Red Hook.

 

More later.

[Lake Barcroft Sailor]

Update No 26.

 

......I went to the spa as usual this morning and whilst I was there a exercise drill started which involves the entire crew, they have a simulated fire in a paint locker and the drill is to send an assessment party to the scene who report the situation and then the Officer of the Watch will take whatever action necessary. The crew members are all called to their emergency stations and then to the muster stations. The final act is that they must report to the boat and survival craft deck as the simulation will involve the ship being abandoned. It is obviously really good that they practice this whole thing regularly and thankfully there is absolutely no passenger involvement at all. Unfortunately today they are standing out in the cold and wind on deck and the rain is literally pouring down on them.

 

More later.

 

While on the repositioning TA of the Queen Victoria this past Spring we had the real thing happen at Midnight as we were sitting in the Commodore Club. It was quite scary really, especially when the officer on the bridge, not Captain Rynd, as he was then, announced the emergency in a most quivering voice. It was amazing to see how quickly the crew reacted, but not so amazing, and a little bit scary, returning to the cabin and seeing the crew in the passages all with life vests on. One very funny thing, though, was the fact that as the waiters in the Commodore Club were rushing around shutting down everything, they still managed to make a full sweep of the Club, picking up all the drinks bills before departing. Well trained apparently. If the ship were going down, Cunard would still be kept afloat with drinks bills well and truly paid for. Also funny were the different reactions of my partner and I.

 

Having returned to the stateroom determined to change out of our formal wear in case we had to abandon ship, I was thinking of collecting our vitals as instructed--medications, passports, etc whilst he, on the other hand, was determined to save our black coral studs and cufflinks we had paid a small fortune for on our trip to Alaska. Needless to say we were quite relieved that the emergency was quickly ended once the assessment party found that there was no problem other than that the wind had blown smoke down the funnel setting off an alarm. Still, a truly memorable event. Also memorable was the parting statement from the Club's piano player, whose name escapes me at the moment. As he got on the lift (we walked down), he said "I'll see you tomorrow night--If we're still here."

[capnpugwash]

Update No 28

 

Today is Sunday July 31 and other than the haze clearing, none of the weather details has changed overnight, our speed is 22 knots and we now have 1463 nautical miles to run.

 

I went to the Britannia Restaurant and had breakfast, there were six of us there and the other two men both ordered about 5 different courses, one of them insisted on only ordering each separate course once he had finished consuming the previous one. Maybe they were intending to miss lunch today but in truth he didn’t have the look of someone who has missed many meals. Anyway this delighted the waiters as you can imagine, and to be fair it didn’t endear him to me either.

 

I lurked around on deck 2 and went into the theatre for the interdenominational service which is held by the Master but just before it started I slipped away having changed my mind about attending. I did try but the flesh is weak, especially after being quite late last night.

 

I need to recharge my batteries and I think that the spa should manage to achieve that so I am off there very soon.

 

It is 2pm and the grey day continues, the sun has tried and failed to appear. The sea remains slight; the temperature is 63/17 degrees. The breeze is a force 3 north westerly and we now have 1333 nautical miles to go.

 

A very abridged version of Hamlet is being performed by the RADA crew on board; they have reworked this lengthy play into one that only lasts 65 minutes. I think that I will go to the theatre and get a little culture.

 

More later.

[Bispham Boo]

Which P&O? I booked our first on P&O yesterday - a Transatlantic repo on the Azura from Barbados to Soton next march!! This is in addition to our QE trip in October........exciting!!

 

We are on the Oceana visiting Guernsey, Brest, La Rochelle, Bilbao & La Coruna. We are taking my stepsons (15 & 19) on their first ever cruise. I hope I"m not starting an expensive habit!