Capnpugwash’s adventures continue to the Black Sea.

[ColumbiaSC]

Capnpugwash --- Your reports make my day, and today I had several to read to catch up with your and Mrs. P's voyage. I'm glad you have whist, which I fondly remember playing on the QE2 in the Crystal Lounge near the Mauritania Restaurant entrance during my Farewell World Cruise in 2008, and I am happy you have had some "Rock & Roll" in the Bay of Biscay. I would suggest you wear one of your Beau Ties from Vermont even if one is not required with a Smart Jacket! You'll be known as the Beau Tie Man. I am off on Oct 7 on the Queen Mary 2, but I have loads of Internet time thereon for each transatlantic crossing --- so I shall continue to keep up with your amusing musings.

 

I have been invited to have lunch upon disembarkation on Oct 16th in Southampton with my two lady friends who live in a beautiful home in the New Forest (with the wild pigs and horses roaming their front lane and the pasture beyond) whom I met on the QM2, and they shall have a nice Red Salmon sandwich and a tumbler of Scotch ready for my consumption after picking me up at the Ocean Cruise Terminal. I am carrying roasted pecans, which they treasure, as well as a few purloined wee jars of black raspberry jams from the ship, to them. They are cousins, and in their youth they travelled over the Alps on a single motorcycle, so you see why we get along so well --- great storytellers! They live near two pubs whose names I love --- The Mellow Cheese and The Angry Cheese, which is across the street!

 

All the best to Mrs. P, as she will have to be forebearing! I look forward to my first cruise on the Black Sea and visits to Istanbul and Yalta, etc.

 

Lord Kay of Shandon.

[soobs]

capnpugwash

 

loving your daily reports so funny - the lady with the hurt arm!!!

 

Nothing is funnier than people watching and I am sure there is lots of it on board and as they say it takes all sorts to make the world go round.

 

Keep them coming

[lannp]

CapnP

Steak & kidney pie and Plum pudding - you are so lucky. No Eggs Benedict yet?

Linda

[capnpugwash]

How do you listen to your book? Is it on CD, Ipod, Kindle ????

 

I ask because I have started to use my old CD Walkman again on cruises to listen to audiobooks (eyesight playing up) and I have one book downloaded to my Ipod but I am considering a Kindle as there is a 'listen' option on most of the books you can download.

 

I use an ipod and download from www.audible.com, $19 per month for 2 books. V good.

[Dorset Cruiser]

I use an ipod and download from www.audible.com, $19 per month for 2 books. V good.

 

 

Thanks - that's who I used to download the book on my Ipod - it was a free offer of one book to download:D

[omakim]

this was soon dispelled when they heard the whistle and they scurried out of our way, perhaps not in strict accordance with the rules of the sea but certainly good sense.

 

The "Power-Tonnage Rule" applies....

 

Jon

[capnpugwash]

Update No 4

 

Whist went well although there were only 9 people there, I have never known the turnout to be so low and can’t really understand why but we have to deal with the consequences. There were 3 gents, including me who had the winning score but there can only be one winner and it was decided to cut the cards to decide, I failed dismally on that cut and gave the prize sticker to one of the others. I had been entrusted with the stickers as the entertainment officer had to be in two places at once.

 

We popped along to the buffet for a cup of tea afterwards and they had some delightful miniature apple turnovers and chocolate éclairs on display, there were a few less after I had been there. We had our tea on the stern deck and it was really quite nice out there.

 

We both went to listen to Edwina speak on Politicians and the Truth and she did a good job to a packed house. One strange thing was that just before she spoke the crew member in the sound booth announced the cruise director by saying “Please welcome onto the stage, Nigel Travis, our cruise director”. He then came on and made the same introduction of Edwina. Isn’t that just part of his job? I just thought that he being introduced separately was a bit slimy, maybe it is just me but I thought it worthy of mention.

 

The sea has small waves with minor white horses across the surface but the ship sails fairly smoothly without the fore and aft pitching that we experienced yesterday.

 

After Edwina had finished I went up to the gym to do something but failed dismally to muster any enthusiasm whatsoever as I was still feeling replete with the apple turnovers so instead I went for a nice steam and a shower. I was still a little warm after this so I sneaked out onto the spa deck and was chatting to one of our table mates for half an hour as I cooled off. It was quite warm in the slowly sinking sun and very pleasant indeed.

 

It is now 6.25pm and I am getting ready for dinner which is preceded by the England rugby game, I have no idea of the result and hope that we won. Mrs P is not going to the cocktail party either and instead will probably loiter in one of the bars until dinner time when I will rejoin her, she is not a rugby fan and of course, unlike at home, on board she can get totally away from it.

 

The rugby was a game of 2 halves and whilst we won comfortably our performance in the second half was much better than in the first. P&O have a contract with someone to provide the feeds for these programmes and as part of it apparently they stipulate when and how it can be shown. They showed it at 7pm tonight and even included the 15 minute half time period; this meant that the 80 minute game took almost 1 hour 40 minutes to show, being on second sitting and not wanting to delay the table I had to leave the unfinished match at 8.30 with 13 minutes still to play. It didn’t matter too much in this particular instance but matches can be won or lost in the dying moments and there really was no sound reason for it to be shown this late in the day.

 

We had a very pleasant dinner and the quiz was fun as well, we came third out of about 15 teams so we were satisfied with that result given our handicap of 1 point.

 

We are steaming due south and are past Lisbon on the coast of Portugal, our speed is 16 knots and the air temperature is a comfortable 16/61 degrees, we have a 20 knot following wind and small waves with white caps.

 

More later.

[Sandy Shore]

Hi Jim - nice to read your blog. Look forward to the next update. Enjoy!! Guy xx

[Catherine Janaway]

I wonder if they showed the Wales game which was far more exciting!

 

Very much enjoying the review and look forward to the next part.

[capnpugwash]

I wonder if they showed the Wales game which was far more exciting!

 

Very much enjoying the review and look forward to the next part.

 

Apparently they did.

 

Update No 5.

Today is Monday September 19th and we woke to fairly calm seas and unchanged temperatures. We have recently passed Cape St Vincent at the south-western tip of Portugal and are now heading due east towards the Straits of Gibraltar which we pass through later today. Our first port of call is Almeria which is 320 miles ahead.

The professional entertainment has been Stu Francis, an ex Crackerjack presenter and Bobby Crush, who is a pianist who was first brought to prominence by Danny La Rue. We have seen neither so it is unfair to criticise other than to report what others have said which basically was that they had all walked out of the shows early. It seems that it is not just the passengers on board who are quite elderly!

I went to the very poorly attended coffee morning today and there were only the unstable lady, I mean physically unstable of course, and myself. As we sat down the tannoy came alive and I was horrified to hear exhortations for passengers to have spa treatments today at specially reduced prices, also to attend diamond exhibitions and several other marketing announcements. I must say that I didn’t think that P&O inflicted such announcements on their passengers; I certainly cannot recall ever hearing them before. We were joined by older Jane of the entertainment crew who had her ear bent by Beryl the unstable about raised door thresholds and the lack of suitable seating on deck for her. I was very lucky being able to bid them farewell and escape out into the sunshine..

It is a beautiful morning with the sun shining down and warming the air to 22/72 degrees, we are still running parallel to the Algarve coast of Portugal south of Faro and have a couple of hours to go until we pass the Guadiana River which marks the border with Spain. It s then about 6 or 7 hours until we enter the Mediterranean Sea passing Gibraltar which looks to be about 110 miles away.

We are about to receive the noon announcement at 8 bells, the Captain sometimes gives a brief address and then leaves the bulk of the talking to the young 3rd officer. He reports the weather as “Scorchio”, which is a quite accurate description.

Today is the Portunis lunch for Gold Members which starts in 35 minutes; I am on a three line whip to attend with Mrs P so I will at least be able to sample the free wine which is served at this event. The sacrifices that I have to make!

Edwina is performing a Q & A this afternoon but I won’t attend as all the questions have needed to be pre-submitted so that they will only ask those which she is prepared to answer which rather defeats the object. Had it been an open session I would certainly have attended as it would have been far more genuine and obviously spontaneous.

More later.

[LibraLass41]

Hi there Captain'

Enjoying your blog, hope the weather gets a bit warmer now for you, I'm off on another land holiday in a weeks time, this time to Cyprus where the weather is mid 90's (34/35), hope you have a great cruise, looking forward to the next instalment.

[Mysticalmother]

Wondered where Nigel Travis was these days....he has been on board all of my P & O cruises!

 

I shall look forward to your next instalment!

[u2cruiser]

It all sounds so very civilised :)

 

I love 'scorchio' :D

[capnpugwash]

Update No 6.

 

Lunch passed off without anything startling occurring, the food was fine without being remarkable and the wine flowed unstintingly and was surprisingly drinkable.

 

I managed to triumph at whist this afternoon and so was able to award myself one of the new stickers that P&O give as game prizes. The winner then collects them on a card which is redeemable for a physical prize at the end of the cruise. The standard of prizes does seem to have improved and for 1 stamp the choice is a key ring/pen set or a 1gb memory stick, 3 stickers will offer a leather notebook, a travel clock or a pool bag, 6 yields a wine cooler, or a leather travel or flask set and 10 stamps can be exchanged for a pair of binoculars or a DAB radio. These certainly seem a step up from the wash bag or shoe cleaning kit of old.

 

The sun is dodging in and out of the clouds that partially obscure the sky, when it appears it is quite toasty and even behind the cloud it remains fairly warm. I believe that we are still about 100 miles from Gibraltar and are only making 16 knots so we have 5 or so hours left until we pass the rock which will be between 8 and 9pm this evening. We are scheduled to arrive at Almeria tomorrow morning where we will be for only half a day. We then depart with 2 days at sea making our way to Gythion in Greece.

 

Tonight’s dress code is smart, jacket required but no tie. I discovered this morning that the conservatory buffet is not open every evening for dinner but only serves meals on a few speciality evening when the menu varies between Indian, Chinese, Italian or Mediterranean cuisines. This means of course that there is no alternative dining venue on board, obviously the ship is small but nonetheless I was quite surprised to hear this.

 

I had a great steam and shower and had a very pleasant time sitting on deck 9 by the pool watching the walkers and joggers circling above me on the “running track” on deck 10. It is about a 50 yard long oval track and in order to complete 1 mile, it is necessary to perform 14½ laps. It was very warm outside and there were about 30 people walking around with only 2 or 3 runners, they all had the sense to circulate in the same anti-clockwise direction, unlike those who do it on QM2.

 

Back to the cabin and Mrs P wanted to go to an individual quiz at 6pm, this gave us a little over 5 minutes to get there but fortunately it is a small ship so we had time to spare. I scraped 12 points and she fared a little better at 14. they were still dire results but at least I did mark the winning card so that’s something, however small.

 

Our cabin is on the starboard side of the ship towards the bow and sitting here I can see the quite hilly coast of North Africa through the heat haze, we are too far south currently to view Europe or Gibraltar but we should be there within the hour.

 

Mrs P has gone for a swim as the warmth is still with us and I would join her but for the fact that I am all clean and shiny already, plus I have half a bottle of champagne remaining from yesterday with my name on it. I still haven’t got round to organising the flutes so a tumbler will have to suffice for now and it is vintage champagne as well, not your run of the mill stuff.

 

I could get quite used to this life if I am not careful.

 

More later

[rgaudet]

Hi Capn.

 

Enjoy reading your stories as always. I was reading that he Adonia is an adult-only ship. I guess it's not much different from TAs in that respect as there are likely few children on board those voyages. As someone who doesn't have kids, it seems like a good idea to have some cruises like this for those that want an adult environment. Do you think that's a reason for many people for choosing that cruise? Do you think it changes the atmosphere?

 

Enjoy the heat!

 

Rob

[Lady Hudson]

Jim -- I am envious!! My husband went on a ship (Holland America) yesterday with his sisters. Cheap -- $399 for 7 days!! He didn't vacation this summer when I was away so now it is his turn! Enjoy your time with Mrs. P. Katherine

[Dorset Cruiser]

Hi there Captain'

Enjoying your blog, hope the weather gets a bit warmer now for you, I'm off on another land holiday in a weeks time, this time to Cyprus where the weather is mid 90's (34/35), hope you have a great cruise, looking forward to the next instalment.

 

 

Snap - we're off to Cyprus on 9th October with DD, SIL and DGD (22 months). We have a villa through James Villas just outside of Paphos. Had many nice holidays on Cyprus but it is DD and family's first visit so we will be seeing some of the sites but mainly relaxing around the pool:D

[tom_uk]

Cap'n - I'm enjoying the blog very much. Please continue.

 

Needles Channel: I sailed up it on a ferry from France (Le Havre to Portsmouth, I think) in the late 80s. It was a late afternoon departure from France and with the clock change I remember sailing gently past Yarmouth harbour, very close it seemed, at around 11:30 pm. I knew the Isle of Wight well in those days and had visited Yarmouth a number of times, and it was interesting seeing it from a different angle.

[capnpugwash]

Update No 7

 

Dinner was excellent, I had requested an off the menu crew curry which is a vegetarian meal that one couple had requested for the previous evening and theirs looked so very attractive that I joined them for tonight and it was excellent, quite spicy and hot but not too filling. We enjoyed it so much that we have requested a Dall for dinner tomorrow evening.

 

After dinner we attended the quiz and came third out of 12 teams so it wasn’t a bad result really. It is midnight now and we are due in port at 8am tomorrow and are scheduled to depart at 1pm so it is a flying visit really.

 

Today is Tuesday September 20th and we have arrived in Almeria, it is currently 7.55am and the sky looks quite clear so I think that we can anticipate a nice warm day today. We leave here at 1pm and the tour buses are already lined up on the quay. There is a shuttle bus apparently so we may slip ashore for a while, but then again we may stay on board and enjoy the peace, quiet and sunshine.

 

After a small bowl of porridge I ventured ashore to take a few pictures of the ship, the quay has been turned into a small craft market with local artisans or shopkeepers offering pots and trinkets for sale. There is also a little electric train which I feel is the shuttle to the town. We are moored not far from the town itself but for safety sake the authorities don’t want us wandering around a working port, hence the train.

 

Te weather is really glorious and I just spent an hour jumping around in the deep end of the somewhat deserted sea water pool on deck 9. The deep end is 4’112 and the shallow end a mere 4’3”” so there is not too much difference. The water was cool without being cold and it was quite refreshing. Sitting on deck afterwards was very nice and for me the sun was almost too hot, I burn quite easily so I restrict my exposure to the sun to about 30 to 45 minutes. Having missed my solo travellers coffee today I popped along to the Conservatory and picked up a black coffee and a croissant, very continental I thought.

 

It feels very strange that we will be leaving in a little over 2 hours when we only arrived 3 hours ago, maybe someone on board can explain the logic of this call to me, perhaps it serves to break up the seven sea days from Southampton to Gythion as apparently some people like days in port! It takes all sorts, doesn’t it!

 

Mrs P has taken the opportunity to locate the only laundrette on board which is on deck 7 and is catching up on domestic matters, I tend to send most of my clothes to the ship’s laundry rather than burden her with them. I have not ventured into the laundrette on here other than a quick glance a few days ago to check the logistics of it. Of course, one of the six washing machines was out of order and each machine had a tumble drier sat on top of it, so it seems quite well equipped for such a small vessel. There is a separate room which contains 6 irons and ironing boards next to the laundrette.

 

More later

[capnpugwash]

Update No 8.

 

The crew are very busy today as they are cleaning all the windows and rust proofing the frames, there is also a strong smell of varnish and gloss paint. Maintaining a metal ship in a hostile salty environment is an ongoing and ceaseless task, there is always something to do regardless of how hot or cold the weather is, it has to be done. So if someone offers to give you a boat or a ship, I believe that the smart move is to politely decline.

 

Ms Currie left the ship just after 10.30 this morning and I watched her as she carried her small holdall and briefcase to her waiting taxi, I imagine that she is off to a local airport to fly back to the UK but of course she could be going anywhere.

 

We are finally experiencing what has been missing for these past several months, glorious warm sunshine, not grey skies and the threat of rain but a bright blue sky and a big yellow sun and a comfortable 28/82 degrees. It would be so easy just to sit and bask in the warmth but I am too old, but perhaps not too wise, to get sunburnt so I have returned to the cabin for a while prior to sampling the barbecue lunch which is being prepared next to the pool.

 

Mrs P has just returned laden with clean, freshly ironed clothes and we are just off for a burger or similar, I suggested she might like some sun cream and was advised in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t be sitting in the sunshine.

 

The barbecue was delicious and it was very pleasant to sit outside albeit in the shade of the upper deck. A burger, hot dog and coleslaw went down very nicely accompanied by a glass of water. It might have been improved with the addition of mustard and relish but I couldn’t find any of it, if indeed they had some. I think that it is time to cool off and unfortunately everyone is back on board as we have sailed on time and the pool is jammed with people so I have sought out the cool air of my cabin and I will relax for a while.

 

I spent a couple of hours with my feet up in the cabin and then to avoid afternoon tea and a repeat of the apple turnover and chocolate éclair fiasco I went to the steam room and am now not only not full up with bad things but am very clean and ready for the 6pm individual quiz which will be closely followed by a couple of pre-prandial gin and tonics in Anderson’s Bar.

 

More later.

[u2cruiser]

I'll remember to decline if anyone tries to give me a ship or boat :D.

 

You should turn this into a talking book. I never want your reports to end :)

[Cruise Liner Fan]

Cap'n, If someone offered me a free ship it I would definately and thankfully accept it.Just last night I drove into New York just to look at the Queen Elizabeth.While looking at the Cunard Ship Queen Elizabeth I was thinking that it would be great If I could only be an owner of one of these big ships.Oh well maybe I'll win the lottery :) Regards,Jerry

[capnpugwash]

Update No 9

 

The quiz has finished and the winning score was 16/20 which I had achieved along with 3 others so a 4 way play off was required, the question posed was in what year did Alexander Fleming discover Penicillin, I knew that it was between the first and second Worlds Wars and guessed 1928. This was exactly right which came as a great surprise to me but I gratefully accepted the prize sticker to add to my burgeoning collection of one.

 

I have been asked to comment of the Adonia itself as a ship; the obvious comparison is to the Artemis, which I really liked. All comparisons are odious but my view is that she is a great ship. We were both concerned with her size before and as we boarded but those reservations were totally without any foundation. We both like the Adonia, there are reports elsewhere about dirty carpets and cabins but our cabin has a new carpet, clean unmarked linen and a small but clean bathroom. I think that the smallness of the ship gives it an advantage over Artemis. The food, service and restaurant are great, they still have this strange daily special breakfast dish that is peculiar to P&O but once you are used to that little foible it is really no problem.

 

Walking around the ship there are smells of new carpeting and those that I have encountered have that lovely bounce that comes from good underlay. One complaint that I have heard is that those on first sitting find it difficult to find a seat in a bar when they come out; I have never experienced this problem as I always go on second sitting. I haven't been to any shows but the Curzon Lounge is like a show lounge but it seems to have very sexy new lighting and associated equipment. There is a small team of entertainment officers led by the CD, he has a deputy and there are only two other entertainment officers. They seem to be running all day long and do as good a job as they can.

 

I have been enquiring of passengers on other decks and it seems that not all cabins have been refurbished, this includes those on C deck, but there is a continuing process every time Adonia returns to Southampton so they will all be brought up to scratch soon.

 

Between the time that she left Princess and started life with P&O there were only 19 days in which to remedy any known faults so a great deal has been achieved but there is still some remaining issues to be addressed.

 

I find the fact that all bags have to be stored in your cabin a pain as I keep kicking them as I walk alongside my bed, but it is a small ship and has no storage facilities, it is no big deal but my toes do think that it is.

 

We had a very nice meal and my Dall was excellent, Mrs P had the beef which was very tough, the waiters wanted to change it for her but she preferred not to do so. We won the Syndicate Quiz tonight and collected our bottle of Olly Smith’s rose wine as a prize.

 

The sea state has increased to high seas and the ship is rocking about a fair amount, we have a 40mph easterly wind and we are making 20 knots directly into this wind. It is difficult to open the doors onto the open decks and great care has to be taken closing them so as not to trap fingers. The air temperature is a balmy 23 degrees.

 

We lose a further hour tonight and I believe that there is one more to go for Istanbul, I don’t know about the Black Sea ports but I imagine that there may be an additional hour change.

 

More later

[u2cruiser]

So you doubled your prize stickers with a lucky guess?! Have you got your eye on any of the lovely ;) prizes?

 

Thanks for the report on the state of Adonia. It's good news for anyone on here booked on the ship and worried about the not so great pics posted recently. Sounds like the poster was unlucky enough to get one of the un refurbished cabins.

 

Ship sounds very cosy.

Not sure I've noticed P&O breakfast specials? Do you have an example?

[capnpugwash]

So you doubled your prize stickers with a lucky guess?! Have you got your eye on any of the lovely ;) prizes?

 

Thanks for the report on the state of Adonia. It's good news for anyone on here booked on the ship and worried about the not so great pics posted recently. Sounds like the poster was unlucky enough to get one of the un refurbished cabins.

 

Ship sounds very cosy.

Not sure I've noticed P&O breakfast specials? Do you have an example?

 

Monday - Eggs Benedict, Tuesday - Gammon and fried egg, Wednesday - Kedgeree etc