Day One - open sea

OK we are off a little earlier than scheduled and with not quite so much luggage as last time.  We had a nice easy drive up with Colin, chatting to him the whole way; we seem to have made a new contact and when he offered to let us stay in his apartment in Cyprus for a small fee we may just see more of him.

We arrived in Southampton to very long queues for check in but we were through quite quickly and on board by 1.00pm, we had an hour to wait before we could go to the cabin so managed to grab lunch in a very crowded Conservatory restaurant – nice veggie tacos for me and fish for Hilary then we were off to the races.  Unpacking is an art form on a cruise ship but we divided the wardrobe up simply, 1/3^rd for me and the rest for Hilary, trogged off to do the mandatory “In case we sink drill” then out to listen to the sailaway band.  And now here we are sipping hot chocolate and tea up in the bow of the Crow’s Nest as we head away from Southampton into the channel.  We are on a table of four for dinner so later on this evening we will meet our dining companions, but at least we did get our request for the Peninsula Restaurant at 6.30pm, all we have to do now is to get Hilary’s soya milk delivered to the cabin and for me to get hooked up to the internet.

End of first chapter.