A day at sea and farewell to Captain Love

Enjoying a glass in the Glass House

Our exclusive invitation to the Library Suite was, as we suspected, a selling opportunity, although quite gentle. We arrived along with a gaggle of other people who had likewise been invited and who also were after the free glass of pop. Anything to get something out of P&O! It was the sail-away for us leaving Aruba port and we watched as the island rapidly slipped into the distance. We had already decided that we would be back there again at some point - great place.

The Library Suite is at the forward end of the ship and looks out over the bow deck. It has two floors, connected by a curving staircase with the bedroom and bathroom upstairs and the living space including a serving bar downstairs. It’s spacious and nicely appointed, but most of us agreed that we liked the rooms we were in better. Not that we would have refused a free upgrade, mind you! We learned an interesting fact about cruise pricing, in that the cost, like that of hotel rooms, is demand-driven. In other words, if the cruise is selling well, the cost of cabins creeps up. The clue then is to book early, as many people seem to do, booking cruises years in advance.

During our time in the Library Suite, we chatted to a variety of the officers and then struck up conversation with Paul, the Entertainments Manager. He’s a Stokie who left the city long ago and now lives in Spain. He was eager to catch up with news of his former home and we filled him in on what we knew, much of which had passed him by. He’s well-acquainted with Jonny Wilkes and Pete Conway and of course worked with Jonny on introducing the production of Astonishing that tours the P&O fleet theatres. We may meet up with him again at some point for drinks or dinner.

Following two glasses of fairly cheap Prosecco, we decided we needed something proper to drink so headed for, you’ve guessed it, the Glass House, where we had a glass of pop and then had dinner too, having decided that we were still not ready to brave the bunfight that is the Medina Restaurant. Then we concluded a lovely day by having an excellent night’s sleep - yes, both of us!

The day dawned cloudy and relatively cool (25C) as we chugged across the Caribbean Sea towards Barbados. It was a sea day and so we had ourselves to entertain and we went to watch Dale Templar once again with her second talk on the Human Planet BBC series. Once again, she dazzled us with clips from the episodes, this time relating directly to the people they were dealing with in the remotest parts of the world. We shall definitely be watching the series when we return.

Today was the last “ting-ting” midday message from Captain Love before he leaves us tomorrow at Barbados. He’s heading home to Sherborne in Dorset to see his wife and family, including a new grandson, Flynn. We shall miss him, but will welcome a new captain aboard tomorrow - Captain Russell. Our fun facts today are that we are currently (at midday) 124 nautical miles to the North of Venezuela and we have 3,300 metres of water below the keel. We have covered 325 nautical miles at an average of 19 knots since leaving Aruba at 4pm yesterday and we have 288 nautical miles remaining to Barbados tomorrow morning. Since the beginning of the cruise we have covered 13,719 nautical miles to noon today: that’s 63.5% of the circumference of the world or 25 times the distance from John O’Groats to Lands End! During the voyage so far we have consumed 3,100 metric tonnes of heavy oil at a cost of £1.35 million and have also spent £590,000 on 700 tonnes of diesel for the generators and other systems.

After lunch we headed out on our usual stomp around the decks and were taken with how people seem to group into ghettos not only inside but also on the decks outside. There are the photographers, for example: intense, eagle-eyed men (usually), scanning the sea for signs of a whale or a pod of dolphins. They seem to compete for who has the largest lens - must be a male thing - and huddle in groups talking earnestly about what they have sen, done and photographed. Then there are the smokers, lurking in the dedicated area - on the exercise deck, it has to be said - and providing wafts of variously flavoured smoke to interrupt your breathing as you hurtle past on your exercise mission. These are often joined by drinkers too, with large glasses charged with lager or wine and sometimes also accompanied by a sport watcher who, unable to smoke inside, peers from the outside through the windows into the bar at the TV and drags on his cigarette. Other groups include the very large, the snoozers (the Venn diagram overlaps well here), the sun-worshippers and the exercise bunnies. We all get our kicks in whatever way seems appropriate and each looks down on the other - why ever would you do THAT?

So, a haircut with Sumanth in the salon (please God, be ready to sort my hair out Vicky!) was followed by an extensive read, interrupted only by the delivery of snacks that Steevan makes every day between 5pm and 5:30pm. Sea days are a great restorative after the heat and excitement of the trip days. You have time to reflect, sleep (after early starts for most trips) and recharge your batteries for the next event. We are now coming into a period of intense tourist activity with four back-to-back trips on Barbados, Antigua, St Lucia and St Maarten. Thereafter, the majority of our time will be spent cruising back across the Atlantic, with a single stop at the Azores.