It emerges ...

After the long dark night of the soul, we have emerged into the sunlit uplands at 19 degrees C and a slow swell with a lower wind. We have the door of our cabin open onto the balcony and the sun is shining. We've just completed an energetic walk of over two miles around the Promenade Deck, knocking over grannies as we powered along. 

Having a "swell" time

I am, of course, desperately trying to cling on to the bright side and my bright side is, that my (one) soup, stayed down last night. Result! The other bright side is that I had an epic night's sleep of 6 hours, which is awesome for me under normal circumstances, but in these conditions is remarkable.

As we hunkered down last night, there was a murmur next to me; "I wasn't expecting to wear a seat belt in bed". Under normal circumstances, I am a lie-on-the-edge-of-the-bed sleeper. However, that sleeping style would have seen me swiftly evicted from the bed.

As the storm grows stronger

We made it to dinner ... just, because as the afternoon progressed so the waves got higher. At the time of writing this (20:15 UK) the ship is heeling from side to side and there are many things on the move. The latest has been a drawer in the next door cabin which is repeatedly opening and closing. We're hoping that the occupants are not night owls!

We were warned

Captain Love (yes really, this is not the dodgy theatrical name for a Captain in a 70's cruise drama, but our actual Captain) did his fun facts announcement at midday. Now because I wasn't really prepared for it, I felt rather bombarded with information. 280 ish nautical miles already covered, 1200 ish to go to our first stop, we are suffering the dregs of a force 12 storm from Ireland, we are now 'enjoying' a force 8, our waves are 5 metres high and rising this evening. I think all of that is correct.

A night and a morning

Those dreamy illusions of sipping cocktails as the ship glides across the glassy sea were rudely shattered by rough seas as soon as we rounded Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. All night the boat has pitched and tossed its way to the west coast of France and is even now heaving its way South.

We're in!

Somehow we have made it on board. Our first huge thanks go to Nick and Sue for bringing us to the ship. Not a bat of an eyelid as we produced yet one more suitcase. Blimey, there are a lot of suitcases for this trip. But the porter who took our suitcases away for us, was delighted to tell us that we weren't the most excessive. He'd come across a couple who had needed 3 trollies for all their suitcases. Sorry reader, we only needed one! Pathetic.

Packing and testing

It's just not feasible to pack for 65 nights, but equally, you can't take just a few clothes for a couple of weeks. We're passing through time zones, two tropics and one equator, ending up in similar weather conditions to home when we reach the Falkands. So, it's layers luvvie!