The last day of our cruise.
The ship docked at 9am in windy overcast and cold conditions. After breakfast Susan, Noreen, Avi, Ron and I all left the ship to board the local bus and explore Portimao. It soon became apparent why there was no excursion arranged! The place was relatively run down and very unexciting and I in fairness the weather did nothing to enhance the place. We wandered around the town and had lunch a little café. One of unique features of Portuguese architecture is that they tile the fronts of their houses and many have tiles depicting the history of the place or dwelling.
The entire trip Ron and Avi have barely come up for air, from politics to spirituality and philosophy, they are leaving nothing uncovered – I think they are set on solving the world’s problems before we dock!
We boarded again at 3pm to choppy conditions and I was excited to hear that it may be a rough night – at last some sailing! To pass the time till sailing we all played scrabble and just before dinner we left to pack our bags.
Set sail at 4pm to full sails and choppy seas. Just before dinner an announcement was made reminding us of safety precautions to take should the sailing get a little rough. By the time we arrived at dinner we were rocking and rolling! The dinning room was the second lowest deck and soon the portholes were being pounded by waves and the increasing pitch soon emptied the dinner room. I was very excited and felt sorry for those who were feeling the effects of seasickness (including the crew). At the end of dinner the crew gave a great recital of ‘we are the world’ and we all sang along.
Ron and I left the dinning room and went up on the top deck to check out the sails and conditions – boy were we moving and rolling. Lights on the horizon were rolling from 45 to 180 degrees! Everything was very exciting until we entered the confined spaces of our cabin and then sea sickness set in. At first I was just a little nausea and then with just enough time to grab the plastic lined trash can dinner was ejected several times! Of course this was enough to set Ron off and so we were a pigeon pair of pukers! Once we were over the episode and thankfully the nauseas was gone Ron opened the door of our cabin to place the bags on the verandah only to be met with a face full of water from a passing wave!
The rest of the night we laid in our bed rolling from one side to another and the waves hit our windows. Having experienced the night (beaufort 7.5 – gale force winds) we are glad we are not staying on board for the 10 days at sea that it will take to get to Bermuda.
All said I would heartily recommend anyone to go on the Royal Clipper and know understand why they have a 66% return rate (the highest of any cruise line). Nearly everyone on board that we meet including Susan, Noreen and Avi are return travelers.
The ship docked at 9am in windy overcast and cold conditions. After breakfast Susan, Noreen, Avi, Ron and I all left the ship to board the local bus and explore Portimao. It soon became apparent why there was no excursion arranged! The place was relatively run down and very unexciting and I in fairness the weather did nothing to enhance the place. We wandered around the town and had lunch a little café. One of unique features of Portuguese architecture is that they tile the fronts of their houses and many have tiles depicting the history of the place or dwelling.
The entire trip Ron and Avi have barely come up for air, from politics to spirituality and philosophy, they are leaving nothing uncovered – I think they are set on solving the world’s problems before we dock!
We boarded again at 3pm to choppy conditions and I was excited to hear that it may be a rough night – at last some sailing! To pass the time till sailing we all played scrabble and just before dinner we left to pack our bags.
Set sail at 4pm to full sails and choppy seas. Just before dinner an announcement was made reminding us of safety precautions to take should the sailing get a little rough. By the time we arrived at dinner we were rocking and rolling! The dinning room was the second lowest deck and soon the portholes were being pounded by waves and the increasing pitch soon emptied the dinner room. I was very excited and felt sorry for those who were feeling the effects of seasickness (including the crew). At the end of dinner the crew gave a great recital of ‘we are the world’ and we all sang along.
Ron and I left the dinning room and went up on the top deck to check out the sails and conditions – boy were we moving and rolling. Lights on the horizon were rolling from 45 to 180 degrees! Everything was very exciting until we entered the confined spaces of our cabin and then sea sickness set in. At first I was just a little nausea and then with just enough time to grab the plastic lined trash can dinner was ejected several times! Of course this was enough to set Ron off and so we were a pigeon pair of pukers! Once we were over the episode and thankfully the nauseas was gone Ron opened the door of our cabin to place the bags on the verandah only to be met with a face full of water from a passing wave!
The rest of the night we laid in our bed rolling from one side to another and the waves hit our windows. Having experienced the night (beaufort 7.5 – gale force winds) we are glad we are not staying on board for the 10 days at sea that it will take to get to Bermuda.
All said I would heartily recommend anyone to go on the Royal Clipper and know understand why they have a 66% return rate (the highest of any cruise line). Nearly everyone on board that we meet including Susan, Noreen and Avi are return travelers.
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1 comment:
it was such fun spending the trip with you. now we are 'enjoying' our winter - frigid frigid cold. hope your summer is going well! love, noreen and avi
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