Lumpy

Well that was a lumpy and noisy night. The TV in the suite reports we are still in the teeth of a Force 8 and that the sea state is “very rough”. We can attest that this is correct! Today is the last full day of the cruise and time will have to be put aside to pack as our suitcases will be taken overnight so that they can be offloaded first thing tomorrow.

Packing took a while, but went fairly smoothly. Our doors are wide open and the sun is pouring across balcony. The temperature is about 17-18C and is very comfortable.

We had a greed to meet up for a coffee. I sent a message to Jane, but clearly it was Trevor’s turn on the Internet. Di sent him a message to say we were heading up to The Crow’s. Nest. There was no reply. That seemed strange. A few minutes later I received a message that they were heading up in 20 minutes. Di checked her phone… and realised she had sent the message to the wrong Trevor! I’m sure that Trevor Taylor would love to have joined us, but was sitting in Brighton.

We met up and had our coffee in The Crow’s Nest then wandered down for a spot of lunch in The Belvedere. Mid afternoon we went along to the theatre to see a Q&A session with The Headliners. It is clearly a job requiring a great deal of preparation and dedication. They have a repertoire of about 8 shows and alternate through them. On the day of each show they do a full technical run through and then perform the show twice in the evening.

By the time we returned to our cabin, we were passing the mouth of the Thames. The shipping traffic was quite heavy, the winds had dropped and the sea state was slight. The sun was out and it was quite delightful. We put our packed cases outside the suite and by the time we left for pre-dinner drinks with Jane and Trevor, they had gone. Hopefully, the next time we will see them will be in the baggage hall at Southampton.

We had a lovely dinner (as we have come to expect) and said a sad farewell to our lovely servers (Vienna and Novelyn). We made our way to the theatre and diverted to the shops as we still had some onboard credit to spend. The final show of the cruise was “The Era Boys” again, with a completely different set from earlier in the week. It was excellent with plenty of staples from the 50s and 60s again. It will be hard to keep this up when we get home.

We had a quick drink, reset our watches (the time reverts to UK time overnight) and dropped into bed for the last time in this suite.