Photos from Sea - Part 2

Time for some deck sports!

Luckily they are all quite close range sports, so the fog wasn't a problem. (It did make for some slightly washed-out looking photos though, sorry).

Paddleball:

Similar to tennis, but on a much smaller court, with wooden paddles which give you minimal control or power on the ball.

This shot looks far more dramatic than the realities of the game, at least at our level.

Shuffleboard:

Use a long pole to shove little plastic discs back and fourth along the deck on a painted double-ended scoreboard. The discs have to be fully within a numbered box to count, so touching a line means it doesn't count. Therefore, most rounds ended in a 0-0 draw for us.

Deck Quoits:

Toss a rope ring onto the painted deck target. Fairly simple really.

Relaxing with a drink on the balcony, with a fine view of the fog

A few interior shots around the main lobby area on deck 3:

The bell gets run each day at noon (though we were never in earshot), and then followed immediately by the noon broadcast from the Captain, for our daily weather and navigational update.

One day, we were out on deck and thought our watches were 10 minutes slow when the Captain came on the intercom at 12:10. He then apologised, saying in a typically understated way that there he was enjoying a coffee in the lounge, forgetting the time, when he saw the ship's Security Officer walking over the ring the bell for noon, and quickly realising that instead of drinking coffee, he ought be in the bridge for announcements. To be fair, he had only been in the job for a couple of weeks.

On one of my wanderings around the ship, I found the ship's navigation chart with our planned route. Each marker notes our planned noon position. As you can see, we stayed a little further south than usual on the first couple of days to avoid a storm, before turning northeast for Southampton.

Could the fog be starting to lift at last so we can enjoy some sunshine for the rest of our voyage?

Eh, no....

Finally, after three days of fog, we found some sunshine, in Southampton!

Sun! The fog finally cleared and the sun emerged. Just in time for disembarkation alas.

These curvy items are bolted onto the deck on the bow in front of the bridge. They look like pretty ornamental sculptures, nicknamed the Commodore's Cuff Links. In reality, they are spare propeller blades for the ship.

QM2 backs into her parking space unassisted in the pre-dawn darkness.

And oh look, a grain elevator; it's just like being back in rural Illinois...

In a fitting tribute to our Mini Adventure, we spotted a literal boatload of brand new Minis ready for export back to America. The circle of life continues.

Who's that then?

Disembarked, luggage collected and back on dry land. We head off to Shropshire. QM2 will go to Cherbourg.

Thanks for the voyage! Maybe we'll sail with you again some time.

And a thanks to those who have been following us on our blog. We're not quite done yet however. We have a few closing epilogues on our various adventures to post. We will also keep you up to date right here on how we are getting on here in England with respect to jobs, houses, etc, so keep checking back from time to time.

Neil and Selina