All along the Mediterranean Cruise - Sailing

This page should have been a description of Motril in Spain & an excursion to the Villa Bates (Bartezz) gardens but the trip across the Bay of Biscay was rather rough & we were held up. Consequently, we were too late to go into Motril & spent 5 full days at sea. To start with, John Butt rang me to thank me for my letter & say it was good to have back-up. How good at that time, he did not realise. On Day One, the "Black Watch" overtook us but was pitching alarmingly. Our Captain Tom Hansen, is more cautious. The 2nd day was a bit brighter but just as rough. So was the 3rd, if somewhat calmer.

Sister ship "Black Watch" steams past

The pool was all over the place

There were compensations. The classical pianist, David, is very good & so is the Phoenix Jazz Band. The Port Lecturer, Jeff Roberts, is as good as Patrick Cherry was. The funny man is good, largely clean & does not embarrass people. Then, on the 3rd afternoon, a message came over the tannoy for Ken: "Would Dr. Kenneth Baldry go to Reception as soon as possible", which some people thought was a medical emergency, where Sam of the Entertainment Team said I was 'on' at 1530 tomorrow, as they were having to get shows together, it being clear we were not going to get to Motril. We settled for the Grieg Talk, as it is a Norwegian ship. I took the script to the office to be printed out & ran through the talk, battery permitting, during the evening.

Day Four found us West of Gibraltar when we got up & through breakfast but it was gloriously sunny & much calmer. This was when we should have been at Motril. We went past Tarifa, famous for the "Albert RN" scam in World War II which fooled the Germans.

But it was then a change to get some decent pictures of Gibraltar. While Avis went to the comedian's fill-in talk, I put some music together for my 'pre-talk'. I generally play appropriate music & put up a slide show before my lectures.

It was still fairly breezy & Morag above was our first, brave pool user but Morag generally made her presence felt. After lunch, there was an extended Dance Class, so I did not get to do the pre-talk until 1516 but there was enough to make the point. However, when I took Grieg's Cello Sonata off, Jonathan, the Philippino floor manager, put on 'easy listening'. John Butt got him to change it but I said what I thought. He said he tells them but it goes in one ear & out the other. The talk went very well & at least 100 people came. In the evening, the very professional show team did their stuff, with many rapid costume changes, so the Green Room must be better than the Braemar's.