August 13 - I heard there was an eclipse yesterday!

Well, here we are in the Atlantic on our way to Galway on the west coast of Ireland after yesterday’s day at sea to view the eclipse.  Since we boarded the ship last Saturday we had glorious weather with blue skies and wispy clouds. Wouldn’t you know that eclipse day dawned cloudy. The eclipse was scheduled to begin shortly after 6 PM and totality was to be seen between 7 and 7:15 PM.  The sun and moon were to be at about 30° above the horizon.  Around four there was a brief shower and by the time many of us got to the upper decks to stake out a spot a little after 5 PM the rain had stopped, but the clouds stubbornly refused to budge. My friends and I had gotten a table under cover near the pool and armed with our Seabourn eclipse glasses we periodically popped out to the open deck to see what we could see. The answer was not much.  We got one glimpse through the cloud cover as the moon began its passage between us and the sun, but it didn’t even show up in the photos I tried taking.  The picture I’m putting below was taken by a friend from Australia who stayed outside for the entire event.  As they say, c’est la vie!  It was still fun.  Seabourn had champagne and caviar, big shrimp and other hors d’oeuvres for us to enjoy and they had created a special cocktail.

See that crescent?  That's the sun behind the moon.

I had made reservations for Solis, the specialty restaurant on board, so after the three of us decided we’d waited long enough for the heavens to clear, we adjourned to the restaurant and had a lovely meal. After dinner there was a dance party which was moved from the pool deck to the Club and I went of course.  I danced a lot and didn’t get back to my cabin until around 1:30 AM.  Despite not having the eclipse experience I’d been waiting for, I had a wonderful day. In the late evening we were supposed to be in a position to see the Perseid meteor shower. Since it was raining we didn't even go out to try to see the stars.

This is what we should have been able to see, but alas it was not meant to be.

Today we’re on our third sea day on our way to Galway. The seas are calm but it’s still cloudy and not nearly as warm as it has been. We played trivia before lunch. Our performance has been wildly inconsistent.  Yesterday we won; today we finished in last place.  Seabourn is very diplomatic, so when the Cruise Director announces the standings of the teams, he never says a team is in last place. Instead he says to that team “Thank you for coming.”  After trivia I had arranged a Ladies’ Lunch for eight of us.  We had champagne and played a little game and had a very fun-filled lunch.  We laughed a lot and that always feels good.

The cruise director onboard is a man named Ross Roberts and he is an absolute nut.  I’m not sure how many suitcases he travels with but since he has a different suit for every different holiday known to mankind there must be many bags.  Think having a Kelly-green suit on which both jacket and trousers have shamrocks. There’s a guest entertainer on for several days who is also a nut so the two of them did a Name That Tune game after lunch. I’ve never seen so many people in attendance and the repartee between the two was hilarious. The last song teams had to guess based on just a few notes was “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera.  When Ross and Martin revealed the answers playing more of the songs, Ross cracked everybody up with his antics.  He went off-stage for a moment to get into character for the song from Phantom.  He reappeared with a Kleenex plastered on one side of his face in lieu of a mask.  You’ll have to trust me and take my word that it was hysterical.  The photo doesn’t do it justice.

This evening another group of friends has arranged for us to have Thanksgiving Dinner.  What can I say?  They like turkey with all the trimmings and the Chef is willing to accommodate us.

And that’s my report from here in the Atlantic.  Sorry that there are so few photos, but there’s not much to see on a cloudy day at sea.  I hope all are well at home.  Here at sea with no land insight it's easy to forget there's any place else in the world. Perhaps that's why I like it so much.

August 10 - Fowey, Cornwall, United Kingdom

It’s actually the 11th around 1:30 AM but I’m just getting around to writing.  I’ve had a wonderful day here in this place which looks like the name should be pronounced “Phooey” but it’s really “Foy.”  Today it was clearly evident why sailing on a small ship is good.  The anchorage was small and the inlet to get here was narrow.

Anyway, we were anchored a five-minute tender ride from the most charming little town. The downtown, if you can call it that, was a village of Georgian row houses along one main one-way street.  I had no tour booked and just went ashore and wandered.  The street was barely wide enough for one car and a local in a shop told me that until a few years ago it had two-way traffic.  As I walked along there were delivery vans bringing things to shops or pubs and a long line of cars waited patiently behind until they were finished, no honking or gesticulations.  Can you imagine that in the US?

The street was lined with little shops selling local arts and crafts, and a fair amount of usual tourist trash and trinkets as Al called them. Of course, there were pubs and bake shops selling Cornish pasties.  A Cornish pasty is sort of a turnover filled with meat or fish.  They are pretty big with a large, crimped edge.  I got an education which explained to me the origin of pasties.  Cornwall had many tin mines and the miners would bring with them or have lowered to them in buckets these pasties to eat while they worked.  They had no place to wash their hands and so the pasties had large crusts on one side so the men could hold them with their dirty hands, eat the good stuff inside, and then toss the excess pastry away. I went into a bakery and thought about buying one, but it just wasn’t a time that I felt hungry so I only looked.

Along the streets there are a multitude of shops that had big hanging baskets of flowers, mainly petunias in a multitude of colors with the blooms cascading over the sides.  It was beautiful.  Along the way I found a small square along the waterfront with lots of wrought iron benches, and I sat for a while watching the many tourists passing (many of whom were land travelers not on our ship) and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.  Next to me were a couple from Cologne, Germany visiting the UK and we had a nice conversation about sailing. I stopped in a couple of shops belonging to local artisans and found a few interesting things.

The town, I’ll call it that but it’s really more of a village, is nestled at the base of a hill and I confess that I didn’t walk to the top.  Friends did or took tours and they said it was lovely English countryside up above. I spent a couple of hours browsing and then went back to the ship.  On board I met friends by the patio and we talked and enjoyed the bright afternoon.

I haven’t written about the Club or the music or dancing, but here’s my report.  The first night I never made it to the Club.  I stopped in one of the bars and had a great evening talking with a British couple I just met and who are on my trivia team.  Last night I missed the show (again too much talking) but made it to the Club late evening.  There were at least four people besides me there (yes, four only!).  Everybody seems to go to bed with the chickens on this ship and they don’t know what they’re missing.  Both musical groups are wonderful and well worth listening to. Among the four there besides me were a couple I know who sit near the bar, nowhere near the dance floor which is not conducive to dancing and I joined them.  I am going to strive to sit closer to the dance floor because they have been playing great music and the extra steps would be good for me.  That’s my first world problem and I shall deal with it. 

Aside from that, the food has been quite good, the staff is wonderful as they always are, and I’m having a grand time. On the 12th we’ll be in position to experience the eclipse and we have an astronomer on board to talk to us about the heavens above.  The eclipse will occur around 6 PM here and later that evening there's supposed to be a meteor shower.  How lucky I am to be here to see those!  We have a Ladies’ Lunch planned for one day and other friends have asked the chef to prepare Thanksgiving for one evening.  Yes, I know it’s not November but these friends like a traditional Thanksgiving meal and here on Seabourn with 24 hours notice you can get pretty much anything you like. It will be fun.  

And that’s my report for today.  Oh, my trivia team won today. We only missed one question!  All of us play for fun, but it sure is nice to win! So, good night and God Bless as one of my favorite English friends says.

August 9 - I’m back with the Cowes in Cowes, Isle of Wight

 

Time to catch up again.  Yesterday my two friends and I were picked up at the Brown’s Hotel and we were driven together to Dover for embarkation.  The ride took a little longer than it did in June when I was going in the opposite direction, but I guess that was because we had to make it through London traffic. (The city looks absolutely full of tourists and the traffic was awful.)  Anyway, the time went fast because we talked a lot and we arrived at the terminal which was once the old railroad station.  As we waited for the luggage people to tag and pile our bags on the cart, a shoreside English lady came over to me and said that I needed to look over to the second floor of the terminal because there were people there waving like crazy.  Sure enough, several crew members still here from my last voyage were waving a welcome and when we got upstairs to check in there were lots of hugs.  It’s always nice to see old friends.

A different shot of the White Cliffs of Dover.  It was a gorgeous day!

We boarded quickly and then I went up to the Patio to find some more friends who were on with me in June and who had embarked a week ago in Copenhagen. Sure enough they were at our usual table along with some other old friends I didn’t know would be onboard.  We got the important stuff over with fast (we formed our trivia team!) and then we spent  an hour or two catching up.  I decided to skip lunch so that I could instead indulge in my first afternoon Adult Milkshake.  One of my favorite bartenders LJay was still there and she made me a delectable apricot adult shake with I don’t know what kind of spirits.  Aah!  I am home!

My suitcases were on my bed when I got back to my cabin, I unpacked, got cleaned up and met my friends for the Solo Cocktail party.  There were some people I’ve met before and a few new ones.  It seems to be a nice group.  Then we decided it was such a lovely evening we’d eat outside at the Earth and Ocean restaurant.  We had a delicious dinner and then Stephanie and Claudia went off to bed.  I went to my favorite bar to get my favorite after dinner drink and wound up staying and talking until nearly 1 AM to old and new friends.  I had fully intended to go to the Club and hear the new band and dance, but that will just have to wait until this evening.

This morning I didn’t get up until nearly 10 AM so naturally I missed breakfast.  We’re in Cowes, Isle of Wight.  I was here around this time last year and I’d been here a time before, so I’m staying onboard.  It’s a cute little town, but nothing to really  make me feel a need to tender ashore.  I will enclose a photo I took last year and actually put on the blog then, but it was so cute I feel it bears another look.  On the little cobble-stone street going up to the main street in the village you pass the Union Inn which has the only welcome sign of its kind that I’ve ever seen and it just tickles me.  Aside from writing this I’m having a pretty lazy day which I need because I’m still adjusting from the jet lag.  Anyway, all I can say is "Life is Good" here on the good ship Ovation!

The Union Inn - if you haven't read the sign before saying who (or what ) is welcome, you really must read it.

These photos are of the room at Brown's because my friend Cyndi was curious about the rooms there.  Bear in my mind they look rumpled because I'd slept there already, but the room was more than adequate.

August 7 - Brown’s Hotel, London, England

Yesterday the 6th I was driven up to Richmond International to begin my next adventure to see the total solar eclipse on the 12th in the Bay of Biscay south of the British Isles.  This cruise has been in the planning for about two years when it first became available to book.  Two good friends and I booked at  the same time and we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time.  Fingers and toes are crossed hoping the weather will be cooperative that day.

My friends came to London two nights before I did and were staying at Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair and I decided to stay there too for my one night visit.  Seabourn has arranged to take the three of us down to Dover to board the Seabourn Ovation tomorrow, the 8th.   The fun has begun.

My flight from RIC to Washington Dulles was delayed because of thunderstorms in northern Virginia, but I had a big layover (purposely just in case of something unforeseen) so I had no trouble making my connection to Heathrow. The flights were uneventful, but there was one funny thing that happened.  After we took off from Dulles and had reached altitude I began hearing a funny rumbling, very loud noise  and I was tempted to ask the flight attendant if there was some problem.  Fortunately I didn’t. It turns out the rumbling was coming from the man seated in the business class pod in front of me.  He was snoring so loudly and consistently that he could be heard in several rows on our side of the plane.  He must have had a good sleep because he snored all the way across the Atlantic and until the attendant woke him to get his seat in landing position.  Oh, I wish I could sleep on a plane but I don’t think that will ever happen.

Anyway, I made it through Heathrow  much more quickly than the last time it was my final destination and my driver from Blacklane was waiting to take me to Brown's Hotel.  It’s worth writing a little about this place.  Brown’s is London’s oldest luxury hotel.  It was founded in 1832 by a couple (no surprise their name was the Brown’s) who were former domestic servants.  Over the next 80 years it grew and today incorporates 13 former Georgian townhouses which have been made into a variety of different size rooms and suites, each unique in its décor. It’s easy to get lost on the floors because the corridors aren’t necessarily long and straight and there are occasionally one or two steps along the way because the townhouses floor levels weren't all the same.

In the 180 years it’s been in business Brown’s has hosted many famous people, including some presidents and kings.  It also has been the place many famous authors have stayed.  Rudyard Kipling stayed here often and a suite on the first floor is named after him because that’s where he and his wife stayed when in London.  Agatha Christie was here so often that she had a table permanently reserved for her. Others who stayed here included Joseph Conrad, Arthur C. Clarke, A.A. Milne and Mark Twain.  Theodore Roosevelt stayed at Brown’s before his marriage to Edith Carow in 1886 and Franklin Roosevelt stayed during his presidency.  The place is steeped in history and it’s in a great location  just a block away from Picadilly and a few blocks away from Green Park and Buckingham Palace.  Sadly, I was very tired when I finally got here so I didn’t have time for a walkabout.  Instead I took a much-needed nap and then met my friends for a cocktail and dinner in Charlie’s, the quirky restaurant in the hotel.  It was good to see them after about 18 months; we have a lot of catching up to do and we’ve got 36 days to do it.

Charlie's - The bottom of the walls are panelled in ruch, dark wood and look about the way I think a gentlemen's club here in London might look.  The upper few feet are papered in a wild  (and very pretty) tropical print paper with bright colored flowers and lots of palms.

This trip will take me to several places I’ve been before with a few new places thrown in. It also includes more sea days than my last voyage on the Ovation and I’m really looking forward to those.  So away I go and I’ll try to keep current on my writing.  Over and out from London..

June 11 - The Party’s nearly over

 My last entry here, not counting my command performance as a drummer, was  from Heimaey, Iceland.  Since then we stopped in a place called Djúpivogur, Iceland (population 404).  It was another tender port and bitterly cold because of the strong wind blowing. Once again I decided to stay on the ship and enjoy some of the activities here instead.  Some friends went ashore and told me the two major sights to see were the Eggin  í Gleðivik sculpture along the waterfront and a converted grain silo now used for concerts.  The Eggin sculpture is a granite representation of the eggs from the 34 local bird species.  I borrowed this photo from one of them.

After our last stop in Iceland we had a sea day with the usual activities including some interesting talks about the travels and exploits of the Vikings across the North Atlantic.  Of course we had trivia and my new team ran away with first place in the cumulative game.  We’ll have one more cumulative two game trivia session today and tomorrow.  I’ve given away all the prizes I’ve won to crew members who have taken such good care of me.

Yesterday we stopped in Lerwick, Shetland.  This is the main island of the Shetland Archipelago, a string of 100 islands of which only 16 are populated with a total population of about 33,000. Like the Orkney Islands which I visited a week and a half ago, evidence of human habitation as long ago as the Mesolithic period has been found.  The history of ownership claims for these islands is similar to that of the Orkneys.  Like that island group, the Shetlands came under Scottish rule when in the 15th century a king of Norway failed to pay the dowry he’d promised to a king of Scotland upon his daughter’s marriage to the latter.  As payment the Scots took the islands and so they have remained since.

Lerwick is the main town and port of the Shetlands and it is the northernmost major settlement of the British Isles with a population of around 7,000.  I am a huge fan of the British TV series Shetland (whose characters are based on those in some of Ann Cleeves’ books) so of course I had to take a tour which brought us to various places around the island where some episodes were filmed.  Our guide was a delightful Shetlander named Ingrid who was about my age and was very laid-back and very informative.  Just as an aside, she had a detailed itinerary typed out with times we were supposed to be here, there, and everywhere.  Occasionally she would ask Martin our driver what time he had (she wasn’t wearing a watch) how we were doing time-wise and he would say “oh we’re about 15 or 20 minutes behind” and they would both just shrug and say, “that’s alright; they’ll wait for us.” And so the tour went.  We saw everything but on our timetable.

The island is quite beautiful. It’s mainly green, but unlike Orkney where the green was grassland and barley, here there are few arable fields.  The green is mainly peat.  The principal businesses here are fishing and servicing of the offshore oil and gas industry in the North Sea.  One sixth of the United Kingdom’s fish supply comes from the Shetlands. From Lerwick there is ferry service both to  mainland Scotland and to the other Shetland islands. Additionally there is year-round air service from the airport to several places in Scotland, and for the not faint of heart occasional flights in an 8-seater to a couple of the other islands, like Fair Isle, but not on a regular basis.

We traveled out of Lerwick to see some of the beaches and villages featured in various seasons and episodes of the series.  We visited Brake, Meal, and Peerie Spiggie beaches (great names, n’est-ce pas?).  We passed the ruins of the croft house in Clavel and we stopped to take photos of  “The Cake Fridge,”  an honor system refrigerator filled with cakes and other sweet treats and drinks.  How would that work back at home, I wondered.  We stopped for tea and biscuits at the Busta House Hotel which was the Skellwick Hotel on TV.  It was an interesting building.  The parlor where we had our tea was originally built in the year 1588, the year the Spanish Armada got blown north and some ships were wrecked in these islands and other places along the North and Irish seas.  We traveled through the little village of Voe and could see up on a hill Sandwater House which in the series was known as Halfway House and where a character kept a lot of dead animals stashed in his freezer. We also passed the little church and parsonage where Ruth’s (she’s the newest character in the show) brother is the vicar and lives in the house next door.

This old bathtub was in the field opposite the Cake Fridge and I guess it's used for the sheep in the field to drink from

Parlor of the  "Skellwick" Hotel (so-named in the series

Finally we drove back into Lerwick itself.  We stopped at the Gothic style buildings which were the police department and town community center. The former does house the police  among other things and the latter is actually the town hall.  I half expected to see Jimmy, Tosh or Sandy coming out.  We then drove down the hill to the street running along the waterfront and there it was!  Lodberrie House!  Jimmy Perez’s home right on the water and right next to Bain’s beach where he would often be  found drinking whiskey and giving advice to his daughter Cassie or to other characters.  The houses along the waterfront are all old stone buildings  built probably in the early 17th century that at one time were used to store things being shipped into or out of the harbor.  They back right up to the water and thus were easy to load or unload ships that came in.  There are lots of windows low down in the buildings and since there can be a tidal swing of more than nine feet, some of those windows must be perilously close to being underwater. We walked along the street and saw the Market Cross and Commercial Street where in one of the latest episodes there was a bomb scare.  Just one aside here, for a small place the series makes it seem like they have per capita more murders than many big cities and more other kinds of scary things.  But without those there wouldn’t be a TV show, would there?

The Police Station where so many murders have been solved

"Jimmy Perez'" Star in the pavement

The town Hall which is a community center in the show

Jimmy's House

Many words of advice were given sitting on rocks on this little beach next door

A Viking ship anchored right off the beach there

Another of theold stone former warehouses along the waterfront. This one is a hotel now  

The main street

Market Cross and Commercial Street

Two more views of the waterfront downtown

After we finished our walk it was time to head back to the ship.  It was a lovely day!  I had dinner with some friends and after the show I went to the Club where I danced a lot, but I didn’t play the drums again.  I think one time was probably enough, but boy was it fun!

I have to add that I absolutely loved Lerwick!  If it were 500 miles further south where it wouldn't be as cold and would have the same kind of daylight/nighttime hours as I'm used to (instead of 20 hours of daylight in summer and the reverse in winter), I think I could live there.  It had, for lack of a better way of putting it, a really nice vibe.  The Shetlanders seemed laid back and not in a particular hurry; they were more interested in enjoying their lives.  That's a nice thing to see and feel.

Oh, What a night!!

 I'm going to make this very short because it's nearly 1AM and I have to get up for a tour early (for me) tomorrow-well today actually.  But tonight I had such a lovely time I had to post these photos.  After dinner I went to the Club as I usually do and stayed late listening to the band and dancing a little.  I was with a bunch of very nice British people.  When our favorite band came back at midnight there were just a few of us night owls left and we told them they didn't have to play for us; we should really call it a night.  I said I sure would like to play the drums though and since nobody else was there they let me go up and play them.  The guitarist accompanied me as I played (I'm not a drummer so not very well, but Boy was it fun!).  My British friends took some photos and while I don't like pictures of me, here are a few. Gene Krupa, eat your heart out.  

Maybe I can start a new career!

June 7 - Heimaey, Iceland

I’ve been a lazy writer for several days but I truly haven’t had much to write about.  After stopping at Orkney we had a sea day on our way to Iceland and then three stops on that island at places named Vopnafjörður,Akureyri, and Isafjödur.  I didn’t get off at any of them.  I’d been to the last two and done the tours that sounded most interesting to me.  The first place, when I googled it, said it had a population of 629 and that the points of interest were a post office and a church.  So I hung out on the ship and did some writing and chilled out.

Just thought I'd add this photo of me with Ann Cleeves after we'd had dinner.

These and the next few are photos of the areas around Akureyri and Isafjördur just to show the terrain on the north coast of Iceland

Land of snow and ice

Yesterday we stopped in Reykjavik and Katie had given me a mission to find a particular kind of seasoning which she had bought when she, Stan and Alfred had made a land trip to Iceland a while back.  I got off the ship and went to the taxi line and once again lucked out in my choice.  The driver was a very nice man named Abdel, a transplanted Moroccan who has been here for 17 years, is an Icelandic citizen with a family with four kids.  I asked him if he could take me to a grocery store to find this stuff, which he did, and then I asked him to give me a little tour of Reykjavik.  It was a lovely tour!  We went to the Harpa Concert Hall which houses the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera Company.  It’s a steel and glass structure which is inspired by the basaltic landscape of Iceland.  It’s a very dramatic building overlooking a portion of the harbor.  We went in and walked around to see the different venues for performances.

The Harpa Concert Hall

The interior of this dramatic building

'The Musician, a sculpture of a famous Danish cellist outside the Harpa

Next we drove by the Hallgrimskirkja, the very dramatic Lutheran church.  I had gone in it during a previous visit so we didn’t stop. We also drove by the “Sun Voyager,” a stainless-steel sculpture representing a Viking longboat.  We went in another building whose name I didn’t get that has a huge 3-D table map showing all the volcanoes, lava fields, and glaciers on this island nation. Iceland has around 130 volcanoes!  On the map were representations of the communities around the island and many of them looked perilously close to active ones.  I don’t think I’d like that very much.  There was also an exhibit showing how all this geothermal activity is used to provide Iceland’s energy needs.  Because it does Abdel told me the cost of electricity and heating is very inexpensive here.

The Hallgrimskirkja

The Sun Voyager

The relief map showing Icelandic topography

We next went up to the Perlan, an interactive museum where people can explore many of Iceland’s natural forces.  We didn’t go in  because I had gotten moving kind of late and didn’t have lots of time to spend inside.  (I’ll be back here in just over two months so I’ll try to do better next time.)  From the Perlan there is a great view of the city and the surrounding mountains so I took some photos.

The Perlan Museum

Sculpture of four musicians at the front of the museum

View of the city and mountains beyond

Our next stop, and my favorite, was Laugardalur, the botanic garden.  Abdel and I strolled the lovely grounds which included beautiful rock formations around ponds, some of which had choi in them, and lots of plants from countries all over the world.  They were all marked with little cards telling their botanical name and origin.  This is still early in the Icelandic summer season so many of the plants were not in bloom yet.  When I come back in late August I’m going to try to come back here again and it should be even more beautiful.

These next several are all of the Laugardalur

That's Abdel.  Notice he's got short sleeves on.  Icelanders are used to these temperatures.

Abdel was a very nice man. As I wrote earlier he is a Moroccan who has a degree in engineering. Apparently during the economic downturn in 2008 he came to Iceland looking for work.  When he first arrived he wasn’t proficient enough in English, which I gather is the language used in the technical field here, so he couldn’t get a job as an engineer right away.  As his English improved he did find employment in that field and drives a taxi on the side because the cost of living is very high here in Iceland where nearly everything has to be imported.  He took good care of me and when I return if he’s available I will try to engage him again.

When I got back to the ship some good friends from previous cruises had arrived and it was so nice to reunite with them.  They’ll be on for the next 21 days and I’ll be leaving in 7 but we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

That was yesterday, the 6th (82nd anniversary of D Day by the way), and today we’re at Heimaey in the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland.  I stopped here last August 17th and took a tour and truthfully there’s not a lot to see here.  I wrote a pretty long entry about some of the unusual history including a raid by Barbary pirates back in 1627 and about the near catastrophic volcanic eruption in 1973 during which the island was saved by the heroic efforts of 300 men from the island who volunteered to stay behind after the rest of the population was evacuated.  The men had some help from the US Navy.  It is a rather dramatic story and if you’re interested you can read about it in my entry for that date in August 2025.  If anybody reading this ever comes to Heimaey it is worth going one time to see the excellent museum here.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’m trying to catch up on some reading and writing I’ve neglected.  I hope all is well at home.