Southampton to Madiera

AROUND AFRICA CRUISE

MS BOUDICCA 5^TH JANUARY – 21^ST MARCH 2016

. Southampton to the Canary Islands.

The potential tedium of waiting all day in Southampton until boarding at 1430 was relieved by meeting our old friends from Bath and Dartmouth, Jane and Peter Tapley, for breakfast – they arrived that morning from a Christmas cruise to the Canaries on Boudicca’s sister ship Balmoral. They told horrendous stories of the foul weather encountered on that voyage including severe storm force 11 winds which prevented a visit to Madeira, confined guests to their cabins when all the furniture had to be tied down, and caused numerous injuries to passengers from falls and flying tables and chairs. So we are hoping for a quieter time though we still expect a serious swell and full gale winds in the notorious Bay of Biscay.

After a rather tedious boarding procedure we got a very pleasant surprise on entering our cabin – not only was it both bigger and smarter than expected but there was on the dressing table a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Anne Cameron, a great friend from Comrie. Only 3 of our 4 cases were there but we quickly located the missing luggage at the reception area – a label had become detached. So we unpacked essentials and then headed for the upper deck to witness our departure from Southampton.
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Leaving Southampton

It was quite exciting for John to sail down the Solent and Spithead for the first time on a passenger ship – we were the only people on the upper deck in the dark and with quite a wind getting up.  He remembered seeing the old Queen Elizabeth and Mauretania in these waters from the beach at Stokes Bay as a 4-year-old boy in 1947. Although dark the illuminated sail tower at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour and the clock tower at Ryde could easily be picked out. Very soon though the thought of our first dinner felt even more attractive – we had not eaten since breakfast.

Our cabin, midships on one of the lower decks hardly moved at all in spite of the very rough seas causing pitching and rolling and we slept the sleep of the just – hopefully “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”!

A packed programme of lectures and entertainment included excellent talks on the forthcoming destinations, firstly Oporto where we shall stay for a few hours on the 8^th of January.

On passage the guest speakers have included the porcelain expert from the Antiques Road Show who told the story of the most valuable finds in the 29 year history of the programme, but the main interest was the stormy sea and the excellent dinners, just as good as any we have eaten anywhere including Gleneagles.

Friday 8^th January

Our first port of call – Oporto. We docked at 0800 and got the ship’s tour bus into town. No sooner had we got off the bus in the city centre than there was a massive downpour! It didn’t let up for over an hour but we continued undaunted though pretty wet. We eventually found the railway station with its attractive tiled walls and tried to phone Madeira to confirm our tour there. No joy, but a very helpful girl in a travel agent made the necessary call for us. We then went across the road to an internet café, and as well as picking up our emails we had a welcome cup of coffee. We made our way down to the River Douro – in parts the streets resembled rivers too with the amount of water! We were glad we reached the river and saw the panaroma through the rain – the steel bridge, the port companies like Sandemans and Taylors, the river boats. We walked back up towards the pick up point, and on the way went in to a lovely old fashioned drapers – like stepping back in time. When we got back to Boudicca we were able to dry off, followed by a talk on Tenerife, a delicious Thai buffet and a very impressive show put on by the resident singers and dancers. All in all quite a day!