WILL WE WONT WE THE HEBRIDEAN WAY
Early start today, breakfast at seven so we can get onto dry land as soon as possible. The ship anchors off Stornoway and prepares to start taking passengers ashore by lifeboat. We congregate in the theatre and await our turn to be ferried ashore. Sadly we wait and wait, apparently the sea swell is too high making it unsafe to descend into the tender boat, we just have to be patient and wait until the sea calms down! A famous king once tried this trick of controlling the sea – then, unsurprisingly, comes the announcement – “reluctantly we are abandoning the trip to Stornoway for reasons of passenger safety and we shall now have a leisurely day at sea”.
From passenger safety perspective, absolutely the right decision, but, it is quite a nice day, I would imagine better than most days in this part of the world, so taking passengers ashore is a predictable problem or it very rarely happens. A few enquires confirms our suspicions, what a poor piece of itinerary planning by CMV.
So a leisurely day it is, bird watching from the upper decks – lots of Puffins, Gulls, Fulmars, etc. We attend an interesting lecture on the geology of Iceland with stunning pictures of waterfalls, mountains and volcanic landscapes.
The swimming pool looks interesting, a member of the crew has swept it, I wonder whether they were going to fill it, they have to be 12 miles from land before they can fill it with sea water. Few enquiries does not find the answer, someone said there was a leak in the pool so would not be filled, another crew member said it never gets filled. Not sure whether I would go in, but do have swimming trunks with me (no, not speedos!).
Usual excellent food and then onto the show bar where there is a performance of Russian based songs, although very good it was a very short show of less than 30 minutes. Only one thing left for it – that disco lounge (again!) with Kath leading the way. This time we were last out, but Paul and Liz took a stroll around the upper deck and discovered a bird they had never seen before – a Turnstone – obviously cadging a lift. We discovered later that another bird watcher fed the bird some breakfast. Birds are not daft! – gets a free lift and some breakfast as part of his migratory flight.
Press any image to see a slide show:
Six Sail to Iceland 