Three men in a boat?

WELCOME TO THE SINFONIA!

We boarded the vessel on a day when it poured with rain at a time which was not advertised but everyone seemed to know regardless. In other words you could get on hours before the boarding pass said you could! We found our cabin and inspected the 'third bunk' which we declared hers and then demonstrated her ability to get on to it! 

Getting ready for bed and the ladder!

We were quite open to the possibility of an upgrade but the young man on reception said they wouldn't know what cabins were available until we were at sea and then would have to email the company to find out!! which struck us as odd since he already had the passenger manifesto and allocation and he was on the ship whereas the company were on land! That first night was rather chaotic and we never did get our beds made properly though we didn't realise that till the second night when they were obviously 'all there, even if their occupants... The SIMFONIA is an Italian ship so I did manage to charm the rather suave Italian MD that we could come to first sitting rather than second...not that it made any difference that first night.

A very cold and swirly sea water pool. There were two of them separted by two rather nice but always packed jacuzzis on a bridge. Jessica and I were possibly the only ones to swim in this pool throughout the trip! That just goes to show that the vast majority of the passengers were South African who don't swim in cold water unless they absolutely have to! Something about mad dogs...?

Note the grey skies under which we sailed up the coast from Cape Town to Durban. One of the reasons I Gay wanted to do this trip was to have the joy of sailing out of Table Bay  reliving 1969 but it was not to be since we sailed at 10.30 on a night when the mountain and the sky were beclouded! The cloud cover, rain, drizzle and general chilly dampness stayed with us apart from a couple of hours on the second afternoon when Jessica heard that the captain had sailed south in search of sunshine! Unlike previous cruises for G the passengers were not all middle aged and rather well off staid people! Not a bit! There were several thousand all 'sorts' on board most of them cheerful and upbeat in spite of the weather!! Oh yes on the second morning we were gravely offered a rather pricey upgrade to a balcony cabin which I rather fancied but the other two declared that we were 'well settled' and in any case one of our three nights were already spent. Ah well! You see democracy rules Ed!

 Jessica proved herself to be quite a cruiser not only treating us to cocktails - they were called PURPLE RAIN because not surprisingly that was the colour they turned when you stirred them! Terry when offered a sip declined saying that the very sight of them made him feel queasy! Back to Jessica - who worked out a game plan for us that first day which included a quiz and a dancing lesson, swimming and gym, bingo to see if we could win the big one and the show! Then she declared that she would take herself on a late night walk round the deck and reacted rather sharply when I suggested she shouldn't  be long only meaning it was chilly out there! She returned SOME TIME LATER! I pretended to be asleep just in case she thought I was waiting up for her. It was only the next morning we discovered she had been to the Casino! We gathered her losses were indeed inconsiderable!!

Wet and deserted decks. We tried all the various eating stations and specially enjoyed pizza in the rain on the deck one lunchtime....oh yes and ice cream in the sunshine the one time the captain found some for us! 

The picture says it all. Jessica looking happy as Larry with Terry looking well......content at least. I persuaded him that he could survive the
Cape Rollers and subsequent sizeable swell without succumbing to seasickness. He enjoyed the 'looking out to sea gym' whereas Jicky and I were not allowed in because we did not have the right footwear! We girls shared the footwear we had and I got blisters from wearing it without socks so that was that! By the way no dancing for me on this cruise...The show on the second night was brilliant by the way.

We disembarked on a damp Friday morning after three nights on board the Sinfonia. In descending order of enjoyment.....
Jessica gold, Terry silver, Gay bronze.... Actually looking back I think I enjoyed it more than I thought I did if you know what I mean! Will there be other cruises? Probably...

Disembarked and waiting for the next adventure.