Commander Shacklepin

Blog 6. Passage to Australia. Port Elizabeth

Day 20 Sunday 29 January at Port Elizabeth (PE), South Africa. The sun is shining, the air is hot, the sea is green. The official temperature is 23ºC but it feels much hotter in practice. We arrived at 0400, an event that we viewed in spirit from a horizontal position, and the brows were openContinue reading “Blog 6. Passage to Australia. Port Elizabeth”

Blog 5. Passage to Australia. Cape Town

Day 17 Thursday 26 January sees our arrival in Cape Town at 0630, with the sun just rising in the east (it would have been remarkable if it rose in the west) and casting its warm rays onto Table Mountain, with the city still in shadow. It was a most impressive sight. As usual, weContinue reading “Blog 5. Passage to Australia. Cape Town”

Blog 4. Passage to Australia. Walvis Bay

Day 13 Here we are on Sunday 22 January, two days away from our destination of Walvis Bay. We moved the clocks forward another hour early this morning, so we are now on Bravo time i.e. two hours ahead of you on GMT Well this is a bit much. It is overcast and the temperatureContinue reading “Blog 4. Passage to Australia. Walvis Bay”

Blog 3. Passage to Australia. Off West Africa

Day 7 Monday 16 January 2017 finds us heading south from Tenerife on a dark blue sea, clear skies, 18ºC, wind force 4 from NE, sea state slight. Our departure from Santa Cruz on Sunday night was extremely impressive and well up to Royal Navy standard, so Cunard has notched up several more credits afterContinue reading “Blog 3. Passage to Australia. Off West Africa”

Blog 2. Passage to Australia. Santa Cruz

BLOG 2 Day 5 Day 5, Saturday 14 January 2017, found us in Funchal, Madeira which we entered in the dark at 0700. There was quite a stiff breeze blowing, but we crept into the harbour, then reversed very gently onto our berth on the outer (south) mole without using any tugs. This was extremelyContinue reading “Blog 2. Passage to Australia. Santa Cruz”

Blog 1. Passage to Australia. Funchal

The £10 Poms. Jane had been quite ill throughout December, with considerable abdominal and chest pain that defied all medical tests and treatment. Christmas and New Year were disasters and it was touch and go whether she would be able to make the voyage to Australia in QUEEN MARY 2 in early January of theContinue reading “Blog 1. Passage to Australia. Funchal”