Saturday 14 July

Boarding at Southampton Docks.

We woke up real early on a very wet Saturday morning to get ready for our cruise starting from Southampton.

We arrived safely at dock 5 where the Azura was and went through all the rigmarole of getting on board. on board we all went to deck 15 and ate a light lunch followed by a visit ti the *Antrim where we had a mocktail. soon the announcement that we could go to our cabin and this we did. First to the Scotts which was almost at the back end of the ship. Then to ours and the Skinners which were as far forward as the Scotts are aft.

From the Scotts cabin it is very easy to reach the food halls. Up to the cafeteria and two floors down to the restaurant for dinner.

Our cabins are so far forward near but on deck 14 the theatre (deck 5 & 6) and shops (deck 6 & 7).

Here we waited mid afternoon for the muster to our emergency stations. Practise makes perfect.

Whist waiting I sat on the balcony. It was not wet but very overcast and cool. I sat and watched as a barge hauling a large container ship off it's mooring's and set it on it's way. On another dock to my left there was a large parking area covered by vehicles. Some of which had been unloaded from another container ship. Then I notices still another container ship that looked as if it had been unloaded as it sat high in the water.

These modern container ships look more like the Ark than ships, yet ships they are.

My my, how many were we stuffed unto the playhouse for the muster. It doesn't seem a safety feature to cram so many together without any real air. I had problems keeping my eyes open in all that heat. after we all crammed out and most ques for the lifts. We struggled our way back to our cabin and I sat again on the balcony, listening to the screaming from the seagulls and the chatter from the next balcony.

We were awaiting the scheduled castoff. Although the girls all had appointments in the beauty salon, us boys not needing this extra attention had time to kill.

Just as Sammy left through the door I noticed that someone had let go of the rope and we were sailing and before 5pm.

For a while we searched for Roger. Then we settled at the piano/ blue bar hoping he would pass whist sipping a cool drink. Our resident pianist played a melody and often sung along. Very pleasant just waiting.

Our dinner was very nice and three had stake and the other three had pork. We enjoyed the show afterwards. The "Highliners dance group". It was exactly the same show as on our last cruise. I really enjoyed the Irish dancing at the end. after we chatted a while and went our ways back to our cabin for an early night. Not that early as the clocks were going forward an hour and we had to be up for now 6am (UK 5am) because the clocks had gone forward an hour. Did not need much rocking.