Spirit of Adventure blog

The weather in Southampton was perfect for the start of our Mediterranean cruise. Sunshine and temperatures over 20°C. Once all our guests were embarked we conducted our mandatory drill and prepared for sailing. We cast off our lines just after 6pm, swung off pier 101, then proceeded down towards Fowley following Ionia. Our timing was great as we reached Nab Pilot Station, where we disembarked our pilot, at 8.30pm, and proceeded on a westerly course into the sunset.

We had three sea days down to Gibraltar. The weather was lovely and guests followed my advice (not that it was needed) to spend time on open decks and work on their tan. In the early evening of our second sea day, I went for my 5k run on deck 6 – the sun was still high in the sky when I finished, so I decided to work on my tan as well while cooling down…a bottle of water, sunglasses and my Kindle. I’m currently reading an interesting fantasy book by J.Rollins called The Starless Crown.

Arrival to Gibraltar was a bit different to what I’m used to as our usual berth was occupied by a Celebrity ship on the outer pier, therefore we had to berth on the inner side which included some slaloming skills. My 2 year old mobile phone started to malfunction recently, so I was forced to head ashore to acquire a new one, and as we know, Gibraltar is the place for bargain electronics. I went ashore shortly after 10 o’clock, as Staff Captain Simon wanted to head out for lunch at 1pm – of course one of us is always required to be on board. I met one of our former 3rd Officers, Jack, a Gibraltar local. He guided me to a shop where I was able to strike a decent deal for my new phone (which I have not yet mastered I might add). We then went for a cup of coffee and a quick catch up, naturally we ended up having an early lunch as well as I couldn’t resist the chilli-garlic prawns.

Kind Regards
Captain Franko Papić