Spirit of Discovery blog
Southampton
Here we are in our winter home port of Southampton, preparing for our magical – Fairy Tale of New York Cruise. Everyone is really excited and I have been looking forward to doing this cruise since I first saw the itinerary.
We have had a busy couple of days here in Southampton, preparing the ship for her first transatlantic crossing towards the Caribbean and the eastern seaboard of the USA. Lots of fuel and supplies to load today and nice conditions to load them in. We were ready for our guests at lunchtime and it was great to see many familiar smiling faces at the gangway as we commenced embarkation. The Christmas Cheer was evident in the Living room and atrium with carol singing, gleaming Christmas trees and lights and of course – Horst’s Train Set!!
My senior team for this cruise are Staff Captain Franko, Chief Engineer Dave, Hotel General Manager Ivar and Cruise Director Andy. 5:15pm and time to do our Mandatory Passenger Emergency Drill and then shortly after 6pm we departed our berth ready for the English Channel and Bay of Biscay transit to our first port of call Funchal in Madeira. The weather is looking fine which is a great start to our cruise, combined with sunshine forecast for Funchal – perfect.
Full steam ahead to Funchal!
Captain Nick Sunderland
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