Currently sailing south towards Spain.
Conditions: cool, calm and misty. As I write the balcony is wet with spray so I'm about to go inside.
We left Southampton yesterday afternoon and have two days at sea before we arrive in Cadiz. From there it's a two-hour drive to Seville which I last visited in 1999 for a "world tobacco conference". (More on that later.)
Subsequent ports of call include Sardinia, Livorno (Italy), Barcelona, Cannes and Gibraltar.
This is our first cruise that guarantees sunshine. Previously we have visited every corner of Scandinavia (Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark) plus Iceland, Estonia and Russia (St Petersburg).
Enjoyed both the Baltics and the fjords but this year the children wanted to watch movies in the open air cinema without having to wear waterproofs and thermal underwear.
Stay tuned for more exciting anecdotes ... or talk amongst yourselves while I'm gone.