In search of the sun

I’ve been on a cruise - a no-stop ‘sun voyage’ – aboard the Queen Elizabeth.

We booked it several months ago when restrictions meant that Cunard could offer only two types of cruise this summer - a scenic tour of the British coast or a mysterious ‘sun voyage’.

Sailing from Southampton, both were advertised as no-stop cruises for double vaccinated UK residents only.

We opted for the ‘sun voyage’ in the expectation that it would take us into sunnier international waters. That was our assumption and no-one said otherwise.

Come July however Cunard’s silence on the matter suggested that we would probably be staying in UK waters. Given the weather this was not an enticing prospect.

Incredibly, 24 hours after we set sail, no-one we spoke to was any the wiser about our possible destination.

There was however a general consensus that we were heading for the Irish Sea which prompted the thought that calling this a 'sun voyage' would be in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act.

Thankfully, and credit to Cunard, things turned out very differently.

On our second (third?) day we rounded the north west tip of France, headed into the Bay of Biscay and (yay!) found that elusive sun.

And that's where we stayed for the next few days, doing two laps of the gulf while enjoying clear blue skies, glorious sunshine and fantastic sunsets.

The irony is that the Bay of Biscay is known for its rough seas and violent storms. On this occasion however the weather could not have been better.

Covid did of course have some impact on the cruise.

Shortly before the scheduled restart of Cunard's UK cruises on July 19 an unspecified number of crew boarding the Queen Elizabeth tested positive.

The company was forced to cancel several cruises with a new restart date of August 13, one week before we were due to sail.

Our voyage was therefore only the second QE cruise following the restart and they weren't taking any chances.

Apart from providing evidence that we had been double vaxxed, we had to queue for a rapid lateral flow test prior to boarding.

We then had to wait for confirmation that our tests were negative. This took 20-30 minutes and, to be fair, the system was pretty efficient.

Once on board face masks had to be worn at all times in indoor public spaces.

The only exception was when we were eating or drinking which inevitably encouraged us to eat and drink as often and for as long as possible.

Alternatively you could spend more time on deck which wasn't a hardship once the sun appeared and the temperature rose.

I'm not a fan of mask-wearing but it was only a significant issue when watching one of the shows in the ship's theatre. It felt hot and claustrophobic and I didn't repeat the experience.

On the other hand, thanks to Covid the ship was only half full (by design) with approximately 1100 passengers and 800 crew members.

None of the three Cunard ships (Queen Mary, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth) are large by today's standards (some cruise ships can accommodate 6,000 or more passengers, which is my idea of hell) but the reduced capacity on the QE almost made up for the mandatory mask wearing.

Anyway I'm home now and catching up with what I've missed, work-wise. More on this tomorrow.

Below: view from our balcony