The Atlantic Days 7-Till Disembarkation

 Well the sea voyage has come to an end. It has been difficult to put together the blog due to the erratic and poor internet available on the ship and I grew tired of waiting a long time to download any photos.

Instead of the 20 days straight at sea we ended up with a couple of detours to get spare parts from another Ponant ship and another for fuelling off a town in Wales. Then we come alongside Caen and were there for 2 days while the ship restocks and be ready for their next voyage which starts on the day we get off in Honfleur. After Caen we have 1 day at sea and then disembark the next day. 😁

Since the last blog covering the first few days onboard, the trip continued without too many events happening, we slipped into a daily routine. Waking up time was really dependent on the previous night's sleep (which initially was a bit erratic based upon the sea state and how much sleep we had during the previous day). We may make breakfast, but more often we didn't and headed off to lunch in lieu around midday. After lunch would be more relaxing around the ship (or cabin) as initially there was little planned by the ship to entertain the guests. The gym, reading or watching TV made up the afternoon. They occasionally had a lecture on something but it was difficult as mostly in French.

Then there is dinner and the evening does have some form of entertainment on most nights consisting of either the pianist, a duet (singer and guitarist who were very good) or another duet from Chile which consisted of  a singer and harp player - not that fantastic as it was primarily South American music. We did have 3 dancers but they didn't come into there own until the sea calmed down.

Very exciting!

The food remained very good and the wines (primarily French) were also very good. But it comes with the knowledge of weight control (which both of us had given up on) The pastries are very good 🙈🙉🙊

The weather started to deteriorate around day 6 and got very bumpy for around 4 days. As well as the sea getting up we also had the temperature dropping, wind and rain - so no outside deck chairs and sunbathing for us. TV was the order of the afternoon (or sleeping to make up for the lost sleep the night before) or the gym.

It was entertaining sitting by the window at lunch and watching the sea pound away. It was like watching the washing machine (and just as exciting).

From the outset there were not many guests moving around the ship (inside as too cold and rough to go out on the upper deck) but the seastate definitely kept more in their cabins.

On top off that there was an outbreak of the 'flu' that went through the guests which kept more in their cabins. I didn't think it was Covid (I got it 3 days ago and the symptoms are similar to a bad cold). Some got tested with negative results.

The weather started to ease after about 4 days and the entertainment did start to pick up. The dancers put on a show which was quite good (there will be another one before the end).

We had 2 casino nights where we were given paper money to gamble. Julie headed to the roulette after a profitable stay at Blackjack and I went to the poker table. On the second night you counted up the paper holdings and use it on an auction. We had a bit. There were 4 small bags each holding a prize. So you bid on the unknown contents. One had a baseball cap, another a 30 min massage, another a red balloon and toy whale (booby prize) and another that I can't remember. We bid and won the 3rd auction 😊. And yes, we won the balloon😡.

Once the calm waters returned they arranged dancing nights (had to put on 'games' to entice couples to dance). This normally had about 16 guests (almost 30% of those onboard) plus ship's dancers and staff. It was a good fun.

Julie got into the gym. Mainly on the walker as it also had backgammon on the screen. So now she is hooked on the game (that's also good). I stuck with the gym and steam room to fill in the afternoons. Slowed down the expanding waistline.

We rendezvoused with another Ponant ship during the night on around the 15th day off the coast of Northern Ireland to exchange maintenance parts. Happened about 0100 so decided to sleep through it and then we also anchored off a town in Wales the next day to take on more fuel (once again stayed in bed).

We had the Captain's Farewell dinner and the food was very good. After that there was the final show with the singers and dance team. We finished the night off at the Lounge Bar with a few friends. Music wasn't for dancing so we had to satisfy ourselves with a few cocktails instead 😆 

The next day we sailed into Caen. We had to navigate up a river to the port (Caen is inland from the coast)

                                           

We were there for 2 days. First morning we decided to explore Caen. It was quite a nice city however the best part was being on dry land 😊. That afternoon we took a tour to Bayeux. This is a quant little town (better known as a place where the Allies came through during the Normandie landings in WW2).

A nice afternoon was had by all.

The next day Julie headed to the market in Caen. I stayed onboard trying to get rid of the flu (without success). That evening we set sail for the early docking in Honfleur the following morning.

And so our journey on Le Boreal came to an end. 18 days at sea. Would we do it again - no. The ship was comfortable (although in my opinion not to the same standard as the Venture). The guests were pleasant and we did meet new friends whose company we enjoyed. Being a French ship the majority were French (no surprise there) and that meant we had only a few people onboard to mix with. The French were polite but didn't really mix with the English speaking guests. Night life was a bit dull as not many ventured out after dark (although that did improve with the weather conditions). It was an older group of guests travelling. More so than what we are used to having onboard. Staff were very good (all spoke English). The cruise did not have the fun atmosphere. Not many to drink with (not even those we mixed with were drinkers. Of course the upside of that is that I didn't wake up with a headache 😄. The food was really good especially the soups and deserts. But you can only eat so much. It was a good experience which has resulted in us discounting any idea for round the world cruising. We will concentrate on shorter cruises that frequently have ports of call.

Ready for the final land trip. Honfleur, Le Havre, Lyon and finishing in Florence. Travelling primarily by train.  Not a ship to be seen.

I need a game of golf!!!!! 😖