28 August 2010; Tilbury; 2nd day.

We are still on the multiple day stays here in Tilbury, courtesy of the fact that the original schedule was for Greenwich. As so far up the Thames the draft of the ship becomes a problem so the arrival and departure has to be done on high water and the change over day in between. For reasons extensively explained in the blogs of last year, the ship moved to Tilbury, but is still on the same schedule. That will change next year. We will still go to Tilbury but it will only be for a one day call for disembarkation and embarkation. Understandable as a revamped schedule will make it possible to either visit a port further away or stay longer somewhere. For the crew it is a pity as an overnight always gives some more time to go ashore. Still we are there for the guests and if we can optimize a cruise then we will do it.

That does not mean that the crew did not grab the chance of some R&R provided by these overnight stays with both hands this time. The cast members of the revue show go to London to see some West End shows, other crew go sightseeing and a lot of our Asian crewmembers go shopping in the discount stores and large department stores for presents to take home at the end of the contract. Close by is an enormous shopping centre called Lakeside and it is quite easy to get there. There is a shuttle bus service from the terminal to the train station and the train stops at the shopping centre. Some crew have also discovered the local bus service that runs to the villages nearby, where also bargains can be found, another reason why I really like to be docked here in Tilbury. Looking from the ship it does not look like much but under closer scrutiny it has a lot going for it.

My hotel manager visited today the local pub called “At World’s End” and came back to advise that he was really pleased with his lunch. This coming from a French connoisseur and hotel professional is praise indeed. I stayed onboard today as I did my duty yesterday by shopping for the ship. Today it was time to do some paper shuffling and E-mail filing and clean out where needed and review what had come in the last few days for the up coming cruise. Important for every cruise, but certainly for this one, is to keep a close eye on the weather. As the British Isles are the first land to meet all the weather that comes over from North America, it can be very changeable and thus affect our cruise on a daily basis. Because it is the hurricane season in the Caribbean, there is a whole string of ex-tropical storms and hurricanes coming over as depressions to Europe and they can change direction at any moment. At the moment I am keeping a close eye on the ex Tropical storms Danielle and Earl. Based on the long term forecast, they are supposed to dissipate in the Mid Atlantic and their wave field should not reach the shores of Ireland or the British Isles, so things are looking good. The issue I most worry about is swell and waves as they make the ship rock and endanger a safe tender service. Have a look at this website; it gives a 180 hours swell loop. It does not account for local situations but as an overview it is quite good.

http://magicseaweed.com/msw-surf-charts2.php?chart=2&res=750&type=swell

Tomorrow morning we sail at 8 am. By 9 am. the Marco Polo is coming and they also have a reservation for this dock. They were scheduled to be there at 0700 hrs but they sent a revised ETA of 9 am. So I will sail at the more decent time of 0800 when more guests are awake to enjoy the scenic cruising down the river. There is a small disturbance brewing in the North of Scotland which pulls a frontal system over England but I think that we will be gone before we really get affected by it.