Well, what a lovely surprise Ponta Delgada was and the whole island of San Miguel, Azores. We had very little expectation of the place really, thinking it would be much like Cape Verde, a bit run down…. Slightly seedy. Not at all. It was really fabulous and we could easily spend a week or two here and with pleasure. We were lucky with the weather. It was really sunny most of the day. Not terribly hot, maybe 19C but with the sun feeling hotter than tha...

A bright, windy, sunny day about 17C. The swell was quite high and the ship rolled a bit. Not enough to bother us old seadogs but I saw a few people with seasick bands on. Not warm enough for sunbathing but we took coffee out on the rear sundeck after breakfast and sat there for an hour or so watching the wake and the waves in between reading. Very pleasant. I would like to think we will get another sunbathing day in before Southampton but I somehow doubt i...

A quiet day at sea. Nice and sunny this morning so we lay out by the pool with our books. Each day brings cooler weather. Today we were down to about 23C and then in the afternoon, the clouds completely came over and the wind came up. Still not at all cold, muggy really….. but a bit grey. I hope we still have some bright days left in the voyage. Fingers crossed. Art was a bit of a challenge. A cityscape: skyscrapers, domes, churches done in silhouet...

We now have two full sea days before we arrive in St Vincent, Cape Verde Islands on Thursday. We are still steaming SSW and every day picking up a few degrees in air temperature. Today, it felt warmer outside than inside and many people were sunbathing around the pools on the open decks. We are still attending our "lessons" but I sense that as the weather gets hotter, this may become a conflict. There are only so many hours in the day…. Anyway, today...

When we woke up at 7am Aurora was just edging slowly along the seafront in Funchal towards the quay. We were breakfasted and docked by 830 and came ashore to find Happy Tours waiting outside. We were 8 in the group, Bob and I, 2 German couples and a pair of Norwegian girls, no one else from the ship. The tour was of the eastern part of the island and the scenery was spectacular. We started by driving up ot the highest accessible point at 1810m where the views...