Dr Fred and Ruby Starrs get shipshape....

So this is day one of ''Dr Fred and RubyStarrs go cruising la la land'' style on our way to Morocco.... I have to say its a potentially surreal experience but before I go further I also need to explain we are here because Dr Fred is working for Go Stargazing And for this cruise he is the ships astronomer and I'm his incredibly glamorous assisant.

Any way back to reality... our cabin is great - I personally am very thrilled we have actual port holes for windows - very authentic but the best thing is we are so so near the sea line...its right outside out window... scudding by at a huge rate of knots - we just need a friendly sea creature or two to pop up and it would be perfect.

The rest of the ship is a glorified floating hotel with lots of bars and places to eat - we look forward to trying them all.

Dr Fred as the stargazer is part of the 'enrichment' team and we went to a welcome meeting - its a friendly crowd and I think everyone is out to enjoy this outing. There are a number of 'return' acts so it cant be too bad an experience. We sailed off into the sunset and now have 3 full days at sea - and internet is scarce (expensive) so I probably wont post this until we pitch up in a wifi coffee shop in Fungal which is our first port.... sunshine here we come.

The on board entertainment is very varied and some of it looks quite interesting - others bits I'm going embrace fully as I'm unlikely ever to come across a similar experience!!!

Meanwhile. I'm loving this cosy in bed slight ship motion - lets see what day 2 brings.....

.....A glorious sunny day with a definte swell in the sea. But we have our sea legs so its not a problem .. we slept incredibly well lulled and rocked by neptune...

Dr Fred had his speaker introduction and then we sat through a rather disjointed talk about the atlantic ocean - it didn't mesmorise me but I didnt fall asleep (others did)... we spent most of the day orientating around the ship - I've got it sussed... Dr Fred less so.. no hills or crags for landmarks! We did the obligatory 4 laps = 1mile - laps on the deck - although Dr Fred got told off for going the wrong way🤣🤣... but really we have do some exercise to justify eating breakfast everyday!! I tried to go to the art class but it was full so we just hung out checked out an interesting talk on Morocco and after watching the ISS go right over our heads across the ship we sat in the bar with a glass of wine.

It was a very lazy day but in between all this we have been working the room... loads of really friendly people wanting to talk stars - it feels very positive and welcoming. And in between that we have been eating!!!

We are currently having full days at sea and while there are a lot of activities most of them centre around playing bridge or board games? Pub quizzes or possibly fitness things in the spa and the gym So if you're not into that kind of thing other than the speakers theres not a lot to do apart from eat. Most bits of this trip are just as I imagined it would be- while there are seemingly loads of activities most of them are - not really our thing -especially with these long days at sea... one thing though - the general age demographic has left us feeling quite young and fit... There are moments when I feel positively thin!!!! we have fantasised about making adventures to pass the time .you know like stalking the piano player... stealing pieces ofthe jigsaws... trapping a rich husband... we've played chess - a first (and I suspect last). However it is an interesting experience and not to be sniffed at... looking foward to being in Port for some variation.

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

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