Returning from an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Britain (hence the left hand down a bit) on board the good ship "Black Prince", I am left with a mixed bag of impressions and memories both good and bad. The Fortunes had been booked to do a couple of shows during a ten day cruise which left from Glasgow on the 1st June. Once aboard I was very soon made to feel very spritely as I think I was one of the youngest people on the boat. The fee paying cruisers were made up mostly of Scottish pensioners on an affordable outing, and I'd never seen so many walking sticks in one location before in my life!
The first few days at sea the weather couldn't have been better, cloudless skies,mill pond seas and nice warm sunshine. Calling in firstly at Dublin, where we checked out the Guinness Factory Museum, then onto Falmouth, Guernsey and London. We berthed at Greenwich in London where I took the opportunity of checking out the grounds of the Greenwich College where I was delighted to discover they were filming Gulliver's Travels staring Jack Black! That night The Fortunes did two shows which were received very well despite the fact that we were struggling to come to terms with the resident bands equipment we had to use. We were at Greenwich from midday until midnight and it occurred to me that the administration had been a tadge dissorganised and somewhat short-sighted as we could have gotten on the boat, done the gig and been off again in that time span, thus freeing up four cabins. No need for us to have had ten days at sea! Hey ho, ours is not to reason why.......
The following 24 hours proved not to be so enjoyable as the weather took a turn for the worse and I had a bout of sea-sickness as I was unable to cope with the swell of the North Sea. I guess as I was passing my home town in Northumberland I may have been giving it large with the old technicolour yawn!
Stopping off at Edinburgh allowed for a pleasant walk along the Royal Mile starting at the Castle and ending at the new Scottish Parliament Building. This blew away the cobwebs and helped put me right again.
Having rounded the top of Scotland the weather improved again and Oban proved a delight to visit and was my favorite stop off on the cruise. I had taken my SLR camera with me but wasn't inspired many times to take any pictures.
Sailing mainly at night meant there were few opportunities to see anything of interest whilst at sea. I didn't see one basking Shark, sunbathing seal, or the spray of a exhaling whale as it made it's way amongst the west Scottish Isles. Nevertheless it was a relaxing time with good food and excellent service. The Black Prince was a small and intimate boat and sadly is about to be sold off as she has become obsolete (being over fifty years old she doesn't meet the requirements of a modern cruise ship). They say that was the reason we were booked to perform on one of her last voyages for the Fred Olsen Line. What does that say about us I wonder!!
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