On Wednesday 2nd May we were speeding North past Portugal and Spain in overcast conditions. Later in the afternoon we made an emergency call into the port of Vigo.
Our cruise to the Azores, Madeira and the Iberian Peninsular would take us to Ponta Delgada, Praia da Vitoria, Funchal, Cadiz, Malaga and finally to Gibraltar
Cold and wet start to the day
Arcadia had been batting along past Portugal when we went to bed and nothing had changed when we woke up. The sky was overcast and out on our balcony I detected drizzle in the wind.
We were awake and up in plenty of time to get to the Meridian for breakfast. I decided to change things up and ordered a full P&O breakfast with two fried eggs along with my smoothie, brown toast and orange segments. It seemed a good idea at the time but it was a lot to eat!
Our breakfast companions at the other end of the table with die hard P&O cruises and spent a great deal of time telling us about all their cruises. On the subject of the new ships, they were less than impressed and criticise Britannia despite never having been on the ship! Their criticisms of Azura were many and I decided for the sake of harmony to get on with my ample breakfast and ignore them.
After breakfast we went to the shops to see what we could buy after the previous days reminder that we had some on-board credit remaining.
Walking the promenade Deck
Back in our cabin we changed into warm clothes before braving the Promenade Deck. We managed 3 miles around the ship with a little extra caused by the diversions around the repairs midships.
As we passed inside we kept hearing a solo guitar in the piano bar and after the walk we sat down to listen to the remainder of the set. At noon the bridge officer gave the usual update.
But this interrupted his rendition of Sting’s ‘Fields of gold’. Ivan then packed up his guitar and left for the afternoon.
We looked outside and it was even more overcast and was now raining. It was definitely time for lunch in the Meridian.
Lunch and a restful afternoon
I skipped the lunch starters and went straight to the tandoori chicken with a banana salad(!) followed by ice cream. We listened to three fellow passengers describing their attempts to get a larger cabin. They had been offered an empty suite. The only problem was having to pay an extra £2,000 needless to say the three ladies declined the offer.
After our exertions in the morning we retired to our cabin to read the books we had picked up in the library. Outside it was overcast again and drizzly. When I looked outside we were passing slower ships that were bouncing in the swell. Arcadia was still making over 20 knots as we passed them. The flower in our cabin made a good subject for a still-life when it sat on the table on our balcony. My iPhone 8 Plus took this image using the Portrait Mode option.
And I couldn’t resist the rain drops on the balcony glass.
At about 2:.30 pm we heard an emergency call over the ship’s tannoy. This was calling for an emergency response team to go to a cabin on a lower deck.
Then at about 4.30 pm the Captain announced that we had a serious emergency With a passenger and the ship was diverging to Vigo, in Spain. The ship then increased speed to 24 knots and turned East and South back towards Northern Spain.
Going into Vigo
As we neared Vigo, the Captain updated us that the Navigator of the Seas would leave her berth and Arcadia with then dock to allow the transfer of the ill passenger.
Vigo was overcast and the hills around were covered in cloud.
A small crowd stood on the viewing platform of the nearby shopping centre watching as Arcadia docked. Initially there were only a handful of lines tying the ship up as the forward gangplank was lowered to the quayside. Below us the gates opened and a second ambulance came and more emergency people came on board.
The Captain updated everyone over the ship’s tannoy about progress and requested that passengers refrain from photographing the forward gangplank.
Street art in Vigo
I took the opportunity to photograph parts of Vigo that I hadn’t seen before. Rather looking back at the quay I scanned the town to our side and forward of the ship.
This included a couple of murals on a distant building.
This building looked abandoned, and
this one did too.
Last black-tie evening
In the time I was in the shower and getting dressed for the last black-tie dinner, Arcadia had left the quayside and was on her way out of the port.
Dinner was one of the special menus of the cruise. I had the asparagus, a sorbet, the beef and finally ice cream. During the meal we had the cooks parade where we celebrated all the meals we had had on the cruise.
As this was our last formal evening the cameras were all out. Here we are captured across the table.
We walked a few steps to the Spinnaker Lounge and listened to the Upbeats Duo, In their set they played numbers from the Rolling Stones, Carly Lee Jepsen, as well as requests and lots of country music all in all an excellent evening’s music.