Opening our balcony doors at 7 am brought streams of sunlight into the cabin. We could hear the gentle sound of the North Sea from the bow of the ship.
It had been a calm night with no perceptible movement of the ship. Plus the ship’s fog horn had stopped sometime overnight.
Our Baltic cruise on P&O Aurora would take us to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark and Norway.
Sunday the 14th May we cruised on the North Sea on our way to the Baltic and to our passage through the Great Belt and then onto Gdynia.
Sunday morning in the North Sea
Our cabin was on Deck 9 in the forward section. From the balcony I watched as we passed an oil rig in The North Sea away in the haze.
Breakfast had started much earlier in the mid-ships restaurant.We were part of the last minute rush before it closed.
The air temperature was 13C as I walked around the Promenade Deck (Deck 7). On the starboard side the sun was shining. There it was pleasant enough for other passengers to be sitting and watching the sea. On the port side the cool temperature and shade combined to keep that almost empty except for a handful of smokers.
As Aurora moved closer to Holland we were passing oil tankers and the odd oil rig.
These oil rigs were far enough way to look a little eerie in the haze.
The rest of the day
At the midday announcement we were updated on progress. Ready for tomorrow we were given approximate times for our passage under the Great Belt Bridge. Lunch was in the same mid-ships restaurant as breakfast. After a salad followed by a chicken curry it was time to walk the Promenade Deck for exercise.
On the Promenade Deck it is 3.2 times around for one mile. This afternoon the sun was on neither side of the ship and after six turns around the deck we stopped. There were no sea birds or even passing ships to see.
Using the overview of the cruise we decided which evenings to eat at one of the specialty restaurants. Our chosen one was the Beach House and on this ship it was possible to ring to book tables.
Earlier in the day the onboard, the excursion team had given a talk on St Petersburg. This was then repeated on one of the ship’s TV channels. This talk was much longer than the usual port talk as there certainly is a lot to see and do in St Petersburg.
Cocktail party and dinner
This evening was the first black tie dinner of the cruise and it was the Captain’s cocktail party. After changing we went down to Deck 7 and at 8 pm there was already a queue formed for the party at the stern of the ship.
Rather than queue we sat at the bar in the casino/sports bar and waited to join the queue as it passed us by.
After the Captain’s speech we went down for dinner. The menu was the ‘Marco Pierre White menu’. I did, however, switch the starter to duck, the soup to ham and pea but did keep the main course of Beef Wellington.
We stayed for tea and coffee and by then it was far too late to go to the theatre for the introduction to the ship’s Headliners company.