Day 6 Monday 16th March: Southampton
I was awake early and had a quick look out of the window and Aurora was still selling up the Solent. I had a good strong signal so went back to bed and was checking my emails and sending messages to people that we were soon to be in Southampton.
Over the ship’s tannoy we had an explanation that the ship was now running late. This was due to heavy traffic in the Solent and the pilot had been delayed coming on board Aurora. Moving to our assigned meeting rooms, to leave the ship, would now be delayed by at least u30 minutes after the time that we had been given.
Best of all, we were also told that we could stay in our cabins after the usual deadline of 8 am. We briefly chatted to our steward and told him that we were going for a quick breakfast in the buffet and then we would be out of our room.
Upstairs in the buffet there was a lot of room. I had my by now usual porridge with fruit berries. There was another ship’s announcement that asked us to further delay going to our meeting rooms. This was because the luggage was only just leaving the ship. This meant that we had time for another cup of tea while we waited.
From our balcony the view was now restricted as a car carrier had now docked almost alongside us.
Our meeting place was in the Masquerade nightclub. Then we sat by the bar waiting for permission to leave the ship.
Leaving Aurora
When the call came to leave the ship we managed to get down to the Atrium using the lifts and followed the long queue of passengers leaving the ship. There must have been a lot of passengers leave before us as we have no difficulty in finding our suitcases.
Once out of the luggage Hall we were at the usual car park to pick up our car. The roads home were again very clear and it was with some relief when we turned into our driveway and parked.
We then had a few moments thought for the crew of P&O Aurora facing an uncertain few weeks or months as the ship would be docked somewhere until the COVID-19 pandemic was over.