Day 14 Saturday 2nd July 2016 In transit to Southampton
The combination of wind and waves made the overnight sailing rougher than at anytime earlier in the cruise. The wind was coming onto the starboard side. The wind was strong enough to make opening balcony doors difficult we learnt at breakfast from fellow passengers.
However, earlier at 6:30 am the sun had been shining in a clear blue sky as Azura was sailing South through the North Sea. After breakfast I spent time on the balcony taking pictures of the sky, birds and the first passing boat of the day.
Lunch today was in the Glasshouse and it was very busy with nearly a 40 minute wait for the food to arrive, this gave us an extended time to slowly enjoy the Haywards Shiraz.
We had steak and the medley of pork and chorizo, feta cheese and melon and chicken goujons with guacamole.
After lunch at around 3 pm, Azura was passing Norfolk and on the starboard side I counted eleven production platforms and on the port side three more.
Rainbows over the North Sea
Later in the afternoon we were treated to a fabulous double rainbow just opposite our balcony that shone for many minutes and stayed level with the ship.
After 7 pm there was a second rainbow but this time much further away.
This was our last meal in the Oriental restaurant and I had salad, soup, chicken in Stilton followed by my last brioche based bread and butter pudding.
At 11 pm with the coast of France around Calais ‘twinkling’, the ship was lashed with wind and rain – welcome home!
Day 15 Sunday 3rd July 2016 Southampton
Despite the weather overnight by the time we docked back in Southampton we had blue sky again.
Once docked the work to load Azura had started and somewhere in all those cars is ours.
And yes, our car was about as far away as it was possible to be parked. Welcome home !
