Wednesday, 18th March, last day at sea, calm sea but rolling, 12 degrees

No real pressure today, but we were on deck just after 7 for our daily walk. The sun was a bit weak – but much brighter than yesterday.

There was also some colour in the bow waves.

All round a better day than forecast and I am hearing good news of the weather in the UK too.

In the end I did decide to go to ukulele to meet up with my chums and after that we played Bridge. Both activities were in question, but both happened. I think we are much more concerned about the whole packing issue than those old hands at this cruising lark who haven’t even thought about it yet. We are still at the ‘obeying the rules’ stage! We have really enjoyed both of our chosen pursuits and have made chums with those we have played with on both counts. Just so you could picture her, I took the opportunity of getting a picture of Maureen the Bridge Wizard. How does she keep all of those rules in her brain?!?

She definitely deserves those capital letters! Having hugged Maria and Matt a fond farewell, we adjourned to finish our packing.

While we are busy doing that I will share a few ‘Bon mots’ we have learned during our final hours. First, 28 people have left the ship during the journey. Two for misdemeanours in the laundry! There is a rumour that there have also been two deaths. To date these have not been verified. We have travelled 18,500 nautical miles on the journey. We are still seeing new faces…. The Aurora has travelled the equivalent of two trips to the moon and back since she was built in April 2000. End of cruise facts!

On the way up to lunch for the last time I took a few pictures of the decks, professional sunbathers have freed them up because it so cool.

At lunch there was another large dessert dish – and here you have to realise that many of these people eat three or maybe even four meals a day. Given that, it was somewhat surprising that there was actually a queue for this pudding at 12.30 when it was brought out. It is just fascinating watching it all going on! (Most people have had very different holidays from us. Ed)

After lunch, the on board choir made up of cruising guests had their concert, so I thought the least I could do was go and support them. They had a cast of thousands!! I had asked for a photograph but to date it has not materialised….but now it has! Thank you Sian!

Having completed our packing, it was then time to put our cases out – do remember we have been here for 75 days when you count the number of cases – how embarrassing!!

Keith was off for his final podiatry session, so I took the opportunity to do a final walk around the ship, It was just a perfect afternoon at sea – the day is so so much better than predicted.

I also came across a stowaway on the deck….

I can only believe he took a wrong turn somewhere. He is a bit of a long way off course!

Back in the cabin a bit of crisis developed when I realised that the bottom drawer of the chest of drawers was still full!! EEEk!

I discovered this as I was about to get into the shower. Drastic action was required! I put my jumper back on and my jeans and dashed out to see if the cases had been taken. They hadn’t! Phew. So I dragged the large case in, added the contents of the bottom drawer,(!), sat on the case and closed it (with some difficulty!) and got it outside again. Some time later Keith came back, not at all impressed with my dilemma! (I was pretty relaxed about everything to be fair. I;d just had a pedicure that lasted for 90 minutes. Ed)

So we went off to supper, said our goodbyes and decided not to break a habit of what seems a lifetime in terms of evening entertainment. This meant we came back to the cabin to do our writing and gather ourselves for an early start tomorrow. We have to vacate our rooms by 8,30am. Breakfast is likely to be a challenge as the dining room which is the alternative to the Horizon restaurant (where we go) is not going to be open. Breakfast could therefore become something of a bun fight, so I think we will take our usual early morning approach,

In these circumstances, we are closing down early tonight in order to get up with the lark (or the nautical equivalent!) tomorrow.

The ship will offload its passengers tomorrow morning and by tomorrow evening the Aurora will have a new complement of passengers and be en route to Norway. No rest for the Old Girl.

And so it has ended and I close down my blog for The Voyage. It has been an amazing experience. We have been to places and seen things we never ever thought we would experience. We have met people, seen an amazing number of birds and looked out over miles and miles of endless wonderful sea. The sunrises and sunsets have been incredible. The seas have been kind and the temperatures have never been beyond tolerable. How lucky are we to have done it. (It has been a joy and a delight. Ed) We have thanked our lucky stars every day and I hope you have got that from my daily posts.

Thank you for taking the time to read my daily missives. I hope I have gone some way to share the journey and what it has meant to be here.