At 1215hrs on 25th April, Captain Alex Tkachuk, Chief Engineer Ciro D’Alessandro, Hotel Director Adam Scott and Cruise Director Andrea Lowde were hosts to a farewell Reception and Luncheon for 15 Passengers who completed a marathon 147 day Voyage covering a massive 30,044 n.m. (further than circum-navigating the globe).

They joined in Portsmouth on the 4th December 2012 and departed Voyager, again in Portsmouth on the 29th April…longer than most Officer and Crew contracts!

The Captain acknowledged their ‘endurance’ during a short ‘Farewell Speech’ before guests were escorted through to the Explorer Restaurant where Executive Chef, Sebastian Gnida had prepared a gourmet standard luncheon. Conversation and wine both flowed freely as guests reminisced on their favourite Ports of Call.

Guests received a commemorative photo, copy of the menu and also a certificate which detailed the distances of the various legs of the cruise as well as all the Ports of Call.

Dear Friends,

Legend has it that the Azores are the mountain tops of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis and, I have to say that the volcanic explanation, though magical in itself, palls a little against a lost continent. There is another worldly feel about the Azores with some volcanoes and geysers still active resulting in a moonlike scene.

Ponta Delgada, the capital is self-evidently Portuguese though the islands are 900 miles from anywhere! However, that distance has meant that they have proved a safe haven over the years for treasure ships, whalers in the past and a current safe haven for transatlantic aircraft, yachts and cruise ships.

The day was very misty to begin with but became clearer as we went along. My photos then are mainly volcanic but I couldn’t ignore those glorious buildings!

Next day to Ponta Delgada, Azores, our last port of call before the long, last leg to Portsmouth. “Last” is becoming the in word!

This time the fog, low lying cloud defeated us! The Fire Lake was invisible, as was almost anything else above sea level. But I was in a strange mood anyway as this was my last tour and I have been incredibly lucky with weather throughout this long voyage. The island has 40% geothermic power which gives you an idea of its birth. Small, conical hills – former volcanoes and/or volcanoes that didn’t make it – abound and I’ve tried to give you an idea of how it looks. Walls are everywhere but, unlike the Dales, these are black as they consist of small, medium and large chunks of lava.

I think you’ll see the house I’d love to restore! The buildings throughout the area cannot go above three stories and in many parts of the small towns we visited, there are no pavements. If you want a bus, you open your front door and wait! And, of course, a last photo of Voyager, my home for nearly five months.
This is the “last” circular and the final retrospective is nearly finished. I have English change in my pocket and my wallet in my back pocket for the first time in five months and I dearly hope I can remember the pin numbers for my credit cards! It took me ages to remember that they were called “pin numbers”!

Austin

Dear Friends,

I’d hoped that the weather would have been better in the UK by now! I’ll keep praying!

We returned to Iles Du Salut and Devil’s Island and I decided to take another trip, not really expecting to photograph anything. Then I saw the parrots!!!! I do love Parrots. I spent some time with the little monkey who had picked up a rotten piece of wood and was banging it on the branch to loosen the bugs!

Port Of Spain, Trinidad next and the last big turn-around of passengers at Montego Bay.

Austin

Voyages of Discovery featured at the Telegraph Cruise Show at London’s Olympia on 23 and 24 March 2013. Below is a small selection of pictures from the day.

Dear Friends,

Manaus! It was clear that Manaus was the major city of the area and that we were a special arrival! Lots of local people were out videoing and photographing us as we arrived; obviously we were the largest ship to make it this far.

The Amazon, the Rio Negro are the main highways of the area and so river ships of all sorts of sizes prevail.

I was travelling on one of the small ships down the Rio Negro to the meeting of the waters and realized that lots of ships had hammocks and motor cycles on them – the hammocks you provide for yourself. Then the water fuel station came up and there is a shot which shows what happened to some boats in the last huge flood of 2012.

I was at the stern, looking at this cloud coming up behind us and said “I think we have a storm coming up” . A little later, I repeated my statement and, within minutes, it caught us up just as we docked at a small landing stage. The heavens opened in a real tropical storm with wonderful lightning, crackling thunder and vertical rain. Wow!

The next circular leads with a map to give some idea of where I have been, where I am and where I am going. I went to an eco-area this morning and felt slightly odd when I thought “There’s another three toed sloth!” Am I getting blasé? No 4+ are of the “Teatro Amazonia”, the Manaus Opera Hall. It was actually more compact than I expected but stunning. A small group was rehearsing that sort of discordant classical music that sets your teeth on edge but I managed to disregard it!

As I’m writing this, the new passengers are on board, I’ve just had my 9th lifeboat drill, the ship is moving into that state of readiness before departing and I’m off for a coffee.

Austin