A Transatlantic Crossing: The Queen Mary 2

 It is 3 January 2024, and after 5 days in New York, we are ready to get on board and start our adventure.  New York to Sydney, Australia.  On the Queen Mary 2 should be a unique experience.  Steep in English tradition, The Queen Mary 2 is an elegant ship.  It will be like living in an episode of Downton Abbey for the next 55 days.  A lot of English customs and etiquette.  

We left late in the evening.  Passing under the Varrazono Bridge looked like a close call, but it cleared under the bridge with no problems.  It's surreal that we are on this ship and starting this great voyage.  What a voyage it will be!  It will be 8 days to South Hampton and 21 days to Cape Town, with 2 stops in between.  Then it's 3 Stops in South Africa and 2 stops in the Indian Ocean.  Then, sail to Perth.  Then, 10 days to Sydney.  A week in Sydney, then a 15-hour flight home.

Well, we are settling into ship life.  The hardest thing has been traveling through the time zones.  We have gone through one each day since leaving New York.  It throws us off sleep patterns and planned activities.  The biggest mistake we made was trying to do too much.  We need to slow down and pace ourselves.  It's the 5th day, and we are starting to get into a rhythm.  

It's cold outside with snow on the decks.  The dinners have been great; we sit with a good group.  A father and son; the son is a  helicopter pilot, and the other couple is from Canada's Northwest Territories near Yellowknife. 

Sitting at the watching the snow and the waves.  It's a strange combination.   Last night, the rough seas woke us up a couple of times.  We had things sliding off our cabin table.  The captain told us we were sailing in a Force 10 Gale on the Beaufort scale with 10-meter seas.  12 is a hurricane, so it was pretty rough.  

This ship is built for it and is handling it well.  It has four stabilizing fins that are doing their job of keeping the ship relatively steady.   After a day of rough seas, the ship smoothed out.  The weather is a bit warmer for my walk around the deck.  The rough seas never affected the operation of the ship or its activities.  It was just a matter of getting your sea legs and learning a new dance step. 

Terri is taking a watercolor painting class, and I'm attending the historical lectures.  Which have been interesting.  If you want to know about Crime in the UK from 1939 to 1945, I'm your man.  

I went to a veteran's gathering, a mixture of American and British veterans.  We all had a few stories to tell.  We had one pilot in the group, and one of the British vets said, How can you know there's a pilot in the room?  Don't worry.  They end up telling you all about it.

We will be in Southhampton tomorrow night.  Rumor is that Cunard will have 2 ships leaving South Hampton on the same day.  The Queen Mary 2 is on an eastern world cruise, and Queen Victoria is on a westward world cruise.  After 8 days, we arrive in England and are ready to start the world cruise.  It's been a heck of a trip so far.