We are Sailing

All good things come to an end and we are just about to leave our final port of call Charlotte's Town on Prince Edward Island the setting for the series of novels, Anne of Green Gables, I remember the books being dramatised by the BBC on Sunday tea times in the 1960s with the beautiful ginger haired Kim Braden ( Bernard Braden's daughter) playing Anne who I had a school boy crush on. Other than that cocktail party stopping fact not a lot else happens here in fact it is very rural, tranquil and serene, we have gone a full 360 degrees from our opening port of call New York City. So as we say goodbye to dry land for the next seven days and get ready for the dash across the North Atlantic (back on iceberg watch) you can see everyone offering up silent prayers for good weather and a smooth crossing. First we have to endure that old cruising custom of the "Sailaway" where everyone is supposed to go out on the open decks and sing songs as you pull out of port waving your little union jack flags provided by P&O for the assembled passengers at the crowds on the quay ( Usually 3 hairy arsed stevedores who have just cast off the tethering lines and the local anorak cruise ship spotter) while singing Rule Britannia & Land of Hope and Glory, while little old Ladies go misty eyed as they remember waving the boys off to the Boer War just like this except we sang Goodbye Dolly Grey and I was a young flipitty jibbet back then young man. The DJ is working up the crowd up to a jingoistic fervour that makes you all want to vote UKIP and thoroughly thrash Johhny Foreigner and invade a small country. P&O promote unashamedly these events at every port we leave because you can't have a Sailway without having Champagne or Preseco  in hand to celebrate, with the Booze going at £3.00 a glass and the event lasting 30-45 minutes depending on weather, fervour and visibility it's really good business, now you either enjoy it or find it totally toe curling. Speaking as a company shareholder pass me my song sheet, can we top you up madam?