Saturday June 17, 2023
Today is our final day of the terrific cruise to the Arctic Circle. Also it is the Official Birthday of King Charles and a spectacular cake was on display in the main Foyer in memory of the monarch’s birthday. He was actually born in November, but there always is an “Official birthday in the summer which can lead to celebrations such as the Trooping of the Color for the monarch etc. The four of us have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and seen some spectacular sights with weather one can only dream of having on such a trip. Sunny and not too cold in all the places really showed up the beauty of each location.
This morning for a Change we decided to have breakfast in the main dining room which was, as usual an excellent experience, particularly as we enjoyed eggs Benedict and fresh croissants. The first “lecture” was actually the Captain interviewing Pete Goss – the explorer. It is always interesting as one hears a great deal mor of the person behind the adventure. A few of the stories that he told were: –
⁃ Many of the friends and others in town frowned and were very upset when he decided to take his son (age 14) out of school and be part of the crew of the recreation of the small Cornish vessel taking people from the UK to Australia. He and his wife Tracy decided that the 4 months in the “School of Life” would be better for him as he was not scholastically minded and did not do well in school. In the end, it was the right decision for him, but not for their other 2 children who were more studious. He has thrived and his confidence was greatly enhanced by the trip and he now makes a good life for himself in the maritime world.
⁃ He rescued the Frenchman on the single handed round the world race and for that he was awarded France’s “Legion D’honeur” honor. A couple of the benefits from the award (started by Napoleon) are that you can be buried in the elite military cemetery and that you can send your first daughter to the best and most elite school in France. However the amusing part was when he went to receive the honor from Jacques Shirak, they were in Napoleon’s favorite room with most of Pet’s family, where Shirak went on saying a lot of things in French, which Pete had no clue what was being said. At the end of the speech, Shirak bent over to kiss him on both cheeks, as is the French custom, and Pete bent forward to shake hands. They head butted instead! Then Pete’s mother wanted a picture of him with Shirak on her “throw-away” camera and then a picture of mother with Shirak, when that was taking place Shirak squeezed her bottom! Mother was ecstatic!
⁃ Pete was awarded another UK maritime honor to be presented by HRH Prince Philip. They met at one end of the overcrowded room, but had to be at the other end. The organizers suggested that the only way to get there was via the kitchen. So Prince Philip gave a “F.. U..” gesture and all proceeded through the kitchen!!
⁃ One final story (there were many more) was that they were preparing to do a sailing race from the UK to Tasmania that was sponsored by a steel Comapny. Anyone who called or emailed in the country could apply to get into the race, whether they knew anything about the sea or sailing or not. A few thousand applied and they selected, after interviews, the first 120 that had applied. They also go 10 (one was Pete) experienced Captains and proceeded to build 10 ships and the 120 volunteers (90% of whom had never been to sea) were divided into 10 groups and trained over a three year period. Each team had people who were trained in emergency medicine, Sails etc, so that each could contribute to the success of the voyage. Pete was the organizer of the entire project. When it came to “christening the ships” he got a letter from Queen Elizabeth II saying that she would like to christen the ship. He was summoned to Buckingham Palace and started asking, when is her majesty available? The answer came back – you set the date and Her Majesty will be there, Asking about the location for security reasons, the same answer came back – Her Majesty will go to any location you decide. So the ceremony took place under Tower Bridge in London and the Queen spent 3 hours longer than planned talking to all the team and had a great deal of knowledge about all aspects of the people and boats.
The second lecture was by Martin Griffiths talking about early and current ways of transporting humans to the moon and beyond and the effect that science fiction became science fact. One of the early ideas was to build a light craft to which would be attached a lot of birds and this would fly you to the moon. Other scheme talking about Jules Verne and others and the imagination needed to come up with ways to fly to the moon.
The afternoon was mostly spent packing and since we had booked to have a nice dinner at the Verandah (seafood Plate) we skipped lunch and had a really nice dinner. The evening show was the “International Violin Sensation – Analiza Ching”. She had performed all over the world and for the Royal Family and has a unique way of playing Rock on the Violin and very fast. However, dinner lasted longer than expected, we were having a lot of fun, so did not go to the show, So what we decided to do was to go to the Roy Hemming (of the Drifters) and his “girls” were giving another performance in the Queen’s Room which was amazing and resulted in all four of us dancing and great merriment! All our luggage was packed and the cases were placed outside of our cabins by 11 PM, which we hope to see on the dock tomorrow!
Roger & Anne Travels 