Athens to Oz
Athens to Oz
It is saturday and we have arrived back in Athens. Piraeus to be exact.
Firstly, thank you to all those of you that have sent me emails. I apologise that I cannot answer every one of them for there are too many. Most are asking if a certain crew member is onboard or for me to say hello to crew and so on. I promise to feature more of the crew so you can recognise faces. Keep the mails coming for I read them all.
Last night I had a lovely dinner with guests which featured the dessert shown above. A bitter chocolate and milk chocolate basket held a sweet chocolate mousse and marinaded red berries.
Preceding dinner we held our crew farewell event on deck around the pool on deck 8. The weather was perfect. Chef Kurt and his team served caviar and other epicurean delights all to the sound of our singers and band.
Piraeus is a major turn around event for us. It is the gas station of the Mediterranean. Here we take on 500 tonnes of fuel from a tanker that ties up alongside us. It is nearly as big as us.
The crew from the engine room fix the “nozzle” into our onboard pipelines and the tanker pumps the fuel into our tanks. It usually takes around 3 to 4 hours.
Whilst all this is going on we load all the food and drink we need for the next cruises, take on spare parts and stores to fill our stock rooms. In fact if it can be found in a supermarket we take it. We have a floating town of 800 people to cater for.
It was also the day we had to say farewell to our Staff Captain Kreso. For he is no longer a Staff Captain. He has been promoted to Captain and is leaving us for his first command, Seabourn Pride. Some of us gathered to bid him farewell and present him with a new name badge with his new rank on it and a pair of Captains epaulettes.
We sailed off into the sunny and calm evening for the overnight run to the island of Mylos and the start of another cruise.
Back to Athens
Saturday, 28 September 2013