Today we had a fairly leisurely start, which was nice because I didn’t  sleep very well. I sleep better when it’s a bit rough. If it’s too smooth, I can’t sleep. This can have its uses, as it means I automatically wake up when we come into harbour and the sea calms down. No need for alarm clocks!

We joined our organised excursion and they drove us to the Blue Lagoon.  When you get near, you can see a plume of steam rising up against the dark backdrop of the mountains behind. It looks quite spectacular.

When we got there, I promptly lost mum. I just turned around in the ladies’ locker room to find us lockers, and she was gone. I got changed and then spent about half an hour searching for her, calling out, getting staff to search for her. In the end, I gave up and went out to the lagoon, in case she was out there. She wasn’t. I found dad and then he went looking for her. Some staff eventually found her and she joined us in the water. Turned out she had answered when I called, but I couldn’t hear her over the noise of a dozen hair dryers!

It was lovely. Just like a warm bath but with opaque, milky-blue water. Not as hot as some Jacuzzis or thalassotherapy pools I have been in, but very pleasant. The bottom of the lagoon is natural rock and sand, and is VERY uneven. Much stubbing of toes going on. Even I tripped up once, and I was wearing my Crocs! After about an hour, my fingers were starting to get pruney, so I applied the white silica mud to my face and let it dry for ten minutes. Then I went and rinsed all the salts off and the mud. Then I went back again and rinsed my sunglasses, which had been liberally covered in what looked like Plaster of Paris, but was really just the mud I had put on my face! By the time we had dried off and dressed, in changing rooms that are phenomenally badly designed and far too small for the number of visitors they cater for – currently around 1 million a year, and they arrive in coachloads, like we did – there was just time for a quick sprint around the shop and a loo visit before getting back on the bus.

We then got a guided tour of Reykjavik itself, which is very small and pretty and very green indeed. Some stats for you: Most of the original wooden houses burned down in 1919 and then they passed a law saying the replacements had to be built of brick or cement. 25% of the homes in Iceland run on geothermal hot spring water for all their heating and hot water needs. They use no gas, coal or oil for power. Nor did I see any wind turbines. And there are heated swimming pools everywhere.  Iceland used to be 25% forest. It now has only 1%, but there is an ongoing tree-planting programme in Reykjavik and so most of the greenery is now in the capital. The rest is lumpy black lava flows, where the only things that grow are moss and blue and white lupins (which are considered an invasive species, despite how lovely they look against the rocks). Yoko Ono built a sculpture/tower to commemorate John Lennon which is lit up on his birthday and stays lit until the anniversary of his death. Reykjavik has a small airport smack bang in the middle of it, built by the British during the war. Which is unusual. Although to be fair, it wasn’t in the middle back then! The big airport outside of town was built by the Americans. Gorbachev and Reagan met here for two-day summit which is believed to have been the start of the end of the Cold War. Until 200 years ago, Reykjavik was a small fishing village and the population was spread evenly around the island. Then they all moved to the capital and it now holds 300,000 people.  It has a surface area similar to Barcelona. They like their space here…

On our return to the ship at 3pm, we finally got some lunch! I had lost my bottle of water in transit and so was very dehydrated by the time we got back. My head was pounding. I drank half a litre of water and about the same in diet pepsi, and the combination of liquid and caffeine soon fixed the headache right up. Although later I did have to rush out of dinner before dessert to deal with all that extra liquid! Dessert was a gluten-free orange meringue pie specially made just for me, so I was happy to come back for it!

The thirst thing continued all evening. At about 10pm, I made an interesting discovery. Not all the items on the Room Service menu have prices. And when I ordered one of them – a “trio of melon”, if you must know – it didn’t seem to have a charge attached. I didn’t have to sign to pay for it or anything. Curiouser and curiouser. I will need to test this again, I think, to be sure… but free melon seems like a wonderful perk to have only just discovered after 16 years of travelling with the same company!

Tomorrow: Isafjordur.

Today, someone gave me this statistic. The Nazis stole one fifth of all the art ever made (at the time). I am dubious. Maybe one fifth of the art in Europe, but not the whole world, I don’t think.  They never got to the US, or Australia or New Zealand or South America or China or Japan or any of the East, come to that. There must be lots of art they never got near. But the more I think about it, one fifth may not be that far beyond the realms of possibility. It’s a curious statistic indeed.

A quick line just for my cousin. “Sea Day Special. Full body aromatherapy massage, scalp massage, foot and ankle massage and rehydrating facial. 90 minutes for £73”. </smug> Oh, and the Haribo on board comes in 500g packets. Yes, that is twice the size of the biggest bag I have ever seen on sale in the shops.

Today has been a quiet day. It’s quite bumpy, so I slept quite well. On and off for about eleven hours, I think! Had a massage. No more now until after our three port days in a row.

Very bumpy night indeed, although it eased off at about 2am, as we got into the lee of the island. The evening was bumpy enough that some people didn’t make it to dinner.

Oriana looks like I feel. Really, really tired. Her chair upholstery is fraying, the carpet is in holes in so many places, it constitutes a genuine trip hazard in some corridors, and the rust is definitely winning the war against the white paint of the window sills. She is due for a refit soon and, frankly, she needs it. By rather stark contrast, all the shower heads appear to be brand new. They are deluge-style, big, flat heads, but on handles, if that makes sense, so you can move them about. They also seem to have a raindrop effect, whereby the water flow is not constant, but comes out in big droplets, so you feel like you’re in a tropical rain shower. It really is rather lovely.

Today I found a Terry Pratchett book in the library that I don’t think I’ve read. I have borrowed it, but I haven’t started it yet.

Things I have learned today #1: On average, 13 people die every day on the Mumbai rail network. Feel free to read that again. 13 people each day. That’s over 4700 people a year.  You think your public transport is bad? However, crowded, smelly or late it may be, at least it isn’t actually killing you.

If you listen to the Shipping Forecast, you’ll probably be far more excited by the coming paragraph than my readers who do not.

Things I have learned today #2: The record for the longest period of habitation on Rockall is 45 consecutive days. Rockall is British territory, but it is, quite literally, just a large rock about 80 miles from the mainland. Whoever named it did not lack for imagination, just material. We passed it today at about 3pm ship’s time (4pm BST).  I tried to take a photo, but it was very misty, so i don’t know how well it will come out.  In view of my love of the Shipping Forecast, I was quite unbecomingly excited about seeing a place I had heard of for so many years. It was a magical moment, for me at least.

On the up side, the mist is holding down the water and we aren’t moving about as much as before. Although we do have the stabilisers out, so I’m not sure how much credit can really be given to the weather alone. In case you are imagining little wheels like you had on your first bike, and wondering what use those would be at sea, our stabilisers are triangular wings that extend out at the sides at sea level, which fill with water and prevent the ship from leaning over too far in either direction. Rather like the little wheels stopped your bike from tipping over too far and pitching you to the pavement.

On the downside, my next door cabin neighbour is a singer and she is performing for the second time later today. Last time, she did scales and warm-ups in her cabin for over three hours, and she has just started up again now.  So much for my afternoon nap plans! Although as I slept for ten hours last night, I don’t actually think I need one. I feel positively perky. Well, by my standards, anyway.

Having typed the above, I then slept for two hours straight. Well, to be fair, a little bit of ship movement just feels like you are being rocked like a baby, so everyone is sleeping a lot. It’s very soothing. Honest.

Things I have learned today #3: The herd immunity level of vaccination necessary to eradicate rabies in dogs is 70%. Now you know.

Donegal is in Eire, although it actually runs up the left-hand side of Northern Ireland. Killybegs is a tiny little fishing village whose population is slightly less than the number of passengers on Oriana. And remember, you have to add 800 crew to that, as well. Killybegs means ‘little cells’ and is thought to have been coined in respect of the monks who lived here, although there are ruins and burial mounds going back to the Neolithic.  The cliffs are the highest accessible sea cliffs in Europe, at around 600m above the Atlantic. We were the biggest cruise ship ever to dock in this natural deepwater harbour, but they are hoping we will be the first of many. They put on Irish dancing displays, and pipers on the quayside to send us on our way (oddly, by repeated renditions of Scotland the Brave…). The people were very friendly and welcoming and gave us a 10% discount in their shops, which was a nice touch. There is only one shopping street. In fact, I think I got the whole place into my photo.  The weather forecast was supposed to be dreadful, but I managed to catch the sun, so they got that rather wrong. My nose is officially the wrong colour when you can trace where my sunglasses sat.  The moral of the story apparently is that even Sky News gives a more accurate weather forecast than P&O.

Back on board, they had a special offer on full body massages (a pound a minute plus a free facial), so it would have been rude not to, although Shona did such a good job on my back yesterday, that parts of me were still a bit sore. Note to self: Massages two days running are not a good idea, especially not if done really rather well on both occasions.

Very freaked out by something in the news today, and there was a lot of horrible stuff to choose from. Severed heads on factory gates in Lyon, tourists being mowed down by gunfire while sunbathing in Tunisia, Greece continues to rail against the increasingly likely prospect of Grexit, and the shocking news that it took 89 years for Elizabeth II to visit a Nazi concentration camp. But the one that upset me personally the most was one that may not have even made it onto your news bulletin. It concerned the crash of a small seaplane in Ketchikan in Alaska. I think nine people died – almost all cruise ship passengers off the Holland America Westerdam. I’ve done that trip. You’ve seen the photo of me, out on the lake, standing on the plane float, clinging to the wing strut. That was the company I flew with. It may even have been my plane – I think they had two – and/or my pilot – I think there were two, and I think I met them both.  I am quite shaken by this, I have to tell you. Whatever else I have done this evening, my mind keeps going back to Ketchikan and the sadness is much deeper and pervasive than I would have expected.

On the up side, the US Supreme Court has stated that same sex marriage is legal and constitutional in all 50 states.  And just before Pride weekend, which was a nice touch.

Tonight we begin our crossing towards Iceland, which makes things a little more interesting as regards ship movement, although nothing dramatic – just enough to separate the landlubbers from the sailors – and the clocks go back an hour. Whether these things will improve my sleep pattern or make things worse, I have no idea. Will have to wait and see.

I now believe there may be as many as five other people on board who are under 60, including two seemingly very young married couples.

Adjusting from being in work mode to being in holiday mode is a difficult transition for all of us. Personally, i generally sleep for much of the first day, which is my system’s way of not so much slowing down as completely shutting down and rebooting. When I awake, I am in my system’s Safe Mode, minimal services necessary, no bells and whistles. This is holiday mode and i have adjusted. Confusingly, I had a few days in London before we sailed but after I had packed, so I did my sleeping then. So by the time I got on board, my system was quite confused. I have been sleeping badly and having very odd dreams.

I am definitely in holiday mode, though. The standard method of testing is getting in the lift and not pressing the close doors button.  The lifts on Oriana are currently exhibiting almost Zen-like behaviour. They don’t tell you if they are coming, they don’t always tell you that they are coming, they don’t always come, they don’t tell you where they are going, some don’t even tell you where they have arrived at. And the time between pushing a floor button and door closure could be measured in geological increments. The urge to push the door close button is a sign that you have not yet slowed down enough to be considered to be in full holiday mode. There is nowhere you need to be that quickly on a cruise ship.

But although I am resisting the close button already, after only 24 hours on board, I have not yet shaken that nagging feeling that I should be doing something. That sitting on a sofa with a book in one hand and soft drink in the other, and a parent asleep in the seat next to me, cannot possibly be the correct behaviour. I should be doing a thing. Given the recent hectic rush of not just work, but also exams, i supposed i have a lot further to wind down this time than usual, but it is odd.  Last night was a formal, with all the primping and prepping that one would expect for going to a black tie do. But I was ready on time, arriving early at the venue, even, which is most unlike me. I’m clearly not unwound just yet. Which considering the amazing massage I had after lunch, does seem odd. I should have been fast asleep. But instead, my brain just keeps on whirring. I think it will take me a little longer to unwind than i would normally hope, this time. Still, it means i’m awake at 1am to type this!

I think am the youngest person on this ship who is not crew by at least twenty years.

P.S.  My WordPress page has a rainbow banner. Nice!

As you will be aware, on 13 January 2012, Francesco Schettino murdered 32 people. Another person died trying to clear up the devastation he had left behind.

The sinking of the Costa Concordia was an entirely preventable tragedy, caused not just by the Captain’s incompetence and arrogance in sailing too close to the well-documented rocks in the area, but more serious yet, by then delaying 45 minutes before informing the passengers there was a problem and that they should muster (gather in public areas and don lifejackets) and abandon ship. If he had acted properly in the immediate aftermath of his stupidity, no one needed to die.

Of course, the third and arguably most egregious of his derelictions of duty was to scarper and save his own skin, leaving the passengers and crew to fend for themselves. He phoned the Coastguard to report the incident FROM A LIFEBOAT. Maritime law is very clear about a captain being the last to leave. There are reasons for that – a chain of command is needed in an emergency. But he was too cowardly to do the job he had been paid to do. All he was paid to do was get the passengers from A to B safely. That was it. nothing more. The entertainment isn’t his job, the food isn’t his problem. All he has to do is keep people SAFE. And he didn’t.

Do you want to know just how much of a coward this man really is? He didn’t even bother to turn up to hear the verdict. No, really. That arrogant and that disinterested. Do you know what he said? He said “All the responsibility has been loaded on to me with no respect for the truth or for the memory of the victims”. Of course you get all the responsibility. YOU’RE THE CAPTAIN. THAT’S YOUR JOB. THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU. Where else would it go?!

In the end, he is behind bars, at least, so he can’t be a guest speaker at any more symposia about how to deal with mass panic (no, really, I kid you not. If you don’t believe me, just Google “Francesco Schettino guest speaker”). What the organisers were thinking asking a captain who killed 33 people and abandoned ship before evacuating his passengers to speak on panic control, I have no idea, but they really did.

But now he’s locked up. So that’s over for now.

“Prosecutors had sought a 26-year jail term but the court sentenced Schettino to 10 years for multiple manslaughter, five years for causing the shipwreck and one year for abandoning his passengers.” Source: BBC News.

So now we will all be that little be safer at sea, without this cowardly, incompetent idiot on the waves.

Captain Schettino’s judges are close to delivering their verdict in respect of the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

Schettino is charged with multiple manslaughter and the prosecution has asked he be sentenced to 26 years. 33 people died at his hand, so that’s less than one year for each life he took.

Although it is the very bottom item on the BBC News website, you can read the latest update here.

Even more sadly, “the ship’s operator, Costa Crociere, was not in the dock. In the aftermath of the wreck of its vessel the company was allowed to make a plea bargain and was fined €1m (£740,000; $1.13m).”

That, to a British cruise passenger means Costa (and, thus, Carnival) consider your life is worth £22,400, give or take.  That’s five three-week cruises to the Med. Or one worldy.

That’s what your safety is worth to Costa Crociere. You may want to bear that in mind next time you book yourself onto a cruise. Of course, not all shipping lines will be so cavalier with your safety, but it’s worth thinking about. You may also want to bear in mind that all ships sailing from British ports are required by law to complete a muster drill prior to departure. Other countries and other lines are not always so fussy.

MTN (they who supply the ludicrously expensive satellite internet connection we have to use at sea) have created a graphic to help people calculate their usage, so that they can plan in advance and buy a bulk package if necessary to save money.

Hope it helps.

If you only ever read one article on cruising, this should be it.  Alan very neatly summarises the good points, the pitfalls and the perils of other passengers.  This Telegraph article is an excellent precis of cruising and sums the whole thing up nicely. I’m not sure I could have said it better myself (or as succinctly!), so read and enjoy by clicking here.