Boog's Blog

Rough sea night promised but did occur.

Not a good day, especially for QB. Last evening before going to bed she started to have a sore throat, coughing and sneezing. By the middle of the night she had trouble breathing and had to contact her doctor. Drugs were prescribed, her traveling pharmacy is quite complete. She got little sleep last night. As of this writing, she is trying to go to sleep after having a light breakfast sent to the room.

Did a Covid test in the early afternoon and fortunately, that was negative.

Sailed to the north of the Milne Seamounts. An underwater volcanic mountain range within the Newfoundland plains, an area of very deep and relatively uniform seabed off the coast of the continental shelf. We passed over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, where the water rapidly shallows from over 3,000 metres (9,850 feet) to less than 60 metres (200 feet) in parts.
The Grand Banks form part of the continental shelf extending from Newfoundland and
North America into the Atlantic.

A bit bracing in windy 40 degree weather.

Dinner: no QB quite unwell

QB’s portion – to the room. Suffering quite a bit. Never left the room today.

dee got me thinking about my comments disparaging the quality of the food on this voyage

It’s not the quality but the lack of creativity or effort the kitchen takes. virtually all of our friends are good cooks. None which serve food without the addition of, onions, garlic, hens, seasonings etc The kitchen seems to try and get around this by making sauces.

clearly, they have been many exceptions. tonight‘s couscous was excellent. The dishes, lacking creativity has been the basic proteins, chicken, fish, and pork, unseasoned and sauce heavy.

Yes, of course, they are cooking for the expected demographic on this ship.

A bit calmer sea.

Breakfast like most of the meals was not impressive. Naturally the poached eggs were fine and the berries are surprisingly good pancakes not so much.mediocre coffee, not hot. yesterday’s oatmeal will not be repeated. Ordered pumpernickel bread and got multigrain – when I mentioned this, they said this is what we call pumpernickel. Service remains excellent and friendly.

Today we will complete sailing over the Mid Atlantic ridge. This is a series of large undersea mountain ranges extending all the way from Iceland in the Northern Hemisphere down towards Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere. Here, depths can shallow out to less than 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) before deepening again quickly to over 3,500 metres (11,500 feet). It generally runs equidistant between the continents either side of the Atlantic. The ridge is growing and is estimated to be spreading by between 2-5cm per year in an east-west direction.

Beaufort scale 2 allowed a coolish walk, laps around deck. By noon four on the scale and captain said eight tonight.

An observation: the staff on the boat is remarkably diverse. The passengers are not; the passengers are all older white like us while the staff is from many countries, we haven’t yet met any staff that we think are from North America. North America is big.

Disappointingly, QB’s breathing was not good while we were doing laps. return to normal when we went back inside normal being good.

His partner a hiker having done many of the English paths as well as one in the alps. Unlike us, they are fully engaged with stuff: spin class, lectures, wine tasting and that is just before noon today. They will spend one night in Newport after this trip.

Met a round tripper: on in London and then off if London. Just a few hours in brooklyn.

Visit to cruise desk to find out about choices and details for an August 2026 eclipse voyage. One in Northern spain safest for cloudless viewing. Bought a refundable option, most of rooms already sold out.

Osmond lobster, by Osmand.

I ordered some Iberico pork tenderloin just to be safe.

Rough sea tonight.

Early morning so we can have breakfast in the dining room

As we continue our voyage across the Atlantic, we pass over abyssal plains and basins. The Rockall Basin has features named after the Lord of the Rings, such as Gondor Seamount and Isengard Ridge. Oceanic plains are more common in the Atlantic than any other ocean. These abyssal plains are formed by sediment accumulating in depressions, thus smoothing out the seabed. Queen Mary 2 will cross the Porcupine Abyssal Plain and make her way towards an area of the Atlantic known as the Faraday Fracture Zone.

Rock and roll night – about normal for this time of year according to the crew. No way to do my morning balance exercises.

Started heading for a circumnavigation on the walking deck. Nope, all doors closed. Someone said force 10 wind, having some doubts , looked up the beaufort scale, it appears to be force 6-7; of course larger apparent wind as ship is moving at 20plus knots so closer to 8.

With the failure of the planetarium, we looked to see if there was anything we could go to. Found one. A watercolor class for QB, I went along as the muscle

When we got there, the instructor pointed out this was the intermediate class and then we should come back if we wanted to 10 in the morning and managed to say it in such a rude and nasty manner that we just walked away from him. the ship program said introductory.

So, lots of unstructured time.

He sits at adjoining table and is loud enough for everyone to hear

Clock set back one hour. GPS does not pick up the correct time zone so you have to reset it to GMT time manually.

After dropping the pilot in the late evening, Queen Mary 2 enters the English Channel, where she will set a west-south-westerly course paralleling the southern English coast. Queen Mary 2 passed south of the Bill of Portland and Start Point.

As we leave the English Channel, we will be to the south of Bishop Rock, marking the traditional start of our transatlantic passage towards our destination of New York. The English Channel is considered the busiest shipping channel in the world, with more than 500 vessels transiting the channel every day.

Alas, no planetarium.

Started our return to the gym. This gym does not have lockers, locker room or shower, but you can get access to those amenities for only $59 a day. The shower in the room is just fine.

Gala dress for dinner required tonight. Gowns out cocktail dresses; suit and tie for men.

I had a long discussion with the headwaiter about what salt free dining means. He took it to heart. He explained that salt free usually is they just not adding salt I explained that was not my concept. Dinner took a long time because I had ordered a lobster tail, but I got this instead.

Truly, an outstanding dish. Then Armond came over and said he would cook for us at the table, he will make lobster osmand, his own concoction; as I’ve already pre-ordered for Tuesday he will do this Wednesday.

10 seconds of listening to the music and we decided it was not for us. Nice watching the others dance.

Exercise summary for the day: QB climbed 17 flights of stairs today and her watch registered at six.  It’s because she’s partially helium. 

Hotel lobby was a virtual madhouse with many ships boarding around the same time and an early check out of 11 AM. If you stayed past 11 AM they started charging you 25 pounds an hour. Odd policy for five star hotel. no late checkout. 

Hotel provided shuttle to the boat. Of course Pre-booked.

Very easy check-in, fabulous room (shout out to Kathy). Nothing like a Regant Cruise in that this place seems to nickel and dime everything. Even use of the spa you had to buy day passes or trip passes as well as Internet. coffee in some places, not even a glass of wine at dinner. I’m not sure what else yet. However, none of this comes as a surprise as the fabulous Kathy explained this in advance. Just not my view of good marketing.

Gave me a menu for no salt dinner; time will tell but room service has been outstanding.

Dinner: sort of French service; one waitperson comes out changes the plates and gives me fresh silverware, two minutes later another waitperson comes out and takes away that fresh silverware and takes away the plates leaves me nothing and then soon they bring me more stuff.

Knives and forks keep coming and going

Cruise notes on people met to date:

Wheelchair bound, NHS project manager, mid-twenties, off on cruise to stay in staff quarters, sneaking in with girl friend on staff, testing if they can be together and become a couple rather than occasional “friends”

Artist recently departed from St Ives after 12 years of a good art community just wanting to show us her art as she is clearly displaced. He, 50 plus years as partner, Norwegian ?, Merck viral scientist, trying to kill virus’ inside cells, called halt to my questions as I was getting too close to his intelectual property.

Couple from Melbourne. Races horses, makes a living betting on horses. Carol and Harold.

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Southampton Common is the largest of Southampton’s open spaces with the first written record dating back to 1228 although it is possible that the area’s status as a common dates back to the town of Hamwic around 500AD.

The 365 acres of ‘The Common’ features woodland, rough grassland, ponds, wetlands, lakes and parkland.

One goal was to see the Hawthorn Urban Wildlife Center. Naturally, it is closed on Saturdays to keep the kiddies out. Cafe reported to be open

Two Pirates swagger into the Cowherd and demand “half pint ‘o’ Doom, barkeep! We’ll share.”

Notice the Doom in the pic. We first encountered doom bar when we walked Cornwall. The doom bar was where ships were marooned after being advised to come into the harbor that way. The locals then scavenge the ship

Tomorrow off to the ship.

Another gloomy day overcast and cool, a perfect day for a walk to the beach. With luck, the rain won’t start till later, with luck.

Breakfast at top of hotel has some nice views

From the marina across the Itchen rive to the old town of woolston chilly windy long bridge.

Woolston is a suburb of Southampton, located on the eastern bank of the River Itchen in Hampshire, England
It has a rich history dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era around 700 AD, with the name “Woolston” first appearing in 1180 in a charter

Town not prosperous but nice suburb.

Heading through the suburbs to Weston beach.

Path along the beach and a conversation with a local. River now cleaned up, 15 years ago you would come out with a third ear.

Very interesting double tidal river due to the intersecting tide from the isle of wight. When the two tides meet, daily, tide stops. Hence the King Canute (lóok it up if unknown) stopping the tide.

South eastern coast path

The Abby ruins

Cafe stop. Chilly, toasties had at five mile point

An amenity: Brit style

Southampton, a city going back to Roman times. Launching place of ships such as the Mayflower and Titanic. The walking path to the train station takes one past some medieval city walls. Got to see the less than prosperous city center.

The town played an important role in providing supplies and additional ships when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada.

Winchester, anglo saxon capital of england before the Norman conquest. By the 12th century London took on more prominence. Under the Normans the capital was where the king sat.

Fireplace is in a bakery in an old building facing the high Street. Old wooden floors sloping as usual

During the Saxon era, Winchester rose to prominence as the capital of the powerful kingdom of Wessex. Alfred the Great, a pivotal Saxon king, redesigned the city for better defense. Later, Winchester’s religious significance grew, serving as a bishop’s seat. While London eventually surpassed it in national dominance

Unfortunately, QB‘s breathing is not as good today. No idea why the south is worse than London. It might’ve been the very cold walk from the hotel to the train

Fortunately, QB’s breathing got better during the day and she’s OK now.



Hot tub discussion with nhs employee. Project manager for controlling costs. 45 minutes of what are the issues with cost, staff, entrenched management, etc. One tidbit; most gps have 5 minutes per patient time allocated.

Early morning, breakfast with Bobby kens and then off to Victoria station to take the train.

However, when we got there, I found the train actually goes from Waterloo station. Southern Railway southwestern Railway they all seem the same.

Fortunately, we got to Waterloo in time

Naturally did not know which car to get on because the tickets didn’t say which coach and we were supposed to get on the coach that had an orange dot on it even the fellow passengers didn’t know which car was which, and which cars went to Southampton. 

That said an excellent train.

The most outstanding part of this trip as far as I’m concerned is that Sharon ‘s breathing has been good. Maybe the pollution of London?

Too cold to use it. 52 at photo time.

Hot tub has been the only disappointment with this fine hotel. They are calling maintenance to see if i am correct about the temp. Apple Watch does not fib!

Late night at the opera. Early morning breakfast before heading to the tour so nicely arranged by Bobbikins.

Well, after getting up bright and early before the sun and having lovely porridge at Gales, the tour was canceled.

We figure the lead soprano must be recovering for about a week. And an amazing performance and amazing amount of energy.

The main difference is this is a student run club where the MIT group was an alumni run club for Angel investors of alumni from MIT

Tomorrow off to Southampton.