Advent day 8 and a sail away - Sleepypete's Pillow

Hello everyone, what’s behind door number 8 ?

Picture. We're looking at our advent scene, with the addition of a brown vehicle with a pair of orange sails.

Sail barge today, from Return of the Jedi. I have to admit to a bit of an oops I’m late because I opened up Little Big Workshop again yesterday and yep, that’s where my weekend went. It’s a good little game :-).

I’m a little short on ideas, which could be part of “just came out of game” brain :-D. How about some sail aways to go with the sail barge ? One thing I noticed about Borealis was how smooth she was when getting moving. There was barely any sign that we were on the way. I’d look towards shore and see that we were on the way.

Picture. We're looking out over the water, towards a series of thin towers or cranes on the horizon. The water is dark and rippled by the wind. Upper left, we have the sun, with the reflection on the water. The sky is blue with some thin clouds.

Let’s start with the first day. We actually sailed at night but were treated to a lovely sunset over Southampton before we all got moving.

Picture. It's very dark, we can just see water in the lower part, with sky up above. In the centre, we see cranes and tall buildings brilliantly lit by various colour, mostly white, lights. There is the beam of a searchlight in the centre.

Thursday saw us visiting Gijon, with another night time exit and me playing with the new 50mm large aperture lens I acquired before the cruise. It was doing really well picking up lots of detail out of the darkness there. We couldn’t see very much with Mk1 Eyeball (well used, bit down on new performance), so the camera was bringing out a lot more. I was amusing myself at some points by attempting to capture the beam of light houses.

Picture. We're looking downwards towards a small group of pipers on the dockside. One is hidden but there are 5 pipers and drummers in black and white outfits visible (plus one hidden) being led by a lady in a mostly black dress outfit with red trim.

Some sailaways have a bit of a difference too, like at Ferrol where we were treated to bagpipe music from the locals. That’s one thing about cruises, the local people are usually quite happy with the tourists coming through. Definitely enjoyed listening in to the pipers.

Picture. We're looking out to sea over the foredeck of the ship. We can see a couple of benches right up forward before the bowsprit mast. To the right, the breakwater extends in front of us with a selection of cranes. The sea is a little rippled, there is a small sailboat ahead. It's day time and the sky is mostly hidden in cloud.

Saturday saw us visiting Porto, with me finding the outside observation area on Deck 6 for this port exit. Good view.

Picture. It's dark. We're looking out over a slightly rippled sea. Centre stage, we see another cruise ship sailing away. She is wonderfully lit over all areas, with a row of lights going over the masts from bow to stern. We see her from the side, she's heading left. The lights reflect off the sea.

Monday had us visiting Malaga on the southern coast of Spain. I think this one was taken from the inside of the ship (there are window reflections) but there were some lovely lights at play with the night time sail away this time. Another pretty cruise ship there, sailing away first before our departure.

Picture. It's dark again, we're looking out over the rippled surface of the sea towards a long, low container ship. She has a flat deck and a tall wheelhouse aft. The deck is being loaded with assorted containers by a lit up crane to the left. Orange and which lights reflect off the water.

Not as pretty a ship but I’m really happy I captured all the pretty lights like that. Ships like this are the workhorses of the world, they get our stuff from where it’s made to where the trucks can take over and deliver it to our doors (or shops, I prefer shops).

Picture. We're looking out over the water towards the outer areas of Cadiz, just visible on the horizon there. The sea is calm but rippled again, with traces of blue sky interrupted by thin white clouds over the central area of the sky.

This is us heading away from Tuesday’s port, Cadiz. One thing about the sailaways is the feeling as you’re heading away. I’ll be outside in the open decks areas and we were blessed with sunny, clear, calm conditions on all of the port exit days. The open sea air is lovely to bask in plus … that view.

Picture. We're looking towards a city on a hill. The buildings give that clean meditteranean architecture feel. We can see a large building to the right with a domed turret which is catching and reflecting the sun.

Last couple for today. This is Lisbon, brilliantly lit by the evening sun on our way out of the city.

Lisbon was a particularly pretty sail away, with us heading under one of the large bridges there and seeing features like a few sea castles on the way out. The local sailors are usually out as well and the sailboats kept us company for a while.

Picture. We're looking out over the sea again towards a round castle in the middle of the sea with a small tower poking up above. There are rocks surrounding the castle and a small white sailed boat is in front.

Sea castle ! And a little sailboat there as well. I think this was the day when I was watching some very feisty clouds occasionally berating the sea with thunder and lightning.

I think it’s the sense of “where to next ?” with the sailaways as well. I think they’re magic and it’s one reason I went back to doing a cruise again this year. Wonder what it would be like on a river cruise ?

Will have to see where I go next year. But before I lose myself in checking out offers, I need to do my chapter and a bit tonight … Still in Aftershocks by Marko Kloos, I’ll finish that tonight and wonder how the author will develop the story in the next one.

Nite all, have a lovely rest of evening and a good day tomorrow.

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