We both enjoyed the cruise despite the change of itinerary due to the very high waves and gale force winds which made it somewhat impossible to dock and explore the Island of Madeira.One must respect Captain Andreas Pooker’s decision making process in the interest of safety of both passengers and crew in his endeavour to seek shelter from this peril and exposure to injury whist at sea.The Officers and Crew just continued to smile 25 hours out of 24 hours each day with the tenacity to overcome the difficulties and challenges ahead.

In retrospect we can all say if only we stayed in Lisbon longer and not endured two plus days at sea looking for shelter which entailed a number of incidents with minimum resources to feel reassured of our safety as passengers. The fear factor started to grow among some passengers that found comfort to collectively sleep with their life jacket in mid ship deck areas during the severe weather conditions coupled with damage to the ship and minor to serious injury to some passengers. The rumour spread that the crew were on red alert .. most of us have watch the film titanic which made it a little scary.

Despite this experience we are planning to cruise again with Fred Olen to celebrate my big 70. Read more