Crete and Another Man Down

We had a full day at sea between Alexandria and Crete, and during that time Chris also fell ill. So he was flat on his back for 36 hours and has only come right this morning as we head towards Malta. We only had a short port time in Crete – 4.5 hours – so it seemed like a waste of time to be on a bus for that time so the boys and I caught a taxi into the main city of Heraklion. Crete has it’s own separate culture as it is quite distant from other areas of Greece. We wandered around the town, had a greek coffee in Lion Square (well, the boys had a juice) and went shopping at the markets. We are a little over the food on the boat, particularly because of the illnesses, so I went to a bakery and bought fresh buns, spinach pies and donuts to smuggle back on the boat for lunch. We left port at 2pm only to get 5 hours out to sea and the boat turned around again. Someone on the boat was very ill and they turned around and steamed back and transferred this person to another boat from one of the islands that met us. Apparently they only turn the boat around in cases of medical emergency. We think someone missed the boat when we were in Athens, but it’s too bad if that happens. They do have a hospital on the boat so could deal with broken bones etc., so it must have been quite serious.


So we are a bit delayed for our arrival in Malta, but they have had the boat at full speed - which is around 22.5 knots rather than cruising speed which is around 13 or 14 knots – to try and make up for lost time. We are due in Malta at 3.30pm.

We have spent a bit of time on the ship the last couple of days and the boys have been spending hours on the waterslide and in the spa pools with some American children they have met. I have looked around the shops – everything from clothes, jewellery, watches, perfume, cosmetics, booze – all not really to my taste. They do a roaring trade in duty free cigarettes because as you can imagine, with the ships’ population being mostly European, everyone smokes like a train. And I have been doing the aerobics class. We have met a few people, Canadians, Americans and Aussies. A nice couple who are American (although he was originally a kiwi) and stationed in Germany in the military were great company for me on the Egypt trip and we have caught up with them for a drink since.

Everyone seems to be at full health today – fingers crossed! X