Well dear Readers, sorry to not get thius posted until now. I will not go into depth about the gremlins that exist to hold back the progress of this endeavor. Fortunately, all the impediments are electronic and nothing to do with the ship or the people. 

It appears that I will not be able to place photos with the blog until I get a new mobal chip for my iPad (opps, we didn't know you only wanted the cheaper data only chip!!??##). So that should reach me by our next stop in Bilboa, Spain.

Today is Friday, and this was to be our day to arrive in port, but in a effort to conserve fuel, we arrived yesterday, but we will not get shore leave until our scheduled begins tomorrow. Kids are here to study after all.

It was a beautiful approach into the dock coming up the Tagus River and passing the sites along the riverside. We were able to get a slip close it to Lafama and that means we are near the old city and within much easier walking to the sites.

Here are the notes from the voyage while we were at sea. I guess this will be the way we must go as the internet on the ship is only an intranet and the emails work. My cell reception only works on land, so we must adjust. It a HOLIDAY!!!

Monday, June 16th

Today we left the berth at Southampton and set sail on our voyage of discovery aboard the MV Explorer. There were no bands playing, no confetti flying but there was a great deal of excitement from all aboard. We were push and pulled away by tugs, as we had to turn about and sail down river on the opposite heading of our berthing direction. It was nine pm local time and as well headed down the River Text the sun set picturesquely over a refinery astern of the ship. A beautiful beginning of a very busy and hopefully educational journey.

Tuesday, June 17th

Our first full day at sea and with my motion sickness bands firmly in place (I put them on at the hotel before we left Heathrow) I awoke too damned early. I think it more to do with the sun rising at 4:44am as much as jet lag. I hadn't realized that we were so far North. The sun sets at 9:20p and then rises a little over seven hours later. Of course we are heading for the summer eqinox in a few days. 

This whole day was spent in Safety and class orientation and actual classes begin tomorrow.

Everyone is very up and excited and looking forward to the true beginning of the voyage. I have chosen not to register for a class, but instead will join in unregistered "lens classes". The first is an antropology class on tourism.

Wednesday, June 18th

Just can't get the sleep cycle down. Missed breakfast and my class by sleeping right through them. Feel a bit more refreshed however. The workings of the email and internet are terrible and have spent much of the day trying to get it to work. Finally over the hump with that and have sent messages to the girls. I am going to use the email on the ship while at sea and just makes notes for the blog to be posted when we made landfall. I may not be able to upload pictures at the same time as I post my blog, we see how good the WiFi is at the port facilities will be.

Thursday, June 19th

Land Ho!!!

We are making port today - two days early. They want to save fuel costs and give us more hat shore time. Great!

Last night I went on deck at 1am to see the stars. I was hoping for a beautiful star filled sky. There is so much light pollution at home that seeing the Milky Way is impossible. Well I saw more stars than at home but the ship has so many lights on for safety and navigation we brought our own light pollution. Very pretty, but I was hoping for better.

It's quite exciting making our first landfall. Approaching from sea to the same port that saw all the Portuguese adventurers leaving for their discoveries so many centuries ago. The British Men-of-war who have come here since before the American Revolution and during the Nepoleanic Wars when Portugal was the ally of Britain.

They have yet to announce wether we - the LLL's - will be allowed to leave the ship tomorrow, as we are here a day sooner than planed.

Tomorrow - Saturday - I'm off for a tour of the sites.

More later