The Keil Canal

I wake with the alarm this morning. This is extremely unusual for me but presumably not having a window makes it easier to sleep longer. I’m also sure the movement and sounds of the ship lull you to sleep. A quick shower turns out to be pretty straightforward (once you read the instructions) and we make it to breakfast by 8:45am.

We have a vast choice of breakfast options so I go for grapefruit followed by bacon and eggs – my stomach is much better now! After that we go back down to the cabin where I finish writing my first postcard (to myself). I had been going through all the cool things in the room and found that we had been kindly provided with a couple of postcards featuring our wonderful ship, Ocean Majesty.

In the shadow of one [of the bridges] we see children waving at us whilst another sprays graffiti on the bridge uprights!

After breakfast my friend goes off to join the wine tasting session, whilst I go to the Helsinki port lecture. Apparently she had enough of the lecturer yesterday! Whilst I find the talks very interesting and useful, it is still hard to keep my eyes open. He really needs to inject a bit of life into them. We will apparently be docking right in the centre of Helsinki, because we are such a small ship. Everything should be within an easy walking distance, including a really good local market. Mind you I won’t be buying the local speciality – fur.

After the lecture I wander into the Champagne bar where madam is still enjoying her early morning booze! I find a quiet corner and finish writing up my journal. I do pick up a few interesting points though. For instance did you know that Champagne bottles are turned upside down and the necks frozen, so that the impurities that settle behind the cork can be removed? This prevents the loss of any fizz! Apparently my friend is quite pleased that I’ve turned up, she hadn’t realised until too late that there was a charge for the wine! On the way to catch the coach yesterday, she realised that she had emptied her purse of all unwanted items … and her credit card. So it looks like I’ll be settling the bill at the end. Still I get my own back by wondering if her teenage son has found it and is currently using it to organise a rave in their back garden!

At 12 noon the Cruise Director’s voice comes over the tannoy system, to give us our daily update. So far we have travelled 295 nautical miles, with just another 410 to go before we reach Stockholm.

For lunch we have the choice of visiting the restaurant downstairs or (as we do today) heading up to the buffet on deck. This is lovely and we are greeted by our waiters from the other night “hello table 43!” Getting a normal cup of tea takes some doing as all the breakfast tea has been put away. But we succeed and get our first decent cuppa!

We end up sitting with a couple of ladies, one English and the other American. They have been pen pals for 40 years! They were put in contact with each other when they each bought a pen. The manufacturers were taking part in a marketing scheme to match up pen pals from across the world. Obviously in their case it was a resounding success. They put us to shame by telling us all about their world travels, staying in a superior version of a youth hostel – called the “Y”.

When they leave we end up sitting with the bass player for the onboard band. He has worked on cruise ships for many years, but only ever does it for short periods at a time. For him it’s a working holiday, allowing him to visit exciting places around the world.

He’s been to St Petersburg before and almost missed the ship – not something you want to do in Russia! In the end he saw some locals hitching lifts. It seemed to be a normal way of getting about, like an impromptu taxi service, so he gave it a go. An elderly woman swerved across the road and, after showing her his boarding pass, she drove him to the dock. When they got there he was so grateful he handed her all of his remaining Roubles. Her eyes almost popped out of her head at the sight of it.

Because of our near miss in Harwich, we have been wondering what happens if someone misses the ship. He has known crew do this, resulting in them being flown to the next port of call. This usually results in the miscreant being barred from shore leave for the rest of the trip. That being said he once worked for an Entertainment Officer who was particularly hot on punctuality. He had gone ashore with his bike simply got the wrong time in his head. Hence he was slowly cycling across the dock when he realised the ship was casting off. He broke the sound barrier getting back but arrived just too late. Luckily for him the ship (which had only gone a few metres) actually stopped and came back! His fellow officers treated it very seriously to his face, but laughed themselves silly behind his back.

Our new friend is enjoyable to talk to and we end up lingering for longer than planned. However we finally part company when the first lock of the Keil Canal comes into view.

Ocean Majesty passes into a massive lock chamber. In fact there are two chambers side by side, but we have ours all to ourselves. From what we can see, there isn’t much of a drop between water levels, but presumably that changes depending on the tide.

Lots of sightseers have turned up to watch us pass (well not us personally) and there is a lot of waving. They wave at us and we wave at them! We are standing beside a woman who is looking for some friends amongst the crowds. Apparently they had promised to be here, but she cannot see them. So we compensate by waving all the more!

I take the opportunity to do a little bird watching as we pass along the canal. There are the usual suspects – mute swans, mallards, coots, blackheaded gulls and common terns, but we also see some Egyptian geese, lapwings and some kind of harrier being mobbed by a flock of smaller birds.

The landscape is flat arable farmland mixed with pine forests. The latter is obviously a crop too as we had passed a large raft of logs floating near the lock. Despite the flat landscape, there are enormous bridges crossing the water and marching into the distance. Obviously they have to be large enough to allow ships like ours to pass beneath them. In the shadow of one we see children waving at us whilst another sprays graffiti on the bridge uprights!

The weather is windy and grey but still surprisingly warm. I would stay on deck longer, but I’ve had enough of being buffeted about by the wind. We decide to go to the pictures before dinner, to see the Brother’s Grimm. When we get to the cinema, we find four other people. It’s down in bowels of the ship and used to be the disco but apparently no one ever used to go. Rather worryingly we can hear water sloshing about over our heads. Apparently the water storage tanks are up there. The film is excellent. I had forgotten it was directed by Terry Gilliam, which explained the rather nasty bits. The kitten scene certainly lived up to the Grimm title and I was definitely the only person laughing my socks off at it.

By watching the film we end up with just 40 minutes to get ready for our informal meal tonight (informal means smart outfits, rather than evening dress). I’d already tried and failed to iron my dress, so I have put some out for pressing (only £1.80 each)!

After dinner we go to the show that we had heard being rehearsed earlier in the day. It is a tribute to Gershwin, Berlin and Porter and it’s excellent. We are conscious that we want to support our newly found friend, but we are also trying not to look like a couple of teenage groupies. To help pass the time we manage to down some very pleasant cocktails!

We round off the night in the Majestic Lounge, listening to Kismit (Ken and Rita Taylor) playing some classic lounge music. I’m taken by the fact that most of the music is coming from Ken’s iPod! They just add the guitar and vocals. Apparently they can also show you their holiday snaps if you’re interested.

Hooray! We’ve made it to 11:30pm and chocolate snacks. Frankly it wasn’t really worth the wait, but sometimes you just have to do these things.