"SH Vega" here we go

 

This is the start of my 2024 cruise. Now I am sitting by a false log fire in the vestibule of the hotel in Southampton – the good ship “SH Vega” sets sail from Portsmouth later this afternoon.

I blame the “Banshees of Inisherin” for me hanging around for hours in this hotel surrounded by people around my age. Saw the film and thought I must go there. The cruise that would get me close to the place was “The Spirit of the Celts” run by Swan Hellenic. We sail from that immensely Celtic port of Portsmouth and head to the Scilly Isles before we head west round Ireland’s Atlantic Coast.

The hotel is pretentious: has a Marco Pierre White restaurant – was tempted order in a Big Mac but didn’t. At breakfast found myself talking to an American from Minneapolis who had sailed the Vega on three previous occasions. I asked him what it was like -o.k. he said. Like me he’s married with a stay-at-home wife and like me cats are the reason she doesn’t travel with him. Like me he thought that we’ve going to Hell in a handcart. He thinks Trump will be good for the American economy – we agreed not to talk about that on the cruise.

Besides Vega “guests,” Silversea is rounding up its passengers. They look more affluent than my lot – I’m thinking about a last-minute transfer but first need to ask where they’re sailing to.

I’m sure I’ll love the Celts, assuming we’ll find any…also I’m thinking my fellow guests will be fun – swapping prescriptions, logging our aliments, and bemoaning the state of the world today.