Had a very disturbed night’s sleep and woke up with a migraine. Had Migralieve with me, so took that quickly and although poor Bob had to do the last of the packing, I managed to get up and by the time we set off, I was feeling ok.
A beautiful bright day, so much better than yesterday. We left the people of Mystic sweeping up a lot of leaves. The trip to Brooklyn takes just under 3 hours. A pretty drive for a long way, with the interstate running through a corridor of woods and crossing several rivers, including the Thames!!! The last 45 minutes as we began travelling through the NYC splurge was a bit stressful as the traffic and the aggressive driving built up. We had a slight struggle finding the Hertz office in Brooklyn where we were dropping off the car. We got to the address but no sign of it at all and in fact… no sign…… I ended up ringing them and they were around the corner from the address inside a parking garage. We called up a Uber XL (who also had a bit of trouble finding it, but found us) and then within 10 minutes we were at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal and there was our old friend the Queen Mary 2.
Being frequent Cunarders we went straight to the front of the check in queue and we were on board by about 230. Just as well as I was beginning to feel weird again through lack of food. I’d managed a bit of bread at breakfast but nothing else. We dropped our hand luggage in the cabin and headed straight up to the buffet. I wolfed down a plate of salmon sashimi and sushi – my usual lunch on the QM2. But I wanted more today. So I had some roast lamb and then some ice cream….
After lunch, we headed back to our cabin and met our steward, Joseph. Within about 5 minutes our luggage started to arrive and then the cases all turned up in close succession. At first you think, it will never get put away but the cabins are like the Tardis and everything just disappears into the cupboards and under the bed (for the cases). The Igloo on wheels ha gone into the bottom of Bob’s wardrobe and is acting as a shoe shelf. We have it all taped up. No need to open it.
Once we had finished unpacking, it was time for the mandatory lifeboat drill. You just go to your allotted mustering room – and now, no need to take your life jackets with you. That’s new. It takes about 20 minutes while they run through the signals, what to do, how to wear your lifejacket, how to abandon ship if necessary etc. One man fell asleep and was snoring loudly.
Finished unpacking. We were meant to sail at 5 but 2 couples were very late back and it was 530 before we pushed away. The sun was setting which made for some lovely skies as we left Manhattan behind us. The Staten Island Ferry hoved to and let us pass and all the passengers waved. We passed the Statue of Liberty and behind that Ellis Island as the sun went down. Last time we did this, a few years ago, it was dark and we saw everything lit up. This was pretty nice too. The ship was moving quite fast and in no time we went under the Verrazano Bridge and New York was left behind. The ship is turning north up towards Cape Cod and then a Great Circle route to Southampton.
We have had the most brilliant time the last couple of months and this next week will bring us gently back to the UK, avoiding the jet lag, as we gain an hour roughly every day.
We had a rest after sailing and then dinner at 830. We are on a table of 8 and seem to have a jolly group of tablemates.