All at sea

Our adventures in Spain and Portugal began with 33 hours at sea on board Brittany Ferries’ Santona.

We drove to Portsmouth ferry port via friends who live on Hayling Island. Our ferry sailed at 10.45pm which was not the most convenient time, but having friends nearby helped. While visiting them for a few hours, we had time to catch up and enjoy a delicious meal, prepare Racheal’s medicines for the voyage and get her ready for bed, before heading off to check in.

Once through passport control, we didn’t have too long to wait before boarding. We were parked next to the lift and with plenty of space around the car to manoeuvre our trolley and Racheal’s wheelchair easily. Once we had got the things we needed for the journey, I secured the trolley with the wheelchair restraints so it didn’t move around in the car if the sea got choppy. Assistance staff met us at the car, offered to help with our luggage and took us up in the lift to deck 8. Our accessible cabin was very spacious, with two large windows and an en suite shower room. Summer’s inside cabin was just round the corner and was also reasonably roomy for one person. Although she didn’t have a window there was a light up picture of a tropical sea view! So late at night, the main priority was to get Racheal to bed which we managed before sailing.

Next morning we went to the self service restaurant for breakfast which was ok (if you like Luke warm food and bacon that’s more fat than lean) but we decided that we probably wouldn’t return! We spent most of the morning waiting for someone to fix our hot water as it seemed unable to rise above tepid. Fortunately, the water in Summer’s room was hot, so we could get water for Racheal’s wash from her room. Good job we always travel with a collapsible bowl! We explored the ship while we waited and Racheal particularly enjoyed getting outside in the fresh air.

With the hot water fixed (only briefly as it turned out), I had time for a shower before our picnic lunch, then we were off to a Monkey’s Fist knotting workshop. I was pleased with my first effort, but was told it needed to be tighter. Tightening it made it messy so I took it apart to start again and never achieved as good as a result as my first attempt. Summer managed to make two excellent specimens which she was rightfully proud of.

When we rounded the north west corner of France, we were fairly close to the coast which made a pleasant change from the endless view of sea in varying states of calm and choppy.

We decided a trip to the ship’s cinema would pass a couple of hours before dinner, so just before 4.30 we set off on the 2 metre walk from our cabin to watch Zootropilis2! The cinema seated about 20 people and the seats were very comfortable, two seater sofas. We lifted Racheal out of her wheelchair so she could sit with Summer to watch the film.

Our evening meal in the restaurant was a great improvement on breakfast. There was a buffet for starters and a good selection on the menu for main course. As there was the option to pay a fixed price for two courses, we opted for starter and main. We still had plenty of sweet treats to enjoy in our cabin later if we wanted them! A reasonably early night was needed ready for an early start in the morning. We had to be ready to go to the car deck at 7.45am. At least we gained an hour with the time difference. We were ready in good time, though we had to wait a while for the lift. Back in the car, we had the inevitable wait to disembark but were not expecting an hour of queuing to get through passport control once on the quay.

Eventually, we were on our way from Bilbao to Santander to meet Dad who had travelled up by train the day before.