Monday 5th May

Another day at sea as we head towards the exit of the Mediterranean, the sun is shining and up on deck are the final few desperately trying to top up their tan before we arrive back in the UK. The captain announces that Queen Mary 2 is on our heels catching us up with every mile we cover he told us that we will enter Lisbon with Queen Victoria leading, Queen Elizabeth following and Queen Mary bringing up the rear. All three will be moored at the same quay. So while all this is happening, I went to listen to Commander Jeff Tall on the cold war and the part submarines had to play in the downfall of Communist Russia. When I came back up on deck we were closing in on Gibraltar and as we sailed past I couldn’t help wishing we were calling in as we always used to do. Then we were back out in the Atlantic and heading North once more with Queen Mary 2 (by now), just a few miles behind us. Then as we headed down to dinner we saw she had caught up with us and was now stationed about a mile away on our Port quarter (on our right hand side, slightly behind us). During dinner we watched her slowly creep past us until she reached right alongside where she stayed for the next hour or so. The show last night was what we used to call in the Navy ‘a sods opera’ where members of the ships company put together a show for general entertainment, and it was excellent as these things often are, as much for the mistakes as anything else, the theatre was packed. Clocks go back for the final hour tonight which means we have finally reached UK time, by putting our clocks back 25 times.