Day 69/73. En route for Lisbon.

The 2019 QM2 World Voyage begins to draw to a close. People I know started packing a week ago.

Today is the traditional fund raising “Country Fayre” which our Captain tells us originated some 70 years ago when passengers would sell off their excess baggage items to lessen the imposition of last minute packing at the end of a very long cruise. This is the fourth such event I have attended, the first being on the QE2 when I came away with a sugar shaker from its Queens Grill, which I am sure the current owners in Dubai may like me to return to them! In 2007, as far as I remember, I made a donation for a Cunard identification badge with my name printed thereon. That was on board QM2. Last year, I successfully bid for a Bridge chart, which according to Chris the DJ, went for next to nothing, a tenth of its guide price, not knowing it was I who was the “lucky” bidder! As like last year, people were fingering this year’s bridge chart to death…that is how my conversation with Chris began in the first place, this year. I bought $20 of “Fayre Dollars” to support this annual event. And I shall attend the charity auction this year, although there is less that I am interested in this year. Last year, there was also a Cunard 175 pavement flag which attracted little interest. The bridge chart, allegedly worth around $3,000 dollars still awaits glazing and framing. There are the usual “garden fete” stalls dotted around the Queens Room. This year’s guess the total nautical miles QM2 has sailed, is since the start of its maiden voyage. I submitted two estimates between 2 and 5 million nautical miles after rough and probably very inaccurate mental calculations. Needless to say, I didn’t win; my guess of 2.5 million miles was just 400,000 out and a woman came closer to the correct figure, 2.1 million. For some reason, I thought my low end estimate was not nearly enough, submitting stupid guesses of 5.7 million and nearly 8m!

I decided that I would bid for the Bridge chart after all. Having both 2018 and 2019 charts would enhance my collection enormously. This was much less fingered than mine last year, which will need professional attention, unless I decide the marks are part of its history. Just in case the bidding exceeded my budget, I bought a couple of items, several coasters made from QM2 rope ($26.00) and a canvassed framed photograph signed by the ship’s senior officers. The bidding went quiet at $70.00. At that price, I decided to try for the other two, to keep the set intact. However, those went for between two and three times my winning bid for the first image. The room was becoming empty by the time the Bridge chart came up as the auction’s “grand finale”. Oh dear….within a few seconds, bidding was into four figures, and sold eventually for over $2,000, against my bargain of $300 last year, which is still remembered with a degree of tongue in cheek disgust! I was also outbid on an opportunity to sound the ship’s siren (a Royal Navy term) at noon on one of the remaining sea days. A little old lady won that privilege at I think, around $180.00. She came up to me and thanked me for not out-bidding her; she had always wanted to sound the ship’s whistle (my terminology). If I had realised she was so keen, I would have stopped bidding much sooner. This of course, was an annual fund raising event, and, great fun.

Vicky has a dinner appointment with her friend Vivien in the Alternative Dining restaurant tonight. That leaves just me and Nick, and eventually Virginia, an exile from a slightly higher echelon. Virginia’s diet seems to be working well and is straightforward to come to grips with. However, my clothes seem to fit just as they did back in January. But, I would be a little miffed if all this effort had in fact preduced little or disappointing results. We’ll see.

My intention was to write about each individual day and “publish” as I went along. This worked alright until around Aqaba when the internet became far less reliable. Hopefully I shall find an internet cafe in Lisbon and have enough time to bring my blogs up to date.

Thanks for reading.

David