Five days trundling across the Atlantic have brought us to Madeira. We were not sure how the crossing would pass, our last extended period at sea heading in to San Francisco had been far from comfortable and poor weather is frequently common in the north Atlantic. But the five days passed calm and clear with most passengers happily headed for the open decks in desperate efforts to top up their tans before hitting the overcast shores of Europe. One dissenting voi...

I'm going to throttle my iPhone. Set the alarm for 7am to get a bright and early start. Stupid phone thinks it's still in Spanish waters which are 1 hour ahead of Portugal. Not being the brightest matelot on the crew it took me 15 minutes to work out, by which time I was up and ready to go. You have no idea how deserted a cruise ship is at 6.15 of a morning. The ship docked at Leixios near Oporto at 9am and we were suitably impressed with the efficient organisat...