Corfu and a change of plans

Our next port of call was Corfu. Our initial excursion involving a market tour and cooking class was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of numbers so Russell made up for it by booking an extra onboard cooking class and we decided to simply catch the shuttle into Corfu and do our own thing.

 

Corfu had a faded charm with numerous limoncello shops occasionally punctuated by jewellery stores and restaurants and didn’t take us that long to cover.

The forecast had been for threatening weather by the afternoon and as we waited with other Regent passengers for the shuttle it became bitterly cold and windy and we were happy to spend the rest of the afternoon onboard exploring Explorer 😊

Later in the afternoon our Captain Serena came on over the public address to warn us that we would face some heavy seas later in the evening and overnight and warned us that if we were “susceptible to the ship’s movement we should take the necessary precautions.” Prepared as we were, I took the anti-emetic that we had brought with us and was dismayed to start feeling queasy as the evening wore on and put myself to bed at 8pm, definitely feeling susceptible to the ships movement! Once asleep though I had no issues and apart from a couple of bathroom trips with the resultant sideways stagger, all was well.

We awoke to blue skies and as the island of Sicily came into view with the picturesque town of Taormina perched on the hill we were excited about our trip today to Mt Etna.

We watched the lifeboats being lowered and were eagerly anticipating our first tender transfer (which happens when the ship is anchored at sea, not tied up at dock for you landlubbers) until Captain Serena come on again to inform us that there was too much swell from yesterday’s storm to safely use the tender platform 😏

There was no docking space available anywhere close by so sadly we loaded the lifeboats up again and headed back to sea.

Russell and I weren’t devastated as we had been to Taormina previously for Lyndon’s wedding but many people were quite disappointed. As they say on board, “ship happens!” We decided to use the day at sea ( which this cruise initially had none of) to sit in on bingo, play some trivia and generally check out what else was on offer.

Our course took us through the narrow Strait of Messina (between Sicily and mainland Italy) and then past an impressive Mt. Stromboli, albeit partly obscured by rain and cloud.

We also discovered that ondansetron ( the anti-emetic that we had brought with us) is not very effective for sea sickness, so with more rough seas ahead we went to reception and happily took the Meclizine they were handing out which worked a treat!

Next stop, Sorrento.

 

 

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