23 August 2008
Great things found in America: #1
Forget Haagen Dazs, forget Ben and Jerry’s, Coldstone Creamery is where its at, when it comes to ice cream at least.If you are unsure what to get on your first visit, I strongly recommend “The Pie Who Loved Me”, which is a healthy collection of cheescake ice cream, Oreo cookies and Graham Cracker pieces with fudge sauce on top. If that doesn’t light your fire, then there is the usual American bewildering range of options available. One of the other nice things about buying your ice cream in Coldstone is that its…
22 August 2008
The Volvo XC90 and RON
In the unlikely event that you were wondering where we’ve been for the past few days I can tell you that we’ve been wondering about fuel economy and RON.We have chosen an economical (by mpg) SUV, and one which has proper brakes and gears too, unlike the typical US versions, which look great but can only go in a straight line.Like this for instance: Anyway, great in a straight line, hopeless if you need to brake (it weights over 2.5 tonnes) or go around corners (less of a problem in the US thankfully). Also, its not so useful for carting…
And so at around 4:30 this morning we passed under the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge on our way into New York Harbour. The bridge is named after Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European to enter the harbour through the narrows and connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. Those athletes amongst you will recognise it from pictures of the New York Marathon, which starts its tour of all five boroughs of New York on Staten Island before taking the competitors over the bridge into Brooklyn and onwards through Queens, the Bronx and ending in Central Park, Manhattan.…
19 August 2008
Music and New York City
New York has such a great connection with music that its worth making a special mention here.One of the most famous music places in New York (and indeed the world) is CBGB & OMFUG. For those that don’t know, CBGB stands for Country, BlueGrass and Blues. OMFUG stands for Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers (or glutton, in this case for music). Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973 in the Bowery (in Manhattan), CBGB was the place where many bands, especially punk and new wave bands, made their name. The Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie and Talking Heads are amongst the most…
18 August 2008
Last day “noon at sea”
The sun is rising and thankfully its another nice, calm day. We are just south of Nova Scotia, or for those Latin fans amongst you, New Scotland. Actually its about time there was a new Scotland - the other one looks a bit worn out these days.For the history buffs, Nova Scotia was colonised by the French in 1604. The good old British Empire took control in 1713 and founded the capital, Halifax, in 1749 - Presumably someone from Yorkshire was on the naming committee, although it doesn’t appear that the attempts to…
17 August 2008
Here’s to a calm day
So far so good - its Force 6 wind (27 mph) and the sea is only rough (12 ft waves). And, no its not 3:51am - the ship’s time is showing the time in New York for some reason - its actually 2 hours later. We are now approaching Newfoundland. For those interested in our Titanic obsession, we are also approaching the area where the great ship sank as marked on the above chart. As the historians amongst you will remember, the ship reported her location at the time as 41° 46′ N, 50° 14′ W, presumably thinking they were…
16 August 2008
Captain’s log, Saturday 16th August 2008
Unfortunately this day isn’t quite as nice as other days.We should have guessed the weather was going to be bad when sick bags started to appear all around the ships.There is a force 10 wind (according to Sir Francis Beaufort’s scale this means winds of 60 mph on average - there’s only 2 steps left in his scale, and the last one is hurricane) across the ship and waves of 18-27 feet. Even in a ship this size you notice that.So, to some of the obvious disadvantages of this weather for the guest on board: table tennis becomes hard to…
16 August 2008
Fascinating facts about the QM2: #2
The QM2 is a marvel of modern water/wastewater treatment technology. Four flash evaporators and a reverse osmosis unit desalinate sea water to create drinking water, producing 1,000 tons of fresh water daily. A membrane bioreactor large enough to handle a town of 8,000 inhabitants converts the waste on the ship into clean water that can be released into the sea. Incinerators on board eliminate the residuals that are impossible to recycle or to recuperate and the heat generated from this is used to as energy elsewhere on the ship. Paper, plastics, glass and packed residuals are compacted to be recycled…
15 August 2008
Does anyone have a spare part for a large ocean liner?
No, I’m not up at 2am taking pictures of our TV screen. This was the time the QM2 stopped. So its 7am now and we are still where we were 5 hours ago, 721.3 nautical miles from Southampton. At least the power is back on now, its a bit dark otherwise with just the emergency lighting.
15 August 2008
And we are off again
By lunchtime today the main problem seems to have been resolved and we have started off again, albeit at a lower speed (18 kts) than before (21-23 kts) whilst the engineers investigate a “technical issue” with one of the ship’s propulsion pods.So we can’t help but be reminded of the Titanic (again!): It's the 15th today (the day in April 1912 the Titanic sank) The ship has a technical issue (although in the case of the Titanic this was a large hole made by contact with an iceberg) The musicians in the restaurant last night were playing “My Heart Will…