After an excellent night’s sleep we got up at 8.00am and looked out of our window at grey skies once again, and a very calm North Sea. The Ambition was gliding gently along, only doing about 8-10 knots. We were not due to reach our first port of call, Dundee, until around 11.30am.
As readers of this blog know, I post regularly on Twitter, along with other keen cruisers. We have, in this way, been able to share experiences, photos, tips and other anecdotes, and virtual friendships are formed. One such Twitter user (we follow each other) is Anthony, who goes by the Twitter handle @nauticallyspeak and lives in Dundee, and when I tweeted that we were due to visit on the Ambition, we agreed we absolutely had to meet up. 😊
In the meantime, we relaxed on the ship, strolled around the decks and took part in the morning trivia at 10.30am (which we didn’t win – the questions are pretty hard!). We watched the passing scenery with interest as the Ambition made her way into port; Anthony posted a photo of her coming into Dundee on Twitter, which was strange to see, knowing we were actually inside the ship at the time! 😊
As today the Ambition would be disembarking a lot of passengers and others would only just be joining the cruise today we figured it would be busy on the ship and in the port, so we wanted to disembark as soon as we could. We planned on visiting the RRS Discovery museum and ship after an early lunch, as we’d planned on meeting Anthony outside the museum at 3.00pm.
We therefore went to the Borough Market self-service buffet where I enjoyed a plate of cold cuts and crisp mixed salad greens. Then we returned to 9187 for me to change from my flip-flops into trainers and to collect our cagoules; the weather forecast this afternoon was for heavy rain. ☹
Disembarking the Ambition, we made our way along to the waiting shuttle buses. I’d wanted to get a good bow shot of the vessel, but the area was cordoned off; I’d have to wait until later in the cruise.
The bus took about 10 minutes to get into the city centre; we passed the Discovery on the way to our drop-off point in Crichton Street. We were advised that there were shuttle buses every 15 minutes, then we set off in the direction of the Discovery museum. After visiting explorer Roald Amundsen’s famous ship Fram in Oslo in December 2022 we were looking forward to visiting another famous explorer’s ship, Captain Scott’s Royal Research Ship Discovery, which was built in Dundee in 1901.
I love anything to do with the early maritime explorers, those adventurous and brave men who were quite literally setting off into the unknown. Whilst everybody knows that Roald Amundsen beat Robert Scott to the South Pole in 1911, Captain Scott had some unbeatable achievements of his own. On the board the RRS Discovery he sailed further south than anyone else ever had at the time; he was also the first man to go up in a balloon over Antarctica. We couldn’t wait to learn more about it.
It was great in the museum. There were lots of exhibits with explanatory cards, lots of video clips and short films, and tents, skis, clothing and tools that would all be essentials when exploring uncharted territory, especially Antarctica, the most inhospitable place on earth, with temperatures as low as -70°C.
We worked our way around 11 different scenes/exhibits before making our way outside to the dry dock in which Discovery was berthed. It was exciting going up the gangplank and setting foot aboard; here we were on the actual ship that Captain Robert Falcon Scott commanded – how brilliant was this? 😊
We explored the whole vessel, going below decks to see the galley, the officers’ ward room and the cabins with their bunks where the crew slept. Each cabin contained two beds so most crew members had to share, apart from Captain Scott’s cabin which he had all to himself. Peering inside, looking at his bunk which had a reindeer skin on it for extra warmth, I tried to imagine what it must have felt like on the ship during the high seas in the Roaring Forties and the southern ocean with its many ice floes, the biting, frigid high winds and snow storms and the absolutely bitter cold which led to many a crew member losing fingers or toes to frost bite.
It was about 2.50pm when we ‘disembarked’ the Discovery and made our way to the front entrance of the museum, stopping to enjoy an ice cream on the way.
Shortly afterwards, I spotted Anthony coming (I recognised him from his photos on Twitter and on his blog) and we shook hands and said hello; I also introduced him to Trevor. Then we thought it might be a nice idea to go for a pint and have a good chinwag before taking the mandatory photo to upload onto Twitter. 😊
We found a traditional pub and went inside, choosing a table near the back. Trevor went to the bar to get three pints of beer, and we spent the next couple of hours talking about ships, cruise lines, ports of call, captains, good and bad cruise experiences – there was absolutely no shortage of conversation or no awkward pauses, such as when people who meet for the first time try to fill the pauses with something polite and banal, like discussing the weather or the drop in the pound. I showed him some of the photos I’d taken on the ship as he is booked to cruise on Ambition in December; seeing the photos had really whet his appetite.
The time absolutely flew by – Anthony is a walking maritime encyclopaedia with his vast knowledge of ship history; my knowledge is pretty good but I’d certainly want Anthony on my quiz team if ever it was about ships! 😊
Looking at my watch, we realised we had to be back on board and washed and changed for dinner in less than an hour; Anthony had to be elsewhere as well, so at his suggestion we made our way to the nearby impressive Caird Hall, and Trevor took a photo of Anthony and me outside it, to upload to Twitter.
I wondered aloud whether Caird Hall was named after the businessman Sir James Caird, who had been a sponsor of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition and after whom the lifeboat had been named, that carried the crew back to land and safety after the Endurance was crushed in pack ice. A quick look on Google confirmed that that was indeed the case. 😊
After asking Anthony to promise he would look us up the next time he cruised out of Newcastle, we said our goodbyes and Trevor and I set off for nearby Crichton Street, where we could see that a shuttle bus was already waiting. We boarded the bus and it departed within a few minutes, getting us back on board by 5.25pm.
Instead of sitting at our allocated table #2, tonight was open seating due to some of the newly-embarked passengers not yet having been given a table number. We shared our table with two other couples, one of whom had only just embarked on their first cruise.
The service was particularly slow in the Buckingham Restaurant tonight, and there were long pauses in between courses, or having your water or wine glass topped up. While we were waiting for our post-prandial coffee, a waiter came over and said “would anyone like another cup of coffee?” “We haven’t had our first one yet, never mind another!” we told him. He was most embarrassed and apologised profusely as he wielded the coffee pot and the milk.
It was after 8.00pm when we left the restaurant, so we missed the “Nice & Easy” trivia quiz at seven-thirty. We therefore just headed straight for the Palladium Theatre so we could be sure of bagging some front-row seats.
While waiting for the show to start, I enjoyed an Aperol Spritz while Trevor opted for a pint of John Smith’s, and I spent some time browsing Twitter; I’d already uploaded the photos I’d taken at the RRS Discovery as well as the one Trevor had taken of Anthony and me outside Caird Hall. Then the intro music blasted out of the large speakers either side of the stage, making me jump and nearly spill my drink! 😊
The performance tonight was called “A Night in Nashville” and featured a cowboy showdown hoedown with songs such as Sweet Home Alabama, Country Roads, Jolene, Cotton Eye Joe and lots of other lively song-and-dance numbers, performed by the Ambition Show Company in colourful costumes with the inevitable cowboy boots and Stetsons. I thought it was an excellent show and, judging by the amount of foot-tapping and hands beating time from the audience members, many others thought so too.
At half past nine, we made our way to the Cavern where we joined Paul and Carol from table #2 to form a quiz team for the “Night at the Oscars” game show. In this one, we had to listen to 10 songs from movies and name the title, the artiste, and the movie it featured in. None of us were film buffs so, while we were pretty good with the song titles and artistes, we lost points by not knowing the name of the movie. So we scored 24/30, while the winning team scored an impressive 28/30. So no prize for us again!
At some point during the quiz we noticed the lights outside slowly receding from view as the Ambition departed the river Tay to continue her voyage; we had a day at sea to look forward to tomorrow.
Paul and Carol said their goodnights afterwards, but Trevor and I stayed where we were, because the show company were doing a second performance, this time showcasing the music of Abba. Once again, it was a very good show, and the dance floor was packed. It was after midnight when we left the Cavern and headed back to 9187. A quick check on Twitter showed that Anthony had uploaded some video footage of Ambition sailing out of Dundee, all lit up. We’d had a really enjoyable day today, and looked forward to whatever tomorrow would bring.