Having realised to our great consternation that breakfast and dinner were not included this year, unlike last, we headed off to breakfast, with the intention of stuffing our faces so much that we didn’t need any lunch. 😃
There were various murmurings around the ship from other people who had also expected the meals to be included. Having sailed previously with Brittany Ferries, we had meals included before. Raf found out that those who had booked after December 20th would not be entitled to these meals, whereas those who had done so before that would. Our main issue was the fact that this change had not been clearly communicated to us. If it had been, we would’ve planned accordingly and stocked up on loads of snacks in Sainsbury’s the other day. Anyway, never mind, we did as planned and ate a sufficiently huge breakfast to not need any more food until dinner time.
Dave did some website work this morning for Ben, and I went to explore dining possibilities and booked us in for dinner. On my way back, there was a talk in the bar about dolphins, porpoises and whales. It was very informative! Here’s a quick test to see if you know as little as I did! 😃 (click the plus to get the answer)
Porpoises and dolphins have their fins in the middle or forward from the middle whereas whales’ fins are further back.
2. Some toothed whales, porpoises and dolphins have rounded heads and use echolocation to locate their prey. This means that they send out sound waves which reflect back to them, indicating where their prey is.
3. Baleen whales (no teeth)feed differently – they open their mouths very wide – their throat expands and takes in loads of water, then mouth shuts, expels water and crustacean and small fish which it feeds on remains.
4. Sperm whales can be 20 metres long. (Dave got this one right!!)
5. They can typically be 2 metres high.
Any of these:
Birds circling
Gannets diving
Fish may attract them
Movements in water
Whale blows – can be metres high
Unusual splashes
Any of these:
Getting trapped in fishing nets
Chemicals and pollution
Noise pollution – mining, drilling, sonar
Plastics
Whaling – Iceland Norway and Japan
Faroe islands bottlenose slaughtered
Climate change
Ship strikes kill a lot of whales
Orca organisation liaises with shipping companies and as a result some routes have been changed to avoid areas of high population and ships have been slowed so whales can get away in time.
Whale poo is a fertiliser which enables more plankton to grow which in turn boosts fish stock.
You can support and fundraisers for wildlife organisations such as Orca. They have their own app for citizen science projects so that sightings and numbers can be reported from a wider range of locations. You can even do a whale watching course through them.
Other than that, we enjoyed chilling on this ship, the Galicia. We sailed on this one last year too and it is one of the newer ships. There are loads of nice information boards.
The cabins were really comfortable with nice showers and there was even a pet zone and dog walking deck (which Raf took full advantage of!)
We did a bit of planning to decide where our first stop en-route would be and settled on a place called Tordesillas, which has a nice-looking campsite. It is at the far end of our initial outline route, which went north to south as we thought that the south to north direction might give us a chance of better weather. We then met Raf and Brian for a pre-dinner drink, then had a very nice dinner and saw some dolphins out of the back of the ship, which was very exciting!
It was then time for the next quiz, and we managed to get into the last four out of 8 to go through to the second quiz. In that one, we came fourth, and were rewarded with a certificate. We did way better on all the subsequent rounds, which Raf in particular (who was very good at it!) found quite frustrating. 😃 So, no Britanny Ferries tote bag for us!!!
Dear, what a disappointment re breakfast. We always have huge breakfasts to save buying lunch when we go on holiday. I think most people do.
It seems as if you are in a very attractive place.
Today in Cornwall it has been utterly divine, unbelievably hot at times. The poor plants have not known what to do with themselves.
Much love to you both, Mum and Dad 🌞