Mary wrote: This was the third time we had tried to get to the southbound side of the M1 at junction 15A to catch the Eavesway bus to Southampton. I was optimistic as I had booked Gino's private hire and spoken with her at length about the previous problems, always ending up at the wrong north side. Tom arrived promptly at 0730 and we loaded his estate car and then showed him the map and a print-out of the junction of the A43. We tried taking the M1 South signs off on A43 towards Northampton but the sat nav wanted to go a different route, but we persevered and only saw signs to M1, not North or South, and eventually ended up at 15A but on the north side. Tom then drove towards Daventry and left the M1 at junction 15 and went across to the South side and we were in the correct place after about 10 minutes. Mel thinks another time we should try going to junction 15 first and then go South to 15A. Having left at 0740 we did not arrive until 0930. The traffic had been heavy. The bus was late because of very heavy rain, and we had another stop after 40 minutes before finally getting to Southampton around 1340. It was really quite warm and we had to wait for our luggage to arrive in the cabin. It took much longer than usual probably because it is a 34-night cruise with varying weather temperatures expected, so most people had two large cases plus hand luggage. I had a very bad night yesterday as I only had three hours sleep and Mel had been downstairs twice and being very restless so we are pretty shattered.
The crew have taken longer than expected with loading luggage and provisions and had over 60 pallets to offload before we can leave port. We are starting more than two hours later than expected. The captain has already warned us of high seas tomorrow and is intending to change our planned route by going nearer to the Bay of Biscay to get better conditions. We may also be later than expected reaching St Johns. He is expecting Force 8 gales and 8 metre waves. I have got my acupuncture wristband on and have also taken a ginger tablet. We do not eat until the 2030 sitting and have been allocated table 45 which is a table for 6 so we will see who we meet. We arrived first at table 45, quickly followed by Pat and Ashley from Cumbria and Tony and Jill from Buckinghamshire. We enjoyed a lively first evening of chat. Both couples are diamond Fred Olson members.