This isn't the James Cook, but I'm sure Dan will have an idea of what ship it is - He's geekishly amazing like that.
A pleasant surprise occurred last week, when the RRS James Cook berthed at Southampton and Dan could commute every evening to see us. It was a little hard on him though, since he was getting home between 5:30-6:30pm in the evenings after suffering the massive congestion that occurs from 4:30 (especially on the Gosport roads since there are only two main roads that enter this tip of the country!) That and he had to get up at 6am to drive back, although luckily misses the main surge of vehicles at this time of day.
But with everything good there is always something bad and before I knew it, it’s time for goodbyes again! This was hard enough two weeks ago, but seems to be ten times worse this time!
The girls were a little confused again about Dad’s disappearance and I thought as they also missed his last goodbyes (since they sleep like bricks until 7:30am) I would surprise them with a visit to the beach so they could wave goodbye as the ship passes, coming out of Southampton waters.
This was unfortunately a disaster!
We picked Katie up at 3pm, made sure she was wrapped up like a woolly mammoth (like the rest of us) and started our mini migration south/west. It took 45 minutes to reach the point (as we stopped at the waterhole and last grazing field) only to discover a tall wire fence and sign saying “KEEP OUT - MOD PROPERTY”. Then the girls decided they needed the toilet – luckily there is a small café at the edge of the road, so we walked back to it to see another sign “Only customers may use the toilets” (I wonder if that counts for baby mammoths?) Thinking fast I escorted the girls in and promptly bought three cookies and a cup of tea. We sat down and, as if on cue, the girls asked for the toilet. When we returned to our table I noticed the kitchen staff tidying up and turning the lights out - I must admit I didn’t check what time this place closed, but the lady strutting around, cleaning the clean tables was making me feel uncomfortable and blatantly obvious they wanted us gone ASAP! So I sculled my tea, burnt my mouth and bundled the herd up again.
We walked back to the fence, bailed out of the pram and walked down the beach a bit. Various texts from Dan had confirmed they were on their way so there was nothing to do now but wait. It was 4:45 and the sky was getting darker, so I began to wonder if we would see anything at all. A few minutes later though, there she was - I grabbed the binoculars in one hand and my phone in the other as Dan had called us by this stage. Apparently he was wearing bright yellow on the foredeck, but the ship was hugging the west coast and we didn’t see him at all - let alone waving.
So we bid him farewell on the phone, I showed the girls the tiny white light on the horizon, told them that was Daddy on his ship, turned and headed home, cold and hungry.
But with everything good there is always something bad and before I knew it, it’s time for goodbyes again! This was hard enough two weeks ago, but seems to be ten times worse this time!
The girls were a little confused again about Dad’s disappearance and I thought as they also missed his last goodbyes (since they sleep like bricks until 7:30am) I would surprise them with a visit to the beach so they could wave goodbye as the ship passes, coming out of Southampton waters.
This was unfortunately a disaster!
We picked Katie up at 3pm, made sure she was wrapped up like a woolly mammoth (like the rest of us) and started our mini migration south/west. It took 45 minutes to reach the point (as we stopped at the waterhole and last grazing field) only to discover a tall wire fence and sign saying “KEEP OUT - MOD PROPERTY”. Then the girls decided they needed the toilet – luckily there is a small café at the edge of the road, so we walked back to it to see another sign “Only customers may use the toilets” (I wonder if that counts for baby mammoths?) Thinking fast I escorted the girls in and promptly bought three cookies and a cup of tea. We sat down and, as if on cue, the girls asked for the toilet. When we returned to our table I noticed the kitchen staff tidying up and turning the lights out - I must admit I didn’t check what time this place closed, but the lady strutting around, cleaning the clean tables was making me feel uncomfortable and blatantly obvious they wanted us gone ASAP! So I sculled my tea, burnt my mouth and bundled the herd up again.
We walked back to the fence, bailed out of the pram and walked down the beach a bit. Various texts from Dan had confirmed they were on their way so there was nothing to do now but wait. It was 4:45 and the sky was getting darker, so I began to wonder if we would see anything at all. A few minutes later though, there she was - I grabbed the binoculars in one hand and my phone in the other as Dan had called us by this stage. Apparently he was wearing bright yellow on the foredeck, but the ship was hugging the west coast and we didn’t see him at all - let alone waving.
So we bid him farewell on the phone, I showed the girls the tiny white light on the horizon, told them that was Daddy on his ship, turned and headed home, cold and hungry.
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