Back to London

Captain’s Log, October 29th: Back to London, and a glorious morning to sail up the Thames.
All in all quite a successful voyage, albeit we seem to be having trouble again with one of the engines. In the early hours we tied up at the Greenwich Cruise Terminal, with a lovely view of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers, and prepared to disembark the passengers. You would think they’d all be in a happy mood, after such an interesting cruise, yet even on this last day we had grumbles from some of them. It was clearly stated in page 17 of their online terms and conditions that we would be finishing at the Greenwich terminal, rather than in central London where we started, so it’s hardly the company’s fault if they didn’t bother to read it. We’d also gone to the trouble of arranging coach transport to central London, at a minimal charge, but they didn’t even seem grateful for that. Speaking candidly, I’ll be glad to see the back of some of these ungrateful old people.

We had one last matter to deal with, after the disembarkation, and that was to offload the body from the mortuary. The widow was in no position to sort out such matters, so as a courtesy we made arrangements with an undertaker recommended by the purser. The undertaker turned out to be very tactful about matters such as discussing the choice of coffin with the widow. I was a little surprised that he brought a rental white van, rather than a hearse, but he pointed out that this way he could conceal the body from prying eyes after it was unloaded. I’m more than pleased, as he assured me that it was his practice to pay a 10% commission in cash, when all his invoices had been paid by the survivors. The purser and I will split this 50:50.

So the cruise ends. The ship will need to go into dock for engine repairs, and then I’ll be ready for the next great cruise, from Southampton to the Caribbean!