Saturday 23.59 pm

Dunno wot's going on?!

Well, we should be on the ferry at this moment and probably tucked up in our cabins. However, thanks to a rather unfortunately timed gust of wind, El Capitaine managed to crash his boat into the quayside on the way in from Sweden and make a hole in it. Silly man! Sadly it meant that we were not destined to sail today and we were herded to the Terminal offices where chaos ensued while we tried to find out what would happen next.

Marlins take over the Morrison's forecourt

Earlier, Bob and I had arrived at the Mayflower, Brewers Fayre pub at a decidedly unpicturesque location just outside the Port. The rest of the intrepid travelers were expected any minute. However an unplanned detour in the opposite direction to where they should be heading caused a delay to their arrival and they had no chance to catch up on my and Bob's already-downed 2 pints. A friend of Pete's told us she'd heard there was a problem at the port, something to do with a Stena ferry.We weren't initially concerned at first. Off we set to fill up at Morrisons, after which we all managed to go three different way before we got to the queue. Then we heard that the distressed ferry was indeed ours and not only was it delayed, it had a hole in it that would need repairing before we could sail again. Eventually we ambled over to the Terminal to find out our fate and, to cut a long story short, we re-booked for Monday.

I'm writing this from home. Bob is home. Pete is with a mate nearby and Keith, Margaret, John and Dave eventually got loaded onto the stricken ferry as a floating hotel for the night, got given food around 11.00 pm and they are in a Travelodge in Colchester on Sunday night. On Monday we will re-group and try again to get the Marlins to Sweden!

I was able to speak to James in Sweden to advise of our fate and sadly we will miss out on the Reindeer steak tomorrow!

Check out: http://news.sky.com/story/1107006/harwich-ferry-crash-500-stuck-for-three-hours

Hi Sue,
As my old uncle George used to say "gosh!" Thank goodness the accident didn't happen with you on board in the middle of the North Sea. I have just spoken to my neighbors and they have promised to come in for dinner tomorrow so the reindeer steak I intended to treat you to wont be wasted!
To try to save at least part of your holiday you might all consider trying to get cheap air flights to Malmö or Copenhagen. Malmö airport is only 20 minutes from here and Copenhagen 40. I can make all 3 of my Berlis available and I also have the Toyota so getting around would be no problem. Ryanair do flights from Stansted to Malmö and the flight only takes 100 minutes.
Just a suggestion, at the moment I can't think of any better suggestion.
Big hugs to all!
James