September 16 – Queen Mary, Embarkation

Paul seems to be feeling better today.  Still a cough but at least he isn’t getting any sicker. 

Our taxi picked us up around 2:15 for a fairly short drive to the Southampton Port where we were processed through with no problems and were on the ship within about 15 or 20 minutes after arrival at the port. 

Our luggage arrived in our cabin fairly quickly and after doing some unpacking we grabbed our ship map and headed out to see what we could find.  The ship can carry over 2600 passengers so it is pretty big.  The main lobby is several decks high and rather grand.  It featured a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, who christened the ship.  There are two theaters, a casino, plenty of outdoor space, an indoor and an outdoor pool, exercise center and spa (among many other features).  

Mary checked out the spa.  She’d like a pedicure, or facial, or massage.  However, the prices are extremely high so she probably won’t bother. 

We cast off about 4:30 and made a VERY slow turn before heading out through the channel and out to sea.  

The weather conditions on our scheduled route will have rough seas because of Hurricane Elaine in the US so they are charting a course a good bit further south than originally scheduled. 

At six we dressed up a bit and headed down for dinner.  We are seated at a table for 10 people.  Two didn’t show up but the other six are all Americans.  The food was good but not necessarily fantastic. 

Mary went to the movie about Hedy Lamarr (Paul went to bed).  Turns out that besides being an actress she was also extremely intelligent and an inventor.  During WW II she patented a frequency skipping invention that would allow for guiding torpedoes without the enemy being able to jam it.  It never went anywhere until much later and she never got anything for it.  It is now the basis of the internet, GPS, WiFi, and many military communications systems.  The market uses for her invention are worth over $30 billion annually.  Wow.  Who would have thought?