This week it was time to say goodbye to the ships dentist and his wife, David and Nancy. They came about 7 months ago and have done a fantastic job setting up and establishing the dental clinic onboard.

Steve has had a number of visits to- David and Nancy who works as his dental nurse, for help with his teeth. Heather has worked closely with them in the clinic so we both are sorry to see them leave. We had a small party in our cabin on Monday night to say thank you to them along with a number of their friends. This included playing a great game we often used to play that involved dressing up and eating chocolate with a knife and fork.

Then on Tuesday there was a surprise thank you for them in the clinic as many of those who have had dental treatment came down to say thank you.

Here you can see the whole medical team - the new dentist, doctor, nurses and dental nurses.
Saying goodbye to people is very much part of ship life. People leave every week but there are some that leave a bigger gap than others in your lives.

There has been a lot of sickness around the ship since the new year. The last couple of days, all our family have felt rough with coughs, sore throats and headaches. It is quite normal on the ship where we all breath the same air, for many people to get sick, particularly during the winter when it is hard to motivate yourself to go outside in the cold.

We are now just a week away from the surveyors from Lloyds coming to undertake the Passenger Ship Safety Certificate surveys. Many onboard have been working long and hard to get the ship ready. On Friday, I volunteered to help in the engine room but found myself back in the funnel again. In Trogir 15 months ago, when we were getting ready to sail from there, I helped with insulating the main engine exhaust pipes where they had rusted in the funnel. Yesterday I found myself back in the funnel, doing the same job again, wrapping insulation and chicken wire around the pipes some 10m above the engine room.

We are all trying to do whatever we can to make sure the ship is ready for the survey and we get the certificate to sail. But we know that the generator will not be ready and just hope that the surveyor passes us, even without the gennie being complete.

Also last week, the advance preparation (line up) team, left for Edinburgh to prepare for the ship visit. We hope to get to Edinburgh at the beginning of April so the team of 3 ladies have a very short time period to get the job done.

We wish them well.