Tour d´EFFORTS

After boarding the ferry "Pride of Bilbao" in Portsmouth to go to Bilbao the first thing I did was to ask to change my cabin because they had booked me into a cabin at the stern, which is directly above the engine which causes a lot of vibrations, despite the damping. And it was below the discotheque at the same time. It was no problem to get a cabin mid-ship which turned out to be very nice. Again I had a cabin on my own, but this time on the outside of the ship with a window!

Where to choose the cabin has always been an issue. The explanation of the origin of the word "posh" which I found hanging on the wall while I was exploring the ship, makes a reference to that topic:

We left Portsmouth and its distinctive "Spinaker Tower" in time into a calm see with only some residual swell.

Then I noticed a thing I wasn´t aware of, partly because P&O Ferries, who operates the Pride of Bilbao, didn´t give any hints to it on its webpage, is that since 1995 a research programme goes on for surveying whales and dolphins in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. Everyone knows about the reputation of the Bay of Biscay as sometimes having very rough weather conditions. But what is hardly known is that it is one of the best places to watch dolphins and whales.

Since 1995 the "Biscay Dolphin Research Programme" is running and since then on every trip of the Pride of Bilbao a wildlife observation officer is on board and scans the ocean for those animals. On the helicopter deck on a display all the species that can be seen on the voyage are displayed, a line on the deck illustrates the length of them from the Dolphin of approx. 2 m to the Blue Whale of up to 27 m.

Many wild life enthusiasts go on this trip because it provides so good possibilities. I think P&O Ferries is missing a good marketing option here. But maybe in times of increasing environmental awareness they might add it to their social responsibility agenda.

The officer on board of this trip gave a one hour presentation and introduction to what it is all about and how to identify the spotted species. Unfortunately we didn´t see any animals during the rest of the day.

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Labels: The ship cruises

# posted by Jan Prahm @ 10:03