The Bay of Biscay and Jevington
About an hour before departure lots of short kennels of various sizes including some very large ones and us were called to drive onto the ferry. There is some quite tricky negotiations, a circular route marked out by traffic cones. When we were almost at the right place, we were stopped by one of the crew who politely removed a traffic cone from underneath my short kennel, it had been making a funny noise.
As is customary I had to stay in my car (short kennel) on my own for about an hour after we were boarded until the huge kennel was ready to sail. My pets meanwhile went to our cabin to make my bed ready for my arrival.
As the clock struck 20:30 Spanish time the Cap Finistere (huge kennel) slipped her moorings and we glided away from Santander on a mirror smooth sea. I was collected from the garage (deck five) and made comfortable in our cabin.
When we were all settled and Santander was a mere blob on the horizon, I took my pet up onto deck ten (we are on deck nine). Here there is a special place for my kind where we and our pets are allowed and is a designated area called euphemistically an exercise area. Actually I know and you probably know for what it really is meant to happen here.
Unfortunately, a lot of newbies to this huge kennel don’t know the form. One of the problems from which all of us canines suffer on board the huge kennel is the obvious lack of trees and of course there is no grass. However, as a mature and an experienced sailor, I manage just fine and take it upon myself to demonstrate to the new ones the correct procedures quite early on. As a boy, I use the facility of several chrome pillars.
The crossing of the Bay of Biscay has a reputation of being quite bumpy but after maybe a dozen crossings albeit mostly summer season, we have experienced very rough weather only once. This trip appears to be like the proverbial mill pond. My bearded one remarked that we did not see a single white horse all the way across – it occurred to me, given that we have been on the ocean, this was extremely probable. Anyway there was no significant motion and I was able to sleep undisturbed for most of the voyage.
The crossing to Portsmouth takes about 24 hours and so our arrival is again in the evening and like at the start of our voyage, I had to be taken to the garage and put in my short kennel about an hour before we actually docked. This is all some sort of health and safety arrangement that is lost on me.
It took a good hour to disembark all vehicles from the huge kennel and by the time we had cleared customs it was quite late but mercifully the A27 from Portsmouth eastwards to our destination was relatively quiet. We were going to stay the night with my bearded one’s sister.
Love Douglas x
Lol re the cone!