Cruising around the UK – Day 2

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Sunday 13 September 2026

Morning all! Here we are aboard the Cruise Ship – Bolette – the flagship of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines. We boarded yesterday afternoon – all the details are HERE 😁👍.

It’s Day 2 of our 10-day sail around parts of the UK.

I’ll keep this one brief today as the wifi is pretty much non-existent and it’s a sea day anyway, as we head for Portland, arriving tomorrow.

Sunday’s Events

There was plenty to keep us occupied today!🤔

Rather than tackle the self-serve Buffet, we headed for the Bloomsbury Restaurant where it was strangely quiet – mind you, it was Sunday!! 😉

Out to sea, it was very misty, helping give the start to our day a very ethereal and unhurried feel.

After breakfast, we began our morning ritual of ‘a mile around the deck’ . That’s 3½ laps, but hey, we rounded it up to 4! 😬

That was all very pleasant (honest!), and we even saw dolphins, briefly, off the port bow! We then spent the morning trying out some of the facilities.

Ann visited the Gym and tried out the free ‘Getting the Best from your Binoculars class, whilst I ‘tested’* one of the many coffee stops around the Ship.       *Passed

It was the Captain’s Welcoming Party this evening – and consequently, a formal night. Out went the t-shirts and walking sticks, and in came the suits, jackets, ties and sparkly dresses.

Cue lots of alcohol and lots of hero worship! It’s not really my thing, but if there’s free fizz and nibbles, I’m its greatest supporter! 😁

An hour later, we left the free champagne and nibbles behind to, err, make room for even more of it in the Bloomsbury Restaurant.

Sunday’s Dinner

Here we go again… we’re going. If we’re not out in two hours, DON’T come looking for us! 😮

Even if the food quality is ‘average’ (it isn’t!), you can’t fault the food presentation – we’ve been lucky enough to cruise with many of the big and small players over the years – and so far, Fred Olsen is punching well above its weight! 👍

After a quick ‘feet up’ back in our Cabin, we then headed for the Neptune Lounge for tonight’s performance by one, Angie Grace Brown. We’d not heard of her, but we’ll certainly remember her, for all the right reasons! 👍👍. Originally, she was a weekend busker on the streets of Glasgow, and her day job was with British Gas. To say she had a powerful voice was a massive understatement. She had a wide repertoire and covered songs from Fleetwood Mac, Shania Twain, Boyzone, Amie Whitehouse, Dolly Parton – and many more! Her voice had a terrific range where it sounded like she chewed gravel and gargled with sandpaper as part of her warm-up routine! And it had power too! A single note from her, would probably have cut through concrete! 😮😁

Wow! What a performance!! Easily the best female vocalist I’d heard for years! Her rendition of ‘Hallelujah’ was especially beautiful and haunting in equal measure.

Tomorrow…

We dock in Portland, first thing and then it’s ‘all ashore’ to look around the island. We’re there for around 8 hours before it’s ‘up anchor’ and we head for the Isles of Scilly.

Sleep well – catch you tomorrow! 🥱🥱😴😴