P&O MS Arvia; Saturday, 12 September, 2026

Saturday was a full day at sea with not much happening, other than the weather slowly deteriorating as we headed south, so that by the evening and the point where we were starting to start our transit through the Strait of Dover it was getting pretty rough, though the ships stabilisers meant it was little more than some rattling coat hangers in the wardrobe.

The day followed the same food oriented progress as the northbound journey with Breakfast, lounging around and going for the occasional deck walk before lunch, repeat.

However, walking around the deck wasn’t as easy as on previous days as the 16 knot head on winds were combining with our 16 knot speed to create some dangerous gusts round the bow, meaning the top part of the promenade deck had to be closed off, meaning you couldn’t complete a full lap – though surprisingly most of the very top deck, deck 19, remained open, even if it was very blowy!

We had the usual evening routine before returning to cabins to pack our bags to make sure they were outside the cabin in time for them to be collected ready for delivery to the arrivals hall in Southampton the following morning.