First Few Days

The First Week

We will begin at the beginning.

Cody Owen, Andy Thompson, Chris Licato, and I (Satchel Douglas) were banished from the loving fold of our dear Webb Institute for the Fall Semester 2012. It was tough to go.

In all seriousness, we are very lucky to be allowed to attend the University of Southampton this semester, and are attempting to take full advantage of this opportunity. 

We would like to extend our most heartfelt thanks to Dean Neilson, Prof. Harris, Prof. Werner, Prof. Wiggins, Prof. Basu and Josie for their exceptional dedication to our trip, and to working tirelessly to help us. Additionally, we are extremely grateful and appreciative for Dr. Stephen Payne's personal support and generosity in helping us negotiate with Cunard and the University of Southampton. His help was invaluable and we would not be here without it. 

So for the actual journey so far:

7 Days on the ship

2 Days in Southampton

1 Night in Stansted Airport

Not enough pictures...

To explain this a bit better, we left the U.S. on the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) on the afternoon of August 28th.

View from the car

Unfortunately for us, there was no maximum amount of luggage allowed on the ship, so we packed plenty...

Note: Cody's is already on the ship 

Thanks a ton to Matt W. for dropping us off! Brooklyn is quite the place.

We embarked on the ship, with very little trouble in security, and started looking around. See bellow, the Captain's cuff links, more commonly known as replacement propeller blades (8 tons each!).

 The ship departed right on time, leaving us with a display of the power of the bow thrusters. 

Our view of the city was simply phenomenal

We made it back on deck just in time to see under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge

The tide must have been out, because we appeared to clear under the bridge by quite a bit

Sunset Looking aft, and no one on deck to see it!

We were so glad to be on the ship, we forgot to take pictures

Main Deck Midships

Aft Deck pool looking over Brooklyn

Red Hook container terminal, dwarfed by the ensign

New York Skyline, Dwarfed by Cody

The beginning of the constant dancing

We wanted to wear the life jackets so badly (From LR)

Afternoon rest

Focus Issues...

Another post to come about the voyage, but its safe to say that we had an incredible time! We ate mountains of delicious food, were waited on hand and foot and completely spoiled, but most importantly met a ton of great people, and made some friends that we plan on visiting again. QM2 is an unbelievable thing, 2600 people all happy, relaxed, and hoping to meet new people.

We are waiting for our flight to Denmark now, but it appears that they will let us move on to the next country. Continental Europe, here we come.

Cody, Chris, and Andy and I say hi, and we miss you all. We think often of our family and friends back home, and hope they are having as wonderful a time as we are.

Love,

Satchel

P.S. Try not to worry too much about us.