Itinerary
Wednesday 5th October	-	Fly to Valletta, Malta & Embark Sea Cloud Spirit
Thursday	-	at sea
Friday	-	Trapani, Sicily
Saturday	-	Palermo, Sicily
Sunday	-	Lipari, Aeolian Is.
Monday	-	Giardini Naxos, Sicily
Tuesday	-	Syracusa, Sicily
Wednesday 12th October	-	Valletta, Malta Disembark & Fly to UK

Sea Cloud Spirit in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, April 2022

	Nights on board		7
	Days at sea		1

I first saw Sea Cloud Spirit in Gran Canaria during our cruise on Oceania's Riviera in April 2022 and it was love at first sight! I had long held the desire to experience cruising aboard a 'real' sailing ship, albeit with some reservations, but in that moment I knew I had to travel on this one!

The success of Sea Cloud led to the construction of the larger Sea Cloud II in 1999, designed again as a 3-masted Barque or Windjammer with traditional sails but in 2021 the two Sea Clouds were joined by a third 'sister' in the form of the even larger Sea Cloud Spirit. With an overall length of 453ft and a gross tonnage of 4,228, she carries up to 136 passengers and a crew of 80.

This cruise coincided with Andrew and Angie's 'expedition' cruise on Viking Octantis which I had declined but it had been nearly 7 years since I had been on a cruise on my own, so for me this was certainly something of an adventure. Indeed, what with this being my 70th cruise in my 70th birthday year, it was an emotional moment when I finally stepped on that gangway!

Some of the destination highlights included....

Gatwick Airport (South Terminal)				Valletta, Malta
The Bloc Hotel Vista-plus Room!		British Airways Airbus A-320		Sea Cloud Spirit & MSC Seaview, Grand Harbour		St John's co-Cathedral from the western gallery

Boarding in Valletta					A Day of Sail
The Gangway			Junior Suite #322		Raising the sails		All 28 Sails! from one of the ship's boats

Trapani & Erice				Palermo + 39years
Castello di Venere		View of Trapani from mountain-top Erice		Queen Elizabeth 2 1983 at the same terminal		Sea Cloud Spirit 2022 a refurbished terminal!

Palermo +39 years				Lipari, Aeolian Islands
The Cathedral		Rooftop Walkway		Tendering		Sea Cloud Spirit at anchor

Giardini Naxos & Taormina				Syracusa
At anchor off Naxos with cruise ship Europa		Hilltop Taormina		Piazza Duomo The Cathderal		Neaopolis Archaeological Park

Although this was a fairly destination-intensive cruise, on most days the ship was only in port until lunchtime, which meant that aside from our "day of sail", we had 3 relaxing afternoons at sea and our Ukrainian Captain took the opportunity of raising the sails again and of giving the passengers a chance of some swimming from the ship, which I wish I had done - the sea was so calm.

Being the only British passenger among just 71 mostly German-speaking passengers was a little daunting at first but language was never a problem. Indeed, it all felt very exclusive!

All-in-all, I loved all the new experiences this cruise provided and I thoroughly enjoyed my short time aboard Sea Cloud Spirit.

Cruise Mileage: 631 nautical miles
Total Mileage to date: 222,966 n miles