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Fly from Gatwick to Sal and stay
overnight
on Hebridean Sky in the port of Palmeira
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Friday 11th November 2022
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Check-in time at Gatwick
was 6:30am, for an 8:35am departure to Sal. We had wisely
chosen to spend the preceding night at the Gatwick Sofitel
Hotel, which made the early start a lot easier. |
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The hassle of having
to get a bus to the plane was offset by being able to get
a good view of the whole plane whilst boarding. The plane,
a Boeing 737 Max 8, appeared to be a brand new, judging
by the pristine interior and lack of the usual airline flight
magazines or menus. At least the safety cards were present.
Bruce kept quiet about the unfortunate history of this aircraft
series, with its huge engines, in case it made Geoff nervous. |
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At almost 6 hours, it
was going to be a long flight in a narrow-body plane, but
one of the things that attracted us to the holiday was that
we would have a specially chartered flight with only 92
passengers, on a plane that can accommodate up to 200 passengers.
The middle seat on each side was unused so we didn't feel
too cramped. We were also promised a free hot meal, which
is not common with budget airlines. That was the one weak
point of the journey however. The hot meal turned out to
be a breakfast and it was typical of the worst airline breakfasts
on offer! |
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For most
of the journey, we had some amazingly clear views of the earth below
and other planes in the sky. |
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Flying
over the industrial and fishing town of San Cibrao in Northwestern
Spain. |
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More
plane-spotting off the northern Portuguese coast. |
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On final
approach to the airport in Sal. |
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Amílcar
Cabral International Airport, also known as Sal International Airport. |
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It had been more than
40 years since Bruce was last at this airport. In the decade
between 1975 and 1985 he had landed and taken off from here
quite a lot, usually in the small hours of the morning,
when it was used as a refuelling point for flights between
South Africa and Europe/United States. The airport building
used to be tiny, with few facilities. Today, it is still
a small airport, but it looked much more modern and better
equipped than it was all those years ago. We were even able
to use e-gates to get through immigration! |
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We were told that our baggage would be
collected on our behalf and taken directly to our cabins
on the ship, which was nice. When we saw the fleet of
mini-buses that greeted us outside, we realised that there
would have been no room for our luggage, so having it
taken separately was the only viable option.
Word reached us that because we had arrived
a little early, the ship wasn't quite ready to receive
us and our bus driver was asked to take us on a scenic
route to the ship. Because the port of Palmeira is so
close to the airport, the "scenic route" didn't
last that long (about 15 mintues extra) but we saw some
of the sights of the little town of Espargos, which was
fascinating. When we arrived at the port, the sailors
were still hosing down the exterior of the ship, close
to the gangway. Nevertheless we were welcomed aboard by
the Captain and several members of the ship's staff.
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MS Hebridean
Sky in the port of Palmeira. |
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As usual, we were shown
directly into the main lounge for welcome drinks, including
tea or champagne and, more importantly, a buffet style selection
of delicious looking sandwiches and cakes. After a six hour
flight with only a horrible breakfast, it was a most welcome
sight and we all tucked in! After about 45 minutes, it was
announced that we were welcome to go to our cabins, into
which all of our luggage had now been delivered. |
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One of the first things
we noticed when we went into ours, was this letter. Would
Geoff want to subject himself to public embarrassment? Well
he wasn't going to decide that right now! |
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We had plenty of time
to unpack and settle in before the mandatory safety drill,
which was followed by a welcome briefing and dinner. Afterwards,
it was time for bed and a good night's sleep as the ship
remained quietly in port. |
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