There is simply nothing better. The experience is exclusive and luxurious. You enjoy the finest cuisine and personal service (sixty four crew look after just sixty passengers) on one of the most attractive vessels at sea.

The days revolve around the outdoors as passengers enjoy the spectacle of the masts, shrouds and yardarms that support the sails. The bridge area may be visited by passengers during the day and certain hours, subject to prevailing conditions. Afternoons at sea are spent chatting with like-minded passengers or simply reading a book. At night, dinner is often served on deck, and the onboard entertainment consists, at most, of a pianist, although complimentary wine helps to foster a lively atmosphere. There are simply no such things as announcements, bingo or art auctions.

Sea Cloud attracts passengers interested in sailing, history, art and other cultural pursuits. Most are professionals, many retired, and there are few children found onboard. Many will be sailors themselves, or own their own boats and yachts. Ages vary from 40′s to 70′s, with the average age usually in the 50’s. The ship is owned by a well-known German leisure company and there are often many German passengers on board, with UK and American fans of sailing making up the numbers – the crew easily operate in both languages.

The 34 cabins are individually air conditioned, with telephone, safe, hairdryer and bathrobes and all have a sea view. They offer character and like the rest of the ship a high level of luxury.  They are nautically styled and roomy, they have panelling, brass fittings, pastel fabrics, large windows, and marble baths with showers.

The original owner Marjorie Merriweather Post’s suite is larger than most five star hotel Presidential Suites, with a king size bed, gold and crystal chandeliers and lights, a separate dressing area, huge closets (one of them a walk-in closet), beautiful antique furniture and even a large fireplace.

Daily dress code is ‘smart-casual’. Only for the captain’s dinners (welcome and farewell) are elegant dresses for ladies and suit and tie for gentlemen recommended.

The dining room walls are mahogany and are adorned with old, classical paintings. Antique furniture can be found everywhere.  Dinner is open seating so guests are given the chance to meet one another. The experience can be compared to a dinner party among friends, and since there are so few people on board you will get a chance to meet everyone.

Six meals are served every day:  early-riser’s continental breakfast, full buffet breakfast, full buffet lunch, afternoon tea, full service dinner and midnight snack. Complimentary wines, beer, and soft drinks are served with lunch and dinner.

It’s this sailing experience, not the destinations, that attracts most of the passengers  However it is a fact that if the wind is not blowing in the direction of the planned ports of call the sails are furled and Sea Cloud fires up the engines. The only disappointment for some of my fellow guests was that there was not enough time under sail but on the third day of the cruise the weather wound up to Force 7 – a truly exciting experience.  Sea, wind and ship merge together to a comfortable rhythm. Sea Cloud rides the waves, the sound of the wind and sea fill the ears – you can taste the salt. Sailors (both genders) climb the 178 ft rigging to unfurl 32,000 sq. feet of sail with a fascinating display of bravado and fine old fashioned seamanship.

No Greek island trip would be complete without a stop on Santorini. When you arrive there you have three options to get from the ship to the cliff top town of Fira. You can walk the winding path, ride a donkey or take the lift. I took the lift, finding myself suspended in mid-air looking below at the blue waters and above at the picturesque town. One of my fellow passengers whose grasp of English was better than my dodgy German explained that she was “going up the mountain on the back of a monkey.”

If you don’t feel like going ashore Sea Cloud has snorkelling, water ski and windsurfing equipment which may be used free of charge under the supervision of the Cruise Director.

This was a cruise to remember – a beautiful ship, exquisite food and wine, luxury accommodation, cultured fellow passengers, a happy professional crew and of course travelling the ocean under sail.

1. Do not panic and throw everything away. Even if your fridge freezer has broken, it will still stay cold for another 18 hours. This means that all fish/ meat/ frozen veg etc. will be fine to eat over the next day.
2. Invite round a couple of hungry friends. While quality fridge freezers will remain cold for nearly a day, there is no way one person can eat that much food and, eventually, it will have to be eaten or thrown in the bin. If you invite people over for a lunch or dinner, nothing goes to waste and your generosity won’t be forgotten.
3. Cook the breaded stuff first. If, like me, you have a certain soft spot for fish fingers, these should be the first things to cook. Similarly, chips and battered products should be cooked first and perhaps used in sandwiches or wraps.
4. Make a soup. If our ancestors can tell us anything, it is that you can chuck any old thing into a soup. Provided you have chicken stock, an onion and a bit of seasoning, any frozen vegetables and meats can be made into something delicious.
5. Cook a batch of something spicy. The best way to preserve meats is to put it in something salty and spicy. Chilli con carne is probably the best example and is something that can be easily shared out between friends.
6. Use your resources. If you’re lucky, your fridge freezer will break conveniently over winter, put all your goods outside where they will stay cold (and hopefully not be eaten by any racoons or foxes).
7. Be safe. While no one wants to waste food, it is important to be safe about what you eat. If a meat has been out of the freezer for over three days, it is probably not safe to eat. Milk also, can go rancid pretty quickly, along with any dairy products. When it doubt, throw it out.
8. Buy wisely. So you’ve made good use of all your left over food. Now what? I’m sorry to say that the meals may get a little boring, but the best way to save money is to buy non-perishables including beans, tinned foods and things like pasta and rice so you don’t have to worry about things going off.
9. Do mini-shops. Rather than buying everything you need for the week, go to the shops every other day so you can consume all the food you buy before it goes off.
10. Eat out. What better excuse than to go out for lunch and dinner all the time? It may be pricey but you can always play the sympathy card with a few friends after you’ve provided them with a delicious meal of leftovers!

The first hotel for fish “GOLDFISH HOTEL”, especially for goldfish, which boasts a tank with a hotel structure built within. The lavish property also includes a swimming pool and a tennis court for the fishes to relax and enjoy. Called the Fish Resort, this is a one off, it’s dedicated to the comforts of fish alone. So, next time you wish to take a vacation with your family you can drop your nemo with the folks at this hotel without a care in the world.

A large aquarium looking like a hotel – including a tennis court and a pool with 80 permanent residents will be visible to passengers travelling through Schiphol. Goldfish dropped off by travelers will get private suites, so that they don’t get mixed up and catch each others’ diseases. It does sound weird but basically the idea behind this setting is to allow people to leave their pet goldfish in safe hands while they are away on vacation.

In Amsterdam it’s not just dog and cat owners who can benefit from pet resorts and motels. Now even goldfish owners leaving Amsterdam for a holiday can drop their fish off at the world’s first ever Goldfish Hotel.

Blue Whales commonly travel in pairs and cruising speed is 12 mph (can sprint up to 30 mph). The blue whale is blue-gray in color, but often with lighter gray on a darker background (or with darker spots on a lighter background). The underside of its flippers may be a lighter color or white, while the ventral (underside) of the fluke is dark. The blue whale acquires microorganisms called diatoms in the cold waters of the Antarctic and North Pacific and North Atlantic which give the underside of its body a yellowish green caste. Because of this yellow color, the early whalers gave it the name “sulfur bottom”.

Blue whales have about 300 to 400 baleen plates instead of teeth which they use to strain food from the ocean water. Feed on krill and other small animals by filtering through a series of overlapping plates in its mouth that substitute for teeth. It’s hard to imagine, but the world’s biggest animal eats animals that are less than 1/1000th its size. In order to get enough to eat, a full-grown blue whale might eat 40 million krill in one day. Blue Whale can consume up to 4 tons a day.
Like all whales, the blue whale is a mammal rather than a fish. It is warm-blooded, has lungs rather than gills, and nourishes its young with milk. A blue whale’s milk supposedly tastes like a mixture of fish, liver, milk of magnesia, and castor oil. But it’s very rich and nourishing for baby . A baby blue whale drinks over 50 gallons of its mother’s milk in a day. In its first weeks of life, it gains 10 pounds an hour or a little over 200 pounds a day.
The lifespan of a blue whale is estimated to be 80 years. Blue whales are found throughout the world’s oceans. All whales have amazing adaptations that help them survive in the ocean. Whales don’t sleep like you and me. If they did, they would drown. Instead, whales take very short naps, often floating near the surface of the ocean. Whales rely on their thick layers of blubber to keep them warm in cold waters. Blue whales emit very loud, highly structured, repetitive low-frequency sounds that can travel for many miles underwater. Blue Whales are probably the loudest animals alive, louder than a jet engine. These songs may be used for locating large masses of krill (tiny crustaceans that they eat) and for communicating with other blue whales, especially in order to attract and find mates

Blue whales are found in Channel Islands National Park and National Marine Sanctuary, CA; Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, AK; Kenai Fjords National Park, AK; Haleakala National Park, HI; Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, HI; Acadia National Park, ME;  Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NC; Point Reyes National Seashore, CA; Cape Cod National Seashore, MA; Assateague Island National Seashore, MD; Cape Lookout National Seashore, NC; Cumberland Island National Seashore, GA; Canaveral National Seashore, FL; Virgin Islands National Park, VI; Padre Island National Seashore, TX; and Gulf Islands National Seashore, FL to MS.

Here are some interesting facts about blue whales:
•    Their heart is the size of a car
•    Their blood vessels are so big that you could swim through them
•    Their tongue weighs as much as an elephant
•    Their tail fin has the wingspan of an air plane
•    Baby blue whales gain 200 pounds a day
•    Blue whales are the loudest animals on earth

The banana-size fish is one of tens of thousands of both known and new species included in a new inventory released today by the Census of Marine Life, a decade long ocean exploration project. The deep sea dragonfish lives in deep ocean waters at depths of up to 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). Although dragonfish species are found in most of the oceans in the world, the deep sea dragon fish is limited mainly to the North and Western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Deep Sea Dragonfish (Grammatostomias flagellibarba), sometimes known as the scaleless dragonfish, is a ferocious predator that inhabits the deep oceans of the world. Known scientifically as Grammatostomias flagellibarba, it has extremely large teeth compared to its body size. In spite of its gruesome appearance, its is a small fish, measuring only about 6 inches (about 15 centimeters) in length. There are several different species of dragonfish. All are very similar in appearance.

The deep sea dragonfish is one of the many species of deep sea fish that can produce its own light through a chemical process known as bioluminescence. The light is produced by a special organ known as a photophore. It is believed that the fish can use these flashing lights in the dark waters to attract prey and even to signal potential mates. The dragonfish has a large head and mouth equipped with many sharp and  feed on small fish and crustaceans as well as anything else it can find. Since many of their prey also produce light themselves, the dragonfish has evolved special method of remaining hidden from predators after its meal. The walls of its stomach are black to keep the lights concealed while its meal is digested.

Because they live in extremely deep waters, very little is known about the mating habits of the dragonfish. It is believed that they are external spawners, meaning that the female releases eggs into the water to be fertilized by the male. The eggs then float to the surface where they remain until hatching. Once the eggs hatch, the tiny larvae are left to fend for themselves until they can reach maturity. Once mature, they return to the deep ocean to spend the rest of their lives. Not much is known about the life span of the dragonfish.