Dear Maritime Memories Friend,

I can’t help but think about how we only ever intended doing just one special Maritime Memories Voyage, just so we had the chance to experience sailing again as we used to during the Golden Age of Shipping. Well, there are those who would argue that today is the Golden Age, as we have much bigger and more luxurious ships to sail on, which maybe is true to some extent but in truth, there’s no real comparison, as all of us who were fortunate enough to have gone to sea years ago as either crew or as passengers will testify. Those huge modern floating blocks of flats just don’t compare to the ships that we once knew; real ships that had wide-open, teak-lined decks where you really felt you were at sea, and so far removed from the modern cruise ships that often have only one open deck plonked right on the top of the thing - some fourteen or more decks above the sea. Quite honestly, you might just as well be sitting on the top of a high-rise building!

I also dislike the large crowds you get aboard these ships, which can run into several thousand, and I really hate the fact that at night, they’re lit up like Oxford Street at Christmas, depriving you of that most wonderful sea-going experience of being able to sit out on a darken deck at night and enjoy the absolute tranquillity and splendour of a magnificent starry sky... pure magic!

Anyway, that’s enough of the moans - not to mention the endless queues aboard those ships as well - so on with the real reason for sending this letter, together with a copy of our future voyages of Maritime Memories.

I don’t need to cover too much in this letter as most of you know us so well by now, and anyway, the relevant information is all in the brochure. What I have tried to do for you is to select voyages that we know you like and what are for us, the very best.

Our ‘Around Britain Voyage’ in June this year is really booking fast and we will have a fantastic turn-out of Maritime Memories people coming from all over the world. We are making great progress on all the exciting arrangements for this voyage, as it is to be a very special one and play a huge part in revitalising the nation’s - and indeed, the World’s - interest in our once great shipping industry from our ports and shipyards to what was the greatest merchant and fighting fleets in the world, so we want this to be exceptional and unique.

As we sail from Harwich we have been promised a special VIP send-off from the local tugs and, if we’re lucky, escorted out of port by a naval vessel as well. Our first port, Guernsey, is getting ready to give us a special welcome, inviting us to the port’s castle for a wine reception with the Harbour Master and local VIPs and so, hopefully, set the tone for the whole voyage with special welcomes into Liverpool, Belfast, Oban and Invergordon, places all keen to play their part in remembering and celebrating the heyday of both our Merchant and Royal Navies.

I wish I could tell you more but there really isn’t sufficient room in this letter but to give you some idea of what we just might get, visit www.forargyll.com/2009/10/voyage-to-murmansk-a-convoy-of-memories/ featuring an article written recently about our previous voyage, which was to Murmansk.

If we could arrange all that in Russia then I know we will be able to create something special here - and quite rightly too. And, if the interest all ready being shown from the prominent people in our ports-of-call is anything to go by... we will do exactly that.

There are still some cabins available, so if you want to be part of this unique occasion then call us now. As well as all our own maritime celebrations, it will also be a great holiday and the perfect little break to get away from all the hustle and bustle of modern life.

So many of you have asked if we could arrange another Christmas/New Year voyage, so we’ve managed to do that as well, sailing from Barbados to those exotic Central American shores, as well as some of the lesser visited islands in the Caribbean such as Curacao and Aruba. We offer this to you in two parts, sailing from Barbados on 4th December 2010 to January 4th 2011 or, if you can only spare less time, join us in Havana on the 18th December, so you can also enjoy the great ports of call and our Christmas/New Year celebrations - and those celebrations aboard the ship are really something, plus you don’t have to do the washing-up afterwards!

Then, in April, we will take the voyage which has always been everyone’s favourite as far as Maritime Memories is concerned, which is to sail across the Atlantic from Cuba, on a voyage back home to the UK. I bet so many of you remember those homeward voyages and all the great excitement that used to go with them - remember ‘The Channels’?! Well, after enjoying some fascinating ports and the fun and adventure of some great sea days, we will end with our own ‘Channel’s Night Ball’ just as they used to in the good old days when a ship returned from a long foreign voyage.

So, come and join us to enjoy all this on the elegant Discovery, the likes of which are now few and far between. Where else would you be able to enjoy maritime lectures and talks by some truly fascinating lecturers; film shows of previously unseen maritime film showing the ports and ships of yesteryear; and special Maritime Memory Dinners where, by using authentic menus once used aboard the great ocean liners of the past, we recreate dinners just as they were during that golden age of shipping? Where else could you get all this and, on top of all that, have the ship’s first class entertainment as well!

But you know; the thing that really makes these voyages so enjoyable is having your company... the company of so many like-minded people who really are the nicest people in the world.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,

Des Cox. Ex. NZSCo., Cunard, and the good old ‘Vindicatrix’.