DAY-01: Outbound for London

Day - 01: Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Starting Location: St. Pete Beach, Florida, USA

Interim Location: Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, Florida, USA

Interim Location: Dulles International Airport (IAD), Dulles, Virginia, USA

Ending Location: 29 km WSW of Chute-aux-Outardes, Quebec, Canada at 37,000 feet

Well our travel day to the UK continuing on into the Baltic has begun. Here is a summary of our itinerary:

• Wed, May 27th: Depart St. Pete Beach
• Thu, May 28th: Arrive London
• Fri, May 29th: London
• Sat, May 30th: London
• Sun, May 31st: Stonehenge & Bath returning to London
• Mon, Jun 1st: London & on to Southampton
• Tue, Jun 2nd: Keighley, Yorshire returning to Southampton
• Wed, Jun 3rd: Embark M.S. Marina at Southampton, depart for sea
• Thu, Jun 4th: Bruges, Belgium
• Fri, Jun 5th: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Sat, Jun 6th: Bremerhavan/Hamburg, Germany
• Sun, Jun 7th: At sea in the Skaggerak
• Mon, Jun 8th: Oslo, Norway
• Tue, Jun 9th: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Wed, Jun 10th: Berlin, Germany
• Thu, Jun 11th: At sea in the Baltic
• Fri, Jun 12th: Tallinn, Estonia
• Sat, Jun 13th: St. Petersburg, Russia
• Sun, Jun 14th: St. Petersburg, Russia (With tour of Moscow)
• Mon, Jun 15th: St. Petersburg, Russia, departing for sea
• Tue, Jun 16th: Helsinski, Finland
• Wed, Jun 17th: Stockholm, Sweden disembark
• Thu, Jun 18th: Depart Stockholm, arrive Kitty Hawk

Good thing we weren’t traveling yesterday as the TPA-IAD connector UA1622 was six hours late into Tampa from Chicago; we would have surely missed the Dulles connecting flight and the scramble would have begun. (NOTE: When meeting a cruise some margin for error on the front end is prudent as ships won't wait if you're not there on time, of course seven days of margin may be a bit excessive.)

Our morning was filled with the usual travel day activities, e.g. packing, laundry, hold on mail, setting up an international calling plan, cleaning out the perishables from the refrigerator, etc.

Today we’ve rented a car to travel from home to the airport, $46 beats a cab or Super Shuttle and we can avoid the cost of parking during our absence.

By 1400 we were ready to go so after completing the condo closeout checklist we departed. Including stops at the post office and bank we arrived at TPA in about 45 minutes, no traffic jams today.

As we typically do, we parked in short-term parking and headed to the Untied ticket counter for check-in. In a matter of minutes we had checked in, turned our checked luggage over to United and were ready to go. Sheila headed to the gate area while I returned to move the car to the rental return area. If this seems odd, we do this ritual because TPA offers free short-term parking for an hour. And by doing so, the baggage handling is minimized and check-in very efficient. Anyway I returned to the Enterprise car rental return area and was soon on my way to our departure gate.

The TSA routine at TPA is generally quick and efficient and today was no exception. Our TSA PreScreen certainly helps but today there were very few people transiting to the United terminal, at least when I was going through.

After a quick view of the flight status screen I realized that our flight arriving from Chicago was delayed but today, for only about 10 minutes. With a 45-minute connection time at IAD any further delay could be problematic, but that was no issue as the flight from Chicago arrived within a few minutes of the scheduled time.

Sheila and I both made our shop stops for drinks and snacks to serve as dinner as our TPA-IAD flight would likely only serve beverages and peanuts. With about 2 hours to wait I spent time walking from end to end of the terminal. That will have to suffice for today’s exercise. After a few phone calls and a little Helium business it was time for boarding our flight to IAD. For tonight’s flight we were assigned seats 2E (Aisle) and 2F (Window) on a B737-800.

By 1900 the flight was loaded and we were ready to go. By 1915 we were airborne en-route with a planned early arrival, great!

Sheila had soon accepted the challenge of the day's USA Today puzzle page and as it turned out, we were served dinner en-route; well if you can call a banana and popcorn for me and fig bars for Sheila dinner. “Fizzy water” and a fine Sauvignon Blanc accompanied the dinner delicacies.

As a note, when Sheila requested “fizzy water” the flight attendant asked if she was from the UK. Seems that the attendant believes the term “fizzy water” to be of British derivation; all with no prompt that Sheila had English “roots” and that we were bound for London; well she could have known of our destination from the flight manifest I suppose.

Arrival at Dulles (IAD) was on time, a great relief in that our connection time was only 40 minutes or so. Turned out that our arrival gate was only a few gates from our departure gate but by time we had walked over, the boarding process was beginning; well timed but little margin for error.

On UA924, a B777-200, we had seats 7J (Aisle) and 7K (Window), in this case, rear-facing seats. After settling in, the boarding was finally completed and we were ready to go or so we thought, but after a 15-minute delay from the scheduled departure we heard the words “mechanical problem” whispered between crew-members standing in the nearby flight attendant station, words one doesn’t want to hear prior to a long haul over water flight, or anytime I suppose. After another 15 minutes or so the problem had been solved and the whispers indicated the mechanical device causing the problem was an onboard computer printer, probably out of toner but we didn’t hear the details. By 2240 we were airborne and crossing from Virginia into Maryland for the flight north to Canada before heading eastward for a great circle route to Heathrow.

Even though it was approaching 2300 local time, the crew broke out the dinner service and for an hour or so everyone was prevented from sleeping while dinner was served. For us the entrees were veggie pasta for Sheila and steak for me (Bern’s in Tampa need not worry) with the accompanying appetizer of prosciutto and melon, a nice salad and a finale of ice cream with toppings of choice.

Around midnight the lights were out and sleep beckoned for those that would. We were well over Canada by then, to be specific, we were at:

• LAT 49.0528^oN & LONG 068.7422^oW
• Near the southeastern tip of Lac Nipi (I guess that's French for "Cold" Lake)
• 29 km (18 miles) WSW of Chute-aux-Outardes, Quebec, Canada
• Altitude: 37,000 feet
• Speed: 520 knots (656 mph)
• Course: Northeast at 045^o