On the 25th November, Kim and I flew from Gatwick to St Lucia to meet Fred Olsen’s cruise ship, The Black Watch. We were hosted overnight at the Coco Palm Resort at Rodney Bay. It was blissful to suddenly find ourselves at 32C! The following day we met the Black Watch and set sail. The cruise included visits to Basseterre on St Kitts, Gustavia on St Barthelemy, Philipsburg on St Maarten, Road Town in Tortola in the beautiful British Virgin Islands, before heading for a day in St John’s, Antigua. We stayed overnight in Ponta Delgada in the Azores before returning to Greenock, Glasgow.
Our four recitals were well received by the audiences who enjoyed the variety of styles on offer in our programmes. We rose to the challenge of performing during a Force 10 gale during which the port holes in our cabins had to be sealed with cast iron caps. The biggest challenge was trying to remain on the piano stool while the ship lurched to and fro!
We also performed in the two final evening shows in which Kim sang “Vilia” from Franz Lehar’s “Merry Widow”. Corinne was also invited to accompany the Canadian flautist, Tara Rachelle in Cecile Chaminade’s virtuosic Concertino Opus 107 which was well received by both audiences.
We arrived back in at Greenock in Glasgow on Saturday 12th December.
