John Honeywell, the cruise correspondent for the Mirror, recently experienced quite an adventure on board P&O’s smallest cruise ship, Adonia.

On its recent cruise to Norway, visiting the fjords and cities such as Alta, Bodo and Skjolden, the ship’s final port of call was supposed to be Farsund. After the excitement of the fjords, nobody seemed particularly eager to visit Farsund: the only tourist attraction seemed to be a church where there might or might not be music on that particular day, some souvenir stalls and perhaps a cup of coffee. The fact that the visit would be on a Sunday did not actually promise to make things more exciting.

Passengers who opted for an excursion would have the privilege of seeing where the tour guide went to school and where his grandparents lived. As John says, there is a reason some places remain small forever.

Things turned out differently than expected. By breakfast time the ship was making its way between rocky islets, some of them nearly close enough to touch. The wind was blowing fiercely at 25 knots and the waves were getting higher and higher.

Being the veteran of the sea that he is, Captain Perkins quickly summed up the situation: either they turned around right there or they risked being trapped in Farsund for much longer than anyone on board really wanted to be.

He promptly turned the ship around and retraced his course back to the open sea. Apart from a couple of “motion discomfort bags” making their appearance, the passengers were none the worse for the experience and soon packed the Adonia’s bars and the Great British Buffet.