• Are you sure this is Sealink? I'm positive, and
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I really wish it were otherwise. The reason is, you see, I ventured forth across the Channel last week, using the now-privatised carrier for the first time in six years. I thought I would check out the company's renewed, revitalised fleet.
Television advertising is surely the most invidious form of modern persuasion but even I, the cynical Hawk, had come to believe the tales of a Sealink so good you would not remember her bad old days.
I went from Folkestone to Boulogne, and back. This is the "Orient Express" route and I felt certain things would be tickety-boo. Tinkling champagne glasses, thick carpets, well-stocked restaurants and expansive decks loomed large in my mind. After all, only the best people travel on the "Orient Express" and the nice Mr Sherwood, Sealink's new owner, would not want his top notch customers travelling second class.
What was happening to me, I thought, as I walked along the Folkestone quayside? Was I drowning arid was my past really swimming before my eyes? Had I wandered into a timewarp? Not The Hengist for goodness sake. Please.
My abortive 1981 mission to France on The Hengist had put me off Sealink for good at the time, and here it was, bold as brass, waiting to greet me once again.
Are you sure this is Sealink? The boat was old and dirty six years ago. Time has not been kind to it since then. Despite being less than half full, the "upmarket" restaurant kept us in the queue for breakfast for well over 40 minutes. I love to queue, it is such good fun. The shops were small and poorly stocked. The dear old Hengist should have gone to a rest home years ago.
Coming back, we were treated to her sister-ship The Horsa, which is just as old and just as lacklustre. Sit on the top deck and the engine vents blast you in hot exhaust fumes like a model in a wind tunnel. I think I will leave my next test trip for another six years, at least.