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Thanks for this crossword: timing was perfect as was able to complete on board a transatlantic flight with no internet use - a rare occurrence...!

Nice one this. Like others, I got the theme fairly early and that helped. So although I came to it late this week, it’s all done and sent in :-)

I too have a few parsing I’ve not cracked, though the answers are quite clear in each case. 18a was one but I now see where that comes from :-) but 16d and 18d the wordplay is eluding me, 40 I can mostly see but I’m not sure where the globe fits in, and I have a rare issue with 8: I have what seems to me a reasonable parsing, but it gives the wrong extra letter… clearly these are not the vessels I am looking for. Hints to set my mind at rest would be most welcome.

Mooncow, the parsings you seek are as follows:

16d Def is first word; 4-letter word for a type of fish of which the first letter is the “extra” surrounded by the last two letters of a 4-letter word for small lake.

18d Def is first 2 words. “endless vacation” - remove the first and last letters & the I for Italy & the “extra” letter. You’re left with an anagram of the solution.

40a Def is retro (i.e. obs.) colour. The single word derived from the wordplay (from which you remove the “extra” letter) is Shakespearean for “to place on the sheltered side” - hence the reference to the Globe.

8d The solution is the plural of a word for the obsolete 6th letter of the ancient Greek alphabet. The wordplay is a single letter for “acceptable” in the four-letter plural of a word for vessel, of which the last letter is the “extra”.

Ah, that kind of vessel! You know, I don’t think I ever knew it had that plural. One generally is only talking about one of them… Thanks will37 for very thorough pointers; mind now able to rest :-)