Our Final Countdown (part2)

Our Final Countdown  (part 2)

14^th April 2014

We are still in the middle of the South Atlantic in the Doldrums, with three days left of our seven days at sea.

There is always plenty to do.  In fact today Geoffrey is going to one of the talks, which is given by John Regis, the athlete, and then we are both going to go to a chat with the Headliners, the ships on board theatre company.  So we are not just sitting here doing nothing.

During the cruise the ships company arranges various events , yesterday in the atrium the various departments on board had displays showing what they do behind the scenes,  like the engine room , the waste disposal unit that recycles ( by shredding,compressing or incinerating)  tons of waste every day, the laundry that washes 2000 towels every day.  Doreen was particularly impressed with the galley presentation ,where a chef was carving fruit and vegetables. The first is a watermelon and the second is a bouquet of various vegetables including beetroots, courgettes, red onions,  radishes and carrots.   As you can see he is very good at it,  it was absolutely amazing watching him do this.  Something I must learn to do when I get home.

A few days ago we had a performance given by the ships choir , all passengers that have given up their time to practice and perform (including Barbara, who sits on our dinner table)

Today we had the boat building event,  where passengers and ships departments build boats from recycled material and were tested in the pool to see if they would float with and without passengers (6 cans of coke) and during a simulated tsunami (5 crew members jumping into pool) needless to say the winners were from the engineers dept, (The container ship) and the carpenters dept. along with a catamaran built by the passengers.

We also have our little gamble on the slot machines in the casino , with varying success, each night we put £10 into the machine, and usually come back with anything from £6 - £8.  However, the last couple of nights have been quite lucky, as we have walked away actually winning, the first we won £6 and then last night we won £17, (plus our original £10).  But last night Doreen tried Roulette for the first and last time losing all her £5 in  ten spins of the wheel without any wins.

Doreen enjoys dressing up in the evening, and a few nights ago we were introduced to the Captain, (who is one of the best captains we have had, being very informative and joining in with all events, even jumping into the pool during the boat building event).

The meals  are still of a high standard especially the desserts, Geoffrey might have, but alas not Doreen, who seems to have just fruit salad most evenings.  Her sugar levels went quite high from various “sugar free” desserts served to her at the beginning of the cruise, so she enquired about whether sugar was being added and she found that “fruit sugar” was being added,  and it was this that sent her sugars high.  So now she has either fruit salad or completely sugar free desserts.