Sailing, sailing over the ocean blue

As we continue on our north-easterly path to Cape Verde, the seas have remained relatively calm, but there are some aboard who are not doing well with the motion. Since there are no waves to speak of, it’s safe to say that those people aren’t well suited to this kind of cruise. The question is, “How do you know that before you sign up?” I guess everyone has to find their own answer to that question. Today we have laughed a lot. We went to a cooking demonstration with the chief chef who is from France and the chef of Toscana, the Italian specialty restaurant on board. The French chef is quite a character and as he prepared his ratatouille he would ask questions to the audience, with correct answers rewarded with a glass of wine.

We learned that on this cruise, the four galleys will use 1 ton of sugar, 5000 lbs of flour and 2000 dozen eggs. This is not a large ship, so I cannot imagine the storage facility required for those staples on the larger ships. At a question and answer session with the Captain we learned some more statistics, like theses facts. The ship uses 20 000 gallons of diesel fuel and 100 000 gallons of water daily. Most of this water is desalinized on board. The Captain also said that if confronted by pirates, he would first make them a good breakfast. At noon there was a wine sale – my favourite. Because this ship is becoming the Columbus 2 when we reach Barcelona and will no longer be a part of the Oceania fleet, selling more stuff on board means having to move less off.

After lunch we went to a lecture given by the magician on board on Magic for Grandparents. He was equally hilarious and we came away with some nice tricks, which I can’t tell you.

So far we have not set eyes on another vessel. It’s lonely out here, but there’s lots happening on the ship.