Asteroid, Argentina, yachting and a BMR, with a diversion about food

Once we left Montevideo behind, to a beautiful sunset, it was something of a relief that the wind picked up, bringing with it cooler temperatures. It was lovely to have a bath after the heat of Montevideo. As we were both still full after our lunch extravaganza, we just had an apple in the evening and gave going out, a miss.

As they say, it’s a small world and we got chatting to a couple yesterday on the coach tour of Montevideo. Within moments we’d realised we’d both looked at the same house in Portland on our last but one house move. A huge house with tunnels and awesome views overlooking the sea. That’s the view the estate agent focused on. It was only when you trundled all the way up to the very top of Portland, where the said house was situated, that you realised that yes, it did overlook the sea (and the views were stunning at the back of the house), but it also overlooked the prison at the front of the house. Not so stunning views. They had come to the same conclusion we had. It was not for them. 

Last night, knowing there was expected to be an asteroid hurtling close to the earth, we dutifully went onto our balcony to see if we could spot it. Alas, we were searching for 15 minutes, but no sightings for us. Maybe if we’d been on the top at the front we may have seen it, though I suspect we’re still too far away. I was being optimistic, whereas Nick’s view was there wouldn’t be a chance of us spotting it as we had to see past Argentina. Sometimes that bloke is so annoying with his pesky detail. 

After a couple of days of strolling and generally swanning around, it was good to get back to my exercise routine this morning. Then straight after breakfast, the lovely Michelle gave her destination talk on Punta Arenas. We feel that we have chosen well on this tour and are very much looking forward to this stop. Then we went in different directions. 

Nick went to a talk from Andrew Ryder on the history of South America in 15 buildings and I went to a talk on how to increase your metabolism from Kamal, an exceptionally fast-talking guy from India. This is subject matter in which I've had a fair amount of experience with Amy, my PT, but I'm always interested in learning more. Just on the write-up I had decided the Andrew Ryder talk wasn’t for me and Nick’s conclusion, after just one talk, was that he won’t bother going to further talks by this guest speaker either. I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me immediately that my talk was just going to be an upselling job. However, give the lad his due, he talked for 40 minutes before he got to the selling bit. Anyway, as the word “free consultation” was mentioned, I thought I’d have a BMR consultation. This involved sticky pads being put on my foot and hand and being wired up to a machine. Age, height, and weight divulged and off he went. Sadly the machine didn’t go ping, but within a second or two delivered facts and figures for me to understand…or otherwise. Apparently, I need to stop using body cream and use some salts they have instead to ensure the elasticity returns to my skin. When I return, I shall go to my more trusted source, Amy and check with her that I’m not about to pop my clogs.

And so to lunch! Yikes, today marks our 3 weeks at sea. Which means we are nearly a third of the way through our trip. Since leaving Montevideo yesterday evening, to mid-day today, we’ve travelled 353.9 (very precise) nautical miles at an average speed of 18 knots, with 681 nautical miles to go to our next destination, (on Sunday) Port Stanley. Captain Love is very optimistic about the weather and believes we shall be ok to land. The issue is that this is a tender stop and we will be anchored half an hour away from the port. If there has to be a change of plan, we shall be notified. At 3.30pm we were alongside Carmen de Patagones, Argentina and were in waters 750 metres deep. A gentle 1-metre swell with 10-knot winds. Our amazing temperatures of early 30 degrees over the last few days have now plummeted to 17 degrees.

After lunch, we scampered back to the theatre to listen to a talk from Alex Alley - British World Champion Yachtsman. This was of interest to us both, but also, I felt this would be of interest to a couple of family members, Nick and Becky. We were entertained by a seriously humble guy, who quite frankly, left us breathless and gasping with the tales he regaled. This was a phenomenal talk and we can’t wait to hear the rest of Alex’s talks. He was so good, we bought his book for Nick and Becky. I just hope the book gets across the dramas he’s gone through.

It’s felt like a very busy day and we felt it right to top the day off with our 2-and-a-half-mile walk before we prep for this evening and go for dinner and tonight’s show.

It’s great having your texts, emails and comments on our blog, it really makes us feel you’re with us. And talking of which, Immy has enquired about what we’re eating. There is the Medina restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It shuts at 9.30 for breakfast and shuts for lunch at 1.30. We’re not really interested in the full works for breakfast or lunch, but do go to it most evenings.

We tend to go to the cafeteria, where you choose what you want. Breakfast is rarely anything more exciting than cereal, fruit, nuts and seeds. There is of course the cooked breakfast available in the cafeteria, but let’s face it, if we did that every day, I dread to imagine what size we’d be when we got off the ship. 

Lunch is a variety of salads for us. Again, we could have a variety of hot meals, but we choose not to. There’s the option of afternoon tea. We’ve had that if we’ve been late back from trips and not managed lunch. 

Medina menu

Evening meals in the main restaurant - Medina - are ok and the portions are generally not too massive. We’ve had a couple of puds, but again if we did three-course breakfast, lunch and dinner every day… So far we’ve enthused only on a handful of evening meals.

On the exotic front, we had mahi mahi a couple of nights ago. A fairly ugly-looking soft fish which was topped with crushed Macadamia nuts. It had been presented with Jasmine rice and stir-fried vegetables. It sounded interesting. What wasn’t mentioned on the menu was the sweet and sour sauce with the vegetables, which created just too many flavours. 

Glass House menu

Sindhu menu - same one we had for our Renewal Celebration

The meals in The Glass House and Sindhu are much better, but those are paid for separately. There is a variety of poolside cafes for daytime use, but we’ve not sampled those as we really don’t want to go down the burger route. There’s also a small selection of foods for room service. If you wanted it, there’s basically food available somewhere on the ship, 24 hours a day. Hope that answers your question, Immy.