A sea day with (a lot of) drink

Crossing the equator, 30 seconds later

With a layer of body lotion, sun cream, Deet and then even more sun cream, there was, unsurprisingly, an even thicker layer of grime which had to be shifted when we got back from our trip yesterday evening. I hadn’t eaten much at lunchtime on our trip, quite simply because it was just too hot to eat. Neither of us fancied going out last night, so we continued wading through the massive fruit bowl Steevan had left for us. There were no shows of interest, so it ended up being a moany-groany-sighy-dressingowny sort of evening wallowing in a very bubbly bath and hunkering down.

We knew we would be crossing the Equator around 10 last night, so put the internal ship’s TV on to watch the countdown. OK, that was simple, when the chart showed 00 degrees 00 south, we’d be there. The closest evidence I have is 00 degrees 0.1 second south at nearly 22.15. A moment later, Nick, who was standing behind me, gave a little jump, “there it is, the Equator”. Ejit! When we left Manta last night, it was to calm seas and a lovely warm breeze. When we woke this morning, it was all change. A force 5 headwind but a lovely warming 27 degrees.

As the laundry has been out of action again whilst we’d been at Manta, everyone was doing a mad dash to get their smalls spruced up again. “Not a chance” came the response from the crowd already waiting for washers to finish on deck 9. No worries, we’ll try deck 11. “You’ve got to be having a laugh” came the response from the queue inside deck 11 laundry. OK, we’ll give up for now and consider that chore later on when everyone else has gone to dinner. Then it was off to collect our Passports. Neither of us can remember why they were taken from us at the start of this trip, or indeed why it is now ok for us all to have our passports back, as the start of our trip seems such a long time ago. Blimey, all this before breakfast!

Then off to this morning’s lecture which looked totally up our street. Apart from this trip covering some amazing places, transiting through the Panama Canal has been high up there on the bucket list. The blurb read Panama Canal: Megahub of the Americas. Thrill at the past and present of the world-famous canal through Panama, including its all-new third locks. And then a bit more blurb to whet our appetites. Awesome! We’ve got a full day’s trip booked for tomorrow, so really wanted to get even more detail in preparation before we embarked on that. 

There comes a point in everyone’s life when you instinctively know you’ve made the wrong decision. Mine came at 10.55 today. A fairly hunched old chap wheezed, sighed and spluttered at the lectern. Jotting comments on his paper notes. Humming and hahhing. This was all before he started his lecture. His first crime was that he started late. One of the stunning aspects about anything that happens on this ship is that everything starts when it says it will. You can generally time a presentation to the second, the presenters are that disciplined.

Then, dear reader, I shall share with you the hour of my life I’ll not get back. Those old enough to remember Alistair Cooke’s voice, (he of the Letter from America fame) will know exactly the soporific type of voice Dr Michael Conniff had. Sadly, he didn’t have the charism of Alistair Cooke. By this time, with the theatre being at the front of the ship, it was wagging gently in the breeze and I was already struggling to keep my eyes open. Folks were already walking out. Nick nudged me “shall we scarper?” I would have loved to, but I pride myself on having been brought up fairly well and decided we should stick it out. This was a presentation that unusually, lasted an hour (all presentations are supposed to last for 45 minutes and for good reason). 

This was a presentation that was to discuss the amazing engineering feat of the Panama Canal. One of the seven Wonders of the Modern World. Instead, there were a few slides of him with Jimmy Carter, him with his wife, and a picture of a few politicians of the time. A picture of a container ship. All were delivered with notes on scraps of paper. How could anyone manage to make a talk about the Panama Canal sound so utterly dull? I nearly had to have a caffeinated coffee just to wake me up after it.

It’s lovely to have a sea day. It’s just a chance to get up when we want to, rather than be driven by what time a trip starts. I found myself grinning inanely whilst we sat reading on the balcony. The warm wind was exhilarating, but somehow the ship was staying reasonably level. We contemplated that today was our last day on the Pacific Ocean and there is also something rather sad about tomorrow in so much as it really does mark our return back to the UK. Thankfully though, it’s going to take us three weeks to do that manoeuvre. Not something I want to wish away right now.

After lunch, it was off to The Glass House for a wine-tasting session. As if we haven’t experienced enough wine-tasting sessions in Chile! If I’m honest, my expectations weren’t that high. On hindsight, I’m not too sure why. We’ve always had a great experience at The Glass House, so why would a wine tasting at The Glass House not be an amazing experience too? I guess I see it as a great opportunity to have a glass of something stunning when you’re out, whereas most places insist you buy the bottle.

Dennis, our maître d'

Our fun maître d’ Dennis was our compère for the afternoon. This was a class act, like no other wine tasting I’ve been to before. On our trip, we’ve been to a number of wineries and in the past, we’ve been to a variety of wineries and experienced their wine tasting. Our wines weren’t particularly exceptional and I guess that’s the issue. Knowing what to pair with non-exceptional wines. 

The selection for our wine-tasting

Numero uno was a Canadian sparkling Peller Ice. I always love to taste these wines on their own and then try them again with the accompaniment they are recommending. We had a brie with this sparkling wine and the brie really did make a difference. Then it was on to an English white. An Essex Bacchus wine to be matched with Danish blue. We swiftly moved on to number three, an Argentinian Malbec paired with a mature Cheddar. We then segued into a Californian Zinfandel rosé paired with a red Leicester. And then the crowning glory. One to be savoured. One to take our time over. The Malmsey Madeira. To be fair, this and the Malbec were the only ones I scored 5, which on their chart equated to “I’ll have another.” That has to go down in the annals as one of the best and most informative and indeed enjoyable wine-tasting experiences to date. Needless to say, we stumbled back to our cabin with a big need for a brew.