Love is in the air

Flowers from a "mystery man"

And then the Captain’s announcement came. I hasten to add, at the point at which we should have been casting off and sailing into the sunset. We weren’t going anywhere. It sort of felt like rubbing even more salt into the wound. Think about it, (First World problems I realise) but here we were, in a country, able to look but not touch a small slice of it, but being told we had to hang on for several hours more. Having rocked up in Callao at 8ish yesterday morning, we had waited and waited all day for fuel only to be told it might arrive by 11pm with the hope we may leave by midnight. For those old enough, you’ll understand the phrase “at this point I must have lost my presence of mind”. 

A bath is a solver of all the world’s problems…in my book, so with no entertainment of interest, neither of us up for going out, we agreed on a night in with room service, a bath and a session with our books was the order of the evening. Grumpiness was futile, as there was absolutely nothing we could do about our situation, but sit and wait it out.

At midnight, I announced to Nick we were still in port. How did I know? came his question. Well, the room isn’t rattling is it? came my reply. There is one thing rattling in the room, was his reply. Ooopps! Midnight came and went, with no movement. Half an hour later we set sail in the direction of Ecuador.

A lovely sunrise woke me this morning with picture-perfect flat calm seas. I then spent the next two hours trying to get back to sleep which was largely pointless. We exchanged Valentine’s cards. Well, to be more precise, as we’d both forgotten about Valentine’s Day for the first time in all our years together, we improvised with a Moonpig e-card each. Nick still wasn’t feeling great and I still had some queasiness. Having managed workouts over the last couple of days, rumbling tums sent us in search of breakfast instead of exercise. Weirdly I struggled with my cereal and fruit even though I felt hungry. Food hasn’t really felt right since we visited Codpa. Hopefully, normality will resume soon. Now, I have no idea if this is a claim to fame or not, but this morning we sat next to Andrew Bourn. Nope, I’d never heard of him either. He’s the entertainment tonight apparently another BGT finalist. Unless someone tells me otherwise, we’ll be giving him a miss. 

When we got back to our room after breakfast there was a stunning surprise vase of roses waiting for me on the desk. All the note said was they were from a “mystery admirer” who on earth could that possibly be?! Nick’s jealous that I have a secret admirer, obvs and is threatening to punch their lights out if he so much as gets his hands on them. Well, that’ll be the day.

Relaxing on the balcony - with hat

We agreed today was to be another lazy day, sitting on the balcony. We mused on Nick’s sunhat that it is made from recycled tarpaulin used from trucks that drove the Pan American highway in Brazil. We definitely saw a fair amount of those trucks on our road trips going north through South America so far.  

Amazonas Hat

I have to ponder, but what slightly miffs me about us not feeling 100%, is that we’re both virtually bathing in hand sanitiser at every step of the way on this holiday. Touch a handrail. Hand sanitise. Touch a door handle. Hand sanitise. Go for a meal. Hand sanitise. Come away from a meal. Hand sanitise. Get off the ship. Hand sanitise. Get on the ship. Hand sanitise. Get on a bus. Hand sanitise. It’s just constant. So how either of us has managed to pick up anything bug-wise completely beats me. However, our plan is not to push it for now and just chill for our next few days, then hopefully we’ll both be back on tip-top form when we go to the Machalilla National Park in Ecuador in a few days' time.

Our fun facts today are that since leaving Callao after midnight yesterday to mid-day today, we have steamed 164 nautical miles at an average speed of 14 knots. We have a further 604 nautical miles until we reach Manta, Ecuador in 2 days' time. Since leaving Southampton on the 6th January, we’ve steamed 11,439 nautical miles. Today we have temperatures of 23 degrees rising to 25 degrees. We have 170 metres of water below us at a temperature of 21 degrees.

After a lunchtime snooze, we agreed we really needed to liven up and get our act together. P&O are putting on a gastronomic extravaganza in the restaurant tonight. So, I’ve decided I need to dust off one of my frocks and Nick is promising to get suited and booted for the occasion. Being a cynic, I suspect it’ll be the usual food but with a few extra flouncy words to make it sound overwhelmingly exciting. Oh, they put some hearts on the menu, so that means it will, of course, be romantic.

Tea-time treats

Although, our tea-time treats that Steevan brings us each evening were very romantic chocolate strawberries so, they are doing something right.

And finally, a very happy 14th wedding anniversary to Tom & Jo. Hope you’ve had a great night and congratulations.