Sunday 8th February, at sea, 15 degrees and calm

Once again it looked a cloudy day. There was a washing debate first thing and a plan of action was agreed. By 7.15 we were on deck to start our mornings exercise. After 25 minutes I went down to the cabin to collect the washing (the laundrette’s open at 8.00). I went first to deck 11 where there was a queue of what looked like at least 8 people. I then descended to deck 5 where I found 3 men waiting. As I could not remember how many machines there were, I joined the queue.

As an incidental, we have a number of photographers on the ship who can be seen throughout the day at the ships rail with the long proboscis of their cameras peering out to sea. One of them came up with a great shot of the glacier yesterday which I thought I would include so that you could see more of the detail.

Back to today.

At 7.50 I found there were only 3 machines and abandoned the laundry for this morning. I then joined Keith for a swift breakfast, nipped down to change into ukulele playing and Bridge attire and went to improve my love songs. I then scampered off to Bridge where I found the vultures were circling for my seat, The dreaded Jean!! I swiftly took my place and the lesson started. Unfortunately my aside to Matthew made him snort, he was laughing so much. It was just like old times at work in those interminable meetings! I kept a straight face and he got ‘the look’ from teacher!!

We considered giving the washing another go, but in the end we abandoned it to more deck walking and were rewarded by what might have been a Royal Albatross (the biggest – with a 18 ft wing span) but the jury is out on that one – was it or wasn’t it? Will keep you posted if we learn more…..

Lunch was a jolly affair with our Bridge friends. After that I felt I really, really, had to get to grips with this laundry issue, so off I went. Keith went to watch the football. For me there was success in the laundry stakes (hoorah!) and after a bit of a wait and quite a bit of tension it is done and ironed.

As Keith wasn’t back in the cabin when I returned, I went up to Deck 7, the promenade deck, to do my crossword as the temperature has risen to 17 degrees and is quite comfortable with a gilet. I hadn‘t been there long before my chum Lynn from ukulele happened along. She’d had a bit of a down day yesterday, so we chatted about that, life in general and nothing in particular. Keith dropped by and joined the conversation for a bit and disappeared again.

What he hadn’t remembered was his next pedicure! The lovely Tonia had to ring him to remind him of their appointment, which apparently sent him veritably scampering up to the Spa. He thinks our massive bath at home with its problematic blemish is likely to become the largest foot spa in the world!! At least we will have found a use for it!

We eventually met up in our cabin and gathered ourselves for dinner.

The food is amazingly good and sometimes it is difficult to maintain our high resistance to the sweet treats. Tonight three of our table succumbed to sticky toffee pudding. It did look good!

We have still got another day at sea before we reach San Antonio, the port for Santiago the capital of Chile.