Wednesday, 19 January 2011 Off the coast of Chile

THE DUKAN DIET

I’ve read up on diets over the years and one of the most popular at the moment is the French Dukan Diet. I have easily dismissed it as you eat only protein such as lean meat and avoid fruits and vegetables etc for the first few weeks and I love my fruit and veggies too much. I never would have thought then that we the passengers would be secretly put on this diet as some sort of mass experiment. The only fruit offered at breakfast this morning were the berries (obviously the frozen kind) which topped the waffles. At lunch there was no salad bar and the only vegetables were spinach (again, the frozen kind) and potatoes, and this evening, even in the main dining room, all meals were accompanied by spinach, polenta or rice. I hate spinach! To avoid getting scurvy I forced myself to have the double chocolate mousse cake for dessert as it was garnished with a slice of orange.

I heard that HAL are hoping to truck in fresh produce to Puerto Chacabuco where we stop tomorrow. HAL are not the only ones that are hopeful!!! If not, I’m going to see how many nutrients there are in the orchid table decorations. I’m sure if I get to the Lido early enough I’ll be able to collect enough plants to make a nice tossed salad.

The other interesting topic today was the seas. Suddenly the sick bag supply on the Lido Deck has been halved as we went out into the misnamed Pacific Ocean in the early hours of this morning. At last, some good rolling seas! I’m on Main Deck (Deck 5) and there are Decks 3 and 4 below me and once as I looked out my window a wave came up and hit it. That was pretty unusual though. Unfortunately I couldn’t go out on the Lower Promenade Deck to take some close-up photos of the waves as it was closed off for safety reasons so I had to settle for the viewing area jutting out from in front of the gym.

Most people weren’t too concerned about the swells and took them in their stride – or rather run as you’d be walking along, the ship would give a bit of a roll and you would pick up speed as you lurched along.

The rest of my day was spent watching movies, reading, socialising and going to this evening’s show in the Showroom at Sea.

After days of being able to read in natural light up to 11 pm and it never really getting dark until sunrise came around at 3.15 am, it’s now pitch black again throughout the night. It does make for a better night’s sleep though.