We visit the ship's kitchen. Okay, this was yesterday. Yesterday after dinner. Time has ceased to have any real meaning.(*)
Deb had expressed an interest in seeing the kitchen. The chef sits at our table, on his way back to the kitchen. I ask, we are invited to visit.
Deb says, it's not as small as she expected. There are benches and equipment and storage and stuff round the outside. And a big island of similar stuff in the middle. The difficult bit is storage.
Food is stored (long-term) one deck below. There's a dumb waiter but only the two chefs. So if they need any food... one goes downstairs, loads the dumb waiter, comes up again. And in rough weather, food can't be left sitting on shelves. (Or it will be sitting on the floor.) So food is prepared in small amounts then safely stowed away, then on to the next part of meal prep.
Ten minutes work in a land kitchen could take an hour on the ship. With a lot of going up and down stairs. All the bread and desserts and meals are prepared from scratch, from basic ingredients. (Though I think there was mention of pre-made pastry.) Plus, the Russian cook for the ship's Russian crew is sharing the kitchen. Quite a challenge.
As a sample: Today's dinner is crispy duck wontons for starter. Choice for mains of beef casserole or peri peri chicken. Followed by orange & pumpkin seed cake. Nothing spectacular but all good food. Especially when you consider that it's made by two people for sixty diners (50 passengers plus ten tour staff).
Meals for a month, with all food ordered in advance. There's a rough meal plan but each day may vary from the plan. Some leftovers are recycled: unused potatoes appear in next day's salad, unused lamb tajine turns into lamb terrine.
And while I'm thinking of food: Breakfast is a choice of porridge and any three of eggs (boiled, fried, poached or scrambled), mushrooms, baked beans, fried tomatoes, bacon, hash browns... Plus cheese, cold meats, fresh fruit, tinned fruit, yoghurt, cereal. And bread, toast, butter, jam, honey, marmite, peanut paste.
Lunch is fresh salad, main course, cake or scones.
Oh, and in the bar there is 24 hour tea, coffee, sweet and savoury biscuits. The biscuits are the largish sort that you would buy as coffee-and-cake. A size that we share. These biscuits are not baked on board.
We don't have to starve.
We don't have to starve.
I have a lot of sympathy for one passenger. She has a tooth abscess. She may not starve but she's not enjoying the voyage. Poor woman.
(*) Time is complicated. I've been reading a book, Terminator and Philosophy, a Christmas present. Philosophical concepts as applied to or seen in Terminator movies. Brilliant ! For example: If time travel does work, the Terminator time travel tactics were still pointless. No matter which model of time you use. And I'm confirmed as a staunch Hegelian. Because (1) This book has a chapter using Hegel's ideas and it is understandable. (2) I recently read about Hegelian dialectic and it's what I use. (3) Best of all, his writings are so poorly worded that it's almost impossible to understand them :-)
Between Commonwealth Bay (and the rest of that area of coast) and Ross Sea, there's a large finger of ice pointing north. Because we could not get into the planned area of coast, we're heading for Ross Sea. Which means that we are sailing east then north then east then south, to get round that outstretched finger. No Mawson's hut so Plan B is to get to Balleny Islands in the Ross Sea.
We sail east, then north. Then east again, to cut through a thin part of the ice finger. It's not so thin... we can't get through, so we sail back west, then north again.
Deb sees a penguin on the ice. We both see several whales And three seals on a floe. Deb sees more seals. I spend some time on deck -- chilly but fun -- and see more whales. Mostly distant whales. And lots of ice. Still exciting, though less exciting than the first few days.
Deb goes to a talk on Antarctic explorers. A talk on seals. Part five of the Amundsen vs Scott video. I spend some time reading on deck. And reading in our cabin. We spot several icebergs. One, quite near, is not as flat-topped as most. I take photos.
Not the most exciting of days. It takes time to get from point A to point B. (Philosophically, points A and B may not exist -- noit now, while we are not at either of those points. Just thought I'd mention that.)
Now -- after 9pm -- I believe that we have definitely rounded the finger and are sailing south. The sea is a bit rougher though not as rough as on the first few days. I have yet to be thrown off my seat.
We sail on...
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