Anderson South America Misadventure Day 23 – North of the Equator “Clandestine Restocking” March 26, 2020

What should have been a quiet night was not and there was even more going on than we knew about. At some point during the night there was an emergency call for medical team to room 700. I am pretty sure that this is a crew room since the passenger rooms have four digits. Hopefully it was not too serious and everyone is OK. Before I got back to sleep I realized that my pillow had fallen off of the bed. Keep in mind I was not very awake at this point. I reached over the grab my pillow not thinking that I was reaching the wrong way and I was way too close to the edge of the bed. Sure enough I fall out of bed, banging my knee of the wall on the way down. I wonder what the people next door and below us were thinking because I am sure that was loud. Since our meals have been coming late we have kind of shifted our sleep schedule. I mean why get up at 7:00 when breakfast does not get here until 9:40? Also if you get dinner at 8:30 you really cannot go to bed early unless you want a very rough night. Rob only drinks one cup of coffee in the morning but he is used to getting it first thing in the morning. The captain came on to do his morning announcements. He told us that overnight we had slowed down and dropped anchor in the port of Manta, Ecuador. Supplies were flown into the country then after some issues with customs they were brought out to our ship. I do not know what supplies were brought but we got it. The captain said that they had to keep it a secret from us so that it did not get onto social media. If it had there could have been protests which they really wanted to avoid. He promised us that this would be the last secret that he keeps from us, but he hopes that we will understand why this had to be kept secret. Two days ago I sent some laundry out. Rob wanted to avoid doing this, but I explained that it was happening. We have on board credit that I do not think we will ever be able to use and it costs $20.00 for all that you can fit into a bag. You would not believe how much I crammed into that bag. This morning they knocked on the door to let us know that our breakfast was there. I opened the door and there was my laundry hanging on the door knob. They put my nightgowns and t-shirts on hangers, wow. When I get enough cruise days I get laundry for free. Yesterday when they brought our water we did not get the big plastic bottles. Drat, there goes my water bottle raft plan. We got two aluminum bottles of water which I know that they sell for $5.00 each and a bottle of Pellegrino. Pellegrino is a sparkling mineral water. I know that there are people who love this stuff but “bleck” I would have to be really thirsty to drink this stuff. They brought us another bottle of it today. I am plotting how to get rid of it. I may sneak across the hall to put it outside their door. After lunch we were laying down because well, there is not a whole lot to do. Rob fell asleep and I heard someone in the hall. Oops, I had not gotten the trash out or our used towels out. Today I remembered to see what we had been given before I took any towels down. It is interesting because there is no set pattern to which and how many towels you get each day. Today we had one bath towel so since Rob got the new towel yesterday I get the new one today. I did get our trash out in time. They have been giving us apples which we snack on during the day and you really do want to get those apple cores out. Rob’s back has been hurting him. Partially this is due to inactivity, partially due to not exactly ergonomic chairs in our cabin and partially it could be his fall on the concrete steps in Buenos Aires. He does not feel that the muscle relaxers help, but they do make him sleep so….. Anyway today he was trying to lie down and his back really hurt he started to say “Oh my God, oh my God” in a pretty loud voice. I of course had to say something about how I hoped that the walls were pretty well sound proofed or the people next door were going to wonder. Today for lunch we got a more “lunch like” meal. One plate had what I assume was a Monte Cristo sandwich. It had ham and cheese and looked as if it had been dipped into a batter then fried. The problem was that from the time that it got fried, plated and delivered it was not exactly crisp anymore. Oh yeah, ripple potato chips under a dome do not do real well. They lost a little crunch, but I still ate them. The other plate had some pickled red cabbage and steamed kale. There was no meat. At least there was not any eggplant. I think that it will be a long time before Rob wants to eat eggplant again. I do not care how well it is prepared, four nights in a row is just too much eggplant. The captain announced that we would be meeting up with the MS Rotterdam. He did not know if they would transfer supplies and personnel tonight or wait for morning. It would depend on the swell at the time. I sat in the window and could actually see it coming up. There is a crescent moon tonight. At home when I see a crescent moon the crescent is on either the right or left side depending on the phase of the moon. Since we are so close to the equator the crescent is on the bottom. If I could have gotten out of the cabin I would have taken a photo on deck. Somehow I do not think that I really want a photo of the crescent moon would be an acceptable reason for escaping. They do have a brig on the ship. I could see the MS Rotterdam get closer and closer then it went to the other side of the ship. I was kind of hoping that I could watch them loading. TV selection is not that great, I was looking for something else to watch. Dinner finally came and for the first time we got it before 8:00, and no eggplant. We did have an interesting side dish, two face masks. The captain was going to make an announcement. There was a statement from corporate that “had to be approved by about 100 people” before he could read it to us. Yeah, well, the statement is not ready so we will get it in the morning. My imagination of course is working on overtime. Meanwhile the MS Rotterdam is loading supplies and personnel onto our ship. When they are done they will get the tender back on the Rotterdam and we will sail to anchor somewhere off of Panama. Well, we will see what tomorrow’s surprise is.