Heading East – Day Two – Food Festival

Today was our second sea day since leaving St Johns in Antigua, with three more to go before arriving at our next destination, Horta in the Azores. The seas are still lumpy and bumpy, and there’s a real hooley blowing out on deck.

I spoke to Peter (The Wood) Counsell this morning and we agreed that we should have an exhibition on the last sea day, which I then negotiated and confirmed with the Entertainments office. The only thing I’m slightly concerned about is the fact that we’re running dangerously low on masking tape (which we’ll need quite a bit of for the exhibition). Fortunately, there’s a place I know in Horta, where we should be able to re-stock. Until then, I’m rationing folks to only taping their paper across the top and bottom of the sheet, to try and eke out what little we have left (I still can’t believe we’ve managed to get through 30 rolls!).

This evening, the ship laid on an extraordinary event; the first Magellan International Food Festival! And what a truly impressive event it was…

The whole of Deck 9 was transformed, with different food stations serving cuisine associated with a particular country. You could choose from Greek, Italian, German, Indian, Indonesian and British. There was also an International Breads Station, a Cheese Station, a Desserts Station, a Waffle Station and Gelato Station, a stall serving Pimms and Cider, a Russian Vodka Station and a Spanish Sangria Station. You get the idea. What was most impressive, apart from the incredible diversity of food and drink available, of course, was the efforts to which everyone involved had gone to. Staff who were serving were dressed according to the country they represented, and the whole of the deck was decorated in a colourful array of balloons and flags. Throw in a large number of enthusiastic passengers milling about delighting at the choice on offer, and you had a real festival atmosphere that I’m absolutely certain surpassed even the expectations of those who had originally mooted the idea, which was simply brilliant!

Coming as it did, just two days into our five-day stint across the Atlantic, it was also well timed, and a great morale booster. As well as the food, we were also entertained by tenor and comedian, Morgan-Lee James, a UK Guest Act who must have joined the ship either in Antigua or Barbados (we saw him on the Astoria last year, and I remember seeing him as part of a trio ‘Tenorisimmo’ many moons ago).

All-in-all… a good night was enjoyed by all.