Chillin' near the equator

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Friday 10th February:

We're rapidly approaching the Equator now and are in the area known as The Trade Winds. And it's well named, not for any quantity of stomach disorders (especially the ones that seem to afflict all members of the Tilson clan!) but the winds that must have pushed the early explorers rapidly on their way in search of new lands. The winter weather is glorious here with temperatures up in the high seventies, the sun is shining, there are a few puffy white clouds and enough movement on the sea to make the movement in the swimming pools a heap of fun. About a one foot swell from the shallow end to the deep end really does making swimming interesting. I wish all pools did this - we'd swim every day.

Work in the gym is going well too. We're both taking quite a bit longer now before we work up a sweat. Early in the trip, I could be out of breath within the first minute. Now it's up to about 7 or 8 minutes. It's blinkin' hard work so we just hope it's starting to make a difference. The hospital is keen to get their hands on both of us soon after we get home in April as they think by then we'll have done untold damage with all the food on board. We're determined to prove them wrong and it feels like so far, we may very well be on track.

We went to a fascinating lecture this morning from a marine salvage expert on the sinking of the Russian submarine, the Kursk. He showed photographs we'd not seen before and they certainly raised some very interesting questions about some of the 20 to 30 reasons that were put forward at the time for the cause of the accident. Tomorrow he's talking about the raising of the Kursk and I remember that being a very complex issue so it will be good to learn some more.

But that's quite enough of the serious stuff. The rest of our day was glorious enjoying this wonderful weather. We've booked ourselves in for the Crossing the Line ceremony in 2 days time. All we know is that we need to wear old clothes that we don't mind ruining. Like you pack that sort of thing on a world cruise! Oh well, it's a one time only happening so something in the wardrobe department is going to have to go.

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