RIDING THE OCEAN AND GUESS WHAT THIS DISH IS!

Regal Princess/At Sea on the Atlantic Ocean
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Cloudy, spots of rain, 79F

A pretty cool photo by TK

The days are getting much warmer and the sea is quite calm.  Today the Third Officer announced at noon that we are 1062 miles from the nearest land mass, the island of Santa Maria, part of the Azores Islands.  He also said that we are 1600 miles from our next port of call, Antigua. That means that we are REALLY alone on the Atlantic Ocean, far from land!  

(Note: Usually on the TA, we can see another ship crossing with us, or some container ships, or freighters. Not yet!)

Nothing makes me feel tinier than being on the ocean with absolutely nothing in sight. Even though our ship is fairly large, certainly larger than the Brig Niagara (110 ft long w/o bowsprit) and the Mayflower (about 100 ft long), it still looks small in the ocean.

Another note: On the ocean, the horizon is about 3 miles away--depending on the viewer's height and the height of the vessel.  

Regal Princess: 360 ft in length (about 3 football fields long); 217 ft high (about 22 stories high); and 155 ft. wide (almost the size of the Millcreek Mall/WICU tower).

Another stat that I do not understand and I could be comparing apples to oranges:

Regal Princess:  141,000 gross tonnage

Brig Niagara:  492 gross tonnage

Mayflower: 230 gross tonnage

This little exercise is to show that the ship we are aboard right now is very big, yet very  small on the Atlantic Ocean.  I am not even going to think about the 102 passengers and 30 crew on the Mayflower crossing the Atlantic with little knowledge of where they were going.

Enough of that—today was a very quiet day of eating, reading, resting, and writing, nothing to report.

But, TK’s Contest, Guess this dish is!!  Yesterday, October 15

PUMPKIN PIE!

According the the Chef on Regal Princess

Thank you to Ann, Julie, Heidi, and Chris for your great ideas!

 Ann was really on the money with, “A pastry shell filled with pumpkin and some kind of   custard on the side, plus whipped cream (not enough!)”  Every detail!  Plus, TK agrees that the 2024 Regal Princess chef got closer to what beef stroganoff really looks like! Spaghetti-no!

Julie and Heidi had an interesting (and very good) guess:  Pastel de Nata, a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry, optionally dusted with cinnamon—they have enjoyed this pastry (brought to U.S. by grandson/nephew) and it not only sounds delicious, it l ooks exactly like the Regal’s pumpkin pie!

 

Pastel de nata

Chris took a different point of view which to me seems like a good possibility:

“The mystery dish sort of resembles a chicken pot pie, maybe melted cheese on top and leaking gravy from the bottom, lol…and a decorative bit of sour cream. My lunch tastes tend to be more on the savory side than the sweet dessert side.”  Honestly, we can see this too!

 

TK is so pleased that there were guesses that he found another mystery food.  I do appreciate that you humored him on his quest. I am betting today’s challenge is going to be more difficult!

 TK'S TODAY CHALLENGE OCTOBER 16

Guess what this dish is:

What is this?

TK’s Takes: He saw two seagulls soaring over the ship today—think about that, 1000 miles from land!

TK went to Movies Under the Stars last night--Dune II

He did not stay--3 hours is a long movie, but he brought 

very good popcorn back for me!

It's a movie I want to see, but we have it recorded at home.