Skirting the Coast of Mauritania - Transatlantic Voyage -Day 14

On our Vagabond Adventure so far, Cyn and I have sailed on six ships, each one different from the others: the Queen Mary II (Cunard), the Roald Amudsen (Hurtigruten); Navimag’s Esperanza, Austalis’s Ventus; the Ocean Diamond by Quark and now Ponant's L’Austral steaming, or rather dieseling, us across the Atlantic. Each plows the world's waters in different ways, ranging from 1930’s style cruise ships to expedition ships, to hybrids in between.

Ponant’s L’Austral is a handsome craft, part expedition and part cruise; 7 decks, holding about 225 passengers with a crew of 125 or so. It is nothing like the immensities of Carnival or Disney or Princess, yet provides everything you could want: library, theater, several bars, lounges, restaurants, gym, spa, desks for lounging. I only missed having an outdoor deck that would let me walk the full circuit of the ship.

Though we mainly took these ships to get us from one place to another (across the Atlantic, to Antarctica, from North America to South America) we enjoyed the uniqueness of each line. Cunard is about class, luxury, history and comfort. Hurtigruten focuses on expedition travel and finding excursions and locations off the beaten path. Navimag was a ferry that is all about getting passengers, goods, trucks and buses between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales that happen to take you through channels and bays of unmatched beauty (that, and the passengers, are a bonus). Australis caters to adventurers, lovers of the sea and anyone looking to explore the underbelly of South America with its wild fjords and channels and glaciers. It's the only ship that allows its passengers to debark at Cape Horn and the tiny outpost that sits upon it.

I am becoming concerned that I am relaxing too much. Is this just me in a state where I actually CAN relax, riding a ship at sea for weeks, surrounded by every amenity? Or am I truly growing lazy? Around here it would be easy. We are provided three very full meals a day. At breakfast a buffet of fruit, cheeses and cereals. There are four kinds of juice: orange, watermelon, papaya and one called simply “exotic.” There is coffee, of course, even descafeinado (decaf) amazingly and my favorite, hot chocolate. Because this is an international crowd, prosciutto, deli ham, a variety of cheeses from provolone to blue cheese and thinly sliced Parmesan flakes are available along with sliced lox and smoked haddock with capers.

The smiling cooks behind the griddle will make you scrambled or fried eggs or any omelette you can conjure. “Have you tried our Eggs Benedict?” one asks as I stop for a split second to survey the fare. You can’t forget the piles of bacon, small sausages and roasted potatoes freshly cooked and laid out beneath heat lamps each morning. There are breads of every denomination: a rich raisin bread that tastes dangerously like cake, whole wheat, sliced baguettes, Italian, rye, marble …. and finally as garnishes: dates, raisins, pistachios, dried apricots, prunes and more fruit: honey dew melon, cantaloupe (cubed, fresh and ripe), pineapple, sliced grapefruit, sliced pears, and sliced oranges.

And this is just the first meal of the day. Lunch provides soups, sliced and roasted pork, beef or turkey depending on the day, and wines, champagne, and mixed drinks of every variety, plus more desserts: cakes and puddings, tarts and cookies.

It is difficult to avoid devouring some version of this every day, plus selected desserts provided at tea each day, 4 pm sharp. It’s enough to make a gourmand, or glutton, of anyone.

I remind myself of the different places and foods we’ve eaten on our adventure so far: sometimes nothing but popcorn or a Subway sandwich with coffee early in our travels when out in the American West while COVID was still around; piles of sea-fresh ceviche swimming in lime juice in Peru and Northern Chile; thunder cakes in Newfoundland; little more than apples and gorp while trekking or bouncing on those long bus rides through southern Peru and Eastern Argentina; mouthwatering Tagine in Morocco with peach soup and then flattened chicken in parts of Chile and Spain; or grilled chicken, vegetable soup, rice and hot chocolate with popcorn cooked up by Mariano while hiking through Choquequirao, surely among the finest meals our greedy palates tasted.

All of this is only a part of what has made our not traveling by jet entirely unlike a week of vacation somewhere. It's the differences, the contrasts, the changes from week to week depending on where we are, what we are doing, what culture we are absorbing. Though we are moving slowly, every day is different. Always something new and always something to learn.