Day 2 of the Magical Mystery Cruise and I have signed up for the first of a few Viking Cooking Schools. We prep everything under the direction of the Chef, then he plates everything we cooked, so we can enjoy the lunch.

Temperature: 28C/82F

Wind/Weather: Partly cloudy, with moderate winds

Sunrise/Sunset: 06:04/18:28

Clox: Back 1 hr (Z+7)

Navigation

We maintained a WNW’ly course along the South coast of Java, having steamed 720 miles at an average speed of 17.1 kts, since departure Bali. We are still 1,694 miles from “Somewhere” aka Colombo.

Since departure L/A on Jan 4th, we have steamed 17,259 miles.

Weather

With partly cloudy skies, we enjoyed a great sunrise, with a great variety of colours on the eastern horizon. The winds were moderate on the stb’d bow – NW’ly about 25 kts, coupled with a 3′ to 5′ swell.

Meals

With a full crew, special meals are back again:

• Aquavit (07:00 to 10:00) – Organic Muesli bar
• World Cafe (12:00 to 14:00) – King Prawn Salad
• World Cafe (18:00 to 20:30) – Fresh Mahi Mahi

We had breakfast and lunch in the MDR, then for dinner, we arranged to join Ron, Alison, Phil and Leanne at table # 151. Great dinner, with exceptional company, waiters and conversation.

Activities

I completed my usual hike around Dk 8, before heading down to the cabin, working on Bali photos. Since I was going to Cooking School at 10:00, Judi slept in, so we headed to the MDR about 09:00 for breakfast.

Viking Cooking School

This is on offer every sea day, at a cost of $59 per person. It is held in the Kitchen Table, at the aft end of Dk 1 – between Manfredi & Chef Table galleys.

Room set up for Cooking School, with a cutting board and knife at each station. All ingredients are provided in small dishes.

We are provided with a different menu and directions daily, with the Chef walking us through the process. As the students, we assign tasks to prep all the ingredients, do most of the cooking and then hand over to Roberto, who does the finishing and plating.

Chef showed us how to make the Shumai, then each of us made 3 on our own. Not too bad for a first attempt.

This is a trick they are taught early in culinary school. Cut a piece of parchment paper just bigger than the pan’s surface area and then cut a hole in the middle. Works just like a pressure cooker, cooking the food faster, without having to wait for the pressure to dissipate before opening.

By attending the cooking school I missed:

• 10:00 lecture – The Fall of Singapore, by Col Coutts-Britton
• 11:00 lecture – Wildlife highlights, Auckland to Bali, by Robin Petch
• 12:00 team trivia

After lunch, I had time to drop the camera in the cabin, before heading to the Theatre for the afternoon film – Ford v’s Ferrari. Wow, what a brilliant film, that ran for over 2.5 hrs.

On completion of dinner, we headed straight to Torshavn, with Ron and I taking a short break to check out the Trumpet player (Chuck Curry) in the Theatre. We only lasted about 1/2 hr before returning to Torshavn.