At sea February 4 and 5

After being unable to go ashore in Iqueque, everyone was looking forward to getting off the ship, especially the crew.  Unfortunately that was not to be.  The captain made an announcement before lunch that the port of Coquimbo was closed because of the heavy swell.  He also told us that the port of Iqueque was still closed to all shipping.  He also told us that he tried to arrange to dock early in Valparaiso but they did not have any open spots until tomorrow morning.  So we had another day at sea running at a slow speed to kill time until we can dock.  The swell was up to about 15 feet but it was not windy so the ride was just a lot of up and down.

Both of these closed ports would have been new stops for us so we were really disappointed to not visit them.

The cruise director quickly put together a new schedule of events, games, wine tasting, trivia and even a lecture.

Our team finally tied for first in trivia!

Just after the trivia the captain made an announcement that more than 2 percent of the passengers and crew had become ill with an intestinal problem so we were going into "code red" mode.  Anyone that was sick could have a free visit to the doctor.  All the crew was on "sanitation" duty.  They removed the salt and pepper shakers, you could not longer serve yourself at the buffets, they closed the public restrooms and the laundry rooms.  They were cleaning everything including the games like chess pieces, mahjong tiles, even the jigsaw pieces.  It is too bad that some people do not use the utensils at the buffets.  Noel has seen people picking up cookies and a woman was even picking up dried fruit with her fingers.  Tom saw one person picking up a bagel with her hands.  No wonder illness spreads on ships.