Leisure Time

I woke up this morning and had roast beef and potatoes with horse radish sauce for breakfast.  Certainly healthier than the Haribo Goldbären and toffees I had for 'supper'.  Following my meal I have my only leisure time of the day.  Not that there has been a great deal of difference between 'leisure time' and 'work shift' over the last couple of days.  The main difference is that I kind of have to be in a certain place for most of my 'work' and I feel obliged to a least give off the idea that I could be doing something scientifically important.  But to be perfectly honest, a well trained monkey probably could have done the work I have done over the last couple of days.  Or a 4 year old with a basic idea of DVD player controls.  I guess you could argue that a well trained monkey did do the work.  Anyway, the fact that I have had the time to debate these kind of inane questions gives you some idea of how busy I have been.

Entertainment options are limited.  Most of the crew and some of the other scientists spend a lot of time in the lounge watching DVDs.  The ship has a catalogue of about 1000 movies of varying quality.  Helle, the Danish lady biologist, has been watching some Swedish TV series about a doctor going from island to island, helping people. See says its brilliant, I have my doubts.

The Library

I have split my time between reading, surfing the net (though occasionally this can get quite slow), writing this and hitting the gym.  The gym has a ping pong table, a dartboard with two darts, and various weights and cardio machines.  Ping pong on a rolling ship would certainly spice up the sport a bit.  I'd like to see that at the Olympics (might reduce the stranglehold the Asians have over this sport).  I haven't had any challengers yet but I am keen to give it a go in rough seas.  I have, however, hit numerous bullseyes in a 4m swell. With a dart, not a ping pong ball.

Games Room

The treadmill it also tricky on moving ground.  Its similar to running drunk.  You need the hand rails for sure. I don't really use it though because my head hits the ceiling when I am on it.  A crouched down, drunken stagger is not as efficient a workout as just getting on the bike or using the rowing machine.  So I do that instead. I try to cycle the same distance I would to work and back in the Netherlands.  Only faster.

Cycling To Work

I'm not sure if it is a Danish thing or just the biased sex-ratio on board, but the instruction pictures on the walls around the gym feature naked ladies showing you how its done.  Not that I needed instructions on how to cycle a bike, but I appreciate the thought.

Danish Gym Instrucitons

There is also a sauna next to the gym.  I am a big sauna fan in general.  The Finns are on to something here. Every once in a while we stop to collect hydrographic information (more on that later) and each stop can take anything from an hour to two hours to complete.  I have made a regular habit of taking a break from work and heading down to the sauna during these pauses for a good 45min session. It invigorates me for the next bout of sitting on my ass.

Chilling In The Sauna