A Day at Sea

April 6, 2015

Hoi-ti-toi-ti 

Does this word exist outside of the slang my mother taught me?  If it doesn't, it should. Last night we supped in 'Restaurant 2'. It is a tasting of extremely elegant, small plate entrees and was interesting, but not a single item served was overly impressive to me. It could be that I was suffering from this damned cold. At any rate, the entire presentation is on the extreme 'hoi-ti-toi-ti' side of the spectrum. Let's face it...I'm just a Kansas/Seattle/Kapoho kind of gal and am more impressed with lovely people than with fancy living. 

We are nearing, or in, the very narrow water way that separates Yemen and Somolia, getting closer to the Red Sea. At 5:30 AM, it is too dark to simply look out the window to see if we in the straights. Once John is awake, I can turn on the television to see what our position is. 

Not much to see, but this is the coast of Yemen, which we passed early in the day on April 6. 

My personal position is calling for a day of total rest. I've fallen victim to yet another cold, as mentioned above. Based upon the timing, I suspect it was a gift from a fellow passenger on one of out flights to Mumbai.  All of my western cures aside, I may wander down to the doc and see what he can offer. I played through it yesterday, but today will be a day of complete rest for me. 

April 7, 2015

Buggers. I wrote a lot yesterday and now, when I want to continue, the text is gone. Buggers. 

The events of yesterday will stay with me for a long time. 

Since I was going to spend the day lounging, I elected to take in some time in a comfy deck chair in the aft, near a small saltwater pool and jacuzzi. After an hour or so (in the shade), John (in the sun) and I saw and heard one of the crew security men shouting to another. John was curious and as I rolled over, I caught sight of a Zodiak type boat speeding our way. I mentioned it to John and then saw yet another boat speeding our way. High alert. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that we took on additional security, as well as weapons, in Salalah. I saw two of the incredibly buff, big security men (think Rangers or Seals) heading into a crew stairwell in a big hurry. The boats got closer and closer.  John feels that the potential pirates were getting in close to see the vessel type and determine what their possibilities may be. His theory continues that the security (2 from Germany, 1 from Belgium) trained one of their rockets on their vessels and pinged them. That was enough to send them away. Shortly after that, yet another boat came speeding our way, getting much closer. When they were about 100 meters off the port side, they again turned around. They followed for nearly 15 minutes, but then disappeared. Thanks to our mercenaries protecting us, it was a non-event. 

At noon, the captain's report from the bridge didn't mention it, but did mention that the security men would be leaving the vessel around 5:30 this morning. Evidently, once we get well into the Red Sea, the threat of piracy subsides. The only passengers who were aware of situation were those at the saltwater pool. 

Just another day in the Middle East. 

Now, a little about this cruise. 

Our vessel, owned by Seabourn, is named the Sojourn. Her overall length is 150 meters, making her very small in the world of cruise ships. Her total capacity for passengers is 450 with 425 crew.  We are sailing with 402 passengers, and almost 400 crew, so have a nearly one to one ratio of passengers to crew. And the crew are from all nationalities, as are our passengers. 

The nationality breakdown of our fellow passengers. 

There is no shortage of places to hang out. The main hang out is on Deck 7, where the baristas keep busy all day. There are plenty of reference books, novels, magazines, newspapers and games to keep us occupied. Naturally, there is a gym as well as a game room, a theater, a casino, six bars, four restaurants and five pool and spa areas. They have gone for the semi tropical with their plantings around the ship. It is I. The theater that we have our conversations about the religions, politics and cultures of our destinations. 

Reminds me of home. 

And there is some odd art around the ship.

We walk past this silver pooch numerous times daily. For Easter, he got a little red ribbon. 

I'll post more of the art and ship in later postings. 

We are covering much distance on the water. That means many sea days in the first week of our journey. Thursday we will be in Aqaba and have 9 hours of touring at Petra. After that we head to the other side of the Sinai peninsula and the Suez Canal. 

For now, it's off to the pool I go. I'm completely engrossed in my current book, 'All The Light We Cannot See' by Anthony Doer.