So Relaxed

---

Geo: 12.5222, 48.2192

Slept late today after doing laundry in the middle of the night again. I was awake at 3:30 and had the laundry bagged and ready to go expecting to wake up about then. So much easier to do laundry with no one else around so I took advantage of not being able to sleep regularly all the time. When I went to the launderette, I found the fire doors between areas of the ship closed. It was simple to open and pass through them. I did not know that they were closed at night.

At noon, we were in the Seabourn Square area enjoying coffee, tea, and snacks when the captain made his daily announcement. Typical of what we hear each day if we remember to turn the TV on or are out in the public areas, he said, "Once again, it's just gone 12 noon, and, up on the bridge, all's well." Then he described the details of the most recent twenty-four hours. We are still sailing at 18 knots with good weather and calm seas and about 7,500 feet under the keel. He has heard other ships in the area on the radio and seen others that he did not hear including Chinese and other cargo ships, Japanese war ships, fishing boats, and one other small skiff moving very fast which he speculated was carrying contraband between Somalia and Yemen. We are still in the protected navigational lane between those two countries with Yemen 80 nautical miles to port and Somalia 120 nautical miles to starboard. It won't be long before we make a hard left turn to head to Salalah, but that should be after we pass the border between Yemen and Oman.

---