All at Sea

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We leave Muscat and we have six days at sea.The ship is still on Covid high alert, wearing face masks, not serving ourselves from the buffet. My cold is not getting better and I have a hacking cough. This means people try to avoid me and I can empty a lift in no time!



I take another Covid test, it’s negative and Ian suggests I see the ship’s doctor. I call the medical centre and I’m told a nurse will call me back in a few minutes. Within 5 minutes she calls me back and goes through my symptoms. She then says she will come up to the cabin and check me over. Ian has gone to the library and knows nothing;of this. There is a knock at the door about 5 minutes later and I open it to see the nurse with a huge rucksack on her back pushing a wheelchair and carrying an oxygen cylinder. (I imagined her running down the deck saying “ne nor ne nor” like an ambulance!)



She comes into the cabin and checks my blood pressure, oxygen levels and pulse, they are all normal but she would like me to see the doctor, but she says it will cost. I agree to go and see the doctor and that is when Ian breezes with a surprised look when he spots the wheelchair. The nurse asks me to get into the wheelchair but I tell her I can walk. I see the doctor who is Australian, very young ( or is that because I’m getting older) and wearing a man bun. I have to do another Covid test which is negative and he listens to my chest. The medical centre dispenses antibiotics and cough medicine and I’m on my way. Total cost for those interested was $137 for essentially immediate medical attention together with medication.



The days follow the same pattern lectures,gym etc. We are now in the tropics so the weather is very warm and humid. Ian hides from the sun and I sit out in it for around an hour with factor 50 on. There are quite a few people who are lobster red and they lie on the deck for most of the day. (Ian - lobster red and in many cases the size of whales. Fortunately there are no Japanese whaling ships to be seen.)



The following day the captain tells us that number of Covid cases has dropped. We no longer need to wear masks around the ship. We are no longer the plague ship

We join another table for dinner in the restaurant, previously we had been on a table for two( Covid regulations when we booked cruise).



The table we join as three widows one American and two British but one of them lives in America. There also an American couple. He is very quiet but flares up and gets angry when things don’t go his way. It turns out he has quite advanced dementia.

One of the widows spends most days in the casino wining large amounts of money on the slot machines. (Or so we are told, loses are never mentioned or apparently incurred.)

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