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Published: January 30th 2016
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At sea
In the Suez Canal. Friday, Jan. 22. At Sea day 3. Cloudy, calm and warmer. 22C
Spent morning at aft pool. Quite a few passengers are coughing and blowing noses. I imagine, with 5 more days confined to the ship, that this will spread like wildfire. Let's hope it stays at the head cold level and does not morph into something worse.
Saturday, Jan. 23. At Sea day 4. Sunny with haze. 28C
Paul resisted buying the €20-30 sandals available in the last few ports. The $34 sandals in the gift shop are down to $19.24.
Crew say that this is the first Suez transit out of the last five that the weather has not been pea soup fog. Wet highs from the north hit dry lows from the south and visibility drops to zippo. We are fortunate to have cleared skies and good visibility. Today, however, has rocketed to 28C and 100% humidity to prepare us for the weeks to come.
Tuesday, Jan. 25. Sea day 7. Arabian Sea. Beautiful clear skies, hot. Sea is almost like glass.
Very, very lazy day. Jane did a walk before breakfast ( 2 miles). Then we sat by the aft pool
for about 1.5 hours, then read in various spots on the promenade. There are signs that passengers are getting a wee bit fed up with sea days. Lack of internet is frustrating many crew as well. Still on high alert for ne'er do wells. Dolphins are a welcome sight.
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Paul...
There has not been much land sighted since we exited Suez and entered the Red Sea, except for the choke point entering the Gulf of Aden between Djibouti and Yemen (we could see the lights of Djibouti lighting the sky in the west). We kept to the sea channel between Somalia and Yemen until we began skirting the coast of Oman, sailing the Arabian Sea and seeing flying fish and dolphins aplenty, seeking loggerhead turtles and whales.
This will be the last night for heightened security, at least until we leave the Persian Gulf next week. It has been rather nice having the decks darkened at night, as the moon was recently full and the stars are stunning without the light pollution. I went out on the aft deck last night to see the phosphorescence churned up as we sail through fields of algae which
Rijstaffel
Decorations. react to disturbances with internal chemical light.
Been fighting the good fight against the magnificent food - Paul has hit the gym each sea day since Malta. It's not stopping the weight gain, but it's advancing very slowly. Jane's been doing the deck circuit of 7 laps - 3.5 laps equals one mile.
The poker crowd is a good bunch, but there's a split in styles. There are about a dozen who like to play in the sea day tournaments but don't like cash games, and half a dozen cash gamers who don't like tournaments. After several of each under my belt, I am proud to say I remain close to even. Otherwise, the casino is far from busy. The roulette spins rarely, the 3-card poker and blackjack enjoy some popularity, there is no craps table, and the slots are not loose.
There is a fresh movie every day in the theatre. It is broadcast on ship TV the next day. The selections have been pretty tame, so American stations pick up the slack. Nevertheless, the movies available in the gym make my 5K on the treadmill pass easily. The only problem is I only see half
of the movie. I can say the last 55 minutes of The Martian was quite excellent. Today I watched Tom Cruise scale the outside of that giant hotel in Dubai, which was of much greater interest to me as we will be there in a couple of days, riding the elevator to the observation deck of the tallest structure in the world. . .
The moon is waning, but this evening caught the rays of the sun after it had set and was like a partially eaten blood orange hanging over the calm Arabian Sea. Too much ship motion for my teeny tripod, so I will have only my memory of that awesome sight.
It has been a full eight days, despite the claims of the terminally bored who miss "their" tv and internet. Why are you even here?
The kitchens continue to produce not just superior, but relevant food. Butter chicken and curries, naan and saffron rice are beginning to appear more often as well. Mideast cuisine seems to lie somewhere in between. The Greek cuisine presented over our days in the southeastern Med was as good as the magnificent lunch we had in Athens, near the Acropolis. For the long-term voyagers such as ourselves, the Captain had on Monday what's called a Collector's Voyage Rijsttafel, a Dutch luncheon featuring an amazing Indonesian menu, which of course is completely authentic as so much of the service crew is Indonesian. Tomorrow night is the special Indonesian cultural show, produced by and starring the crew members.
One thing about so many sea days is the opportunity to reconnect with people we have met so far. Sadly, several of our favourites so far will disembark at Dubai. On the other hand, they will be replaced by newbies. This will be repeated for each of our two visits to Singapore as we will gain and lose passengers there as well.
Looking forward to meeting Elliott from Montreal when he boards in Singapore as we are piggybacking on his research and arrangements for almost all our stops in Indonesia.
Tonight we enter the Gulf of Oman, bound for Muscat which beckons early in the morning. Iran will remain to the north during our time in the Persian Gulf until we depart the Emirates for India.
Souks, camels, beaches and mosques are all open to us tomorrow, as long as we remember we are guests in a society with rather different expectations of polite behaviour. Restrictions on "provocative" clothing mean no visible ankles or wrists and headscarves for women in the mosques, and preferably anywhere else, and slacks and collars for the men. The Emirates will be a little more liberal (except for mosques) but still, many Americans seem under the delusion that they are "in a free country," and I fear some are determined to exercise their "rights" to wear shorts, sandals and tank tops. I look forward to that entertainment.
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