At Sea - En Route from Port Blair, Andaman Islands to Kochi (Formerly Cochin), India

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CRUISING AT SEA EN ROUTE FROM PORT BLAIR TO KOCHI, INDIA. Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 March, 2012.

This is our longest stretch of time at sea so only have information on ship activities.

M went to the craft group on Tuesday morning and produced 6 paintings on silk and followed up with the art class after lunch where she painted a watercolour of an oasis in Egypt. Tuesday's show was a cabaret by Harry Smith (one of the ship's theatre company) where he performed songs from well known musicals. It was ok but we both thought that he should have sung songs that were as well known as the musicals from which they came. Most of them were very obscure.

On Tuesday night we received a notification in our cabin about the ship's impending transit of the Indian Ocean. It informed us that the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean suffers from the activities of Somali pirates and that the ship would be taking additional security measures. The ship's loookouts and MSLOs (Maritime Security Liaison Officers) were to be increased. Three armed men were also taken onboard off the coast of Sri Lanka on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday D attended lectures on Cochin, Indian Partition and Trade Routes while M went to craft in the morning where she made a stitched greeting card. Art in the afternoon was a watercolour of a fort in the desert. The evening show was 'American Dream' performed by the ship's theatre company. This evening we also joined our tablemates John and Marcia for dinner in the Yacht Club. This is a 'treat' that you are only allowed to avail yourself of twice in a cruise and you have to book in advance. We had a fantiastic meal of fillet steak, perfectly cooked. M's desert was very interesting - an upside down trifle.

On Thursday all the lectures and classes were delayed an hour as we had a mandatory Code Purple Drill. Code purple is the call sign for a pirate attack and everyone had to take part. The ship has been made ready with barbed wire on the stern and on the staircases down to the crew quarters. Water hoses have also been set up ready to spray any pirates that make it past the barbed wire. Otherwise our day at sea continued pretty normally. D went to lectures on Marmagoa, The Indian Mutiny and Mumbai while M went to craft and made a magnetic necklace and art in the afternoon where she painted a snow scene in watercolour. Thursday's show was put on by the Filipino Staff who performed a Folkloric Show which was very good indeed.

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