Eight Days at Sea
“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport.” -- Saber Ben Hassen
This is the first of eight days at sea as we travel all the way from Safaga in Egypt to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, a distance of about 3300 miles (2850 nautical miles).
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| A map of our journey from Safaga (the red marker at the top) to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (the red marker near the bottom). Our 3300 mile journey would take us through the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and finally, the Indian Ocean. |
Cruise Day 24
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Today is the first of eight straight sea days and it will give us a chance to catch our breath and recharge our batteries. It doesn’t seem like it should tiring, but the hassle of getting off the ship, going through customs, and a compressed day of activity in a strange place can really take a lot out of you out especially if you do it for several days in a row. It’s probably because we are getting older, but it does feel good to know we’ll be able to relax for a while before our next flurry of activity.
It's always a temptation to sleep late and loll around in bed like a Sunday morning at home, but Val and I decided we were going to try and get up and out and about by a reasonable hour during these sea days. This morning we were up around 8:00 and after getting ready, headed off to the Neptune Lounge for breakfast.
There was a lecture on the Chinese Influence in Africa at 10:00, so we went early to get ourselves a decent seat. These lectures are very well attended, and you need to get there early to get a seat. Because of that, they have started to set up folding chairs in the entryways to accommodate more people and we didn’t want to sit back there.
The lecture was very good as usual, and afterward we headed off to one of the ship's stores as I had seen someone wearing a Holland America Grand Africa t-shirt and I wanted one. I already had a very nice t-shirt commemorating our cruise that someone on the rollcall had designed and made available for us to buy before the cruise, but this one was different, and I wanted it also. In case it’s not already evident, I try to collect t-shirts from everywhere we go on our travels, and already have quite a few for this trip even though it has barely started.
After returning to our room, we decided to take my computer to the Neptune Lounge where they have a big table where we can sit and review the pictures we have taken so far. We take a lot of pictures, and it takes a bit of time reviewing them, but we enjoy it and it gives us a chance to relive where we have been.
After looking at our pictures for a while, the Neptune Lounge began to fill up as some people use the Neptune Lounge for lunch like we do for breakfast. It was time for us to go to lunch, so we packed up the computer, dropped it off in our room and headed to the Lido for lunch.
Wow, what a difference a day makes; yesterday the Lido was so nice and quiet and today it seemed more crowded and busy than usual. We usually don’t go to lunch until around 1:00 to avoid the crowds, but today that didn’t work. After a good lunch, it was back to our room where Val retired to balcony to read, and I sat back down at the computer to go back to work on the blog.
I finally caught up with the blog and I joined Val out on the balcony to relax and read as we sailed through the Red Sea. It was another beautiful, balmy day and we were very grateful to have a balcony to enjoy it on.
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| Clear blue skies and calm seas, a nice day to spend on the balcony. Way off on the horizon you can see another ship. |
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| I spent a little time out on our balcony updating the blog, but it was too nice of a day and I ended up joining Val in a lounge chair for some reading and relaxing. |
We did get a bit of a sobering letter today making us aware that we were entering into some possibly dangerous waters. This is the area where several years ago there was a big problem with Somali pirates. Due to an international military presence, the danger has been greatly reduced, but the ship still needs to take precautions and set up procedures in case of an emergency.
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| The letter we got informing us of the safety procedures being taken as we passed by Yemen and Somalia. |
Tonight was a dressy night in the dining room so it took a little extra time to get ready, but we were there in time and had another nice dinner. After dinner, it was back to the casino after missing last night and then back to our room for the night.
Cruise Day 25
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Keeping with our plan to get up at a reasonable hour, we were up again around eight8:00. We went out on the balcony to check out the temperature and we were disappointed to find it had turned hot and humid. We have had such nice weather so far, but we are getting near the equator, so it is what is expected.
We also notice quite a few ships in front and in back of us. The Red Sea isn’t very wide, so we figured that was why, but later we heard in the Neptune Lounge that there was a military ship on the other side of us, so it appears the ships were keeping together for safety. It looks like we have ourselves a convoy.
While we ate breakfast, we also heard from a woman who had won a jackpot in the casino last night for over $2000. We haven’t had much luck, but it’s good to hear someone has; it gives us hope. 😀 After breakfast, it was time to head for the theater to get a seat for today’s lecture on “East Africa Beginnings.”
After the lecture it was back to our room where we read until it was time for lunch. After lunch we went to the Neptune Lounge to view more of our pictures. We are almost caught up with only our Jordan pictures left to look at. Back in the room, I started going through the photos we had already looked at and started organizing them by port and culling out the ones we didn’t like. This may not seem like much fun, and it is a little tedious, but being an organized person, I don’t mind, and it saves me time when I get home and start publishing the blog and working on my other trip related photo projects.
It was still too hot and humid to sit out on the balcony, so we spent the rest of our afternoon in the coolness of our room reading. I want to finish the book “Into Africa” before we reach Tanzania as one our tours is going to one of the places referenced in the book.
Tonight, there was a reception with the ships officers for Neptune Suite guests and President’s Club members (people who have sailed at least 1400 days) so we dressed early for dinner and made our way down to the Atrium on deck three. There were plenty of drinks and hors d'oeuvres and we met many of the ships officers and our fellow Neptune Suite guests. We spent most of our time speaking with Bill and Bob, a very nice couple who had many interesting stories to tell. Val and I usually don’t care for these gatherings and usually don’t attend, but we really enjoyed it tonight and stayed so long we were late for dinner.
After dinner, we went to the casino in hopes of following in the footsteps of the woman we met today who had won the jackpot, but no such luck for us and we quickly went through our nightly gambling allotment. From the casino, it was back to our room where we called it a night.
Cruise Day 26
Friday, November 4, 2022
We were up around 8:00 again and after our breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we made our way to the theater early enough to get decent seats for this morning’s lecture. Kate Ross is a very good lecturer and we have really enjoyed her presentations. This morning’s lecture, “East Africa Conquest and Colonization”, was very interesting to us as it tied into the African books we have been reading.
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| Kate Ross giving her lecture. |
We were surprised to spot land for the first time since leaving Safaga. It turned out we were passing a few islands belonging to Yemen, but they weren’t close enough to see any detail and I believe they were uninhabited.
The captain had mentioned these islands in his daily update earlier and had also mentioned some large rocks that ships had to be sure to avoid. Evidently southbound and northbound ships both passed with their port sides to the rocks to make sure there was enough clearance. Sure enough, with the islands still in view behind us, here were these three rocks sticking up. They were quite a way’s off, but close enough to make out some details.
By then it was time for lunch, and we were off to the Lido. It had been so pleasant out on the balcony that we returned there after finishing our lunch. While we were out there a huge yacht passed us by and we wondered who it belonged to. They were sailing at about the same speed we were and stayed with us for a while, but eventually we lost them.
Val and I both had e-mail to catch up with, so we went back inside and fired up our computers to work on that. Later, we were again out on the balcony and noticed we could see land again and this time it was the tip of Yemen which meant we were passing out of the Red Sea and into the Gulf of Aden.
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| The tip of Yemen as we sail out of the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aden. |
The sun set around 4:30 so we spent the rest of the time before dinner reading in our room. Dinner was the usual, but tonight was Val’s night to have a successful night in the casino. She usually does much better than I do so she was overdue.
The clocks will be moved forward another hour tonight for I believe the last time. Since tomorrow is another sea day it really doesn’t matter since we can get up any time we want to.
Cruise Day 27
Saturday, November 5, 2022
After losing another hour of sleep last night, we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in and didn’t get up until after 9:00. After breakfast we spent some time out on the balcony where the temperature and humidity remained low enough to make it very comfortable.
Today we are sailing through the Gulf of Aden with Yemen on our port side and Somalia on the starboard. We had heard from others about the security measures being taken so we decided to go down and do a lap around the Lower Promenade Deck and check it out for ourselves. Sure enough, there was a security officer on the rear of the ship with binoculars around his neck checking out the sea behind us. There are others stationed around the ship doing the same thing.
There was also LRAD’s (long range acoustic device) on both the port and starboard sides of the ship pointed out to sea. Beside one of them there was also a table full of security equipment cordoned off from the passengers. Even though the danger is minimal these days, it’s good to see that it is being taken seriously and the ship is prepared.
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| One of the LRAD devices out on deck. |
After our lap, Val returned to the room, but I did three more to get in a little more exercise although I did do them at a little more leisurely pace than usual. When I returned, I found Val out on the balcony and joined her for a while until it was time for lunch.
After lunch, we took the laptop to the Neptune Lounge and looked at the remainder of our pictures we hadn’t seen; these were from our visit to Wadi Rum and Petra. After returning to our room, Val went back out on the balcony, and I organized the pictures we had looked at and then caught up on the blog. After that I joined Val on the balcony for some afternoon reading.
The captain gave us some good news on the Covid situation today in his noon update. It turns out that even though there were two new cases yesterday, the overall level on board is very low and the ship remains at level 1 status and level 1 is the best you can do. Masks are optional for both the crew and passengers, but many of the crew and some of the passengers (including Val and I) continue to wear masks in public places.
It was dinner and the casino as usual tonight, but it was not the usual night for me in the casino as I came out ahead again. I am certainly not ahead overall, but I am losing more slowly than usual. The odd thing is, Val usually does pretty well in the casino and much better than I typically do, but on this cruise so far, the tables have turned.
We called it an early night as we were both tired. For whatever reason, moving the clocks forward an hour always upsets our sleep and it takes us a day or two to adjust. The good news is, last night was the last night of the cruise where we will be setting the clocks forward, from now on the clocks will be moved back and we will be gaining an hour’s sleep.
Cruise Day 28
Sunday, November 6, 2022
This morning marks the halfway point in long stretch of sea days, we have four behind us and four ahead of us. We had recovered from yesterday’s malaise and were up by 8:00 again. After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we headed off to the theater to get our seats for today’s lecture. After the lecture, we stayed for the port presentation on Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, our next port.
When we got back to our room, it was almost time for lunch, so we relaxed a bit and then headed to the Lido. After lunch I had some e-mails to write while Val relaxed out on the balcony. Once again, the weather was very comfortable; it was a little humid, but the temperature was low enough that it didn’t matter.
This afternoon we sailed out of the Gulf of Aden, giving the Somali Island of Socotra a wide berth, and into the Arabian Sea. As we went past the island, we reached the easternmost point on this cruise before turning south into the Indian Ocean.
Val wanted to go to afternoon trivia, so we went up to the Crow’s Nest for that. The regulars had already formed teams, but we did find one person who wasn’t playing with anyone, so we joined up with him. Today’s trivia was on rock music, and we thought we would do pretty well, but it turned out to be mostly questions about 80’s heavy metal bands and none of the three of us were very familiar with that. It wasn’t a genre that Val and I listened to very much. Anyway, as expected, we did terrible and ended up with an embarrassing three-point score out of a possible twenty-three.
After trivia, Val was back out on the balcony to read, and I started to go through our pictures and cull out the bad ones. I had put this off a bit as it is rather tedious, but it saves me so much time to get it done before we get home, I feel like it is worth it. Since we have so many sea days, it’s a good time to start on it.
I finished going through the photos that were taken before Morocco and finally had enough and joined Val out on the balcony to read a while before dinner. It was dinner and the casino as usual, but Val finally had a good night and came back to the room a winner. Tomorrow is the sixth of our eight sea days.
Cruise Day 29
Monday, November 7, 2022
We were up again around 8:00 and after getting ready and breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we were off to the theater for another lecture on Africa by Kate Ross. It was on African art and was quite interesting.
After the lecture, Val went back to the room, but I decided to go down to the Lower Promenade Deck and see if the security measures are still in place and the answer is no, everything is back to normal. We are now sailing in the Indian Ocean along the Somali coast, but we are 200 miles off the coast, so I guess we are out of range of any possible pirate problems. Even though the weather was very pleasant, I only did a couple of laps today as there were a lot of walkers out and it got a little too congested for my taste.
After my walk, I rejoined Val on the balcony, and we spent what was left of the morning reading and relaxing. The weather continued to be a little humid, but the temperature was very comfortable.
After lunch in the Lido, we headed back to the room, and I continued going through and culling our bad photos and made it up to Crete. We love sea days, but to have eight in a row in the middle of the cruise is a bit too many as we are beginning to feel a little lethargic. Originally there weren’t so many in a row, but for various reasons there were some itinerary changes, and this is what we ended up with.
We are sailing in the Indian Ocean, and it got just a little rough this morning, not too bad, but noticeable since we have had such calm sailing. The seas calmed in the afternoon and while there were still swells it became very glassy and had kind of a strange look. We could also see the full moon rising to the east in the mid-afternoon that made for an interesting view. Val spotted some dolphins following the ship and we also heard that there were some flying fish.
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| The lighting's a little odd here, but the intent was to show how smooth and glassy the sea is. |
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| That's the moon rising and being reflect in the water. |
We did our evening dinner and casino routine (Val did well again) and returned to the room. It was still early so Val got her computer out and checked her e-mail, but the internet was so slow, she gave up. I had forgotten to do the blog this afternoon so wrote that up before calling it a night. Tomorrow we cross the equator.
Cruise Day 30
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
We were up at 8:00 again and after getting ourselves ready and having breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we returned to our room and read out on the balcony while our room was getting cleaned. It’s going to be a difficult transition when we get home to not having our house cleaned every morning and evening like we do on the ship.
Today day we are crossing the Equator, so they are holding the King Neptune ceremony at the Sea View Pool on the rear Lido deck. This ceremony is for all the crew members who have never crossed the equator before; they go from being slimy polliwogs to Trusty Shellbacks. They first must kneel in front of King Neptune and his queen and ask forgiveness for their transgressions. Then they must kiss the fish and be covered in slime and before sitting around the pool and waiting for a panel of officers headed by the captain to give them a thumbs up or down. A thumbs up means they can jump in the pool and cool off and wash the slime off, but a thumbs down means they are forced to sit in the hot sun covered in slime. It’s all in fun and provides entertainment for us passengers.
This will be our seventh crossing of the equator on a ship, so we have seen this before and Val decided to pass on it, but I decided to go and take some pictures. I went up to the Lido deck a little early to get a good viewing spot, but it seemed everyone else had the same idea as it was already crowded. I did find a spot along the railing of a deck above, but it wasn’t an ideal viewing spot.
This was by far the largest group of crew members that I have seen go through the ceremony. They had to present themselves before the King in groups based on their departments. It was fun and by the end everyone ended up in the pool, but the officers did make a couple of groups wait to “rot in the sun” until the very end. After the ceremony, I was hot and didn’t wait around and quickly returned to our room.
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| King Neptune, his queen and their attendants await the start of the ceremony. |
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| The five ship's officers who will give the pass judgement on the Pollywogs. The captain is in the middle and the hotel manager is on the far right, I don't know who the others are. |
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| A group of Pollywogs asking the king for forgiveness of their transgressions. |
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| The next step is to kiss the fish. |
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| Then they get covered in slime and then they await judgement by the ship's officers whether they get to jump in the pool to clean up and cool off or have to sit and rot in the sun. |
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| This lucky group got the thumbs up ... |
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| and could jump in the pool. |
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| Some were not so lucky and got the thumbs down ... |
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| And have to sit and "rot in the sun". |
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| In the end though, everyone gets to jump in the pool. |
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| Even King Neptune and the queen. |
Because of the King Neptune ceremony today, the lecture on Africa was postponed until 1:00. The Lido buffet is very crowded between noon and one so Val and I decided to get our lunch in the Neptune Lounge and then head down to the theater to get good seats. We went down almost a half hour early, but amazingly the theater was almost half full. We did get decent seats, but we wondered how early you had to get there to get the best seats.
One bit of bad news today; in his noon update the captain said the number of Covid cases has increased recently and while he didn’t mandate wearing masks, he “strongly recommended” that everyone wear a mask when out and about indoors on the ship. Although there were more people wearing masks than usual in the theater, it looked like a lot of people hadn’t gotten the message or were choosing to ignore it. With all the great ports ahead of us I don’t know why anyone would take a chance on testing positive for Covid.
Val and I both felt drowsy during the lecture and decided to rest a bit afterward. I guess that’s the problem with eating before the lecture. I did e-mail our travel agent, Ingrid, about a possible problem regarding our flight home and ask her to check into it. I could see our schedule on the American Airlines app on my phone, but our internet has gotten so slow, I was unable to log into the AA website and check it out myself. That was another thing the captain said today, the internet would be very slow for the next few days. The ship relies on satellites for the internet and there are times where we are not in a good position for satellite coverage. Oh well, we don’t go on cruises to use the internet.
I also
updated the blog and checked my e-mail as it trickled in and then joined Val on
the balcony to relax and read. At around
5:30 we crossed the equator and the captain sounded the ship’s horn to mark the
equation. We also received certificates
to indicate we had crossed the equator.
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| The sun is just starting to go down. You can see the the water is still very calm and glassy looking. |
Today was originally to be the first of a two day stay in the Seychelles until the itinerary was changed. We were scheduled to go on an evening tour organized by Cruise Critic Roll Call member, Brendan. It was supposed to be a visit to a beach and then dinner watching the sun going down. Of course, our stop in the Seychelles was cancelled and replaced by a visit to Tanzania so Brendan decided that our tour group should get together anyway.
It sounded like fun to us, so we joined Brendan and the rest of the group at the Lido Pool Bar for drinks before having a group dinner at the Camaleto (an Italian specialty restaurant). We had a great time meeting everyone and a very good dinner. We sat across from Mary Ann (who had put together a wonderful photo book for our Cruise Critic Roll Call) and her husband and enjoyed getting to know them. It was a great night, and we were very glad we had attended, I believe just about everyone who had signed up for the tour was there tonight.
After dinner we made a quick visit to the casino, and then headed back to our room. It was a bit later than usual, so we read a while and then called it a night. Tomorrow is our last sea day before we arrive in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Cruise Day 31
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
We were up again around 8:00 as we had a busy morning planned. After our breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we were off to get some seats in the theater for Kate Ross’s Africa lecture. Today she talked about Madagascar, one of our upcoming stops. The lecture was very interesting and enlightening as we knew next to nothing about Madagascar.
After the lecture, we stayed in the theater to hear a port talk on Zanzibar, our next port after Dar es Salaam. Zanzibar looks very interesting and after hearing Jeremy’s talk, we are anxious for our visit there. By the time he finished it was almost noon, so we headed back to our room to relax a little before lunch.
We felt like we were getting a bit in a rut eating pretty much the same lunch every day in the Lido so we headed to the Dive In, a drive-in-like place where you can get hamburgers and hot dogs. They also have a taco bar and that’s what we had for lunch. We laid down a layer of chips and then chose from the many things we could layer on top of the chips. They had guacamole and sour cream plus an assortment of other things to top it off with and we ended up with a very good lunch.
We really enjoyed our lunch, but both Val and I were a bit overly generous with ourselves and couldn’t finish our plates and worst of all, we weren’t even hungry for dessert. From there it was back to the room where we fought off the desire to lie down and rest after our heavy meal and did some work on our computers instead.
I was happy to get through the remainder of our pictures, culling out the bad ones. It had been my goal to take care of that before our next port and now it’s done. After our big lunch, Val and I weren’t very hungry, but we went to dinner anyway. Val just had an entry and dessert, but despite not being very hungry, I managed to eat an appetizer, an entre and a dessert.
I had another good night at the casino tonight, I really don’t know what’s going on this cruise, but I’m not complaining. Tomorrow we will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and we don’t arrive until 10:00 AM so we don’t have to get up early tomorrow.
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