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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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After the
lecture we returned to our room and were happy to find it was much more
pleasant out on the balcony than yesterday with less humidity and a lower
temperature plus a mild breeze. We spent
the rest of the morning out there reading and booking a tour for our last port
of the cruise, San Juan, Puerto Rico. We
also booked a transfer from the ship to the Miami airport that included a tour
of Miami. We had originally booked just a
straight transfer as our flight left around 12:30 PM, but it had been rescheduled
to 3:30 so instead of sitting around the airport we decided to get a quick tour
of Miami.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
