Wednesday, March 11. High overcast, humid, calm seas.
Today's blog is neither a rant nor a blither, but more a ramble.
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We are at sea on the way to 'Our last Asian port', Columbo Ceylon/Sri Lanka.The distance from Patong Bay to Columbo is 1167 miles, with three sea days and a few hours from the departure and arrival days, that totals 84 hours of travel time. To arrive on time that works out to about 14 knots per hour. If the voyage was shortened by a full day to only 60 hours of travel time, the journey would require a speed of close to 20 knots per hour.
I believe that the reason for the extra sea day is purely economical: the extra cost of the fuel to maintain 20 knots instead of 14 would add to the bottom line of HAL's financial calculations for the voyage. Sure, there is extra food involved in that extra day, but there will be extra liquor drunk and other revenue during that sea day to offset it somewhat. The captain will not mind at all, as we understand that there is some 'bonus' arrangement for him for coming in below budgeted fuel costs. My thoughts at least but there may be another explanation.
I don't mind the extra day as we signed up for the whole package as presented to us. However, we are now on the homeward journey, so as to speak, and that extra day would be quite nice to have in our garden at home in April, assuming the weather is good for gardening.
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We are now at sea in the lower part of the Gulf of Bengal, the biggest bay in the world, to the east of India. We see by the news that that missing plane has not yet been located and the search area has been extended to include the Straits of Malacca, which we sailed through yesterday, and the Bay of Bengal. The chance of it coming down in our path is very remote but it does add a note of excitement to those who are interested in that sort of thing.
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On our deck level on the ship there is a Lounge for those who have suites. It is called The Neptune Lounge and is very convenient indeed. We often eat a light breakfast in there and may grab some snacks at various time and they have an amazing Cappuccino machine there that makes any kind of coffee drink you want from freshly ground beans, rather like my brother has at his home: it is a super asset to have for coffee lovers. I went down last night to get something and there was a spontaneous party going on with about 20 people just sitting and chatting and drinking the odd wine, very nice and of course the exclusiveness of it has a certain appeal to those so inclined. They, [we], are called Suite People on the ship as some can sometimes appear somewhat aloof. In reality it is just a bit of quiet space that all of us need at some time, however the suites themselves sometimes encourage people to go into a sort of 'hermit' mode, I do it sometimes myself.
There is a concierge in the lounge during open hours who can do everything that the pursers office can do, book tours, order anything there from canapés to soft drinks, answer questions about just about anything at all. It is a perk that goes with a suite, [along with many other neat benefits]. It is also a hangout out for many widows on the floor and you will often see some in there chatting along just like at somebody's place at home over tea. Also some passengers who are restricted mobility-wise will spend quite a bit of time in there.
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That massage yesterday!… I awoke this morning with a kind of 'nice pain' in my shoulders, now we did not do stretches or exercise yesterday so it could only be that massage that has had some affect on my creaky stiff shoulders. Hopefully it is a good affect. If it has a positive effect I hope that Fellette will possibly be encouraged to try and spend time doing some treatment on them. Possibly I could encourage that by indicating that if she doesn't, I may have to take some visits to a massage parlour. My mother warned me about those places and I suspect that Fellette had similar advice when a youngster.
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At the beach yesterday there were many, many europeans there, not all of whom were off the two ships in ports, but vacationing in Thailand. You can tell them by the men's speedo bathing suits and their often tobacco stained bodies the shape of which defies description with my limited writing skills. Sufficient to say we sometimes had trouble distinguishing between men and women, although men usually are the ones carrying a protruding paunch and the women with sagging breasts. However sometimes there is a body that has both a paunch and sagging breasts. We usually assume that it is a man who has had too much good life and not enough exercise and parading up and down the beach in front of 2000 people does not count as exercise.
However, I do admire women, in the literal sense, that have the confidence to go topless in a situation that does not fully understand that culture. I am not sure however if I would use admiration for the men who parade in those speedos with budgies stuffed in their suits. Maybe they are just exhibitionists, who knows. Or, we North Americans and Brits could be just hung up on good old Queen Victorian modesty standards.
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Tonight was another Formal Night. Fellette usually selects my clothes: black or white jacket, shirt, tie, vest or cumber band, cuff links and pocket hanky. Tonight she set it out, to coordinate with her dress and she picked a set of silver cuff-links given to me by friend Andy after I was apart of his wedding just about 50 years ago.
We are plugging along at 14 knots with two more sea days before Ceylon. [Sri Lanka, which means Beautiful Island].
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Today's nautical terms in everyday usage:
First Rate: Implies excellence. From the 16th century on until steam powered ships took over, British Naval ships were rated as to the number of heavy cannon they carried. A ship of 100 guns or more was a First Rate line-of-battle ship, Second Rate carried 90 to 98 guns, Third Rate 64 to 89 and down the line.
Pic: Vest and cravat bought in Mumbai a few years ago and cuff links from Andy 50 years ago. Fellette thought that seeing the vest was bought on the sub-continent of India, it would be appropriate to wear it as we approached it.
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