Tuesday, March 18. Hot, calm, moderate humidity.
Wow, I saw a bird today!!! That is about the most important thing that happened today. Seriously.
I did have a nice chat earlier at breakfast with a fellow that says that he is having a wonderful time, completely relaxed and has no guilt at all about his inactivity aboard the ship. Needless to say we chatted for some time.
You may have detected that I do have a bit of a 'guilt complex' about relaxing so much inasmuch as this is well into our third month when the opportunity to relax has been presented to me. The last time I had the opportunity for prolonged inward looking was six years ago, on such a long voyage, and so much has happened personally and otherwise that it is mind-boggling.
Speaking of mind-boggling, have you seen the MSNBC 'commercials' about how great America is? I think it must be a programme made for ships at sea because there are not a lot of commercials but every 10 or 15 minutes Chris Matthews and a couple of other news celebrities come on and do a propaganda-like spiel about America. My gosh Goebbels did the same thing during WW II in Germany and it was laughable. [Goebbels was the Propaganda Minister at the time.] I wonder if they get subsidies from the US Government, or the White House? heck, I thought that Fox was a bit funny to watch but this one is simply too much.
The captain announced that because he cranked up the speed somewhat the last day because we are transiting a 'High Activity Zone' of pirate activity [?] we will be coming into the next port earlier, arriving at 3.00 PM instead of 4.00. We are in the Seychelles overnight so that the passengers who went to India to see the Taj Mahal can catch up to the ship and have a bit of fudge regarding late flights etc. Incidentally to spend four nights and five days visiting the Taj and a few other points of interest costs around $5000, per person. No chump change indeed.
We four hope to walk off in Victoria and have a dinner ashore the first night, then on the second day explore the morning markets and then find a nice beach to curl up on to work on our tans. We then sail at 5.00 that evening for the ports of Mauritius and Reunion, the first ex-British the latter is still French, which means expensive. We have two days at sea to get there. After that it is only three sea days before we get to put our heads down on solid ground for four nights in South Africa.
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Today's nautical sayings in everyday usage.
No room to swing a cat: The entire ship's company was required to witness a flogging at close hand. The crew might gather around so close that the Bosun's Mate might not have enough room to swing his cat of nine tails.
Pics:
- The seemingly endless Indian Ocean.
- Fellette relaxing with her iPad on the balcony between activities.
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