Day 15

Day 15 – Penang - Mumbai – Wednesday 30/5/12

Weather – Generally fine with heavy cloud cover. Heavy seas, Strong Winds 24C - 28C

Sunrise – 6.23am

Sunset – 7.02pm

Time difference - minus 3 hours ex Sydney.

At 8am this morning we passed 5 miles north of Rondo Island which lies off the northern tip of Sumatra, leading us into the Great Channel and the Bay of Bengal, part of the Indian Ocean. Around midday we sailed 36 miles south of Indira Point at the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island. We maintained a westerly course through the Bay of Bengal towards Sri Lanka which we will pass on Friday morning.

The smooth seas of through the various Asian straits are behind us, and Indian Ocean has welcomed us with some real ocean going conditions for the first time since we left Sydney. Strong South Monsoon winds have buffeted the ship most of the day, with some heavy seas and strong swells actually make a pleasant change – says he who sits in a low midship cabin that is as least affected as any in the ship :) Port side of Promenade deck 7 was closed most of the day due to the conditions, mainly the wind issue I think.

The heavy seas colliding with the bow of the ship make for some good photos which I will post when possible. The splash of the water against the ship rose well over deck 7 as you will see in the photos, so the deck was a tad wet. It was quite good sitting out there (in a sheltered spot) and just watch the strength of the relentless seas buffet the ship this size and move it about at will.

As you would expect, the pool deck was not as popular as usual, and there was noticeably more people indoors on the lower decks. Trivia crowd gets bigger by the day, speaking of which, our team bounced back to form today, only 3 off the leader.

It has been nice to have a break from port days after having 3 in a row. Four days at sea now until next port – Mumbai. We received all our excursion tickets for the ports between Dubai and Dover. This is the sector of the cruise (which starts next Wednesday 6/6/12) we are really excited about, as there are some big items on the agenda for us over the next month and a bit.

The Suez Canal, The Pyramids, The Lost City of Petra, Acropolis, Valley of the Kings, Anzac Cove, Pompeii, Mt Vesuvius etc etc, the list goes on for this upcoming sector through the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Still we must not get ahead of ourselves as we still have two more big ones in the next week with Mumbai on Sunday, and Dubai on Wednesday!!.

We slipped straight back into relax mode today, with a bit of reading, and ocean watching. We got down to the Vista Lounge a bit early for our Trivia today and the dance lesson was still going, so we joined in and learnt the basics of the Jive. I reckon we did OK given we missed the first bit of the lesson. Donna thought it was a success simply because I did not happen to squash her toes with my size 10s for a change :)

Line Dancing and Zumba was back on the program today for Donna, although it was straight after lunch which today we elected for the Quatro pizza (4 quarters with your choice for each) from the Pizzeria – Double toppings (Thanks for the tip Joanne !!)

Captains Circle cocktail party this evening for us. It is not that grand an event, but it is an opportunity to catch up with friends with free booze on offer :)