Day 16

Day 16 – Penang - Mumbai – Thursday 31/5/12

Weather – Generally fine with heavy cloud cover. Heavy seas, Strong Winds 28C - 32C

Sunrise – 5.53am

Sunset – 6.43pm

Time difference - minus 3 hours ex Sydney.

Throughout the day Sun Princess maintained a westerly course, crossing the Indian Ocean towards Mumbai.

Another howler of a day outside as we are still in the grips of South Monsoons. Whilst the winds are strong, skys grey with heavy cloud cover and seas have a big swell, it is fine and dry. The ship is getting tossed around a bit, but nothing too severe.

Today we had a piracy drill, which did give rise to a few jokes about the place, and a bit of comedy. Yeah , yeah, security is no laughing matter, and the crew took it very seriously, as well they should. All we really had to do was go back to the cabin, and chock the door open so listen to instructions.

The Captain reports that there has only been two reports of pirate activity in the last 6 months, and they were both well south and west of our intended track. The Monsoons at this time of year make it difficult for them there pirates to get out an about in their little boats..and when you look out on deck at the seas, I believe it. The weather, combined with the Naval presence, has diminished the likelihood of an attack significantly. The Captain gave a good summary of what would be the procedures, and what tactics, and items they would employ to repel the bastards if need be (my words, not his :)

I think I will cease reporting Trivia as it is getting a bit repetitive. We are consistently a few correct answers off the winners, so take it as given that we did attend Trivia, and within the team we knew all the answers to all the questions, we just did not put all the correct ones down on the answer sheet and we finished a few off the lead !!

We attended a pre-arranged lunch with a few CC folk today which was nice. We have another Cool Cruiser lunch coming up on Saturday, if it is as well attended as last time we can expect 80 – 90 people there. We have still not met everyone, so this will be another opportunity to do so.

I forgot to mention in my update yesterday, in the bit on the Captains Circle cocktail party that they do a little announcement on who are the most travelled passengers on this cruise. Some staggering facts – the 40th most travelled passenger on this cruise has done over 400 days cruising with Princess. This may prompt you to ask - If that was the 40th most travelled, how many days has the highest travelled passenger done with Princess ?? Get this, one couple has travelled, just with Princess, not including travel with other lines, over 1600 days on board..work that out..about 5 years..wonder if they enjoy cruising huh??

Donna paid a visit to the hairdresser today. I think the constant windswept look was wearing thin, so she has had a fairly radical change in style – Tony - keep an eye out for the photo's when I can upload, which will be Sunday in Mumbai at the earliest, and only if we can find wifi.

A note on the little navigational narrative I put on each blog. The description is taken from the navigation notes that are in the Princess Patter (the daily programme). I am putting them there primarily for my own use. When we get home I want to plot on a map, with some degree of accuracy where we actually went, the track we took etc. I also thought they be of some interest to some readers.

Tonight was Racehorse auction night. For the uninitiated, one of the activities on board is a stage game where wooden horses are raced down a track, with the progress dictated by the roll of a dice. There are 6 horses in each race, with real money, $3 per bet ticket, wagered on each race. There is one of these race meetings every few days, with one special owners race per sector. This first sector it is the Melbourne Cup. The 6 horses are put up for auction, with the winner taking all the money raised in the auction.

Our dinner table decided to form a syndicate, with a $50 per head max input, which gave us up to $400 with which to bid. I did the bidding on our behalf. From previous experience I knew that the first horse up for auction usually goes the cheapest, with the auctioneer calling it quite early to get the enthusiasm of the crowd up. I opened the bidding at $50, and with a few $10 increment bids got the horse for $110. The syndicate is very pleased to have secured a horse, and so cheaply. The total prizemoney up for grabs to the winner is over $900.

The deal is that the winners of each horse comes up with a name, breeding lines, training regime, diet, and decorate the horse for the big race n a few days time. The owners must also take the horse with them, wherever they go, and guard it from theft, nobbling and injury. Our syndicate are having a lunch meeting to discuss these very important matters of state. In the meantime the horse has been named an honorary member of the SHB. Photo to come. A bit of fun for the next few days.