Day 17

Day 17 – Penang - Mumbai – Thursday 1/6/12

Weather – Fine and Sunny 28C - 30C

Sunrise – 6.25am

Sunset – 7.06pm

Time difference - minus 4 hours ex Sydney. (another hour back overnight).

Through the day Sun Princess continued crossing the Indian Ocean towards Mumbai. At 9am this morning we approached the south coast of Sri Lanka and passed 6 miles starboard of Dondra Head. We left Sri Lankan waters at 11am and set a north-westerly course through the south part of the Gulf of Mannar. At about 8pm this evening we approached the coast on India, entered the Lakshadweep Sea which is part of the Indian Ocean Basin, and passed Cape Comorin at a distance of 25 miles starboard. We then maintained our north-westerly course keeping approximately 15 miles off the west coast of India on our starboard side.

Another sea day on our way to Mumbai. As predicted by the Captain, once we had rounded the point of Sri Lanka and headed North-West the weather calmed noticeably, the sun returned and passengers withdrew from their indoor hibernation and returned to the outdoor decks.

A little excitement amongst the early morning lap walkers this morning as a whale came quite close to the ship. I raced downstairs to scramble Donna out of bed, grabbed the camera and back out to the deck, but it was gone, and no friends about. However about 20 mins later whilst lining up for our Indian Visa processing we saw quite a few of them in the distance, blow holes puffing out spray high into the air.

Today we had to finalise our Indian Visa and Passport control process with 3 Indian officials who came aboard the other day in Penang...good job for them, nice perk of the job, a 4 day cruise, and get paid for it. Every passenger had to go to this face to face process. First Official at the desk checked your face with the passport photo, and then the visa photo. He passed all the documents to official number 2 who initialled one of the shore cards. Then he passed the documents to official number 3 who gave the passport the rubber stamp. Suffice to say the queue was quite long. Unavoidable for those wanting to go ashore in Mumbai.

We have been advised that we will be 2 hours late getting into Mumbai. This is due to the effect that the heavy weather has had on or progress. Generally when the weather is heavy the Captains generally sacrifice speed rather than passenger comfort, whilst the ship is more than capable of maintaining its normal cruising speed in the heavy stuff the impact is a more aggressive pitch and roll. The stabilisers do moderate the roll from side to side, but it is not possible to minimise the pitch up and down unless speed is reduced.

The racehorse syndicate had a meeting over lunch to determine significant matters of state, like naming the horse, describing its history, bloodlines, trainer, jockey, colours, training regime, diet etc. As some owners of opposing horses are reading this blog I will not yet reveal all the details of the horse until they are publicly known. I can announce that our racehorse has been named appropriately - PISTON BROKE.

Our jockey is one of the co-owners, a lovely lady named Ruth, who is officially known as Babe Ruth. Our colours are black and white, which may sound unimaginative, however it was selected as all our owners have black and white apparel to wear on race day, so we should look an absolute treat in the owners enclosure.

A few of the syndicate spent a few hours this afternoon decorating the horse. It does look quite impressive, even if it does look very much like a Collingwood horse in its black and white regalia, with the jockey in black and white stripes vice a Collingwood style shirt. More information will be released at a later date :) There are 5 couples in our Syndicate, and we are all taking turns is 'minding' the horse for the day.

Tonight's pre-dinner entertainment was the production show Rock This Town, with one of the Cruise Directors staff filling for the dancer who is still injured and will be getting off in Mumbai, with a replacement waiting to board. The show was really good, thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

After another yummy dinner (strawberry soufflé on the menu) in the Regency it was to the top deck for the 'Ultimate Deck Party' which used to be known as Hawaiian Night. The music started at 9pm, with the party starting at 10pm. We had a good time, with a few drinks, and a few dances.

Tomorrow is the second of our Cool Cruisers lunch, hoping for another big turnout.

Without doubt this by far the most social cruise we have ever done, and we are only 17 nights of 104 in. I am not sure how much longer we can keep this pace of social interaction, but it is just great fun!!!