Day 21

Day 21 – Mumbai – Dubai Tuesday 5/6/12

Weather – Fine and Sunny 30C - 33C

Sunrise – 5.06am

Sunset – 6.53pm

Time difference - minus 6 hours ex Sydney. (another 60 mins back overnight)

Throughout the day Sun Princess maintained a west-north westerly course through the northern Arabian Sea and then the Gulf of Oman. At 9.30pm we approached the Iranian coast near Jask at a distance of 8 miles starboard side. We maintained north-westerly courses, following traffic lanes at at midnight we entered the Hormuz Strait Traffic Separation Scheme, passing 10 miles portside of Musandam Island. Shortly after, we passed 7 miles portside of Didamar Island (Little Quoin) and As Salamah Island (Great Quoin), as we entered the Persian Gulf. The pilot will scramble aboard at 6.45am Wednesday morning, 6th June.

Today the heavy swell finally eased, and we sailed most of today through what seemed a millpond Gulf of Oman. The weather on deck is a little spooky, it is like we are sailing through a heavy sea fog. The heat and humidity, add to the eerie feeling outside. Visibility this morning was less than a km or two I would guess. As the day progressed the visibility did improve somewhat, but there was still a heavy fog out there. Suffice to say the Security folk were out on deck all day, on the lookout for those dastardly pirates.

We had a lazy start to the day, which was a tad nice. I did some photo maintenance and blog updating as well as getting decidedly frustrated with Telstra's website which was probably designed by the same people as the Indian government visa people, the company called Bastards Inc.

In the end I gave up and put out a plea on Facebook for some help to get through to the incompetent monolith. Thankfully some very kind friends helped me navigate there, and even got inside the system on my behalf. I am currently waiting for some sort of email response.

Whilst I was doing all this technology stuff, Donna laid in bed and watched a movie. I am thinking she has grasped the holiday bit a little better than me this morning. A late breakfast meant Donna missed her daily dose of Zumba, but she made it in time for Line Dancing.

The ship's program is heavily occupied with celebrations for Lizzie's Diamond Jubilee. They are running SKY live through the big screen, Trivia questions are all related to her reign, there is a huge cake down in the Atrium on level 5, it would be about 5ft long long by 3ft wide (wild arse guess). I will post a photo of it for those interested. A few 'regal' activities on top deck also. Even lunch was a little British with Fish 'n' Chups, with mushy peas on offer in Terrace Grill.

All afternoon and evening they are running as a continuous loop on the Stateroom TV Diamond Jubilee Documentaries : Queen Elizabeth – The Biography and : A Queens is Crowned. They have also got a couple of movies playing tonight , The Queen (Helen Mirren) on top deck big screen, and The Kings Speech in the Princess Theatre. So Lizzie's big day has not been missed.

Today is the last day of the first sector. This cruise has five sectors which in effect are 5 separate cruises. So in Dubai tomorrow, I understand about 600 people are leaving the ship, and about 300 people are joining us.

Today is Bingo Jackpot day. As usual everyone (including us) crawls out of the woodwork on the final day in the hope of winning $4,900 prize on offer. Nobody won it in the morning session, so it was standing room only for the last session where we just kept playing until somebody won it. A lucky lady from Sydney won it, by which time the jackpot had ballooned to $6200. Unfortunately I do not know her, so I cant be looking to squeeze a drink out of her:)

Tonight was the Baked Alaska Parade through the Dining Rooms, always a special night, although it is the first time we have experienced it when we have not been getting off the ship.

I have mentioned a couple of times the jam I have in regard to getting the Nikon camera battery charged. It is down to the last bar, so I was going to save what charge I had left for the day at the Pyramids, and in the meantime hope to find in some country somewhere, a place where I could buy another. Well fantastic news (for me), when I got a call from a wonderful wonderful lady from Arizona, the lovely Pam, who is a on-board with us for the whole cruise, who had read my trials and tribulations on our blog. Pam has a charger that fits my battery, so I am outa jail on that one. Made my day, so that is one tech dilemma solved. Thank you Pam. :)

Our tour organisor for tomorrow , Narelle, received an email from our tour guide in Dubai tomorrow. The temp was 38 there yesterday, and is tipping a bit hotter for us tomorrow. Really looking forward to seeing this city we have heard so much about. We are still finding it a little difficult to believe that we are in the middle of the Arabian Sea, on a ship, doing a cruise all around the world, some days we just pinch ourselves.