Now the other thing was seeing the silky smooth seas outside as the ship sailed in a southerly direction down the coast of Oman. It is not often that you don't see a ripple in the surface, where it is hard to distinguish the horizon where the water and the sky meets. It was all one shade of blue/grey. To add to this serene scene, while we were eating breakfast, all of us were treated to a display of dozens of dolphins jumping in the wake. Not small ones either. The ship must have cut right through their feeding grounds. Most all of the diners this morning got up and ran to the back windows to catch the action. No time to get cameras either. We would watch diligently for the rest of the day, but the only sea life we saw were a few flying fish. And two boobys. As the day went on, the wind picked up, and the smooth seas turned choppy.
It was quite pleasant to spend a quiet day at the aft pool, despite the wind. At least the air was fresh. While taking our AM walk, we noticed there was crew painting happening in two places. One of the projects was a new box the fellows made to hold a larger amount of lifejackets on deck three. With the doors opened, it pretty much blocked the path around the end of the deck. We know to be careful, not getting close to the wet paint, but someone must have had a problem with it, because one of the front desk girls came out to talk to the painters. Since they were about finished, they cleaned up and left. Another set of painters were re-doing the ceiling paint, which has flaked off in sheets after the first coat was put on when we were in Japan. It was too cold and icy then, and the paint did not dry properly. Between the two projects, the smell of the paint was sickening. We understand that maintenance has to be continuous, but why can't it be done when few folks are out here? Those guests with upper chest congestion, trying to get some fresh air, were getting fumigated. We have a feeling that many cruisers are reminding the staff that this is supposed to be a "grand voyage".
We thought it odd that the Seaview Pool was empty, covered with netting. An older deck fellow came over and told us that so many tiles had fallen off of the pool sides and bottom, that they needed to drain it, dry it out, and replace the tiles. Then he added that since this pool has not had a deep cleaning for a long time, a crew would do that after the tiles cured. He was right. When we looked at the bottom of the empty pool, we saw a layer of dirt and sand. So much, it could be swept up with a broom. And people have been swimming in that muck for weeks……..not us.
There are two speakers onboard now. One is quite familiar, Mel Foster, who is an expert on pirates. The other lecturer is Ashok Sajjanhar, who is doing a series on Central Asia – the Heart of Eurasia.
For the wine lovers among the group, the World Wine Guys are still onboard with muscat and moscato wine tasting today. They are pretty nice guys, and seem to be popular with the drinking and sipping crowd.
One of the newer movies popped up in the Wajang…..Jackie, about the Kennedy story we all know so well. Will catch it on the TV tomorrow. During the day, it seems that the reception for the network TV, news, etc, was spotty. Also the internet was down more than it was working. If you inquire about it at the front desk, the answer is always…..we will report it, as we are not aware of any problems. No problem? Absolutely everyone we asked, could not get online all day. Could have something to do with the area we are sailing. Who knows?
We were so backed up on photo downloading, that it took all afternoon to catch up. Good time to enjoy a couple of custom-made cheeseburger from the Dive-In Grill. If you go around 2 or 3pm, the wait is minimal, since most everyone has already had their lunch by then. The best place to eat it is in our room, where it is cool and quiet. We could have the burgers delivered for $4.95, but why, when we can still walk and get them for free?
The internet never did come back on for the remainder of the day, so we gave up trying.
Sometimes a pre-show in the Queen's Lounge takes place with one of the singers of the Amsterdam cast. Tonight, the fellow singer was Oliver Metcalfe. He must have run overtime, since it caused one of our tablemates to come rather late to dinner, not that we mind. Guess the following act was Don Bryan, a master ventriloquist with puppets Noseworthy and Friends. He has been a frequent guest entertainer and it very popular as well as funny.
Dinner choices have been difficult. Some of the descriptions are questionable. Such as Arabic meatloaf. What was that? Ground lamb, goat, or horsemeat as Barbie laughingly suggested. Bill asked Endrein, who immediately said it was ground camel………then cracked up and said, no, it was beef. Could have been camel, as we have tasted that before while in Egypt many years ago. The only thing that stood out in our minds was how greasy it was, and figured it was an acquired taste. One of us ordered the spaghetti dish, totally vegetarian. The alternate steak was ordered by Maureen, who said it was tasty, but chewy. Barb had the fish entrée with a very hot plate, but cool food. She only ate half of it, then fled with her glass of wine, which is always her dessert. "Rocket dog" hits again. But the best news of the night, was that every one of us (except the fish-eaters) had flat dinner plates. Maureen was the winner, as she was served on the beautiful, older Rosenthal plate with the rim of blue, and the ship logo on the top. They were so classy, why did they have to replace them with generic white, thin plate ware?
Mud pie showed up on the dessert menu, but the description did not jive with the "real" mud pie we know. Slam brought a sample for us to see, and it was not Mississippi mud pie, but a chocolate mousse poured over a thick Oreo cookie crust. And not frozen. He was going to remove it, when we said we would force ourselves to eat it. Yeah, force ourselves…right? No jello tonight……
The lights were out once again on the lower promenade deck, as the guards were still on their 24 hour watch. They were not wearing the Kevlar vests, nor carrying the hatchets we have seen on past cruises. Could it be that this show of force is mostly for the psychological effect for the passengers as Martin suggested? If nothing else, the guards are armed with radios and are in constant contact with the bridge officers.
Four more sea days to go until the next port……..
Bill & Mary Ann
