Today we woke up to heavily-overcast skies, so much so, that it seemed dark at 7am. Of course, we did have that time change, so that may have been part of the later rising of the sun. As the day advanced, we would have thunder, lightning, and rain. Not a lot of rain but passing showers. As we watched more commercial ships sail past us, we could see they were under the clouds and getting wet. Sometimes showers can be avoided by sailing around them.
We forgot to mention that we spotted dolphins yesterday morning around 10am. By the time we took the camera out on the veranda, the dolphins were about gone, and the camera immediately fogged up. Today while we were at the Seaview Pool, Captain Friso said there were a few pods we were cutting through. It is possible we caught a picture of one jumping. Once again, they were gone as fast as we saw them. Appearing to be smaller dolphins, they skim the surface, but don't jump like the larger ones. Better than nothing, we were happy to see some sea life. The best we have witnessed on the way across this sea have been flying fish. They are lucky since we have not seen a sea bird for weeks now.
The usual sea day activities keep the folks busy. The most attended ones are the lectures. The Hidden Life of Trees was a talk given by Lauren and Merge, who has been onboard for a long time now, spoke about the Indian Ocean.
Lunch for us was salads and sandwiches. Then at 4pm, there was another Block Party, which was scheduled for yesterday, but did not happen. The theme was "Zling & Nuts Block Party". The rules were bring your own glass and a sort-of Singapore Sling beverage would be poured. The nuts we assume were peanuts in the shells, where we could drop the shells on the carpets in the hallways. What??? No way would we do that. Even while dining in Raffles Long Bar where it is acceptable, we did not do it. So there was a note given to everyone with a change of plans. Since some folks are highly allergic to peanuts, we were asked to refrain from disposing of them on the carpet. We have no idea where this idea originated, but the note came from the hotel manager, Henk. We cannot imagine Captain Friso and Chantal briskly walking down each hallway avoiding the shells.
The sprinkles stopped long enough to get in the late afternoon walk. We have noticed more people we have not seen before, so these are probably the newbies that joined in Singapore. In the old days, these folks would be teased and called "segment people" in good humor. Sometimes it is difficult to come onto a ship that has been sailing for a couple of months where people have formed groups with the games, in the bars, and at dinnertime.
Dinnertime had a few new items. The salads are getting more creative and new items such as Shanghai ribs were on the appetizer menu. We both went for the sweet and sour duck with what we thought were sauteed egg noodles. They turned out to be ramen noodles. This has to be the third or fourth time ordering a noodle dish that sounded different, but it turned out to be the ramen noodles. They were good with the sweet and sour sauce. Dessert was fruit – pineapple and a cup of coffee, which our waiter Yanwar insists is not dessert. He did remind us to put our clocks back ½ hour, which we knew was coming. It is one of those few places where we do the ½ hour, and once we leave Sri Lanka, we will put the clocks back another ½ hour. There is another place in the world we have done this, but we cannot seem to recall where that was.
Tomorrow will be Colombo and now we are wondering what the weather will be like?
Bill & Mary Ann
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