The days seem to be flying by so fast, it has been challenging to keep up with everything. Having a few sea days is exactly what we all need. It was really quiet at breakfast, especially when we have a late departure from a port like Valletta. It was obvious to us that many guests slept in later as it is difficult to burn the candle at both ends, so to speak.
The weather did not help since it has remained dreary with overcast skies. It was quite chilly as one of us remarked after a brisk promenade deck walk this morning. It was another good day to attend the lectures. The morning ones dealt with Alexander the Great and a forgotten titan, writer, artist and adventurer with no name? You would have to attend the talk to find out who it was. The afternoon lectures dealt with Egyptian masterworks, and the peace of the Great Powers between 1815 and 1914. Intriguing?
Captain Frank delivered his noontime talk verifying that the weather was indeed dreary with temps in the low 60's. The 20 knots winds would have dropped that temperature even more. The sea state had 3 ½ foot swells and we were traveling in seas of 12,000 feet deep. If we are lucky, we may see more sun tomorrow. Promises, promises…..
Then he continued with more information concerning small boat sightings in this particular area of the Mediterranean Sea. This is the place where illegal immigrants flee countries in the northern part of Africa. In 2023, thousands of Tunisians tried escaping by small boats, but several of these unfit vessels sunk and many people were lost. This is a common occurrence in these seas and their destination seems to be Italy. So the Captain went into the explanation of what their responsibility is when spotting possible refugees fleeing their country. He was specific about their procedures where if they spot something unusual, it must be reported to the proper government agencies such as the coast guard. The captains on the ships are not required to change course unless a shipwreck is in the immediate vision of the navigating deck officers. Then specific precautions have to be followed if there was a sea rescue of illegal immigrants. That involves suiting up for possible contamination, which we never thought about. There was one time that while on the Prinsendam, Captain Gunderson turned the ship around after spotting what appeared to be wreckage from a vessel. It turned out to be a makeshift raft with a sail on it from who knows where, and after a quick search, we continued on our way. We seem to recall that the wreckage was collected in case there was someone looking for it.
Anyway, we have 860 nautical miles to go to Egypt with an unusually early docking at 6am. It will be a super long day with a lot of the folks on tour to Cairo for 13 hours. We are happy to say we will not be among them. We plan on staying in Alexandria and do our own thing.
With all of the photos taken yesterday and the detailed hike we took, it required most of the day working online and doing research on what we saw. Malta is one of the ports where you could dig deep into the history and be lost in it. We finished with the details, and sent the reports with photos by dinnertime.
So dinner was a different experience this evening. Our starters were one chicken skewer and a bowl of pho soup. Normally they float a hot and spicy oil on the top, so tonight I asked for it without the oil, and our waiter brought it without the hot stuff. Funny, I never thought to ask if that oil was added before they serve it. Duh….. Both of us had the Caesar salads, but they were half the size of normal. Bet they are running out of romaine lettuce. Then we both ordered the turkey dinner, which we had looked forward to all day. I asked what one word meant of a chicken entrée, and our waiter said it was a spice. So when our meals arrived, one of got the turkey and the other got the chicken. Even though I know I didn't order the chicken, I said it was OK because it looked good. Now as far as the turkey meal went, it was fine with a big exception. The cranberry sauce was not even close to real cranberry sauce. It was obvious to us that it was homemade using the questionable jam they serve at breakfast. It had the consistency of a syrup and must have been thinned with cranberry juice and thickened with something like cornstarch. There was a hint of cinnamon in it. Not nice to fool us old folks we laughed, but we did inform our waiter the cranberry sauce was not Ocean Spray. He admitted that the early seating diners had the same impression, but he never warned us. One of our favorite tablemates was so picky about the cranberry sauce, she bought some canned Ocean Spray while in Sydney a few years back. We agree, there is no good substitute. We did have the orange sorbet for dessert, even though it was 50% melted. Sometimes you just can't win.
The entertainment tonight was a team of guitarists Cecelia and Fernando with a show called Siqueira Lima.
Another day at sea will be nice and we pray from some sun to appear in possibly blue skies.
Bill & Mary Ann
No Pictures
