Sunday - Gulf of Aden

We struggle when we lose hours over night! Fortunately we had ordered late room service and then just cereal so it wouldn’t get cold. We thought ahead on this one. After breakfast we went up to the sunning deck. I think there was more wind today, according to the Commodore about 30-40 knots across the decks. We enjoyed the music that was coming from the deck below and they brought around some fresh fruit kabobs. On the Grilles Deck there is also water and tea, sandwiches, etc. and around 2:00 pm each day they bring around some ice cream. I skipped the ice cream today since I was very hungry and we were going to get some lunch. We ended up going to the Chef’s Galley where we had a cheeseburger (no finger bowl this time!). It tasted so good to both of us. We have had updates most of the day regarding the various warships that have been escorting us through pirate territory and there are constant lookouts by crew on the various decks. We have been covered by ships from the US Navy, the Royal Navy, and ships from Saudi Arabia and even Turkey. We have been moving at a high rate of speed – 26 knots. After we had lunch it was already late afternoon, so we went back and watched a little Fox News and took a nap. Prakasan woke us up (thankfully) when he brought in our evening canapés.

We decided it was time for us to get ready for our last formal evening. It is hard to believe that we are almost to Dubai. Time has gone by very quickly for us on this trip. After showering I realized I had gotten a bit more sun on my back than I had realized. It’s funny how the sun has become increasingly stronger every day since we entered the Red Sea. This evening we are passing into the Arabian Sea and out of the Gulf of Aden. About 7:30 we had passed beyond the tip of Somalia, much to our relief.