Day 78 - Thursday March 16 at sea day 1

Sea Day photos

position at 8:00am: N13 44.530 latitude E92 06.51 longitude
(about 1340 miles E of Cochin, India, our next port on Mar 19)
temperature: 80F, 94% humidity, sunny
distance since FLL: 25,126 miles

We are in the Bay of Bengal in the north Indian Ocean. This ocean is living up to our expectations of calm seas and good weather. We moved the clocks ahead 1/2 hour last night and this lead to an early start for people this morning. At 5:45am, there were about 10 people walking on deck 12. We had breakfast in LaVeranda a little later than normal because of getting caught up with posting this journal and the pictures! Clay had his usual 2 eggs over easy, etc. Debbie had a bad banana with room service breakfast and has not gotten over it yet. So, she did not want to eat her usual oatmeal with banana today. She had a box of Honey Smacks and then 2 pieces of wheat toast with peanut butter.
Debbie went to Low Impact Aerobics and Butt Busters this morning. It was her first day back at a full aerobics class since she got sick and she really sweated it out. But, she did OK and did not have too much trouble or start coughing, so maybe it is mostly behind her now. The class was very crowded this morning, so a lot of fitness folks must have gotten on this segment in Singapore, but she had not met them yet because she had been out sick.

This is the first of 3 sea days between Rangoon (Yangon) and Cochin (Kochi). We will use it to get caught up and back into the lazy sea day mode.

At lunch today, they were serving TexMex on the Pool Deck, so we ate up there instead of Compass Rose. It was not that bad weather-wise as the temperature was only 84, but the sun was very bright and hot. We ate in the shade which made it pleasant enough to be outside. After lunch, we did stop by Compass Rose so Debbie could make a special breakfast request. She wants stuffed french toast on Staurday, the 2/3's mark of our cruise. It is almost over!

Debbie napped this afternoon after lunch. She got up in time for Pilates Mat at 3:30pm and planned to stay until 5:15pm through Fitness Fusion (Pilates & Yoga) but started having a stomach ache in the first class and decided it was too risky to stay in there for the second class. She came back and had Maalox and then Tagamet and felt better by dinner time.

About 4:30pm, Jamie made an announcement that they were going to stop the ship and turn into the sunset and open deck 6 forward at 5:30pm this evening for a sunset party. So, about 5:45pm we went to deck 6 forward to go to the area that is normally marked crew only. Debbie had been up there once before at night in the southern hemisphere to see the Southern Cross. Clay did not go that time, so this is probably his last chance to see this area of the ship. There are 2 replacement propellers out there. Tonight is Informal and we went ahead and dressed before heading out since the evening dress code takes effect at 6pm. There was a crowd there, and the cocktails were flowing. We both had Cokes to drink. We chatted with the captain about the green concoction he was drinking. He said he had never had a drink that color before, and did not know what it was. (Maybe the bar crew is practicing up for St. Paddy's day.) It was difficult to get a good spot to actually take pictures from this front area because of the crowds. They had the frontmost pointed area set up with a musical duo so there was no flow. You could only enter and exit from the starboard side and then you could just go so far and turn around and come back, so people were kind of jammed up. So, we ended up watching the final sunset from deck 12. It was not a perfect sunset as the sun was obscured by clouds before it sank beneath the ocean.

For some reason, only Compass Rose and Signatures are open tonight. Tomorrow Latitudes reopens as Taj Mahal dinner. We have still not seen a menu for that, so we will know what they are serving after we have eaten it tomorrow night. They are serving a European BBQ dinner on the Pool Deck for the first 30 people to be seated. We have not done one of these and after the al fresco dinners in Cambodian we are not likely to anytime soon. Besides, what is a European BBQ?

Debbie did laundry this evening after dinner. The laundries on both deck 6 and 7 were empty when we checked them on the way back to the cabin after dinner. She had the place to herself again with the exception of the guy who cleans the laundry rooms every evening. They have their routine down to stay out of each other's way. Debbie hopes that this laundry pattern holds true for the rest of the cruise. It should, not many people are willing to give up their evenings for laundry.

Sea Day photos