Saturday June 15 – At Sea

The most interesting part of our day today was a question and answer session with the Captain.  He was asked if he could only take one thing with him to a desert island, what would he take and his answer was: “My family.”  He has a wife who loves to travel with him and twin daughters who are 15.  They will all be with him on the next voyage when it will be school holiday time but the girls are in the middle of exams now.  Our captain was on cargo vessels for ten years and this is his second command of a passenger liner.

There are some passengers who are much more aware of what is happening than Bill and I.  We did not go up on deck for the sail away from Aqaba but those who did witnessed a cargo vessel only ten metres away from our vessel.  They asked the Captain about this at our question and answer session.  He agreed that it was very dangerous.  He said that the pilot on the cargo vessel came onto our ship later and he would not repeat to us what he said to him.  Somebody asked him about The Straits of Hormuz which we passed through a few days before the oil tankers were attacked.  He said that the situation was being monitored as we passed through as we had unmarked warships that were undetected by radar, ready to come to our assistance if necessary.  It is good to be unaware of these situations as we sail blithely on.

We had a talk on Barcelona today in preparation for our upcoming visit there, and we continue with our Tai Chi, Ballroom dancing (Cha Cha more complex moves), line dancing (Bill is becoming quite the expert) and choir.  Tonight we had another formal evening after our first sunset over the Mediterranean. The speciality of the night was "Cherries Jubilee".