Days 105 thru 107: At Sea … Crossing the Bay of Bengal

Sunday, 23 April 2017
At Sea — En Route to Cochin

Stats @ Ship’s Time 7:30p (IST) … UTC 2:00p (23 April)
Temp: 85.6F (29.8C)
Position: 7.09.86N / 78.08.16E

A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine
and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places,
making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints.
~ Wilfred Peterson ~

Technically, I should have three posts for our crossing from Myanmar to India.  But it would make for very boring reading since we spent the days recharging our biological batteries following the recent spate of hot-temperature sightseeing.  Even this one post has nothing exciting to reveal … and no photos to add color to the words.  My reason for writing it is solely to make the blog whole.

Day 1 was a quiet one.  Though the veranda was fumes-free, it was in the sun for most of the day.  I settled myself on the Deck 5 promenade to catch up the journal while Myanmar port memories were still fresh in my mind.  We definitely want to return to this country for a land-based trip and the CPT-SIN cruise we booked for next year may well afford the perfect timing if we can work out the logistics.

Day 2 was quiet too.  With the veranda in the sun for most of the day, my base of writing operations was once again the Deck 5 promenade.  My goal was to publish two blog posts … I got three uploaded.  We had lunch plans with Peter Croyle, but he spaced out that this was the “middle of the crossing day” … we’ll try again after India.

In addition to writing, a good chunk of the day was spent re-arranging existing plans for our ports in India … they fell through earlier today.  No matter … we have a better plan now … except maybe in Cochin where we will be doing an O excursion.  Ship’s tours are not my favorite, but we’ve been warned that immigration formalities may well take several hours because Cochin will be our first port in India.  There just might be some truth to the saying that the Brits invented red tape, but the Indians perfected it!  So a ship’s excursion seems to be the safest bet.

Day 3 — today — is not necessarily one that I want to remember in the future.  The reasons are way too personal to include in a public blog, though, so I won’t say much more about it.

Though the veranda was finally in the shade after we rounded the bottom of Sri Lanka today and got into the Laccadive Sea, the fumes drove me to the Deck 5 promenade … got five blog posts polished and uploaded.  That’s a good thing.

This was a mid-cruise muster drill day.  It was the oddest one we’ve experienced in our cruising history.  We were not required to go to our muster stations … nor out on deck.  Instead, it was an “announcement only” drill that was piped throughout the ship for all to listen to!!!  The reason, we were told, was the motion-of-the ocean … which was negligible IMHO.  Like I said, odd.

These three sea days prior to our ports of call in India were a godsend.  Gaining an hour overnight on the middle day helped as well.  We’re rested and ready for the next four days of sightseeing.

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