Day 101: At Sea … Andaman Sea

Monday, 17 April 2017
At Sea — En Route to Myanmar

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:30p (MMT) … UTC 3:00p (17 April)
Temp: 82.4F (28C)
Position: 14.48.14N / 96.32.79E

Always remember, it’s simply not an adventure worth telling if there aren’t any dragons.
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~

This post was originally uploaded as a “falling behind” placeholder.  What can I say … with ports of call far outweighing days at sea, I was unable to carve out enough time to write.  Hence the comments at the end of the post have nothing to do with today ;-)

I have since made the blog whole, so let’s see what today’s story turned out to be like.

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Our day at sea was overcast, with ominous black clouds occasionally dropping rain on us … sometimes for extensive periods of time.  Onboard Insignia, the motion of the ocean went unnoticed for the most part — unless one happened to gaze out towards the horizon to see that distant virtual line moving up and down as the ship cleaved through the Andaman Sea.

The rain, of course, put paid to my plans to sit on the veranda to catch up on my journal.  So, it was to the Deck 5 promenade I turned to once again for some al-fresco writing time.

We got news today that Cyclone Maarutha — the first named storm of the northern hemisphere tropical cyclone season — made landfall in Myanmar (aka Burma) overnight.  The projected path over land is well north of the area we will be visiting, but the outer rain bands may well make for a soggy port of call.  Keeping fingers crossed that won’t be the case.  This same cyclone is said to be responsible for the high temps in India.  Perhaps the temps will drop there now that the storm is west of the Indian subcontinent.  One can only hope.

We’re not expecting much impact from Maarutha for Insignia’s call on Myanmar.

Tonight was another one of the RTW dinners Oceania is hosting on this voyage.  We were assigned to table 4 in Toscana.  We were to be hosted by Amanda, the second lead singer on the entertainment team, and Nedyalko Tonchev, the Chief Engineer who came aboard in Singapore.  At the last moment, Amanda was called upon to fill an empty spot at another table, so Ned flew solo.  Ned’s from Bulgaria, which makes him komşu … that’s Turkish for neighbor.  It’s a popular word used by Bulgarians to describe the close relationship between the two countries.

Rounding out our table for tonight’s RTW dinner are Stacey & Frank, from Atlanta, GA;
our host Ned Tonchev; and Pamela & Stanley from the Bronx.

It wasn’t until we returned to the cabin and read the Currents that we realized our arrival in Yangon tomorrow was moved up an hour from 9:00a to 8:00a.  Too late to change the pick-up time by our tour operator.  Oh well … we’ll be back in Yangon next March, so anything we miss this time, we’ll catch next time.

Now to bed for a goodnight’s sleep.  We’re on Malarone once again … as a prophylactic treatment against malaria.  We started this round on the sea day prior to Phuket … in preparation for India.  It’s the last time we will have to take the pills on this cruise.  I don’t mind taking them, but they do seem to play a little havoc with my sleep cycles.

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