Tuesday, 15th June - Bad start to Sector 2

Well what a day we had today. Captain Todd McBain departed the Ship in Dubai yesterday and we have a new Italian Captain onboard. I think Todd will return in Los Angeles to bring us home. We left Dubai yesterday and are at sea for the next five days. We are retracing our path back past Oman on our way to Safaga, Luxor and then the Suez Canal.


Pirate Drill at 9.30am – required us to all hide in our rooms away from doors and windows but with our cabin doors open so that we could gain instructions from our Cabin Stewards. Outside on the decks , large hose systems have been installed and were tested.  We have been told that a sonic boom discharger has been placed somewhere near the Bridge.  [We heard of another Passenger Ship cruising in this area, when it had had a Balcony Door damaged by some sort of a ''rocket'' being discharged through it -thankfully it didn't go off.  So guess all these precautions relating to Pirates do have some merits, and aren't just about amusing the passengers]

Our Drill went well and after a time we were all told we could continue our day at sea and that any alarms we heard in future would NOT be a drill but the real thing.

ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS:
In the afternoon we headed up to the pool although today is a little cooler 31 degrees with a nice seabreeze. About Beer O’clock time when we had arranged to gather by the pool with some friends, Captain Vincenzo Lubrano announces that we have a problem. We have broken down and are adrift at sea. We were located somewhere off Oman and not so far from Iran. For the next few hours the Captain apologised for the problem but “what can he do, it is not fixed yet”. What an adventure to tell – we felt like sitting ducks with all these pirates in the area. Anyway finally about 8pm, he announces that the problem is fixed and we are on our way. From the back deck it looked like a storm was heading our way so although lots of fun do be drifting in the Arabian Sea, we were sort of thankful that we were at least going to have some engine power. Apparently this little hiccup might have upset our arrival into our next port but the Captain is going to give us more information about that tomorrow. I would have thought that 4 more days at sea would give him a chance to catch up but time will tell. Anyway I am writing this about 11.30pm and all is well – seas are a little rougher but nothing of any great concern – there have been no pirate attacks.........