A Day in the Gulf of Aden

If I was to describe my day at sea, you would yawn and stop reading right now. So I will tell you a little story just for fun (some of it is true, most is made up).

It was dusk and we were cruising in the Gulf of Aden, looking for pirates. We saw lots of ships, including warships. While sitting in the dining room having dinner, we heard a helicopter fly overhead. That signaled trouble. There was commotion on the port side and we could see three pirate skiffs pulling along side the Crystal Symphony. We could hear the crew rushing to deck 7 to man the fire hoses and flush the vermin into the sea. The seas were dead calm and apparently one of the skiffs escaped the watery onslaught of the fire hoses and managed to get a ladder up against the side of the ship. My group of dinner mates and I rushed out to see what we could do to help. We each grabbed a bottle of champagne and shook it while we ran up to deck 7. We then started to fire the corks and managed to hit a few of them -- splat, right into the sea. But one little bugger managed to get on the deck and that is where I surprised him with a round house punch to the chin. Boy did that feel good! I have never hit anyone before. He was heaved overboard. We were saved from the pirates!

OK, so no pirates but we did have a helicopter escort and did see warships. The crew has been maintaining a 24-hour watch and we are cruising at 20 knots. It is hot and humid and the air conditioning on the ship is having a hard time cooling the place down. The cabin air feels heavy, warm and moist. I just had the engineer in to look at the a/c unit and he said there were a whole host of complaints from other cabins and there was nothing they could do since the air outside is at 95% humidity. We are comfortable, but I wish it was a little cooler for sleeping.

Had a knitting group today with five ladies, and I managed to get back on track with my shawl. Tinking lace is a big pain.

I am a little homesick and really miss talking to my kids, family and of course, Isabelle. Skype service does not work on my phone outside the US and we can’t download it to the new computer until we get to wifi service on land. I can’t upload photos either because it takes too long (if I use the ship’s wifi) and in order to use my BlackBerry to send photos, I need to download the software to the computer too.

All in all, we are having quite an adventure. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are making the most of it!