At Sea & Happy Birthday to me

We are in the Arabian Gulf heading toward Salalah, Oman. The heightened security and watches are already in effect for the piracy threat although the area in which most of the attacks took place isn’t until after Salalah. They are utilizing all of the crew to stand watch in four hour blocks on all open decks and also on the bridge wings.

Our ‘Anti Piracy’ exercise was this morning; a five second blast on the bells and whistle and then the announcement Code Papa Code Papa. All passengers had to return to their cabins and stand in the open doorway until they were marked off by crewmembers and then remain in the cabins for further instructions. All of the crew also participated in their various assigned special duties. The entire drill was completed in less than a half hour and everyone went back to their regular activities. We have all been following the stories on CNN of the American Captain that was held by the pirates and were much relieved to see that he was finally rescued. Captain Kent, in some of his announcements, has mentioned different things about the piracy issue; my favorite comment was that these guys are not like Johnny Depp.

Happy Birthday to me! I made it another year so I guess I’ll go for another one. After the world cruise what can I do that is bigger and better??

We finally have some waves today - not rough or even moderate seas, but at least it feels like we are at sea. The whole last segment was so smooth we could have been on land except that we went 6400 miles. We have gone about 26,000 nautical miles since we left Fort Lauderdale.