Day 55 ~ Entering the Red Sea

Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.
~ attributed to Mohammed

During the night while we slept the sleep of the just, our vigilant bridge crew saw us safe through the “high risk” area and brought us through the Gulf of Aden to the narrow strait (read: about 20 miles across) between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. 

The Yemeni coast

There were lots of smaller boats in that tight stretch, but the Pacific Princess was booking along at 20.5 knots—much too fast for any of them to catch us. And we followed a big freighter in convoy as we made the sharp turn as well.

This map shows our location at about 2:30 pm ship’s time (I painted the blip that represents the PP blue!)

I was surprised to discover that there are islands in the Red Sea. We just passed by this small chain of ancient calderas and volcanic cones. We swept our binoculars over the coastline (Thanks again, Mom & Dad, for sending yours with us so we could both give the islands a good look at the same time!) and discovered the island is inhabited. We saw the outlines of many buildings and a tower (lighthouse, maybe?) on the top of one of the mountains.

This morning we ate a light breakfast at the Panorama Buffet. Here’s the ingredient label from my yogurt this morning. We know we’re not in Kansas anymore. Can’t read a word of it. But the yogurt was tart and savory instead of sweet, and I liked it very much, no matter what’s in it.

The reason we restrained ourselves at breakfast is that we knew after choir practice, we’d head for the Main Dining Room for an Arabian Brunch. 

I had both roast beef and brisket with horseradish sauce, a deviled egg a la Rus (with tuna mixed with the egg yolks and caviar sprinkled on top), a piece of Jack fruit (it’s the yellow one and it was so sweet and delicious) and a slice of guava (which I liked less than the Jack fruit.)

The carved fruits and vegetables were a delight!

The kitchen staff recreated Dubai, complete with the Frame, the Burj Khalifa,and even the Dubai Mall!

While I was doing my after brunch constitutional on Deck 7, we ran into Vicki and Greg and invited them in to see our balcony cabin. Then they invited us up to Deck 8 to tour their mini-suite, which is seeming small to them after they enjoyed one of the Owner’s Suites last segment. The mini seemed plenty big to us and the DH says we need to save our pennies to book one of those if we ever do this again.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

Anyway, I thought I’d leave you today with a real life story one of our fellow passengers told at the last Passenger Talent Show. It was about his mother.

She was an elementary teacher and one day a little boy came to school with a note that explained that he’d had a circumcision the day before and might be uncomfortable. Sure enough, in no time at all, he was squirming miserably in his seat. The teacher sent him to the nurse’s office. He came back in a few minutes but he didn’t take his seat.

Instead he stood by his chair, unzipped his pants, and took out his little package. The teacher came over to him and said softly, “What did the nurse say, Tommy?”

“She said if I can stick it out till noon, my mother will come and get me.”

That’s all from the Red Sea! More tomorrow...