Freemantle to Colombo, Sri Lanka

Yet again another nice peaceful and relaxing sea day on this rather lengthy voyage from Fremantle to Colombo. The satellite internet had virtually no bandwidth for the past few days as we moved from one satellite to another, but normal painfully slow service seems to have been restored.

Temperature: High 28C/82F, Low 26C/78F

Wind/Weather: Following SE’ly sea of about 20 kts. Hazy in the morning, but cleared by about 09:30. Partly cloudy and occasional showers in the vicinity.

Sunrise/Sunset: 06:42/18:17

Clox: Z+7 (no change)

Distance to Noon: 430 miles

Navigation

Sea Princess maintained a NW’ly heading across the Indian Ocean, at an average speed of about 18 kts. Shortly after 10:00 the Captain advised that we were passing the Cocos Islands on our Port Side, at a distance of about 25 miles.

 

Activities

Based on the schedule above, we planned the following activities:

• 09:00 Zumba
• 10:00 AM Trivia (Judi)
• 10:00 Enrichment lecture (Andy)
• 11:00 Ice carving demo
• 12:00 Lunch in dinning room
• 15:30 Afternoon Tea Dance
• 16:30 PM Trivia
• 19:45 Dinner

Gaining a blister from yesterday’s walk, I decided to take a break this morning and worked on the photos from Perth/Fremantle, heading down for Zumba at 09:00. Wow, Susan from the Cruise Staff certainly stepped up the intensity this morning, for a really excellent workout. At 10:00, Judi stayed for AM Trivia, while I ran down to the Princess Theatre for the daily enrichment lecture.

 

Today’s lecture was titled, “A Survivor From Sydney Comes Ashore – Who Is He?”

Three months after the sinking of HMAS Sydney, a Carley Float (liferaft) washed ashore on Christmas Island with the partially decomposed and mummified remains of a young man wearing a white boiler suit. The above screen shot displays the anticipated route taken from the sinking to Christmas Island. Shortly after landing on Christmas Island, the remains were buried in a special coffin in the European Cemetery; however, war broke out in the Pacific and the grave was never marked. In 1999/2000 the Australian Govt convened an inquiry into the sinking of HMAS Sydney and directed that the unknown sailor should be returned to Australia. An expedition to Christmas Island in 2001 was unsuccessful in discovering the grave. In 2005, armed with new information, a repeat expedition was launched, which after a number of blank digs, eventually found the grave. Through a process of elimination they are currently trying to identify the unknown sailor by DNA. Two test groups of 3 and then 15 did not reveal a match, so they are currently working with a test group of 60.

Next up on the daily schedule is Ice Carving at 11:00 up on Deck # 12. It’s hot up there, so hopefully the carver will be speedy.

Carver commencing work on the block of ice, with his razor sharp carving tools.

A completed “Swan”. These chaps are amazing with what they can produce in such a short time (20 to 25 mins) with nothing but chisels. With the heat today, especially at high Noon, the ice block was literally melting before our eyes. The carving demo only lasted about 1/2 hour, so Judi filled in the next 1/2 hr browsing the shops down on Deck # 6.

Lunch commenced at Noon, with a menu that mostly didn’t appeal to our tastes. Anyway, Judi had a burger and I tried the Chili, which was actually rather nice. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the camera, so no lunch time foodie photos today.

This afternoon had a new feature, which we have never seen on the ships before – Afternoon Tea & Dancing in the Vista Lounge. Certainly glad we popped down, as we thoroughly enjoyed the ambience while enjoying a pleasant cup of tea. The Vista Lounge is a perfect location with small tables and chairs between each row of couches. As usual, a member of the wait staff escorted us to a table and shortly thereafter the tea was poured by waiters wearing the traditional white gloves. The tea was simply perfect, boiling hot and sufficiently strong for my liking. We barely had sampled the tea when the young ladies arrived with the scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam. Unfortunately the scones, while warm and freshly baked, were rather over baked, being almost like rock cakes. Other waiters circled around the room with trays of sandwiches, biscuits and cakes. The traditional cucumber sandwiches with crusts removed; however, were not present. We spent an hour enjoying the music with exceptional tea and reasonable scones.

The next activity in Vista Lounge was the PM Trivia, so we headed towards our usual table, but as we approached, some other chap grabbed the seats we had used since Sydney. It was actually rather comical, as all the other teams in our vicinity were coming over and commenting. Being creatures of habit, all teams in our section keep the same seats. Our score was lower than usual, so we blame it on the shock of the new surroundings.

Just prior to sunset, we headed out to the balcony to sip refreshments and enjoy the marine ambience. This is why we enjoy the life at sea, the sound of the ship’s bow slicing through the waves, which then flow down the side of the ship. In addition to the ocean sounds, we had a partly cloudy late afternoon, with clouds completely around the horizon and the sun slowly sinking and eventually disappearing for another few hours. Once it got too dark to read the Kindle it was time to return to the cabin and refresh the glasses.

At 19:45 it was time for dinner, which this evening was Thai Dinner. Not one of Judi’s favourites, so she ordered from the left side of the menu, which is available every evening – Caesar salad, pasta, filet mignon, etc. For appy, I tried the Veggy Rice Paper Wrap, which wasn’t too bad once you removed the Tofu stuff. Would have been even better with some meat.

For Main Course, I had the Green Chicken Curry. Lots of chicken in the dish, but it was much too mild, more spices are required a for curry aficionado.

Nothing on the desert menu looked overly appealing, so with lots of will power I even skipped the ice cream and fruit plate.

After dinner, all 8 of us headed to the show, which was a new performance from Kiwi singer Russell Harrison. Great show, but no photographs as we could only get seats at the rear of the theatre.

 

As another day closes, we bid you farewell, till tomorrow and hope for fair skies and following seas.