Colombo, Sri Lanka to Dubai, UAE

The hot and humid atmosphere, completely overcast skies and rather rough seas continue, as we cross the Indian Ocean towards our next port of Dubai. To avoid the first named tropical cyclone (1A, which lies to the North of us, we altered course about 40 degree last evening, so hopefully we will miss the worst of the storm. Tropical Cyclone 1A is predicted to continue passing to the North of us, but their path is frequently unpredictable, so we can only hope for the best.

Temperature: High 32C/90F, Low 27C/71F, Humidity 78%

Wind/Weather: Winds S’ly about 25 kts building to 35 to 40 kts. Overcast with rain showers. Moderate beam seas and WNW’ly swell of 8 to 10’

Sunrise/Sunset: 06:04/18:47

Clox: Z+5 (No change)

Distance to Noon: 451 miles

Navigation

While a Rhumb Line NW’ly course was planned across the Indian Ocean towards the Straits of Hormuz, last evening Sea Princess altered about 40 degrees to port and is now steering a WxN course to avoid Tropical Cyclone 1A. This will add some additional distance, so speed was increased to 19.5 kts. The wind is S’ly about 25 kts with a low swell, but in late afternoon we started picking up increasing swell from fine on the Stb’d bow. The winds are forecast to increase to 35 to 45 kts this evening. 

 

Activities

 

 

Based on the above schedule, we planned to attend:

• 09:00 Zumba
• 09:45 AM Trivia
• 11:00 Towel folding demo
• 11:50 Cruise Critic members lunch in the dinning room
• 14:00 Cruise long trivia
• 15:15 PM Trivia
• 19:45 Dinner
• 21:45 Vista Lounge Showtime

 

Since the Promenade Deck wasn’t scheduled to open until 06:00, I spent an hour walking around the lounges followed by an hour on the outer decks, working up a significant sweat in the already 30 degree heat and almost 80% humidity. After breakfast it was off to Zumba and having left the camera with Judi, she actually captured the evidence of my participation.

 

Andy at Zumba, at least I’m not the only bloke

Literally, as soon as Zumba finished we were straight into the AM Trivia, with us scoring in our usual range, with 16/20. Only 2 behind the winners. After another quick shower, it was off to the Atrium for Towel Folding, followed by the Cruise Critic Member’s lunch. Towel art used to be a regular feature on cruise ships, with the cabin steward making a different creation every evening and leaving it on your bed during his turn-down service. Unfortunately, Princess have increased the number of cabins per room steward and they no longer have the time to provide this service. They now advise it is only available, upon request on formal nights, or if you have children in the cabin.

Heart shaped swans

Koala bear

The towel folding took place in the Atrium, which is the central focus of the passenger spaces.

Glass lifts in the Atrium

Fake palm trees in the Atrium

 

At the Cruise Critic lunch we sat at a table with 2 single travellers, Danny from Australia and Robert from the USA. This was almost a repeat of the pre-cruise dinner at Sydney, as all 4 of us attended the dinner. We had a great lunch and it was an opportunity to say our goodbyes to Robert, who departs in Dubai.

After lunch we headed straight to Cruise Long Trivia and found we did rather well yesterday, scoring an excellent 10/10, which puts is just above the middle of the pack, about 10 points behind the early front runners. From Trivia we had a few quiet hours, with some of it just sitting on the balcony watching the confused sea. The beam winds of about 30 kts had  only created a low beam swell, but we also had a much larger and well defined swell from the Stb’d bow, resulting in a confused sea. The temperature had dropped at few degrees, so it was actually rather pleasant just sitting watching the seas. We sat outside until just after sunset.

Dinner this evening was back to one of the traditional menus, the Chef’s Dinner. I started with the smoked salmon, which was very pleasant. For main course I had scallops, which were cooked to perfection and served with a very light citrus sauce, red skinned potatoes and shredded vegetables.

 

Smoked salmon appy

Pan fried scallops

We had planned to attend the show in the Vista Lounge, but I am starting to feel the effects of a rather nasty cold, so took a rain check and headed back to the cabin for an early night.

 

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