Since we had a day off from Baggo, it was a quiet morning, but the afternoon and evening were busy. Rather than have officers join us for dinner tonight, we started a new initiative of inviting crew members to join us for dinner, recognising the great service we have received.

This evening, Judi and I dined with our cabin stewards, who were both very comfortable with the experience and enjoyed their meal.

At 16:00, today’s ship tour included the I-95 and storerooms. More photos under activities.

Navigation

We maintained NW’y courses at a speed of 13.5 kts toward Suez, anchoring about 18:00.

Weather

Partly cloudy with fresh NW’ly winds of about 25 kts.

Meals

For dinner this evening we invited our cabin steward Willie and his assistant Charisma.

An excellent dinner, with great conversation, getting to know the crew members who have looked after our cabin so well these past 3 months.

Activities

Today’s activities included:

• 09:00 Temperature check – optional for pax, mandatory for crew
• 09:30 Baggo – Restaurant Raptors v’s Explorers Extremes
• 10:00 Lectures – recorded lectures shown in Cinema 1
• 10:00 Talks – Ted Talks on Explorers in Cinema 2
• 10:30 Baggo – Galley Giants v’s Dingos
• 14:00 Afternoon Melodies – Classical Duo in the Atrium
• 15:00 Afternoon Melodies – Classical Duo in the Atrium
• 16:00 I-95 Tour
• 17:45 Evening Serenade – Pianist Andres tinkles the ivories
• 18:00 Insanity Workout
• 20:00 Wine tasting – Worldwide Chardonnays
• 20:00 PS4 FIFA Tourament
• 22:00 Music at Pool Deck with Viking Band

After breakfast and the temperature check, which confirmed we are still healthy, we sat in the Atrium enjoying a few pots of tea, while I got caught up with blog posts and reading the news.

At 16:00, the Inventory Manager picked us up from the Atrium for our tour of the I-95 and storerooms. Most modern cruise ships have a main fore and aft alleyway 1 deck below the lowest passenger deck, that runs for most of the length of the ship. On US based ships it is known as I-95 and on British ships it is M-1.

Entering at the Aft Stairwell, we headed Fwd past numerous bulletin boards, Muster Lists, General Arrangement drawings, etc to the Crew Recreation Room, which is in the bow.

In addition to the PS4 and computers, they had a dart board, comfortable seats and a bar/snacks area.

Departing the Rec Room, we headed back down I-95, with the next stop being the Crew Messroom.

The crew messroom and galley were all shut down and had been thoroughly cleaned, as the crew are currently using the World Cafe for all their meals.

Our next stops were the domain of the Inventory Manager – all the store-rooms.

On completion of the I-95 tour, we headed back to the cabin, watching the arrival in Suez from the balcony.

Enjoy the next 3 photos of the sunset as we headed for our anchorage.

While we heard that our canal transit would be during the evening, we remained at anchor until about 04:00 tomorrow, at which time we commenced weighing anchor.

We were signed up for the 20:00 wine tasting, but although we were finished dinner, we were still chatting with Willie and Charisma. Enjoying the dinner, we had no desire to cut it short and head to the wine tasting. Therefore, unfortunately we missed the Chardonnays.