November 7

Yesterday at sea the captain, Jurica Brajcic, did a talk on piracy.  Tomorrow we will enter another piracy zone and he did a great job explaining the history and all about the decline of piracy, the reasons for it and which ships are most vulnerable.  It was especially interesting because he was the captain when the sister ship of our ship – the Nautica – was approached by pirates in the Gulf of Aden in November 2008.  The ship used its high speed and water hoses to evade the pirates.  Now there are ships patrolling the vulnerable waters so there have not been any hijackings since 2012. He showed some pictures which interestingly were taken by passengers – who all should have been in the interior of the ship.  The staff didn’t have any pictures, so they asked the passengers and they received almost 80! That’s how well the procedures were followed. And, the photo CNN showed on the news was not a pirate boat at all, but a fishing boat.

Last evening we had another special dinner for the world cruise passengers, and Chef Mario outdid himself.  Our menu “Culinary Dreams”  was as follows:

• Cappuccino of fois gras
• King scallop royale
• My favorite crab cake (with sweet chili sauce and lemon vinaigrette)
• Duck Breast Elise or Fresh Sea Bass Fillet (we both had the excellent sea bass)
• Heart of Berries (Vanilla sponge soaked in Grand Marnier Syrup, Chocolate Mousse and Berry Puree

These were the favorite dishes of the general manager, Yves (who was previously a chef in Belgium) and Mario.

We had the pleasure of being seated with Ennis and Mona (Ennis is the coach we met from India), and the Chief Engineer on board, Guiseppe De Lucca.  It was a great evening and ended with an invitation to visit the engine room of the ship (only if we didn’t tell anyone!)

So today we spent over an hour in the control center of the engine room with him.  So interesting about how everything is done on the ship – a floating city for sure.

We had a picture taken on Ennis’s phone, so I will add it once he sends it to me.

Also, due to the state of emergency in the Maldives (the vice president is accused of planting a bomb with the intent of killing the president), we will not be going to the Maldives on Monday, instead we will go to Sri Lanka on Sunday.  We were there already on this cruise, so we will probably take a tuk tuk and explore the city, do some shopping, etc.