At Sea

January 9^th, 2025

I spent the first part of the morning working in the Observation Bar. The Christmas tree has gone, so I don’t have to unplug it surreptitiously in order to plug my computer in. I miss the tree, but it does make life easier.

With no tree to admire, I looked out onto the deck in front of me. There was some bird poop on the deck. Oh my gosh, there was bird poop on the windows! What is going on? Here we are miles away from land in the middle of the Indian Ocean and it is starting to look like our terrace at home before we put up the bright dangly thing that deters birds.

The answer is that hundreds of red-footed boobies hunt for flying fish from the sky above the ship. As the fish rise to escape the turbulent water around the bow of our ship, the birds dive from hundreds of feet in the air, somehow grabbing the fish from behind.  The fish seem to sense them as they attempt to escape back down to the water. I cannot see any of this excitement, all I can see are the birds flying around the bow.

Although there is plenty of deck space and deck railings, the birds do not choose to stop there but have chosen a small mast at the front of the ship as a place to rest. The problem is that that there is really space for only one bird at a time, and mighty battles erupt over this small mast. If only they would use the railings, there is so much space there.

It was hard to get any work done watching the spectacle, and all of a sudden it was time for team trivia.

I had been looking forward to team trivia, not only because we would have to be extra especially on the ball today if there was to be any hope of raising us up from the depths of disaster as our total score was getting close to the bottom of the pack, but to get an update on what became of the safari dreams the rest of our team had as we headed off to catch our taxi in Zanzibar.

Having had their safari cancelled when the young couple who had organized it were told they could no longer promote and organize shore excursions, and then their safari was on again, and then at the last moment it was cancelled because the charter plane was no longer available.

The day we spent flying to Ngorongoro, they spent scrambling to find another safari. Yay! They found one, booked it, and some paid for it. They were due to set out in the very early hours of the next morning. Thank goodness the ship was able to stay at the port and wasn’t at anchor. I am not sure how they would have managed to get ashore at 4:00 AM if they had to cross the water.

Then, late that night they got the phone call that the tour operator had been unable to find a charter flight for them, so the newly booked safari was off. Well, there was an alternative involving a ferry, but the majority decided against it so that was that. No safari for them from Zanzibar.

However, one couple decided to give it a try and went with the ferry to Dar es Salaam and despite a rather substandard hotel, and very substandard roads, they had a great safari, and in the end that’s all that matters. I saw some of their photos and they were great. After the safari they stayed the night in Dar es Salaam and were allowed on board the ship the next day.

I was really happy for them, but I must say I was a bit miffed. I had to cancel the wonderful safari I had planned, and we had had to suffer the angst of possibly missing the boat in Zanzibar all because I have several emails stating in no uncertain terms that we could not rejoin the ship in Dar. It really doesn’t make sense. It just really annoys me.

The group that stayed behind had a fabulous tour of Zanzibar, including lunch at a wonderful looking restaurant called the Rock, so all’s well that ends well.

What didn’t end well was team trivia. We didn’t redeem ourselves at all. Well there is still hope if we really nail it tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

One thing I have loved on this cruise is that so many of the officers, including the doctor, are out and about on the ship and are very approachable. The doctor seems to be everywhere, especially when there is dancing, and he is a very accomplished dancer I must say. I thought it would be interesting to look at the medical center and see what facilities are available on board, so the next time I saw him I asked him if we could have a tour.

He was very obliging and said to come by after 5:00, so Brian and I and a couple of other doctors showed up at the medical center at 5:00, however, the visit was not to happen.

There was an inpatient in the medical center, and they were expected to be there until we got to the Seychelles, so the tour was off. We can always do the tour another day, but I felt so bad for the patient. I do hope they will be OK

Tonight was another formal night, and it was great to see so many people all dressed up in their finery. We had reserved a table in the Restaurant for a group of us, and it was really nice to spend the evening together and to celebrate the formal evening with the special tasting meal. The food really has been excellent so far. After 41 days there had certainly been some repetition of the menus. But there has still always been something that I really like each evening.

After eating way too much we left the Restaurant and moved to the Grand Salon to watch tonight’s performer, Sandy Grigelis..

Sandy Grigelis was described as a multi-instrumentalist. Unfortunately somehow his guitars had gone astray during his flight from London to Dar es Salaam, so he had to borrow a couple of guitars from the band members.

I would have been totally flummoxed if something like that happened to me, but Sandy appeared to take it all in his stride and gave a really excellent and very energetic performance. A true professional. I enjoyed his performance very much.

We retired to our cabin, sorry suite, after the show. I was exhausted although I really hadn’t done much at all today.

My initial goal had been to walk a million steps by the end of the cruise. Brian is well on the way to achieve that. I am lucky if I get to do 4,000 steps a day. That’s about a third of what I should be doing. I think I am going to have to change my goal, and just focus on enjoying every single minute I am on the Sojourn.