March 5th and 6th.

Monday, 5th March. It was good to be sailing again and even better to have the extra hour in bed! By dawn we had exited the Malacca Straits off the north coast of Sumatra and altered course to west-northwest through the Andaman Sea. Alan had been to a lecture on Cochin and then had coffee in the Commodore Club where the Commodore chats to ‘world cruisers’ (we have our own section of the lounge every morning.) Not everyone goes, there are usually about 20 – 25 meet. I had been on the Internet in the adjoining lounge where I can plug in. By noon we were entering the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The Commodore pointed out to us that because the sea was like a mill pond at this point, and where in certain areas we could see waves breaking on top of the calm sea, it was a sign that currents from three different seas were meeting, causing a rip tide. I had been watching this strange phenomenon from my balcony before he gave his noon bridge report, which explained the unusual occurrence that I had seen. I had also seen a couple of large fish similar to Marlin (or swordfish look-a-likes) leap out of the water, which was great. Alan had seen lots of small black dolphin, but I missed those! The Commodore also pointed out that we were close to Banda Aceh on the west coast of Sumatra where the Tsunami earthquake erupted beneath the sea on December 26th 2004 reaching 9.3 on the Richter scale, lasting for a full 8 minutes, which is the longest ever recorded, and moved the planet by half an inch. (This I didn’t know!) Today the temperature was 27 degrees and 99% humidity, which was better than the 99% humidity and 34 degrees we had left in Port Kelang! However, we will be remaining on this course close to the equator until we pass Sri Lanka and head north to Cochin. After lunch we stayed on the balcony until I went to the gym at 4.00pm. After an evening at the Lotus Asian restaurant with friends, Peter and Kay, I went to our suite and Alan went to see Kyle Espin, a piano/vocal entertainer at the theatre. We put our watches back an hour so that we are now 6 hours ahead of the UK.
Tuesday, 6th March. I had another Spanish lesson this morning but need to do homework, which I haven’t had time for, so perhaps when I get home I will be able to spend more time on the language because I have been enjoying it. Alan went to find an interesting lecture to sit in so we met up for lunch at 1.00pm. There was a matinee show with comedian Yacov Noy, which we both enjoyed before I dashed off to the gym again. We are still heading west through the southern section of the Bay of Bengal and by 8.00pm we should make landfall near Dondra Head at the southern tip of Sri Lanka. After an hour of paralleling the southern coast we alter course to steam northwest throughout the night across the Gulf of Mannar, the stretch of water dividing Indian from Sri Lanka. We should arrive at Cochin tomorrow at mid-day and will be staying over-night so we ‘hope’ to book into the Taj Malabar, a five star hotel. From here we can shop and sightsee until dusk and then enjoy a traditional Indian gourmet dinner in elegant surroundings before retiring. Then in the morning we can relax around the magnificent outdoor pool before returning to the ship for lunch before sailing. (Fingers crossed - we will have to wait and see??) We have to put our watches back ‘half an hour’ this evening, so we will then be 5 and a half hours ahead of the UK. We didn’t know about the earthquake in Sumatra until I received your email, we must have passed over the area before it happened, or, as we have been told, they are rarely felt at sea. (As with the tsunami.)