Friday, March 23, 2012; Day 77 At Sea

We started our day at the “Dunking for Dollars Event”. This was a charity event that benefits the children of the Balika Kiwasa Orphanage. This week the ship has raised over $2,500 for the children.

This is Danube, our lifestyle specialist. She teaches us Tai Chi; Yoga; Qi Gong and other meditations on the ship. Her plunge was very graceful!

This is Barbara, our shore excursion expert. The best was Hank, he is the hotel manager. He went in with his dress shoes, clothes and watch on.

And last, but not least, Captain Jonathan Mercer, saluting all the way in!

Today we played Quoits, which is like ring toss. Jerry brought home the “Dam Dollars” today. He also won at Bingo! When you’re hot, you’re hot!

We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about encounters with pirates. We’ve pretty much dismissed it all, until we received the following letters from the Captain:

This morning there was a crew drill, and our instructions would be to go and sit down in the interior hallway. The chances of pirates actually boarding the vessel are quite low. First, our freeboard is not close to the water. Second, we sail at a quicker pace. Also we had noticed another passenger ship close to us the last few days. Now they are saying there’s safety in numbers. They also have posted extra Security Guards and will be rotating 24 hour anti-piracy watches. We will now be arriving in Egypt early as we will be speeding through the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. We both feel that we are in good hands and have the utmost faith in Captain Mercer.

We port tomorrow in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Hugs to you all!