16 April 2019; At Sea, Day 3.

This morning at 06.00 hrs. we passed the Cape & Island of Bab El Mandeb, which forms the official entrance to the Red Sea.  This is a fairly narrow strait and when going in we sailed only about a 1.5 miles off the coast line of Yemen.

The Bab El Mandeb entry into the Red Sea. (Thank you Wikipedia)

This is an area where there has been a lot of piracy in the past and in 2018 Saudi Arabia closed the Red Sea off here for a short while as there was a political dispute going on. Bab El Mandeb is also known as the Gate of the Tears due to the many shipwrecks and related havoc that took place here in the bygone days. When the British established control over the routes to India one of the first things they did was to put a light house on one of the islands here to guide the ships safely around the small islands and reefs.  I checked and the light house was still there, although I could not see if the light was still working as the sun rose right above it. All in all an historic area to cross.

The ship went to full speed for this passage as in the current political situation it is considered a high risk area. And with 19 knots it is hardly possible for a pirate or anything related to come close to the ship.  With all this political stuff going on, there is a lot of activity from international forces with Americans, Chinese, Germans, French, Qataris, Emiratis, Saudi Arabians, Japanese, and Italians all being present in various ways.  The Chinese are expanding their international influence and have since some time a military base in Djibouti. So yesterday afternoon we had a grey military helicopter circling around us for about 30 minutes which according to our security guards was of Chinese origin. We are used to that circling as every helicopter that gets the chance to come close to a cruise ship wants to have a peek at the open decks to look at the ladies sunning themselves.

Sunrise over Bab El Mandeb. As I start working at 06.00 hrs. I was just able to catch this from my window. This is the entrance to the Red Sea, it does not look that impressive but it is dangerous for those who do not know the area. Hence the  Gate of Tears.

By 10 am. we were back in the deep water area and in the wide water area and thus in the Red Sea. And to much disappointment it is not red at all. Just as blue as all the other seas and just as windy. We have 20 knots of following wind again and as it is a following wind it does not really make a difference to us all on board.  But the Red Sea can be red on occasion if a special algae blooms (Trichodesmium Erythraeum) and part of the sea then turns reddish brown. I have never seen it but then my experience is limited to only coming through here in April during world cruise and repositioning voyages.

The stand of Housekeeping:……………………………….. Can you make up the bed faster than our dedicated stewardesses.

Life on board continues and the high light of today was the Country Fair, which is also a thing that really only works for smaller ships. I used to push for it in the past on the longer voyages of the Prinsendam and Statendam. On Holland America it is called the Village Fair and it is something the crew really enjoys doing as long as it is not too often; as it is a lot of extra work to do it right. The way it works, is that various groups of crew have little stands on deck, mostly around the swimming pool area and each stand has some sort of fun and game thing going on, often tongue in cheek. When I did a south pacific cruise in the ancient past, we even had a stand with “guess the combined ages of all the spouses on board”; a stand organized by my lord and master herself. And as not all the Ladies looked the age they were, that was not any easy one to get right.

Cruise Director and Hostess keeping track of the voting for the best stand/ attraction for the raffle. One of the prizes was a bottle of Dom Perignon which sets you back over $ 200 on the ship as it  is a premium champagne.

There are various ways of doing it but the bottom line is the interaction between Guests and Crew. Here on the Ovation it has the twist that the guests can vote for the best stand. Other options are trying to score as many points as possible at each stand and then the top scorer gets a prize. This is sometimes a bit risky to do as there are always guests who are so competitive that they will not shirk from bending the rules to win. And as the captain cannot really lock them up (*), they get away with it.

The Nautical stand. Staff Captain and Lady Safety Officer trying to entice the guests into the nautical world. 3rd officer making sure nobody is walking off with an important part of the navigation equipment.

We have two more sea days to go as we are on the 19^th. in Al Aqabah, Jordan.  I expect that the guests will take it easy, so they can prepare themselves for their chance to be Indiana Jones racing on horseback into Petra to save the world.

I also expect that the weather will not change very much. Warm, sunny and not too much visibility due the reddish haze we now have all around us. Although the wind, by blowing up the crest of the waves into the air, seems to help to cool things down a little bit around the ship.

(*) Gone are the good old days, when the captain was a captain and not an email processor.

The band, dressed up as pirates and the golf putting stand. The challenge was how to avoid hitting whisky bottles. Most appropriate for an all inclusive cruise.