Well the wind did dissipate but not for long. By the time we were heading into the Ionian Sea a fresh wind started to blow from the South East and with a free surface area to play with, it was even capable of whipping up some waves. The weather cooking pot in this area had come up with a new idea. Now a whole string of little intense wind areas were forming. One in the mid Adriatic, one in the Ionian Sea, one to the East of Crete and one near Rhodes. Intense winds, but in a very limited area, thus we had strong winds in the afternoon and evening. By early tomorrow morning it will be gone and the moment we clear the SW side of Crete we will meet the next one. That one should be with us until late afternoon and then during the night should die away leaving just a gentle breeze behind for Alexandria. We will have these winds on the side of the ship and tomorrow in the back, so even if the winds are strong it will not affect the ship too much. It is just going to be very windy. This is the first sea day of two as it is 1,173 miles from Ravenna to Alexandria. Today we spent all our time leaving the Adriatic and then sailing along the coast of the Peloponnesus towards Crete. Tomorrow we will spend crossing the southern part of the Mediterranean Sea between Crete and the Libyan/ Egyptian coast.
Today was thus basically, enjoying life onboard with all its lectures, entertainment and general fun. That as well as relaxation of course. We have just left three hectic Italian days behind us and now we are preparing for the double whammy of two days Egypt and two days Israel. The ports of Alexandria, Port Said, Ashdod and Tel Aviv are some of the real highlights of this cruise and you need to be well rested to give it all when going ashore in the coming days. Still the cruise director did his utmost keeping everybody going all the time and I have no doubt that some of the best planned rest-plans of the guests did not come to fruition.
The highlight of today was the Venetian ball. For days the guests had been motivated to go shopping in Venice for masks and other dress up materials and to be either part of the fancy dress competition or just to add to the festivities. The turnout was great and the fancy dress contest was won by a rather mature gentleman who had dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz; matching red shoes included. We saw masks from the simplest versions to the very elaborate. All in all a great time was had by all. Unfortunately I have no photos available of this as we were all too busy dancing.
A few days ago we bid farewell to 51 guests who were leaving us in Venice. We held a Mariners party and were even able to hand out three 500 day medals. The Prinsendam generates a very high number of Repeat Guests, so you get Mariners with high day counts, even if it is a small group. During these Mariner gatherings I also like to acknowledge crewmembers who have reached a mile stone in their service with the company. As most of them work in the back of the house, it is just nice to put them in the spot light in this way and it is also much appreciated by our guests. This time we had three crewmembers, two with 25 years of service and one with 10 years of service.
From left to right. Mr. Juan Pepito, Chief Tailor 25 years with the company, Mr. Imam Sugondo, Lido manager, 25 years with the company and Mr. Ipanag Filemon, Waste Handler, 10 years with the company,. Flanked by Hotelmanager Firmin van Walle and Captain Albert Schoonderbeek.
Tomorrow we will sail in the lower part of the Med. We will pass the South West point of Nissos Crete at 0600 in the morning and then change from a SSE course to an ESE course heading straight for the pilot station of Alexandria. We will stay about 4 miles off the coast of Ak Krios as the most South Western point of Crete is called, in order not to get inside the territorial waters of Greece. Soon after we will come to the closest point of Libya, just over a 100 miles away and that will hopefully count for all the most excitement of this passage. Today we did not see any surveillance planes at all but that was maybe due to the fact that we had reported in the day before with our sailing plan.
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