Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 41 Craft Class & Plane Crashes

We woke up this morning to discover that we had been given some false info last night - the couple at the table next to us mentioned that the clocks changed again so we woke up this morning thinking they’d gone back an hour back…..WRONG! They hadn’t changed after all and we went from thinking we had loads of time to puddle around, to realising I’d missed the morning craft class and we’d better get to breakfast sharpish!

We’re in the Indian Ocean which is well known for an area called The Doldrums - an area which is notoriously windless and very still which is great on a cruise ship! Lots of people have headed out on deck to enjoy the calm weather so it’s very quiet inside! Andy & I went for a walk on the promenade deck (2.5laps of this deck equates to walking 1 mile). We noticed something jumping out of the water so stopped to watch the sea for a while. There were dozens of flying fish sporadically jumping out of the water beside the ship and boy, can they fly!

On the way back inside we noticed something was about to happen in the theatre so we popped in there just in time to see another Captain Chris lecture, this time on the Boeing 737MAX disasters. It was a brilliant talk and seemed to be another case of senior management covering up and not listening to advice on a grand scale. The huge cover up resulted in 2 plane crashes and 346 people dying. Boeing and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) were found to be at fault. Apparently the problems have been fixed and they are fine to fly in now, not that you would know you were in a Boeing 737 MAX as they’ve been renamed!

Next up for me was a visit to the gym which is down on deck 1. It’s a brilliant gym with dozens of running machines, rowing machines, step machines, a spin studio and a weights room. Despite the demographic of the ship (90% of the passengers are grey and seem to be over 70) the gym is very busy. I’ve learnt that early mornings are to be avoided, but any time from 10.30am onwards is great!

This afternoon Andy caught some rays out on deck and I had a blast at a craft class, it was a sewing project day which is right up my street! Liberty fabric necklaces and hair bands were order of the day. I was sitting beside some lovely ladies - they’re on the boat for most of the round the world voyage which is 111 days!

Andy went and spoke very nicely to the Maitre’D and we’ve moved our dining time from 5.30 to 8pm…thank goodness!

This evening we went to the theatre again to see a guy called Russ Parsons who was a brilliant singer/guitar player and this time he played a set made up of Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Mumford and Sons etc - he was brilliant. He has a couple of bands he plays in and even played at Boris Johnsons wedding!