Through the Bab El-Mandab Strait

 I woke up in the morning desperate to catch sight of our passage through the Bab El-Mandab Strait between Yemen and Djibouti but we must have passed it while it was still dark, before 6am. The name means the Gate of Tears in Arabic because there were so many shipwrecks here in past centuries. So we were now in the Gulf of Aden where Phileas Fogg's ship, the Mongolia, put in for coal in what was then the British colony of Aden and where Fogg could obtain another visa stamp for his passport. I still remember collecting stamps from Aden in my childhood. I remember too the rearguard action of the Argyll Highlanders in the Aden crater when I was a schoolboy and I know that Aden is now part of the unified mess of what had once been the independent states of North and South Yemen, one of them still having a king before Marxist revolutionaries took over. Now Yemen is no longer British, no longer  Marxist and no longer governable. It is quite simply a failed state where its children starve while the warring factions battle on. On the other side of the straits was the independent port of Djibouti, once a French colony (also with prized collectors' stamps) and now a fairly prosperous city state, at least by African stanfards. I know it recently opened its port as a military base for the Chinese Navy, whch I understand is now the largest in the world. The balance of power is tilting decidedly away from the West. Perhaps I should warn Sandro to start learning Chinese as well as Finnish..

 I decided to do the required one mile trek around the ship on the Promenade Deck and began briskly enough, with the wind being even more brisk. The idea was to walk around the ship three and a half times as this would constitute a mile. As I gathered my strength for the walk I found that in my so called brisk walk I was still being overtaken by other walkers, some of whom could even have been older than me. This seemed OK at first, but after I had nearly completed my first circumnavigation of the Borealis I heard behind me the sharp commands of an aerobic exercise gruppenfuhrer barking instructions at his flock of submissive tourists marching behind him. I hurried up my steps to ensure that this phalanx would not overtake me and at turbo charge speed hurried my walk along the deck. After the next round I could no longer hear them and assumed that, as they had started before me, they would now have completed their circuit and been released from their ordeal. It was easy to lose count of my rounds but eventually, as I had passed the prow three times and the stern four times, I reasoned that I had performed my task adequately and opened one of the doors to go inside. Initially I was quite disorientated as to which part of the ship I had stepped into. Eventually I made my way back to the cabin, where Albina, bless her soul, was still asleep. The walk took me twenty minutes, and I probably need to repeat it whenever I can. 

After breakfasting alone I walked down to the promenade deck to do help sponsor an Officers and Crew Sponsored Walk and made a little contribution to Fred Olsen's chosen charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Association. I attended a seminar on the advantages of having a massage, which was sponsored by the Atlantis Spa. The Thai lady who introduced the subject aked me if I had ever experienced a Thai massage when in Thailand, but I told her it was not an experience that I wanted to repeat, after having a young lady trampling all over and punching me with ther elbow. "You should be so lucky," said one of the ladies attending the seminar. However I took the spa brochure with me for Albina. As she continued to sleep I wandered the ship and came across a shuffleboard contest. I observed it with fascination picking up the rules as I watched it. A lady accosted me and asked if I could be her partner as she was signed to play with her husband and he had failed to turn up to make up the team. I did not wish to let a lady down so I agreed. On his occasion I was no knight in shining armour. We did not do very well and only scored 6 points over all, especially after she had knocked one of my pucks off the board. Meanwhile our opponents, who were marginally better, scored 7 points and we were out of the competition. It's not a game requiring enormous skills to enjoy and perhaps I could coax Albina into playing this. 

The captain announced at 12 that we were following a specified route through the Gulf of Aden equidistant from both Somalia and Yemen. This is a designated route recommended for international shipping to avoid attacks by pirates. The last Somali pirate attack here was two years ago, as most pirate attacks now take place in West Africa. Certainly we are not encountering any other vessels on our journey, let alone pirates. 

I went to Paul Madden's lecture on Japanese Culture but again missed the majority of what he was saying, as I simply dozed off. All I remember was some colourful slides of the Japanese countryside and of a number of castles. It is sad to say that only 12 castles are genuine historic structures in the whole of Japan. The rest were rebuilt after being destroyed, either in the Meiji Restoration in the XIXth century or by American bombing in the Second World War. To be fair these castles had been genuine targets because the Japanese Army had used them to store their weapons and ammunition.

In the afternoon Albina and I located the Laundry Room below on the second deck. We came across Ranald punctliously ironing his dress shirt for the Formal Night. He explained how the system works. You buy a token from Guest Services desk for each wash, then you place the token is the appropriately numbered slot, load the washing machine which is in the bottom row, press a button for the detergent and, hey presto, you let the system do its work. Every fifteen minutes you have to prompt it, just to make sure the water is not being wasted. Once the wash finishes you can let the drum circulate to ease the creases. Then you can remove your clothes and place them in the tumble dryer directly above the washing machine. What could be simpler?

After 3.45pm every day they serve high tea in the View buffet restaurant with tea, sandwiches, scones and various other indulgences. Albina had been there the previous day and I agreed to accompany her this afternoon, foregoing a classical music concert in the Theatre. After that we spent the next hour in the cabin packing up things we no longer needed, unpacking things we may still need, and preparing two loads, one white, one coloured, for the washing machine the next day.   

Tonight the evening dress code is again formal in the Borealis Restaurant. As we were not recognizing that code for tonight, we came back to the View Restaurant for our evening meal. I would rather wait for an occasion when Albina is in the right mood to dress for a formal night, then just to do it alone again and prance about in a dinner jacket and striped trousers without her. 

We went to a concert in the Neptune Theatre with a performance by Declan Zapala, a classical guitar player who had twice performed in the Albert Hall. He was a skilled player but again most spectacular of all was the light show behind him. His last number was mirrored and played simultaneously by a number of musicians in a dramatic display of computerized art.

Some dramatic relavant news appears on my phone. China has got Iran and Saudi Arabia to sign a peace treaty and recognize each other. What does that mean for China's increased influence in the Middle East? Will Saudi Arabia move closer to China and away from the pro-Americsn bloc? Will this end the conflict in Yemen? Will they both turn against Israel? At the same time the UAE is threatening to break from the Saudi dominated OPEC. Where is all this leading? To more uncertainty and initially chaos, before the new alliances harden.

We came second again as we got 14 out of 15 in our Gerneal Quiz responses. We had split between the boys and the girls over the first question. 75% of the world's flags use a particular colour. Which one? Tony, Ranald and myself said "white". Helen, Sharon and Lisa said "red". In the end I wrote "white" on the sheet. Big mistake. The answer turned out to be "red". The girls shouted "Told you so," in unison. I should have guessed. Of course, red. After all the communist countries have only red in their flags, for a start. Later, when I got back to the cabin, I asked Albina the same question. "Red", she said. Oh well, I believe it was Women's International Day today. Obviously the stronger brainier sex.