Friday April 15, 2016 – Again it’s nice to be at sea and catch up with blog, photos etc. This time we are crossing the Indian Ocean / Bay of Bengal and headed for the Persian Gulf and Dubai. The time at sea until we have transited the Suez Canal is a time of heightened alert due to pirates and much has been made during these three days about piracy and fortunately it’s decline. Even though Queen Mary 2 is unlikely to have a problem because of it’s height above the water – difficult to have a 50 foot ladder to access, it has 1 inch steel plate hull, making it difficult for anything other than Military Ammunition to penetrate and perhaps most important, it’s speed. There are not many pirate ships (converted fishing vessels typically) that can travel at our regular cruising speed of 20 knots, let alone our maximum sustainable speed of 29 knots. However Cunard, takes additional precautions, some visible, some covert, to assure safe passage. Today, after being given written information and addressed by the Captain, then entire ship stopped guest services and performed a piracy drill. What to do in the (remote) case that an unwanted vessel is approaching. Other overt things that started as soon as we left India, was fire hoses, taken from their stations on Deck 7, the first accessible outside deck, and placed in a ready position to act as water cannons rebuffing any possible intruder. About 8 of these are on each side of the ship, held on the outside rail and ready for action. Additionally, special sound emitting devices are placed on the deck, covered to disguise them until needed, that emit a directionally high intensity noise that would pierce the ear drums of any unwanted visitor. Furthermore, look-outs are placed all around the ship manned 24 hours a day. At night, all of the external lighting, except essential navigational lights are turned off and all windows are blacked out, either by curtains or an opaque film being applied to the glass. All cabins with balconies, like ours, or with port holes are required to turn off the balcony light, close the curtains and lock the balcony door. These were the first lot of piracy instructions we received today and were implemented.
After this safety procedure and education, we proceeded about our regular daily activity of Lectures by Graham Howell on Muscat, Oman which we visit soon, followed by a fascinating, albeit disconcerting talk by Commodore Rupert Wallace on the Middle East. Don Wales spoke about his 10 year project to better the existing and long standing land speed record in a steam driven automobile. This evening, the chefs prepared a chocolate extravaganza, creating amazing pastries of all types and sizes, involving chocolate as well as ice sculptures (Petronas Towers etc) and other styrophome sculptures (Sydney Opera House, Tiki Masks etc). One hour was set aside to take pictures, but as that was during our normal dinner hour, we opted to go and take chocolate pictures, then go to Todd English restaurant for dinner, returning to sample the chocolate as pudding / desert. A great plan, hard to force oneself to execute, but an amazing experience!!!
Saturday April 16, 2016 – The day started with another interesting lecture by Commodore Rupert Wallace on the Arab-Israili conflict – a problem with difficult solution. He speaks with some authority as he had various high level jobs representing Britian in the Middle East region. Next came Commander Owen McDermott RN. He got on board in India and will be with the ship as Liason Officer with the British Navy as we pass through these pirate infested waters. Here we discover a great deal more, not only about the Royal Navy, but in particular received the briefing, usually only given to the captain and senior ship staff, about the piracy situation in the area. We discovered that Royal Marines (don’t know how many or who they are, for security reasons) have also boarded the ship and would take up arms against any potential adversary. So there is fire power to add to the water cannons, noise machine and defensive darkness posture. It may not be pertinent to discuss much more of the details, but suffice it to say, it was very informative and consoling to also know that the British Navy as well as other friendly nations (USA, Australia etc) maintain war ships in the area and one call from our Liason officer Owen McDermott would have the vessels in these waters come to our aid within a short period of time. Great to have a high powered Naval Escort. We then returned to the mundane, with lectures by Don Wales on his Electric car land speed record and its trials and tribulations in attaining. Tachy went to the lecture by the airline captain David Henderson on “Can we beat the determined Terrorist?” A sobering account of air terrorism. Roger, Diana and Nelson spent an inordinate amount of time sorting through and organising the professional pictures that the ships photographers take. These had to be done before Dubai as it is the end of a segment and photos will be removed from the shelves, so missed the talk. Picture Organization and blog took up the rest of the day. Tachy had dinner in the cabin as her leg was still not great and indeed, went to see the doctor again due to a heamatoma (blood concentration, like a bruise) being formed in the ankle. She really likes the cute doctor and finds any reason to visit him!!!!!!!
Sunday April 17, 2016 – There was a time conflict with 2 lectures at the same time today, so the girls went to the theatre for Graham Howell’s Port Lecture on Salalah, Oman where we go after Muscat. Meanwhile the boys went to the speed demon lecture – Don Wales, talking about his land speed record on a lawn mower, which he obtained and was subsequently beaten and now stands at 97 MPH, held by an American. Guiness rules state it has to mow grass directly before the run and it is the best time of two runs over 1 mile within 1 hour one in each direction. All parts have to be regular manufacturing by a commercial lawn mower company. We then all joined up for the very amusing talk by the airline Captain David Henderson on”Glamour in the Sky”. The origin of gorgeous stewardesses and generally how glamour (and sexiness) sells. As he said, “I will likely offend most people oin this talk and those that I don’t I can do that afterwards”. All very amusing. We had thought of going to the Commodore’s last talk, but were told that we would have a visit from the Royal Navy. Indeed at 4:30 PM a small fast Destroyer, laden with heavy missiles and guns, HMS Defender sailed directly forward to our forward Port bow passing within 30 to 50 feet along the Port side. It was a thrill to see the vessel so close and such an amazing war ship. Simultaneously, one of it’s helicopters flew over us and all around, skimming the water and showing off its flexibility and manoeuvrability. The warship quickly turned to their Port across our stern and came up on the starboard side. When midship there were more helicopter passes and “stunts”. It was then the warship’s turn to show its fast and tight turning ability, coming back past our stern until it was midship on the Port side. We then watched the helicopter landing on the aft deck of the warship, before both sailed off with the usual “hooting and hollering” of the two ships horns. It was interesting to see the Royal Navy “in action” and certainly gave us a sense of great calm that in the event of a pirate attack, these Navy chaps, will pounce with force and annihilate any potential unwanted individuals. I was surprised by the speed and small size of the vessel (it looks to radar as if it is a fishing boat) and the high manoeuvrability, radar scattering / near invisibility and ultra modern 7 ton central tower filled with highly sophisticated radar and other electronic devices. A thrilling afternoon to experience all this at sea, knowing that they are on “our side” and available through a 911 / 999 call from Owen, the Liason Officer. At dinner tonight we said good bye to our assistant waiter Marjohn who goes on leave tomorrow and to our sommelier – Nikolai who is being transferred to the suites restaurant (or as I call them “the sugary cabins”) on the ship. Tomorrow we arrive in Dubai for 2 days.
Roger & Anne Travels 