Thursday 3rd April

Still at sea, weather HOT! HOT! HOT! Sea flat calm but in this part of the South China Sea that only serves to emphasize the amount of rubbish there is in this part of the world. At breakfast we watched as we sailed through what can only be described as sludge slicks and everywhere there are streaks of brown residue with every now and then all types of floating rubbish you can imagine. To be fair we then go through a period where the water is clear of debris of any kind, but this only serves to emphases the bad bits. We are still sailing down the coast of Vietnam and will shortly turn sharp right (or come round to a more westerly heading, for the more nautical minded of you) for our final approach to Singapore, through the Singapore straights. Which reminds me Carol said I had forgotten to tell you about all the paddy’s we saw in Vietnam. No not the Irish kind, the rice kind. All the way in they were lining the road left and right bright green lush fields. Wine tasting session today I thought it was quite good but the sommelier spat his out so I guess we weren’t given the top quality stuff. Show was early tonight so bit of a rush to fit everything in we’ve got too used to the lazy timetable. Must get to bed as we are up early tomorrow we left it too late to get Singapore dollars, they ran out so we need to get some ashore. Noticed some odd round white discs being put up on the upper deck tonight and on enquiring further found out they were anti pirate loudspeakers. If a vessel comes too close they give them a sound blast from these which sort of discourages them. Apparently pirates are becoming a bit of a nuisance in these parts as well as up Somalia way, any way that’s about it for today folks.