Tuesday 8th April

Got an extra hour in bed last night as the clocks went back another hour again, we are back to six hours ahead of you. We spent the night transiting the last part of the Malacca Straits then heading west north west across the northern entrance of the Straits before skirting round the northernmost tip of Sumatra through the Nicobar islands and then turning due west across the Bay of Bengal, (which at 839,000 square miles is the largest bay in the world) heading for Columbo, Sri Lanka, leaving the busiest shipping lanes well behind us. Even with the extra hour in bed we were up late and went to breakfast at a sensible nine o’clock.

Carol spent some of the morning worshipping the sun as we haven’t had too much of it lately. It’s been very hot but there has been a lot of cloud about. Perfect for me but Carol likes the sun, but she will get a lot more of it when we head into the Middle East. Temperature today is 30°C with just a slight breeze, the sea is flat calm, slightly glassy in places. Flying fish break the surface occasionally and this morning whilst at breakfast we saw a couple of schools of porpoises busily porpoising along, they were on a mission make no mistake. Tomorrow’s weather is forecast to be the same as today’s.

Tonight before we went up to dinner we sat on the balcony having a couple of drinks and the sunset was a typical African sunset (I know, we are nowhere near Africa), but the flat glossy sea and the dark grey cumulus cloud formation climbing high into the sky with intensely bright red edges set against a gold background was a true African sky, which changed slowly as the sun set out of site behind the cloud formation. And as the light from the sun faded, a bright silver light from the moon directly overhead replaced it and altered the seascape from dramatic scarlet and gold to a monochrome silver dark grey, blue and grey, no less spectacular for the loss of intensity of colour. Formal dinner afterwards which was ok so we clambered back up the stairs to partake of the wines beers and anything else that was on offer. Extra half hour in bed again tomorrow, don’t ask cos I don’t know, but it is only half an hour