Sailing to Cape Town, South Africa

Leaving Durban, South Africa heading to Cape Town is an incredible three day sail.  We arrive in Cape Town in the morning.  We have been close to shore all the way with a very big island off on our starboard side (Africa).  This was a very interesting and fun weekend.  Saturday night we were treated to a concert by the Soweto Gospel Choir.  They have won many awards and in this part of the world they are considered the world’s best choir.  Utahans might take exception to that.

 

 

 

Sunday morning we went to Archbishop Tutu’s Sunday Eucharist Service with the Soweto Gospel Choir.  In fact, as I write, he is sitting at the table next to us shaking hands, visiting and blessing the passengers.  One can never have too many blessings, don’t you think?

 

                                    Ann definitely made a new friend.

Sunday afternoon Archbishop Tutu spoke again in an informal setting discussing topics such as marriage, his relationship with his wife, the apartheid struggles and their victory crediting Nelson Mandela and de Klerk, the leader of apartheid South Africa, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Of interest, he spoke of God knowing us “before we were in the womb”.  He also spoke of leaving the ninety and nine to rescue the one.   

 

In addition, we have Stein Kruse, CEO of Holland America Group, which includes Holland America, Princess Lines, Seaborne, and P & O onboard.  The Holland America Group has over 200 cruises a year and he considers the Grand World Voyage the pinnacle of their cruises.  Also onboard is Arnold Donald, the CEO of the parent company Carnival.  Today we have a meeting at which these executives seek input from the passengers.

With Stein Kruse and his wife

Having all these people onboard has been interesting and fun.  You don’t see the CEOs out and about the decks shaking hands like Archbishop Tutu and the choir, just saying.         

Valley of a Thousand Hills, Durban, South Africa

             Breathtaking day exploring local countryside and Zulu culture. 

Surprise of the day was meeting our new fellow passenger, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu!  He is gracious and very friendly.  Ann said, “Welcome aboard” to him and he answered,

     “God Bless you”.  Later Don asked him if he could take his picture    

     and he said why don’t we have my son take a picture of both of us. 
     We look forward to hearing more from him over the next three days       
      while he is sailing with us to Cape Town, South Africa.

 

We have met so many interesting people on this voyage, both passengers and people from local cultures, truly one of the enriching aspects of this trip.  We are so grateful.

Reunion Island, Africa

This island is a beautiful jewel in the ocean.  Tall green mountains, similar to Hawaii.  Reunion Island politically is part of France, similar to Martinique and Guadalupe in the Caribbean being part of France.  It is situated in the southern Indian Ocean, west of Mauritius and east of Madagascar, and is very tropical.  It is a melting pot of peoples, Creoles, Africans, Malagasy, Indians, Chinese, and Europeans.  The different cultures bring a wide variance in architecture, cultures and religions all living together in “social harmony”. 

We are now on our way to Durban, on the east coast of South Africa.      

Port Louis, Mauritius, Africa

 

This is the second of our three Indian Ocean Island ports. The African Mauritius Island is an island 30 miles by 20 miles in area approximately 500 miles east of Madagascar.  It is all volcanic, made up of 24 distinct volcanos.  Its population is 1.2 million, mostly of African and Indian decent.  The Indians were brought in to work in the sugar cane fields and stayed.

Mauritius was the home of the now extinct Dodo bird.  The Dodo was indigenous to Mauritius.  It was a large flightless bird, bigger than a turkey.  When the first explorers came, the Dodo became extinct as it became their “Thanksgiving” dinner over several years.  Within in 40 years the Dodo was history.

Again, for the beauty and for the people, we enjoyed Mauritius.  Now we are on the way to Reunion Island and the ocean is very rough in this area.  The Captain explained we are getting hit by high winds and swells coming from several directions, causing “pot holes.” It isn’t very bad.  We have had amazing weather and smooth seas during the whole trip.

The Seychelles Islands, Africa

This is a beautiful place of Beaches and Mountains!  We had extra time here in the Seychelles because the Captain increased the speed to get out of the HRZ (high risk zone). Victoria, on Mahe Island is one of the smallest capital cities in the world.  We traveled the island by taxi and local “putting your life in the bus driver’s hands” bus.  For $1.50 we explored the beaches on the west side of the island and circumnavigated the island.  We were able to get on and off the bus as we wanted picking up the next bus to continue after exploring. As long as you can get along without air-conditioning and a seat may be optional. It is an awesome way to get the know the island.

 

Today reminded us again of Hawai’i with its lush vegetation on the windward side of the island.  The Seychelles are made up of high granite cliffs rather than of volcanic origin like so many of the other islands we have visited.  The people are mostly of African descent.  French, English and Creole are the main languages.  Would love to spend a week or two here!

 

Drama on the seas -

People have asked us what it is like to circumnavigate the world on a ship at an average speed of 18 miles per hour.  When this is all said and done, we will have traveled by ship, approximately 33,500 miles.  It has become a way of life.  For now, our address is the four winds and the seven seas.  But isn’t it boring?

There is so much that goes on, so many things to do and learn onboard a ship during the sea days, and we have previously written about it.  However, there is potential drama that exists as well.  For instance:

Early on in the cruise we were involved in a rescue at sea.  A small fishing boat with 11 fisherman had been adrift for several days off the coast of Peru.  Our ship slowed and circled the boat and determined in communications with the boat that the fishermen were indeed in trouble and needed assistance.  We were able to lower a tender to assist the fishermen and to leave them food. They decided to not abandon their ship. We were then able to contact the authorities with the Peruvian Navy to assist them. 

Every day the crew has drills for fire and safety.  Usually there is an announcement from the bridge announcing there will be a drill.  Then, the whistle blows and an announcement for the crew to report to their stations.  Yesterday there was a fire alarm and a request for fire and rescue personnel to report to a certain area of the ship, and it was announced, “This is not a drill”.  We could tell the ship had stopped.

Later communications from the captain indicated that there was a “small” fire in the engine room.  The ship stopped dead in the water.  We were eating lunch at the time.  Communications kept us informed that the fire had been extinguished and that we were going to move slowly for a while.  Within a couple hours the ship was back to normal speed.  Some people had gone to their rooms and retrieved their valuables from their cabin safes and put their medications on their persons just in case.  Others, including ourselves, thought the situation serious enough to go and get a second dessert.

We have been and presently are in the middle of the search for the missing Malaysian Airliner.  As indicated in a previous post shortly after the plane went missing and while we were flying from Beijing to Singapore, our ship was in Vietnamese waters and later the Malacca Strait waters before and after its disappearance.  We were in the Bay of Bengal, an area being searched, as we headed for Sri Lanka.  We are now in the Indian Ocean heading for the Seychelles Islands and the search has expanded to this area as well.  The search area keeps following us.  We are involved in the search too.

When we leave Sri Lanka we will be in the waters wherein the pirates from Somalia have been lurking.  So, with that said, the movie Captain Phillips played on the evening movie just to peak our interest.  Two days ago, the captain issued the following notice to all aboard –

Dear Guests,

I have received a number of questions concerning our forthcoming transit of the Indian Ocean with regard to the oft publicized “Piracy” subject.  I believe that the more you know, the better your understanding of the subject.  The recent film about the “Maersk Alabama”, starring Tom Hanks has also improved public awareness.

First and foremost, given the number of ships which transit these areas, many at slower speeds and with lower freeboards (distance from the waterline to the lowest accessible deck) and also taking into consideration the international outcry (on the pirates) if an attack on a cruise ship was successful, the likelihood of us being harassed is extremely low.

Vessels with low freeboard, which are moving slowly, are main targets.  We on the other hand, are moving at 20 knots and have a high freeboard.  Additionally, because of the actions of Naval forces in the area, the number of incidents has been reduced considerably (actually only 10%).

Nevertheless, it would be inconsiderate of me were I not to take precautions.

·         The ms Amsterdam will be reporting regularly to UKMTO in Dubai.  UKMTO is the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization who co-ordinate all of the coalition warships in the area assigned to anti-piracy operations.  We are being tracked during our entire transit of the Indian Ocean and although we may not see them, warships and AWACs will be monitoring us.

·         A close radar watch will be kept on the bridge.

·         We have extra Security Guards and they will be rotating on a 24 hour anti-piracy watch.

·         We have 4 LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices) rigged, manned, and ready for immediate use.

·         We will also have charged water hoses ready for use on both sides of the Lower Promenade deck.

·         We have rigged razor wire on our freeboard deck, if a boarding were attempted, it would be on deck 3.

In the unlikely event of an attempted boarding, or even if we are suspicious of a vessel, you will hear ONE LONG RING OF THE SHIP’S ALARM – followed by an Announcement; “TESTING, TESTING, TESTING” from the Captain, Staff Captain, or the Officer on watch from the Bridge.

Upon hearing the announcement you are asked to move out of your Staterooms, (if in them) and stay in corridors or an interior space, please move away from outside decks; stay away from windows and doors; please sit down, as any maneuver attempted by myself may result in heeling of the ship, as we will be moving at high speed; with all our generators on-line, we are capable of 25 knots.

I will emphasis that these precautions are in the unlikely event of a boarding attempt, so please do not concern yourself unnecessarily and I hope this clarifies the subject for you.

Sincerely,

The Captain, ms Amsterdam

Update - we are now at sea for 1700 miles, or 3.5 days, between Sri Lanka and the Seychelles Islands, an area in which, if there was to be piracy, it would occur.  Razor wire and charged high pressure water hoses have been placed around the ship. 

 

Also, we have noticed officers on the promenade deck (the deck open to the ocean) on watch all night with binoculars scanning the horizon vigilantly making sure that something/someone doesn’t approach the ship in the dark.  Also, many security men (mercenaries) have come aboard with us for the next several days.  We had a practice piracy drill yesterday.  We were told to stay away from windows and sit on the floor while the captain took the ship to almost 30 mph on a sharp zig-zag course.  Rather exciting it was.  With that said, time for another dessert, don’t you think?

Sri Lanka

 

Sri Lanka is a multi-religious society.  Today we visited examples of the four major religions in the country.

Muslim - The Jami-Alfar Mosque, also called the Red Mosque.  This man was interesting.

Christian – The Wolvendaal Church or the Dutch Reformed Church now renamed the Christian Reformed Church.

Hindu – The Captain’s Garden Temple.  Inadvertently we crashed a wedding. The people were very nice to us.  Apparently, it is lucky to have strangers celebrate your wedding.  These three boys, who had perfect English, made sure we met people and the oldest one wanted to discuss Shakespeare’s plays! This will be a special memory.

Buddhist – The Gangarama Buddist Temple.    

 

 

 

 
We are sailing away from Sri Lanka toward the Seychelles Islands.