At anchor in the Gulf of Suez

We are tired

Those who went to Petra were dragging today. We are getting too old for this. I loved Petra and am glad I did it but that is my last trip there this way. I feel it is well done by this time.

Bari

Our destination of Bari Italy in the boot of Italy. There are some UNESCO sites there I think we’ll hit. Who knew how unique it is!

Three stories

The speaker is a cultural anthropologist and her talk this morning would make an excellent dissertation: well thought out, theory driven, hermeneutics, structure, etc. She wove in a lot of Joseph Campbell. The topic was The Hero’s Journey and she discussed the Odyssey, Aeneid, and the Divine Comedy. Each has beginning, tragedy, wandering, arrival. (how awful that I can’t recall her exact terms: must be the results of the dehydration as we were pretty bad at trivia this am too!). Very cool as I’ve known nothing about any of them though of course  I’ve heard of them my entire adult life.

Catching up

We organized our newsletters, downloaded pictures and such a good part of the afternoon. I have moved onto a new book about how detectives work. We were no danger to anyone in trivia this afternoon.

As usual our waiter was pushing food again. He’d be great at selling furniture or cars.

At anchor

We have gradually seen more and more watercraft as we have advanced up the Gulf of Suez. It seems odd as it is rare for us to see other ships except near ports. We are at anchor until 4 am when it is time to join the convoy through the Suez Canal.

Local officials came on board quickly earlier to check out the ship and  clear it to continue. We are anchored at “Echo 5” but do not yet know which number we will have in the convoy.

There are tankers, car carriers, other passenger ships, and Lord knows what other craft out there of all sizes and descriptions. As dark came upon us, the sea seemed to light up with the lights from the adjacent craft and the shore line.

Funny happenings

I have had some quiet power plays with the room steward and he always won of course. The first was over the space under the bed. I wanted to use it for luggage; he stores Lord only knows what in a huge plastic bag under there.

So they had to change our couch to one that will make into a bed when Lisa comes. I have been trying to configure that space so that she will have a dedicated space for her luggage in the corner near the couch/bed. So we rearranged the furniture for this eventuality. When we returned this afternoon, everything was where it had originally been placed.

Another funny event

Ed had taken some photos at Petra yesterday of Frances and one of the photographers, Daisuka. So I air dropped them to Diasuka and then found Frances. She got her iPhone ready and when I began the airdrop, the only one I could find was one for Randy, her husband; one without any identification, and one for someone with another name. So Randy got it and it downloaded to his phone. We tapped the one without a name attached hoping it might be Frances. The little icon swirled, someone accepted it, and that was it. EXCEPT it wasn’t Frances’ phone! So someone on this ship accepted and downloaded those pics. We have no idea who it is.

Pirates party

How appropriate that we are about to enter the Suez Canal and we are having a pirates party upstairs tonight. We won’t stay long as we want to see what the Canal has to show us. Rumor has it that it costs the ship $150 K to transit the canal.