Day 54 Indian Ocean

Monday, sunny and smooth. Pizza and fried noodles last night for Sunday night supper! Saw another Navy vessel this morning. Additional security protochols remain in effect. No visit to the focsl today, maybe tomorrow afternoon. We stay close to the Yemen side, but are too far out to see anything. This route is 26 miles longer than a straight line course, but I notice several other ships take it also. Over the next 9 days we travel east and south. Our travel south will be another 18 degrees of latitude, taking us across the equator to 6 degrees south latitude at Jakarta.

I washed and stowed my winter clothes this morning. Won't need long sleeves for a month, until we reach northern China which, by the way, gets its name from the Chin Dynasty. I loaned my noise cancellation headphones to the doctor for his visit to the engine room this morning. After lunch, I swim. The pool has been newly refilled. I like the salt water pool. It is deep, but not a lap pool. To swim each side is a scissor kick and one stroke. It is pleasant drying in the midday sun and breeze. I am stretched out in a plastic chair with my feet resting on my heels and my toes pointed up. I notice my toes are vibrating. Also the surface of the pool has an interesting and unusual stationary wave pattern of points. After a few weeks on the ship, the background noises and movements hardly register. It occurs to me that one could jump into the pool from 1, 2, 3, or 4 decks up, but Im not in college anymore, and I dont want to be confined to my cabin for the duration. The afternoon would not be complete without some time in a deck chair on the Pilot Deck.