January 31 -February 2, 2019 - 3 Glorious Sea Days - Thursday to Saturday, Days 25 to 27

January 31 -February 2, 2019 - 3 Glorious Sea Days - Thursday to Saturday, Days 25 to 27

These 3 sea days take us from Phuket, Thailand across the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal on our way to Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. This gave me time to bring the blog up to date and to attend numerous lectures. The presenters onboard as part of the in depth program are excellent. The lectures have been both interesting and stimulating. The seas have been very calm. If we don’t look out the window we don’t know we are moving.

This morning I completed my 3 mile walk before breakfast. At the room after breakfast the Captain made a public announcement to explain that we were making a turn to starboard because the bridge had sighted what appeared to be a damaged vessel in that direction. He would keep us informed of developments. 

Alice, with camera in hand, and I, with my binoculars, proceeded to the railing on deck 6. We were still quite a distance away but I could make out a small vessel riding low in the water. As we came closer it became clear that this was a raft with a strange frame superstructure flying an unknown flag. There was no sign of passengers when the ship’s horn was sounded. In the fulfillment of the seaman’s commitment to render assistance we lowered a tender with the first officer and medical personnel aboard. They approached the vessel and circled it twice before returning to the ship. This was indeed a raft with no space below the water line. There was no sign of anybody onboard. It seemed abandoned. The tender returned without incident. We notified the Sri Lanka Coast Guard of the hazard, and resumed our route to Trincomalee. This diversion will not impact our scheduled arrival time tomorrow.

The rest of the morning was unscheduled. A welcome respite  But the afternoon was filled with lectures.

I used some time in the morning to once again try to add some pictures to this blog. It proved to be a success of sorts. I have added pictures to Phuket, but I have been limited by the software in where I can place them. It really messes up the text formatting unless I just place them after the text. For this reason I will do that. I will place them after the text close to the order in which they are discussed. Hopefully this won’t be too annoying for you. It is for me, and I will continue to look for ways to improve on this.

Today’s lectures were especially good. An author from Sri Lanka who is part of the In Depth team gave the second part of his presentation on Sri Lanka architecture. The first part considered Colonial Architecture. It was good, but this second part dealing with contemporary architecture was outstanding. He spent most of his time talking about residential designs with beautiful slides. He also explained the reasoning behind some of the elements. Most of these relate to air flow and cooling of the interiors. He also included a modern hotel. Here the goal was to maximize natural lighting of the interior spaces without overburdening the HVAC system. Very well done.

Another In Depth presenter explained various local religious practices and beliefs. His portrayal of some of the penitential rites was sever as it displayed serious body piercing. These forms of penance did not result in bleeding or pain. He personally witnessed these things, and he still cannot fathom how individuals were able to endure them.