World Cruise Day 94/152 - Sea Day - The Red Sea, COVID is back, and your wish is my command

Cruise day: 94/152

Ports days: 38
Sea days: 56
Countries: 15
Continents: 4
Ports: 28

We're on our third of four sea days between Crete and Saudi Arabia.  The Red Sea is moving today and therefore, so are we, but it isn't too bad.  It's pretty breezy with 20MPH winds, but it is sunny and the temps are hitting 70 for the first time in a long time, so we're happy.

Speaking of the Red Sea, I never understood why they called it that.  Then I took a photo.  Now, I get it.

I never noticed that before.  Weird.

I want to point out one interesting tidbit about the Suez Canal.  Did you know that the Statue of Liberty that sits proudly in New York Harbor, a gift from France, was originally intended to grace the northern entrance of the Suez Canal at Port Said.  It was initially designed to depict a fellaha or female field worker or farmer often clad in a robe of cotton called galabeya and was to be titled, Egypt Bringing Light to Asia.

Because Egypt was struggling financially at the time in part due to expenses related to opening the canal, they rejected the idea.  It was then reworked into the Statue of Liberty that we know today.  Wow.

We had another bridge lesson and played some social bridge before flaming out in trivia today. It was another Are you smarter than a fifth-grader round hosted by Cruise Consultant, Hamed.  While we didn't completely fail at 12/15 correct, it wasn't enough for points today.  Our miserable failures:

• What is the hottest planet?
• We thought we had been burned by this before and answered the obvious - Mercury and we were burned again as it is Venus
• What is the first date (mm/dd/yyyy) of the 20th century?
• I knew this but bowed to team pressure and we answered 1/1/1900 - of course, it is 1/1/1901 - think about it - when they were writing checks in year #1, they wrote the date as 1/1/0001 - not 0000, so the last day of the first century was 12/31/0100 and the first day of century #2 was 1/1/0101
• A pound of what four ingredients goes into a pound cake?
• Butter, eggs, flour, sugar
• They needed a tiebreaker - how many countries are in Africa?
• 54

The Captain's sea day noon report has some bad news - COVID is back.  One passenger tested positive and is in isolation.  Four additional passengers were recorded as close contacts through our contact tracing devices and have been placed in protective quarantine until they either test positive and isolate or the quarantine period expires. I think it is four days, but don't quote me on that.  Bad news as we've been COVID-free for so long, but it was bound to happen and Viking is handling it to minimize the impact on everyone, including those directly impacted.

They had a special Tex-Mex brunch in The Restaurant today.  We opted to hit the World Cafe where they also featured Tex-Mex specialties.  We both enjoyed a beef fajita with peppers, salsa, sour cream, cheese, beans & rice.

Before we headed to lunch, we snuck a load of laundry in so we wrapped up that after lunch.

Arlona made an art project this afternoon.  They painted keepsake boxes. The design was on the box.  She painted the details to personalize it as well as staining the box itself.

After my spa photos the other day, a reader asked for photos of the exercise facility.  Of course, that meant actually going to the exercise facility, but as the title says, your wish...

The exercise facility is located on deck 1 forward starboard adjacent to the spa.  There are a variety of machines available.  I didn't photograph all the machines as some were in use and I wanted to respect privacy.  Therefore, I got creative with angles and cut out a couple treadmills and stationary bikes.

Weight machines

Treadmills

Stationary bikes, ellipticals

Hand weights

Balance balls, weights, benches, rower

Open space for yoga, pilates, stretching, etcetera

One interesting thing on sea days when you're in a shipping channel is the variety of ships you get to see.  I could get three in one frame, with a total of four visible off the port side this morning.

I use an app called Vessel Finder that lets me see the ship's name, where they departed, and where they are heading. It really gives you an appreciation of why the Evergreen ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal caused such an interruption in the supply chain.  The amount of goods that are always on the move globally is staggering.

Speaking of staggering, Arlona and some friends are having a girls' night out tonight at Manfredi's steakhouse.  That leaves the guys to start out in the Explorers' Bar - we'll see where that winds up.  

Did you know that it always takes a lot longer to walk home from the bar than it takes to walk to the bar?  The difference is staggering.  😉

Arlona's ladies' night turned out to be a very nice evening.

I wound up swilling some drinks in the Explorer's Bar with the guys and watching the sunset through the grating by the lounge area.

The guys went and had dinner in the World Cafe before rejoining our lovely wives.

Tomorrow is our last sea day before arriving in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for two, two-day port stops in Jeddah and Yanbu al-Bahr.