March 7 - If it’s Thursday it must be the Java Sea

We’re sailing through another sea today, this time the Java Sea.  This is another of those shallow seas (depth of around 150 feet) which is part of the Sunda Shelf.  It lies between Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west and Sulawesi to the east. As we’ve sailed along the sea has been almost flat calm.  If we were in a sailing ship we would be becalmed and praying for a breeze. As it is, the only ripples on the water are from our wake and from an occasional cat’s-paw.  It’s also blazingly hot.  I think even the extreme sun-lovers on the ship are spending less time outside.

Now this is a calm sea.

Today is the last sea day of this segment of my journey.  Tomorrow we’ll be anchored off Komodo Island.  Then we’ll be in a place called Lombok followed by Bali.  Since this was the last sea day we had the finals of our cumulative trivia match.  I’m pleased to report that we were the undisputed champions so we didn’t even have to wager in the bonus round.  Our prize was a backpack with some Seabourn swag inside, nothing nearly as exciting as what Academy Awardees get.  Most of it I’ll give away to crew members that have been taking good care of me.

We also had another Galley Market Lunch which is always fun, but it’s impossible not to eat too much because everything looks so tempting.  For the rest of the day I watched a couple of the lectures on TV about events in the Southeast Asian area, all from the Australian point of view. Once again there are more activities than one person can possibly attend.

The corporate executive chef preparing Spaghetti alio e olio (olive oil and garlic)

The ship's doctor to whom they gave the job of carving a roast

I first met this lovely lady when she was a cabin attendant. Now she's an Executive Housekeeper and today she's serving up Baked Alaska.  Seabourn does a lot of promoting from within.

These are the wonderful galley workers that work behind the scene to prepare the wonderful food we eat every day.

I ate dinner at a table of all ladies hosted by our German female Hotel Manager.  Earlier in the evening I went to a cocktail party for members of a cruise forum and met the new staff captain (2nd in command) who is also a woman. It was fitting that our entertainment tonight was a female Australian singer who does a show about Helen Reddy, a feminist singer if ever there was one.  I danced only a couple of dances because I wasn’t really into the music being played. It was a pretty early night which felt really good for a change.