May 18 - Still in the Red Sea

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Here we are still cruising northwards on the Red Sea.  To our starboard is Saudi Arabia and to our port Egypt.  We’re far enough offshore that we see nothing except water, water, everywhere.  These are lazy days which are good since we’ll have some forced marches coming up tomorrow and then a couple of days later.

Here’s a little information about the Red Sea.  It’s actually an arm of the Indian Ocean lying between Africa and Asia.  There are different theories about why it’s called the Red Sea.  Some say it’s because of seasonal blooms of a plant called sea sawdust (that’s not the scientific name – I can’t spell that).  More modern scientists believe that the name Red Sea comes from some Arabic cultures in which colors referred to ordinal compass points with Red meaning southern and Black (as in Black Sea) meaning northern.  Evidently, Herodotus, a Greek historian, used Red Sea and Southern Sea interchangeably.

So here we are.  Last night we dined with Emma, the cruise director, a very nice British woman.  I sat next to a German gentleman who has been on the ship since Sydney, Australia, some 60 days total.  He was interesting to talk to.  I found one of his stories kind of funny.  His last girlfriend was an entertainer on a cruise ship.  In order to be with her, he spent about 160 days on the ship.  When the relationship ended he still had another 100 days booked on that ship.  He managed to change them to a different ship of the same line. I know he was some kind of consulting engineer, but I can’t imagine how he worked.  He was young enough that I don’t think he was retired yet. 

Tomorrow we’ll be in Aqaba from which we’ll go to Petra.  For any Indiana Jones fans, Petra is the location where Indy found the knight guarding the Holy Grail. The walk down to the treasury is strenuous (2 miles long and a 600 foot drop in elevation) and of course you have to make the trek back up.  We did it several years ago and we’ll try to do it again.  The view is worth it.

Aqaba itself is a name fans of the movie Lawrence of Arabia might  remember.  Lawrence formulated a plan to attack the Turks in Aqaba from the land since the Turkish guns were in fixed emplacements  facing the sea.  His Arab allies thought it couldn’t be done, but they did it.  Along the way from Aqaba to Petra we’ll pass Wadi Rum, another place from that movie.  It was there that Lawrence first met up with Faisal and the Arabs who fought beside him.

Just a taste of the landscape we'll be seeing tomorrow