Sunday Evening 10 April 2016
Sailing to Mumbai

I have a front row seat for tonight's encore presentation by Christine Andreas, purely by last-minute luck.  My bags are packed (over packed) and outside my stateroom waiting to be picked up.  I will see them next in the cruise terminal in Mumbai.  This seems to be a good time to be leaving the Nautica, as I have noticed a significant increase in passenger coughing and sneezing today.  One passenger has been confined to his cabin for a week with pneumonia, and we had that medical emergency as we left Cochin yesterday.

In addition, the captain's noon-time address mentioned the possibility (although slight) of pirates in this part of the Arabiam
Sea.  We were advised not to interfere with crew members if we see them with weapons, and water hoses have been laid out on the open decks in case they need to be used as water cannon!  I'll let you know if anything develops.

I spent most of the day packing and somehow skipped lunch.  I went instead to high tea at 4pm in the Horizons Lounge  Although I was still full from scones and pastries, I managed to eat a light dinner in the Grand Dining Room, with the company of Prof Ruiz, the enrichment speaker from UCLA, his Brazilian wife, and their friends, another couple from the UCLA History Department.

They have been kind and friendly to this solo traveler for the past week, asking me to dine with them several times.  We plan to keep in touch and they are anxious to read my blogs from India when they return home in another 18 days.

I will try to post this later tonight, but will probably not add any pictures.