Leaving Singapore our ship headed up through the Straits of Malacca, between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsular. The Straits are one of the busiest shipping channels in the world. Freight is moved from Asia down around Singapore, up the Straits, across the Indian Ocean and through the Suez Canal to Europe. Ships then come back the other way.

All this shipping has in the past been a great hunting ground for modern day pirates. Particularly, against smaller cargo vessels. Piracy has been thwarted in recent years because of greater surveillance by various authorities and is a rarity today.

Nonetheless, the waters around the top of Aceh and out into the Andaman Sea still have some of these friendly folk plying their trade. For this reason the ship quickens pace to speed up the crossing on the way to Colombo. The crew do a piracy drill one morning and all the passengers are alerted to what happens in the event of action. Basically, get away from external areas, stay inside and sit down. Also, be prepared for the ship making unexpected manoeuvrings. One suspects a lot of this has to do with insurance, duty of care etc.

The weather has turned a bit and is clouding up, some showers as we motor along trying to leave them behind. The seas have developed a slight swell with white caps from time to time.

Onboard activities continue. Slobro continues to lead our team in progressive trivia. We have slipped a little in the rankings down in the middle of the pack, 35 out of around 82. Recovery will be hard from here.

We have also had a great show with a harmonica player, did a version of ‘What a Wonderful World’ followed by a long ABBA medley. All backed by the band, very energetic.

The ship has had some diesel generator issues, slowing our progress and we are going to be a few hours late into Colombo. Unfortunately, disrupting our plans ashore for the day. Slobro is resigned to this but trusting that the issues will be fixed and not affect things beyond Colombo.
We have now turned up the west coast of Sri Lanka and will pass Galle on the way to Colombo.