Monday, November 14

Our second day in the Red Sea, it is over 30C outside but seems hotter.  The noon announcement from the Captain indicted that we were 45 nautical miles from the coast of Sudan, on the starboard side, and there is a depth of 1350 meters below the keel.  The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. It’s connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Barb el Mandeb strait and the gulf of Aden, and to its north lie the Sinai Peninsular, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez.  The Red Sea has extensive shallow shelves noted for their marine life and corals and is the habitat of over 1,000 invertebrate species and 200 types of soft and hard coral. It is the world’s most northern tropical sea and has been designated a global 200 ecoregion.  

The rich diversity is in part due to the 1,200 miles of coral reef extending along the coastline.  These reefs are 5000-7000 years old and are largely formed of stony acropora and porites corals.  The reefs are home to many types of red sea fish including some of the 44 species of shark.  

The earliest known exploration of the Red Sea was conducted by ancient Egyptians as they attempted to establish commercial routes to Punt. The Biblical Book of Exodus tells the account of the Israelites’ crossing of a body of water, which the Hebrew text calls Yam Suph.  Yam Suph was traditionally identified as the Red Sea! 

So, back to the present - being Monday and a traditional mahjong and bookclub day 

I was able to FaceTime with the girls to discuss our latest book ‘Horse’.  Can highly recommend the book by the way.  After that I went to a future cruises presentation, and after later decided to see a film.  It is so hot on deck, I’m thinking it will get hotter as we go further south and that maybe I should be on a ship to the Antarctic! 

Dinner over, not without some dramas as usual and I’ve been to the show.