Cruising South Africa's Coast

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Or still cruising the Indian Ocean. According to the live TV navigation map in Palm Court, we are in the Agulhas Current. It is rough. It woke us up several times last night, so we already knew. This is the ragged western edge of the Indian Ocean. This current wraps around the tip of South Africa where it runs into the Benguela Current. So we have a lot of potentially rough sailing ahead. The captain didn't mention any of this in his AM announcement but on a previous sailing around that captain taught us a lot and I remember. Today the captain announced we're 25 nm off the coast which we can see off our starboard side. He said we're in 6-10 foot seas (seems bigger) and can't keep water in the pool and hold on to something as you move around the ship and stay away from doors that could slam.

It being Saturday, I had a big breakfast. I started a small load of light colored clothes before going up to breakfast at Marketplace. Clay had his usual breakfast and left early to move the load to the dryer. I came back and started taking out the dry stuff before 8:30 am. Fortunately by 8:30 am the cabin was ready. We usually don't come back until after 9 am and it looked like they'd gotten a late start this morning. She must have done our cabin first. Good job.

There is a Grand Gala Buffet in Crystal Plaza for lunch. We'll avoid that. There is a 2018 movie, "The Seagull", this afternoon that I suspect I'll miss because I'll be lying down due to ship lurching. They are having hosted star gazing again tonight but it isn't looking good for it. It has been low clouds and completely overcast since yesterday. Right now it is raining and we can't even see the coast in the distance anymore. We'll see. In other bad news, we'd planned to visit Robben Island on the 12th. There are some who advise booking tickets in advance. Tickets are basically non-refundable if you don't live there to use them per the rules, so we'd waited. I went online yesterday to check and they'd canceled service for the day due to gale force winds. They had a link to see wind forecasts for 7 days and all but one day was equal to or higher winds than current conditions! We decided we'd wait and decide on the 12th and if they're sold out too bad for us. If they aren't running that day then we're not out any money. We don't really have a backup plan for Cape Town.

Tonight is formal and we have reservations at Umi Uma. A lazy day at sea holding on to something. Tomorrow is Port Elizabeth and our last game drive. Today is exactly one month before the end of our World Cruise and our disembarkation in Monte Carlo. Time flies.

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