After several port days, we started the trek west across the Bay of Bengal towards Sri Lanka and India. This meant we were nearing the pirate alert zone that is between the tip of India and the Red Sea.

While we don't enter the alert waters until after Colombo, the ship still needed to prepare. Overnight several fire hoses were tied to one of the decks and the acoustic defence system set up.

At 10am the ship stopped for the pirate drill, which for us meant returning to our cabins, propping the door open and waiting for further instructions. Meanwhile the crew did their pirate specific duties. After the exercise was done, the Captain explained that during the drill they had turned on the fire hoses, used the acoustic thingy and contacted the organisation that if we were under attack would get a warship sent to our position. He was quite pleased that it all went well.

While I didn’t get a photo of them, I did spy a couple of beefy men dressed in black with army style cargo pants and I can only assume non lethal weapons, walking around with senior members of the crew. I suspect these are our pirate security people.

Due to the pirate drill, Zumba was a short class that was interrupted by the Captain reminding us about the drill.

The rest of the day was spent doing very little. Afternoon trivia was also in a different location due to the usual place being prepared for the 'Captain’s Cocktail Party’ for people who have cruised a lot… Mum got an invite but I’m too far down the food chain. As is the case with these events, there is a competition for who has cruised the most. The winner at the 7pm sitting was someone with over 1100 cruise days under their belt.

After dinner we braved the weather to watch World War Z on the big screen. Unfortunately the elements had other ideas. Not only was it a howling gale, at one point in time it started to rain horizontally. We heard very little of the movie, but you get the gist. Virus infects people, they turn into zombies, they try to eat other people, humanity doomed if vaccine not found in three months, Brad Pitt travels world looking for answers, finds answer, is hero and tests vaccine on self, saves the world, people are happy.

Fun fact:
With our sea lice bites getting quite itchy, we have done some experimenting with what stops them itching quickly. I am happy to report that Tiger Balm stops the itch but takes a while, hand sanitiser gel stops the itch straight away but doesn’t really last and SOOV sort of works.