Today we continue our trek West South West across the Caribbean Sea.

The Caribbean Sea is bounded on the West and South West by Yucatan Peninsula and Central America, the North by Cuba and the Greater Antilles and the South by the north coast of South America.

The weather today was sunny and very warm. Unfortunately, there was little to no sea breeze to keep us cool, so it was hot and steamy on deck. Given the temperature, it was unsurprising to see other passengers going crazy for the free soft serve ice cream, some people even had sprinkles.

As far as entertainment went, it was a case of doing the usual sea day things and sitting in on two lectures given by two of the on board guest lecturers.

One was on the topic of ‘Pirates, Privateers and Buchaneers’. This one included a short history of piracy and privateering around the Caribbean and then looked at what is happening with modern day pirates. Most interestingly, the lecturer theorised that due to the loss of profits/inability to get ships due to better protection, the current high piracy area around Somalia will diminish over time and that the new hotspot for pirates will be on the west coast of Africa around the area of Nigeria.

The other lecture was on ‘Keeping the Oceans Blue’. This one covered topics such as threats to the health of oceans, like overfishing, acidification and oil spills. It was covered threats to some of the animals that live in the ocean, like whaling and issues with commercial fish farms. It was quite interesting and I think opened the eyes of some of the passengers to the kind of impact they are having on the broader environment.

After dinner at the restaurant and since we were having a big day tomorrow, we had a quiet evening.