At this stage of a cruise, we’ve settled into a routine.  A sea day is a chance to catch up with things, meet friends for a chat and generally take things at a slower pace.  Sailing between Darwin and Komodo, the weather was warm and sunny and the atmosphere was happy and relaxed.

Breakfast outside is a treat after a few wet mornings and it made a great start to the day.

We were sailing through the Timor Sea, with just an oil rig on the horizon.  The waters here were glassy and still and we find it fascinating how the character of the water changes each day.

I wandered around the ship, finding few people around at this time of day.  Since the advent of Kindles, the ship’s library isn’t quite so well used but is still a good place to sit and read and watch the world go by.

Not that there’s much passing traffic!

Looking at today’s programme, we decided that we’d go to the lecture about Captain Bligh.  Harry Chittick is an excellent speaker and having stumbled across several references to The Bounty in this part of the world, even I, the non-historian, was interested to learn more.  Sure enough, it was an hour well spent and we found ourselves overwriting rather a lot of misconceptions about the man, thanks to Harry’s excellent research and enthusiastic storytelling.

Where did the morning go?  Already it was lunchtime and the Indonesian buffet lunch on the pool deck was very tempting.  Not only that, but one of our friends had hit a winning streak – drinks were on him

The food is so good and these international lunch buffets are a great chance to try one or two different specialities.  Those green pancake style rolls were delicious with a sweet, nutty filling.  Mmmmm.

Later in the afternoon, it was time to get the grey matter going.  Would our friend’s lucky streak continue?  Well, it did stretch as far as the music quiz but sadly, didn’t continue to Trivia, where we were a point or two short of the winners.  Never mind – good to give someone else a chance, eh?

With a cup of Lady Grey tea and a cupcake to see me through until dinner (!) there was another day gone.  We had dinner to look forward to in Prime Seven, one of the speciality restaurants and then a show in the theatre.

As I sit writing this, we are approaching the island of Komodo which is looking green and rather lovely in the morning sunshine.  We gained an hour last night, so the ship is waking up slowly.

We are having a wonderful time!