Days at sea always present us with a dilemma: catch-up on lost sleep after the hectic pace of the past days, or be on the lookout for rare encounters in the big ocean surrounding us.
On the one hand, it is tempting to laze around a little and enjoy the peaceful motion of the ship rocking us gently in our comfortable beds. On the other hand, we could feel guilty about being privileged enough to be in such surroundings and wasting the slightest possibility of seeing marine mammals in their natural environment, even for a fleeting moment.
Thankfully, the dilemma is easily resolved by trusting our undersea specialist Mike G. with the discoveries, and vacating to other occupations in the meantime.
The early morning yoga classes have become more and more popular, to the point where the deck gets a bit crowded in the morning, yoga mats covering most of the deck space. There is a regular crowd, where the same faces are seen most days, and occasional visitors come for an introduction to the activity, most of them becoming regulars.
Later in the morning, our intellects got ample nourishment too, with interesting presentations. Some of the attendees, paying attention to what was going on outside, noticed that the ship had made a 180 degree turn, and with trepidation we peered over the side at a magnificent specimen… which turned out to be a wooden log.
Back to the lounge for another lecture, this time we were interrupted by an announcement over the PA system to inform us that a pod of spinner dolphins were ahead of the ship. Spending time on the bow, or on the observation deck, is always an enriching activity, either witnessing life around us, or sharing a meaningful moment with a fellow traveler.
What seems like a routine day went by very quickly, as nothing really happened routinely, and delights marked our day in a surprisingly regular manner, not least of it a surprise show after dinner, starring our talented Philippine crew. That was the start of a dancing revelry that went on in the night as the National Geographic Orion sailed through the calm Indian Ocean, getting us closer and closer to Sri Lanka.
