Ho Hum Pirates…

Here we sit.  Well, not exactly “sit” as we are "knotting" away at a good clip.  But our TIME is coming.  The cruise director came on the tv this morning to warn us that tonight we need to keep our room darkening curtains closed, all outside lights off and only necessary inside lights on.  It’s time for the PIRATES!!

What that means is we are going to be, about 3:30 this afternoon, going through a really tight squeezy place where we are on one way 2 miles from Somalia and the other way 16 miles from Somolia.  Somolia is where those tricky pirates like to hang out. 

Yemen coast 6 miles off port side as we leave the Red Sea

Coast of Djibouti and Eritrea 10 miles to the starboard

I know this stuff because I watched the movie “Captain Phillips” before we left St. Louis.  And it is a great movie with Tom Hanks, who does an extraordinary job of portraying a captain of a large ship under siege (kinda like with the Crusaders, only not).  I note that, although they have a full library of streaming movies onboard, they do not have “Captain Phillips” or any of the Jack Sparrow movies included.  And not even any of those oldies with pirates, parrots, and maidens to be rescued.  There are no books about that stuff either, in case you are interested.

Passengers relaxed and napping next sonic cannon.

One sonic "cannon" mounted aft.

One of 20 or more water cannons mounted on ship's
perimeter.

So this may be the real thing.  Bos and I will be sitting on our deck, casually reading our kindles, waiting at 3:31 p.m. for the appearance in the not-far distance of little rowboats zooming up.  Or not.  I may choose to take a nap.  Or maybe watch another movie.  We watched “Jobs” last night and, hard to believe, it was very good!  I also have some Mary Tyler Moore and a couple of Marilyn Monroe flicks. 

Ice cream choices at poolside.

And I wonder what happens to us if we, by accident, leave our curtains open? Or we keep unnecessary lights on?  Who is the judge?  Do they put us in the “brig”?  Do we go on bread and water?  (Might be good for us at this point!)  Or do they throw us overboard to the pirates or the sharks, of which we have seen none.

Am I a daredevil?  Or not…