Ok – so today is the weird “technical” stop day.  We have to leave South African waters because….well…who knows.  It sounds like we have to do it for tax reasons or something, but regardless what was actually originally supposed to be a port day in Mozambique got changed to a sea day with a “technical” stop.  The Captain says that Mozambique isn’t safe and that’s why we didn’t really stop there.  I mean we don’t even go into port, just sit outside in the bay, and we guess the customs folks got on from the pilot boat, stamped whatever they had to stamp, and 2 hours later we are sailing back down the coast to Durban.  Weird.

We’ve got nothing to do today – so we do our norm:  gym, breakfast, blog, read, lunch – it’s the Officer’s BBQ – Jim lecture at 2 for Plate Tectonics and South Africa in WWII.

Tonight we’ve been invited to eat with Rafael, the Business Operations manager, and his wife. We’ve made friends with him, and I thought it was so sweet he invited us.  We go to the Loyalty party first at 5:30, sitting in our normal seats, where it is just us and the officers.  Yeah.  We might as well be staff by now.  There are not a lot of people here, maybe 60?  Last cruise was more attended and we had the same number of total passengers, so who knows what’s going on here – but for us it is nice, we just hang out talking to everyone up there, and then enjoying the show.

We meet Rafael and Monique in Mosaics and proceed to the dining room, where we sit in the middle section (poor Datu, he thinks we’re sitting with him, but you know, you just sort of have to follow the officer!), right next to the Captain’s table with the 3 top cruisers.  To be honest, we have a better time at our table!  It is a delightful dinner, where we get to know Rafael and Monique better – we have so many interests in common!  They love to cook – ditto.  Asian, Thai in particular. Ditto.  Food is the objective, they find a restaurant, then walk to it, exploring neighborhoods and areas on the way.  Ditto.  We just had a wonderful time recounting experiences and travels and life in general.  Excellent dinner and companions!

Then it is off to the cabin for us – the show is some musician guy who features Jerry Lee Lewis or some such thing. Nah.  We’re kinda done with shows and such – even though we tried desperately to stay awake for the 10:30 Creweoke, but just couldn’t get ourselves motivated for it. It was great the first time, but tonight? We’re just as happy on the balcony reading.  A perfect day in our opinion!