We are now less than 104 days from our sailing date. [Aside:
why do we still use “sailing” when clearly the ships we go on are power boats?
Probably because it sounds really weird to say, “104 days from our dieseling
date.”] That means we now have fewer days until our ship diesels away than we
will have on board. I think that makes me a bit more excited than I’ve been.
You may have noticed on the bottom of this blog there is a
little collection of flags, each with a number denoting how many people from that
country have visited my blog. I love to sign on in the morning and see how many
new people I have accumulated (I hope I’m not disappointing anybody who takes a
peek at my deathless prose) and what country they are from. A tiny puzzle has
emerged: Why so many from Finland? I know why there are more from the US and
from Australia, but now the number from Finland has eclipsed the number from
Australia. There was a tremendous surge in the past couple of weeks. I don’t
even have the tiniest of ideas why the Finns seem to enjoy my blog—or at least
visit it. In any case, the ever-increasing number of Finns has seemingly
stopped. So I have two questions: why the increase? And why did they stop? Have
I insulted the Finns? I hope not, one of my favorite people is a Finn.
My much more serious worry is about the situation in the
Middle East. Our ship is going to travel through the heart of this area with
planned stops in Dubai (assuming the Strait of Hormuz is open, a pretty big
question mark right about now), Salalah, Safaga, Aqaba (Jordan), the Suez
Canal, and Alexandria. I’m not a sailor, but I don’t think there is any other way
to get to North America from Australia in summer than by going through the Suez
Canal. In winter, of course we could go around Cape Horn but I doubt that is a
viable alternative for THIS cruise!
I heard on the news this morning that the powers that be think
(how on earth can they know?) that Israel may bomb Iran in May, June, or July.
Let me peruse my itinerary—hmmmmh, we’re planned in Dubai on June 6 and the
Suez Canal on June 16. Smack dab in the middle of the “planned” bombing of
Iran.
Well, there’s not much I can do about any of it so I might
as well relax and keep planning for our cruise. That’s much more fun than
worrying, anyway! Besides, I’m pretty sure the ship with have to go SOMEWHERE
and we do have a stateroom reserved.
We were in the process of moving to Egypt in 1978 when Sadat was assassinated. Everyone said we were crazy to go. But it all turned out very well. There will probably always be turmoil in the Middle East so all you can do is take reasonable precautions and hope for the best. As you say, no point in worrying.
ReplyDelete