On our way to India!!!!

We are back on the open seas with all on board heading quickly at around 19 knots towards the coast of India. Actually something they do everyday around 12:30 is read the position report and announce what is going on for that day. It is also available online so I took it off the computer and here it is: October 12, 2005Latitude 17 degrees - 18 minutes South, Longitude 060 degrees - 52 minutes East. Distance made good since noon yesterday 260 nm, total distance made good 260 nm, distance to next port 2,341 nm. Average speed since noon yesterday 19.4 knots, distance to nearest shoreline 205 nm to Island Rodriguez. Sea depth 11,483 feet, sea water temperature 75.2 degrees F (24 degrees C), air temperature 75.2 degrees F (24 degrees C). Southeast winds, 21 knots. Moderate swell and rough seas, partly cloudy skies. Sea wave height 8.2-9.8 feet. Sunset 1749 hrs; sunrise 0515 hrs. So since last post, we left the grocery store that we were using the internet at and went back to the hotel. Where we tried to sign up for a massage, but the lady was all booked for the day. She told us to go to a place right across the street which was open. Luckily she had a couple of spots open for us. So I ended up getting one of the best full body massages ever for 45 minutes and it was only like $15 US. It was kind of funny because I had never had a full body massage I guess from what I have heard was the type I usually get is the sport massage which is supposed to be deep tissue. Anyways, with the full body one part of it, is she got the oil and rubbed it all over your face and head it was nice but very different at the same time. Then that night we hung out around the hotel mainly. During dinner till the late hours they had a funny electric piano guy and a girl singer that were where the DJ was the night before. The funny part was that he was playing all kinds of American music like Madonna and such but it was all in French even a country song in French. Later that night we walked down the way to the Buddha club where everyone was supposed to be. When we got into viewing distance there were about 200 semester at sea people leaving, apparently it was closing pretty early or something. So we just went back to the hotel and hung out where some of the people were sleeping out on the beach but I just wanted to sleep in the comfortable bed in the room.
The next day we got up and had breakfast at the restaurant there that overlooks the beach. Everyone had apparently gotten up early and was out at the beach in full swing. People were swimming in the ocean, sailing, water skiing and playing on paddle boats. After snorkeling AJ and I decided to walk over to the scuba hut over to the hotel and bargain with them for a little while. It is funny because we have gotten really good at this bargaining and from what it seemed paid a lot less than most of the friends on the trip. This was also the case with the two girls that came up later and went scuba diving with us. Mauritius has a great coral reef around the beach area of the island in fact I heard it was supposed to be one of the largest continuous in the world. This is one of the reasons people are able to do such a variety of water sports off the beach at our hotels like water skiing. We ended up doing a backward roll into the water off of the boat which is always interesting and followed the anchor down to the bottom with a maximum depth of 21 meters which I believe is something like 65 feet or so. AJ as usual had a lot of trouble making it down because of his ears not adjusting to the varying depths that caused the rest of the group to have to stop and wait on him. When I go down I am constantly breathing in and clearing my ears, but at one point there was an extended wait for AJ to go further down. Which caused me to unconsciously stop clearing my ears which after a little while stopped clearing. I thought that I was going to kill AJ because I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the dive. Eventually I was able to clear my ears though and we were able to continue.
The diver over all was really good probably on par with Cozumel, but there was one very interesting thing the sea eninimees which is the thing that nemo likes to hang out in. They were soo huge, they covered huge rock formations and there tentacles were at times up to a foot long. I had never seen anything like it before. One of the girls Gueen who was with us had only been certified for about 6 months was pretty funny because you would just be floating along and for some reason she would be a above you and just hit you really hard on accident. When we all got up we were all like who was that hitting everybody.
We spent the rest of the day on the beach, are were planning on stopping off at the bank before 5pm but apparently the banks close at 3:30pm. Also a little after that all the shops were closing and tons of people were out in the street walking all one direction. What is was, is that the majority of the population there is Hindu and they had been fasting all day and at 7pm they could eat so they were all really ready to get out of work and get home. There were a few shops and restaurants that were still open around the water front. Where I ended up having one of the best dishes so far on the voyage. It was a Mauritian steak which was like fillet mignot with rice and a hot sauce like tomato based salsa all over the steak but it wasn’t hot. After dinner we made our way back to the ship and went up on deck to watch the long line of people trying to get on board right at nine. See anyone that is late after nine who is not clocked in on the ship gets one hour dock time for every minute that they are late. So if you happened to be like an hour later you could possibly miss a port all together and not be allowed off.
It was a little tough getting up for classes this morning, but I made it which I can’t say the same for a lot of the shipboard community. It was nice though because when I got back from class there were friends who had decorated my door with happy birthday signs and cards. One even from the Dean which was kind of nice. And I ended up getting a lot of my birthday cards that were sent from Kenya so I was really excited about that. It has been a really good birthday so far, and all my friends are saying that we are going to have a party tonight so we will see what that beholds.
A few finishing notes I believe that Mom and Dad get back in town and assuming they will make it back safely I am thankful. I hope that you will keep there travels in your prayers I also have a relative that needs your prayers for medical reasons so I know everyone knows there is power not only in prayers but in numbers. I know God is in control and things in the end will turn out for the best. God bless you and the USA!!!!
Love always,

Chad