This was another sea day as we exited the Red Sea and entered the Sea of Aden, between the countries of Aden and the horn of Africa. Our original itinerary included a stop in Egypt for people to visit the temples of Luxor but due to safety issues this port was cancelled some months ago. The sea was a bit smoother and the weather was warm and a bit more humid.

We had breakfast in the dining room with a couple from La Jolla, the husband a retired pilot for Delta and the wife a retired flight attendant for American airlines. KK and the shore excursions manger presented a talk on the upcoming shore excursions in India and Sri Lanka. Kent attended a class on the basics of the Arabic language while Mark attended a cooking class on making a Moroccan vegetable tagine.

After lunch in the dining room we walked for several miles on the promenade deck where 3.5 laps around the ship equals a mile. It is easy to loose count of the number of laps that you make so we find it easier to walk for about 45 minutes.

The afternoon lecture by Werner Salinger was on Japan and its shrinking population of 127 million people. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has worked hard over the last several years since elected to strengthen the economy and increase defense spending. Since World War II, Japan’s constitution has limited its defense budget to just 1% of its gross domestic product. With a shrinking population and GDP this has left little money for defense spending.

Mark attended the watercolor class where he finished his coffee filter flower from yesterday, and Kent went to the gym and the sauna.

The evening’s entertainment was a performance by the B.B. King’s All Stars who perform nightly in the crow’s nest. This group usually performs several shows nightly in the bar but on this night they took the big stage to perform music that made Memphis famous.