Temp: 94F 32CDistance travelled: 498 nautical milesWe are still a few days away from pirate/bandit country. The badlands lie around the horn of Africa along the Somalian, Eritrean and Djibouti coastline. We followed a small tanker out of the Khor al Fakkan port. I noticed that the tanker had rolls of barbed wire coiled around the hull of the vessel. This seemed to be for no other reason than a deterrent to would be hijackers. Ships will go to any length no matter...

The evening before arriving in Muscat it was the final 'formal' night and once again the Captain made an appearance in the theatre with his senior officers before the show.The show was the best yet and was an array of glitter and colour. It was called ‘Spirit of the Dance’. It was a mix of Riverdance meets a satanic phantom of the opera. The beast of the moment was a pale-faced demon with curly horns that fancied himself as a bit of a Paul Dan...