Piracy and April Fools on the QE.

Today is day 88 of our World Voyage, which is pretty hard to believe. For the past week or so, we have been in transit through the area known for high piracy activity over the past several years. As such we have some extra security measures is place, just to make sure we don't become a victim. Our open decks are closed from sunset to sunrise, so no crew or guests are allowed outside during those times. At sunset all outer lighting is lowered on the ship, as well as windows and portholes being covered with black sheets to prevent light from escaping. We have a Royal Navy liason officer with us to provide extra intelligence and pull with peacekeeping forces should we require assistance. We also have three armed guards just for this section of the voyage, though the weapons themselves are kept on the bridge unless the are required. We have rigged water hoses, of all things, with high pressure capabilities, to use on anyone attempting to board. We also keep a speed constantly above 18 knots, making us a very difficult target. No ship has yet been targeted that has kept above that speed. All of us crew were put through a special drill and training in case an incident should occur. We all feel very safe here, especially because of all the measures in place to prevent an attack from even being considered.

We were given a memo by Tim requiring us to attend weapons trainign, where we would be briefed in the basics of firearms. This turned out to be an April Fools joke. I caught on right away and didn't bother to go to the training, but Tim was there to laugh at more than half the ship musicians who did. The captain also had a little April Fool's joke - he had printed in the program and made a very serious announcement that the ship was running low on fuel and might run out somewhere in these pirate waters....but we do have special converters that can run on all sorts of different products that have chemicals which can be harnessed. If every guest could donate a squirt of sunscreen, that would provide the necessary fuel to get us to Mumbai on time. They put a huge canister for collection in the lobby, and guests were flocking to donate their suncream. Some gave whole tubes. Some brought their specific brand to my friend Martin at the purser's desk, who made a big show of reading the ingredients and pronouncing it fit to be donated and a possible fuel source. What a ball they had....a few guests were a bit upset when they discovered it was a joke. These are probably the ones who are walking around sunburned.
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