Waiting to disembark a passenger in Aden
Today we continued our cruise through the Gulf of Aden which is now known all over the world for the possible activities of piracy. Any ships passing through this area are guarded by international naval forces. The scheme for ships passing through this area is called the ‘Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor’ which the Costa Fortuna entered into fully at 3:00am this morning.
We arrived at Aden at 8:00am to disembark at passenger needing medical attention which took just over an hour. We then proceeded as planned and didn’t actually start our transit through the strait of Bab el Mandeb into the Red Sea until 3:00pm because of the earlier diversion.
The strait has a small island called Perin which divides the channel into two. I was hoping to get a phone signal strong enough to post a couple of photos of us passing through but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
Apart from that there is nothing much to report today, we have spent the day lying in the sun on deck and the occasional foray into the buffet for something to eat.
To finish with I will mention that for the first time on Costa I have made Pearl status in the Costa Club, and like all loyalty schemes it aims to provide you with some little perks not available to other passengers. Looking at what there is available to us has left me wondering what it is actually worth. Lots of things seem to have disappeared since our last Costa cruise. I suppose the biggest thing on offer is the free meal in the speciality restaurant but to be honest we are enjoying the food and waiters in the main dining room so may not bother.