By Bob Van Leer

  (AT SEA, INDIAN OCEAN, Feb. 16, 1995) - Our ship, Renaissance V, is cruising northeast at a leisurely 14.5 knots with our next port of call Desroches Island in the Seychelles, 595 miles from our Madagascar stop. There will be no stops today.

  Except in, port, we still have not seen another vessel. Today we did see something else moving, three birds, identified as boobies, trying to catch flying fish. This would not be a good place to be in a life raft. We can cruise for a full day seeing nothing else moving but flying fish.

   We could use a day to rest up and start thinking about packing for our long trip home. This is Thursday and our trip will be over Sunday. Traveling by air puts a severe limit on what we can buy in native handicrafts. Some things we have seen we would love to have at home, and the price was right, but there is no way we can get them there.

  By now, we have at least a nodding acquaintance with the other 112 passengers. They are a diverse lot from all over the United States and a few from foreign countries. Four are Canadians, which is easy to understand for a trip that originates in Newark, New Jersey. Two women are from Portland, and a couple is from Bend. Several are from California. But two are from New Zealand and one each from Singapore and Taiwan.

  These people were joining friends and relatives on the tour. It would have been closer for them to join the tour in Africa but the way the tour is set up, this was not permissible, so they started with us at Newark.

  The average age of the passengers would be 55-60, with some older and younger. There are no children and the youngest passenger is probably 30. The passengers are well-populated with physicians. There are at least five aboard.

CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY

  Today was the 43rd wedding anniversary for Betty and myself. There was one other couple aboard from Washington, D. C., with the same anniversary date, although in a different year, and we celebrated together at dinner this evening. Tonight we are to lose one more hour and be 12 time zones from home, as far as we can get. From there, either direction, we would get closer to home.

  Betty and I have traveled to a number of places and have been 11 time zones away before, but never 12. In the 12th time zone, there are not many tourist destinations. The zone included a swath of Russian Siberia, Iran, Oman, a slice of Pakistan and a few Indian Ocean islands. Our stop tomorrow will be Desroches, a tiny, barely populated island in the Seychelle group. Our tour director, Michael, said the population is as high as 40 when the single hotel has guests.