By Bob Van Leer

  (AT SEA, BAY OF BENGAL, Tuesday, March 28, 2000) - Yesterday we had the captain's Welcome Aboard party, delayed several days because of busy port schedules. Capt. Thomas Wildung is a native of Sweden, son of a sea captain, and has spent all his life at sea. He looks the part.

  He gave a short rundown on the ship, Legend of the Seas. It is just five years old. Betty and I and my sister and brother-in-law, Bud and Jane Pallardy, took a cruise on this ship in 1996 when it was almost new. That time we sailed through the Caribbean and the Panama Canal, disembarking at Acapulco, Mexico.

   Capt. Wildung, who does a passable stand up comedy routine, said the ship uses 250 tons of fuel per day when underway and gets 47 feet per gallon.

  The ship uses 800 tons of fresh water per day. It has five propellers, two in cross ship channels making the ship extremely maneuverable.

  He said there are 442 persons in the crew of 45 different nationalities. The people who take immediate care of us include: Ouda, from Tunisia, our waiter; Zsolt, from Hungary, our assistant waiter; Keisha, from Trinidad, our cabin steward; Mary Ann, from the Philippines, our butler; and Eric from Austria, our assistant head waiter.

  The passengers are also diverse. U. S. citizens are in a minority of 251. The largest number of passengers is from England, 591. Germans aboard total 214. The rest are from France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and all around the world. Thirty nationalities are represented on the ship. The total number of passengers aboard for this leg of the cruise is 1388. The ship can carry 2000 and the difference is noticeable in the dining room and theater.

  It gives a different perspective being a minority in a far away part of the world. Everything doesn't revolve around the U. S. here. Pres. Clinton has been in the news because he was visiting in the area. But the news from Australia and India is more important here than what is happening in the U. S.

  Since leaving Singapore we have set our clocks back three times, but the last time only a half-hour. This is India time and somehow the country is off a half-hour from the rest of the world.

  A ship this size puts on very good entertainment. The band has 10 members and there are at least seven dancers and four vocalists. Headliners are brought in from the U. S., Australia and England so far. Some stay for a while. Others come on and leave at the next port.

  Today (March 29) we passed just south of Sri Lanka this morning and turned north toward southern India. We have left the Bay of Bengal and are in the Indian Ocean. This evening we are just a few miles off the Indian coast and can see lights on shore. We will dock at Cochin, India, in the morning and Betty and I will take a tour on shore.