Yesterday at dinner we were told that the ship was using all of its engines and running at full speed. At the time they didn't tell us why they were doing so but as always rumors were flying around the ship about pirates off the coast of Africa being after us or that they were going to reward us for some reason and get us to India early. This morning we were informed that 2 students and 1 staff member were in need of serious medical attention so we were going to dock at an island called Diego Garcia Island... a small island in the British Indian islands so that these 3 people could be air lifted to Singapore! Apparently there is a U.S. Navy base on the island so this morning at breakfast we watched as one boat came up to our ship and 2 other raft like boats were circling around the ship checking it out. Apparently there was a submarine beneath our ship checking us out for security reasons. 7 men came on the ship to do a security check and then they took off the 3 patients. Quite a bit of excitement for one morning.

Every day we get a "Dean's Memo" which is kinda like the shipboard community newspaper that updates us one whats going on and what events are taking place etc. There is a spot for rumors called the rumor ranger and this is what todays was:

The Rumor Ranger

(rumorranger@semesteratsea.net)

Is it true that the reason we picked up speed was because there were pirates around today? Yes, in part. We are passing through the distant edge of a potential “pirate zone” but no pirates have been sighted. We have a modest increase in security and as one of the fastest ships in the sea, we have a great defense with our speed. We also increased speed because we had two students and one crew member in need of medical attention that needed to disembark in order to receive more intensive care and monitoring as quickly as possible.