Partly sunny….who are they kidding? Certainly not us, although it was mostly cloudy while we were eating breakfast this morning. Within the hour, the skies got darker, and the rain began. And it was not a drizzle, it was a downpour. Like a river running down the dining room windows, it sure helped clean off the salt deposits. If nothing else, the ship got a much-needed bath. Doubt that we will get in any pool time today. But considering we are into day # 53 so far, we have had very co-operative weather on this cruise.
During the wee hours of the night, we passed by several oil or gas drilling rigs that are in this area. What we might assume was a passing ship, turned out to be these well-lit platforms. Adding to the scene was more lightning, also common to this part of the world.
About a week ago, a few guests began to tape messages on their cabin doors telling everyone that they were excusing their room stewards from servicing their rooms during our stay in Indonesia. Namely, Bali and Semarang. Actually, the request was for a reduced service, since we still need fresh toweling and clean bathrooms. And maybe the pillow chocolates. The beds….we can manage to make our own. We know from previous cruises the last couple of years, decorations of anything possibly flammable are forbidden on the doors. Day after day, more notes appeared, until today, when we all received a message from the hotel director to stop doing this. Henk gave everyone a card that can be left in the mailslot, or inside your room, but only the day prior to the call in the port. A couple of hours later, most all of the messages had been removed. We have always informed our stewards in person, choosing not to advertise to everyone else on the floor what our intentions were. One sign did stay up however, but it was an offer to trade some pillow gifts for the powerbank for cell phones we recently got as a gift. This is a first for us, but we intend to keep ours.
The Princeton Custom Tailors are back this year. Since Hong Kong is not on the itinerary, we wondered if the clothing experts would be back. We suspect they boarded in Darwin, and will be sailing with us for a short time. They were available on deck 5 in the atrium today. We will have to check out their clothing and prices. On past trips, we found their custom tux shirts, vests and bowties to be of a high quality and well-made. A bit pricey, but a good way to use shipboard credit.
We had two jobs for the day. One was signing Sri Lanka and India arrival cards to be turned in at the front desk before tomorrow. We already have the necessary visas, or else we would be denied entry in both countries.
The second chore was purchasing more Zero Water bottles at the Explorations Café. With the upcoming ports in Indonesia, we would not leave the ship without the water. Especially in Komodo, where Captain Jonathon has warned the folks that we can expect high temps and even higher humidity.
Since it was still raining lightly, we met up with Barb in the dining room for lunch. A small salad, a bowl of soup, and one shared appetizer was all we needed. And lots of ice tea with lemon. At 10:30am, we had gone for our second walk on the promenade deck and earned two DAM 10 cent notes to donate to Barb’s stash. She will need 50 of these for one Amazon gift worth $5.00.
Back at our room, we took the time to watch Adele Thorne’s excellent talk on the Lair of the Giant Dragons on TV. She had up-to-date info on the Komodo dragons, filled with details not provided on any of the ship’s brochures. The more we listened, the more we wondered why we are going over to the island to see them again. Hope the dragons are in a good mood tomorrow.
Number 4 of 5 academy award winning movies was shown in the Wajang. This one was: If Beale Street Could Talk. By the way, yesterday’s movie, A Star is Born, was on today’s TV list. If there is time, we may watch it.
The sun set was early tonight, with all of the recent time changes. So at 5:30pm, we went up to deck nine to see what might be developing. Even though the sun was still higher than predicted, the dark clouds covered most of it. What concerned us more were the black clouds dumping rain right in our path. We only lasted two minutes before the rain began. In this part of the world, you cannot wait to take shelter, because once it starts, it can be heavy.
So it was back down to deck three to wait it out. The flying fish have begun to appear, and they are fun to watch. These are the small ones that remind us of popcorn when they explode from the sides of the ship. Lucky for them, there were no birds to gobble them up. We sort of knew it was a matter of time when friends Susie and Eddie would appear to watch for the upcoming sunset. Sure enough, they came outside and joined us for a not-so-spectacular sunset, but a nice way to end the day. Way too many clouds this evening. But the company was fine.
At 7pm, we were invited to a cocktail party with our travel group in the Piano Bar. We know about half of the sixty people that are in the group this year, so it is always a fun gathering. The Captain, his wife, and a few of the officers also mixed with our small group. We sat with Barb, who had to leave early since she had dinner plans with a few folks in the Pinnacle Grill. Martha joined us, and we had a chance to catch up on news with her.
We had a table for two this evening which was nice, because we only had two courses. The appetizers at the party were so good, we indulged a bit more than we should have. So, we had one minestrone soup, one entree dinner salad, and meatballs and spaghetti. A few nights ago, Phillip had stopped by and asked how we were liking the dinner menu. All of us said we sure would like to see some of the old favorites. By gosh, he listened, and for two nights in a row, there have been some good choices on the dinner menu. This evening there was fried chicken, steak salad, and of course, the meatballs and spaghetti. If we were not so full, we may have split the Key lime pie for dessert. Maybe next time.
Tomorrow will be our first port in Indonesia….Komodo Island. A group of crew members have a tour there, and they are more excited than the guests.
Bill & Mary Ann
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Report # 57 Day at Sea March 16, 2019 Saturday Partly sunny....really? & 82 degrees
