Today was a good one to relax and enjoy the fact that it had warmed up a few degrees, and the sun might come out later in the morning. We had sailed south along the coast with fairly smooth seas, little wind, and not much rocking and rolling. And no one was complaining about that. There seemed to be a sea haze that resembled fog but it was dry. For a change, we had some ship traffic, which increased as the day advanced. Many fishing vessels, tankers, and cargo ships passed by in the distance indicating we must be close to major cities. We spotted some smaller boats, which had to be a fleet of fishing boats. They were flying different colors of flags like green, yellow, and orange. Taking a wild guess, we thought they may display a flag suggesting what company they fished for.
After our morning walk, we went up to the Lido and made cups of steaming hot chocolate to drink outside by the Seaview Pool. As long as we stayed out of the wind, it was almost warm. The haze thinned out enough to feel some heat from the sun even if it was minimal.
About then, we waited for the horn to blow at high noon. It was late, so we figured the Captain may have forgotten to blow it. So when Captain Frank came on the speakers, he explained that he was not able to sound the horn due to the number of small fishing vessels in the area. We sort of already came to that conclusion and for a change, we were correct. Then he went on to explain that there had been a change of plans, and he would be docking the Zuiderdam late this evening, instead of tomorrow at 7:30am. We still had some scenic cruising to do starting around 3:30pm, so he said that since we were so close to the next port, he would prefer to do a speed of 13 knots instead of slower, which would cause some rolling and pitching. No one would be allowed off of the ship tonight due to customs and immigrations not permitting it. But tomorrow, we would stick to the original time of 7:30am to be cleared. Fine with us.
In the meantime, Kimberly had delivered her talk on tomorrow's port of Fukuoka, Japan at 1pm. Within the hour, it was on TV. Perfect time for us to watch it while enjoying burgers from the Dive-In Grill. We have never been here before and were more or less expecting a small city. Wrong, it looks huge and once again, full of history, temples, palaces, pagodas, and Japanese gardens. Much of it will be accessible by walking too. Taking notes, we should be able to navigate this city a bit easier than Kobe. The bad news was that it did not appear that there would be a complimentary shuttle to downtown like we had in Kobe and Tokyo. At least Kimberly had not gotten any confirmation of that yet. There's always hope…..
At 4pm, the bow was opened and many folks bundled up and went to watch our sailing into the Kanmon Strait area. Passing a lighthouse on a corner, the Captain turned the ship to enter the strait that took us under the Kammon Bridge. Kimberly did narrate this scenic cruising, but it was not broadcasted on the verandas. It was on our room TV, but the sound could not be turned up for us to hear it outside on the veranda. We chose to watch and photograph from our veranda and catch up on the details with the help of Google later on. It sure would have been nice if the sea haze had cleared up, but it didn't. It sort of put a thin gray layer over the pictures. It was heavy enough at times that we could not separate the horizon of the ocean and the start of the sky. Dreary might be a better word. And cold as ever, even though once we entered the strait, the seas were almost like silk. No wind to speak of. Of course, many pictures were taken along the hour and half cruise through here.
Once past the rambling city and the industrial part of town, the ship turned left and headed towards Fukuoka/Hakata. And since this will be the final stop for Japan, tomorrow there will be a special departure clearance with the immigration officials in the terminal building in the afternoon. We'll provide the details tomorrow after it happens.
We sure hope it does not rain like it has been predicted for this final port. So far, luck has been on our side.
Dinnertime had some very nice choices this evening starting with a most delicious crispy Thai spring roll with rice noodles and sweet and sour sauce. The best in our opinion. We both had different salads followed by veal parmigiana on a bed of spaghetti and grilled slices of zucchini. Doesn't get much better. Dessert was a tiny chocolate cupcake with caramel popcorn on top and a plate of fresh pineapple. We shared a scoop of vanilla ice cream since it went well with both desserts.
The Grand Voyage singers and dancers put on a show featuring the tunes of Elton John, one of our favorite entertainers. He has stood the test of time, and his music is just as popular today as it was when we first heard it.
We have to add a note here regarding our visit to China, which is coming up in a few days from now. We have been advised that we will be blocked with some communications such as Facebook, Google, and other websites. We do not now the extent of the block, but if you do not get any reports and photos, please know we will be sending them as soon as we can. We have been told that China's "wechat" will be available to download, although we doubt we will do that. So stay tuned……
Bill & Mary Ann
