A day at sea proved to be a dismal one with many dark clouds and rain on the horizon. The seas were choppy with what the Captain calls "white horses", an old term for white caps on the waves. Ever since leaving Tonga, we have had swells deep enough to keep the shipping rocking and rolling somewhat. And tomorrow it s predicted that we will encounter a tropical low rated 6 of a gale force wind. It will be the strongest between the hours of 11am to 7pm. We may have to dig out the meclizine to deter any chances of sea sickness, although only one of us seems not to need it during rough seas. And again, the conditions could change. We can only hope.
Sometime during the morning, we actually saw one of the Fijian islands on the horizon. Yesterday, Captain Friso had remarked he would be swinging close to Fiji to keep away from the worst of the storm. We did not realize that we were so close to Fiji….guess we were wrong.
A few days ago we received a message about the Komodo stop. This really puzzled us since we never knew there was a problem. Anyway, the letter stated that due to tidal fluctuations, the local pilots in Benoa, Indonesia said that in order to make calls in the two ports and not be cut short was to switch the days. For us, it really does not matter because we don't do the organized tours anymore. However, for the Komodo visit, we would have to book a tour or not be allowed off of the ship. We're not sure if that's our plan yet as the dragons do make for great pictures. The problem with many other people is that they made plans with independent operators in both Bali and Komodo well before the cruise began. We were reading on Cruise Critic during the summer about excursions being planned and the money being paid in advance. You would have to have good references to do this and a whole lot of trust. At least we were informed well before we are due to land there. One good aspect of booking the tours with HAL is that they will refund your money and rearrange these two days of touring. Of course, now that we recall, some folks wrote Cruise Critic during the summer regarding dropped tours and they were still waiting for their credit to be posted to their credit cards many months after the fact.
Other news was that we had a nice card delivered to us by our hosts that came from our travel agent thanking us for being good clients. Very thoughtful we thought.
The day was used for computer work and a light lunch until it was time for a get-together in the Crow's Nest. We and our group of fellow President's Club members were invited to the first Mariner Recognition Event for the guests who will be leaving in Sydney. The receivers of the bronze and silver medallions were seated on the port side, while the rest of us were on the starboard side. Drinks of our choice were served and many fancy treats were served. We declined the food since we had just finished lunch. We took two of the extra large lounge chairs near the front windows, which was nice. But one of us worried about gracefully getting out of that chair later on. Having a shot of Captain Morgan rum over ice helped a bit. The ceremony was led by Kimberly and the medallions were awarded by Captain Friso and Henk, our hotel director. It lasted about one hour and broke up by 5pm just in time for early seating dinner. The sun had appeared by now so we lingered until most of the guests had left the room.
Back in our room we took the time to watch the sun go down…another nice one.
Dinnertime came along and we ordered starters of an Asian-style beef soup with tiny green noodles and one charred shrimp appetizer. Whoever titled these starters sure don't make them sound appealing. The shrimps were not burnt, but grilled and tasty. Mains were one pasta with Andouille sausage (spicy) and halibut for a change. It was cooked well, but a bit on the dry side. A slice of cheesecake which was more like a panna cotta, and one bowl of mango sorbet finished the meal.
Entertainment was another performance of the Sand Artist, John Thiering which was fascinating once again.
The clocks went back another hour this evening. Now we are on the correct time for both Noumea and eastern Australia.
Bill & Mary Ann
