Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!! Hope your day is full of happiness and good fortune…...
We had a very nice St. Paddy's Day card delivered to us from our very sweet travel agent this morning. A good start to the day, thanks to our hosts onboard.
On our way to breakfast, we noticed an unusually long line at the front desk. And it was only 8am. We suspect that everyone is running into problems with the requested Indonesian landing info that has to be done on a cell phone or online. We looked at it briefly and realized it was going to be a problem for us. So at breakfast, we had two different people give us a heads up on the misinformation that was provided in our letter of instructions. There was no dropdown port for Slawi Bay, Komodo Island. By putting in Bali for instance, it could void the request. The deadline for this form to be done was May 18th at noontime. We decided to come back later and talk to either Kumar or Jonah and ask for their help.
An hour later found the line past the elevator lobby. Some folks were getting help, then sitting on the couch and trying to make it work. One of the requests was to print the QR code provided by the Indonesia government to carry with us while onshore. This is all new territory for us since we never had to do extra paperwork before. And not online. Waiting in line, one of us gathered some info while talking to the people in line behind me. Then one of the officers told me to go in the President's Club line, which I reluctantly did. By then I was close to the front of the line anyway.
Jonah came to the rescue. I had brought all of our paperwork to see if she could help. She promised to figure it out and would let me know if it worked since we do not have the cell phone to have a copy of the approved QR code. Thankfully, it worked and we got the clearance and a printed QR copy for each of us delivered to our mail slot before noontime. If anyone could figure this out, Jonah would be the one. Now we have to wait for the Indonesian visas to be done by the ship, and we are good to go. The charges are a little higher by them doing it, but it saves us the frustration of having it happen correctly and on time.
Once again, the pattern of our morning was the same with one of us walking the promenade and the other catching up on yesterday's exploits. It works for us. Then we went off to the Seaview Pool for some fresh air and clouds. The sun never appeared, but it was bright and still very warm. The only savior was the light breeze and lemonade from Ramon and Emmanuel.
Captain Rens came on as usual with his daily report. We still have 530 nautical miles to reach Komodo at an average speed of 14 knots. Not bad since we lost three hours waiting to leave the port of Darwin last night. The temperature and humidity remained about the same with light winds. Despite the heavy overcast, it did not rain as far as we know. There always seems to be showers on the horizon, but somehow the navigators onboard avoid the worst of the rain. And the clocks will go back one more hour this evening. Everyone likes and needs that.
Thanks to one of our breakfast buddies, we have discovered a new app that helps us to identify birds. Many of these birds are indigenous of Australia and not seen in our part of the world. The computer app identifies them and adds some info on each one. Wish we had this years ago.
There was a port talk on the upcoming Indonesian ports of Komodo Island and Bali. Although we have been to both places several times, we still like to listen to the port talks, sometimes learning new things. And because today was St. Paddy's Day, there were Irish-related activities such as the afternoon tea, and a bar hop at 8:30pm in the Ocean Bar. Another Irish party was held in the Crow's Nest at 8:30pm. And finally there was a show in the World Stage with a vocalist, Robert Bannon, with Irish music and traditional tunes. Something for everyone.
Dinner time was also part of the holiday with a few Irish-related items. Starters for us were one Caesar salad, a croquette, sliced tomatoes with a fig balsamic dressing, and a bowl of ham hock soup. Different for a change. Mains were one honey baked ham and one corned beef brisket, which was nowhere close to corned beef. One of us tried that entrée and found it rather dry, chewy and not corned beef as I know it. Bill was kind and shared a slice of his ham, which was delicious. You just never know for sure unless you try something different. Tonight it did not work. Dessert brightened up the meal with fresh and sweet sliced pineapple and a slice of chocolate torte. Many folks were absent from the dining room due to an Australian seafood boil in the Lido for $35.
When we passed by the Ocean Bar, they were in the middle of the Pub Crawl and the room was full of happy drinkers for a price of $29. All in good fun.
And like we were told, we put the clocks back one more hour. Don't have to tell us twice.
Bill & Mary Ann
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