Day 79: At Sea … South China Sea

Sunday, 26 March 2017
At Sea — South China Sea … En Route to Manila

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:30p (PST) … UTC 1:30p (26 March)
Temp: 82.9F (28.3C)
Position: 12.59.91N / 119.29.65E

It isn’t that life ashore is distasteful to me.  But life at sea is better.
~ Sir Francis Drake ~

I don’t want to jinx it, but we had a lovely day of sailing calm seas yet again.  We’ve been really lucky with the seas since crossing the Tasman from New Zealand to Australia over three weeks ago.  Not that the days previous to that were particularly bad by our standards, but one knew from the motion of the ocean that one was at sea.

I was up at 5:45a.  I took advantage of the internet to upload photos from Brunei and Kota Kinabalu and then sat down to write about those two days.  Mui was nice enough to bring me breakfast from the Terrace Café since I didn’t want to break my writing streak.

I stayed on the veranda until it was time to go to Peter’s destination presentation on Manila.  He included a bonus lecture once he wrapped up the port information by launching into a brief discussion about rice, and how it is grown and harvested.  I thought it was quite interesting.

We probably should have gone to John Freedman’s presentation, too, but I couldn’t spare the time … nor, for that matter, find the energy to listen to his lightning-fast speech pattern.

After Peter’s presentation, the veranda was in the sun, so I made myself comfortable on the Deck 5 promenade.  Nice strong breeze kept things comfortable.  Mui brought me a small plate from the brunch that was being held in the Grand Dining Room.  I opted to otherwise skip lunch since we plan to go to the GDR for halibut tonight.

Mid afternoon found us going to Horizons for a mandatory temperature check.  This is a requirement for entering the Philippines, and is in addition to the health declaration form we had to complete a few days ago.  The form was another one of those that O pre-filled for us.  All we had to do was answer a few questions about our travel history and history of exposure, and sign on the dotted line.

The temp check was a non-event, really.  We went in through one door and checked in with the Insignia staff who were marking passengers off a manifest to make sure everyone complied.  Then we handed the health forms to one of the two authorities who embarked in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.  Next we walked past an infrared camera manned by the other guy.  He waved us through, so I am guessing we passed.

That formality taken care of, I once again made myself comfortable on the Deck 5 promenade.  Once yesterday’s post was completed, I returned to the cabin, took care of a few things, and then settled on the veranda to get started on this entry.  I’ve written as much as I can without being a seer to predict what happens tonight.  So, I’m going to polish the words for Brunei and hopefully get that post uploaded before dinner … but that might be too optimistic.

Later …

Not only did I get Brunei uploaded, I posted Kota Kinabalu too.  Feels good to be up-to-date on the blog.

We had a nice dinner with the Gelmans.  The halibut duxelles — that’s a fancy word for a preparation of mushrooms sautéed with shallots, garlic, and parsley — was as good as the first time it was on the menu in the GDR.  We’ll be ordering again when it next shows up on the menu.

Due to a medical emergency, we will be arriving in Manila earlier than scheduled tomorrow morning.  A heli-evac was attempted this morning … to no avail.  I heard that deckhands cleared a space both forward and aft to airlift the patient since there is no helipad on Insignia.  But the attempt was canceled as being too dangerous.  So, the Captain put pedal to the metal instead.  That explains why we felt like the ship was really speeding throughout the day.

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