Day 71: At Sea … Java Sea

Saturday, 18 March 2017
At Sea — En Route to Semarang, Java

Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:15p (WIST) … UTC 1:15p (18 March)
Temp: 83.5F (28.6C)
Position: 6.20.17S / 112.02.83E

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
~ Helen Keller ~

Flat calm seas … beautiful skies … and winds just light enough to keep us comfortable if we happened to be on the right — meaning breezy — side of the ship.

Overnight we gained another hour — much appreciated … even though we didn’t sleep in to take advantage of it.  Mui was up at 4:30a; I woke up at 5:00a.  I watched the sun break over the horizon as I made use of the fast-ish internet to upload the Komodo post to the blog.

This is what I call “sunrise-lite” … not too colorful, but pretty nonetheless.

There were two lectures this morning that were of interest.  One was by Peter … preparing us for tomorrow’s port of call at Semarang.  The other one was entitled “The Seven Wonders of the World — Past and Present.”  It was presented by the new enrichment lecturer, Dr John Freedman.  He started out by defining two Greek words used to describe the ancient wonders — theamata … meaning “things to be seen” … or bucket list items.  And thaumata, which evolved from the first word and means “wonders.”  Next he reviewed the wonders that have appeared on various lists throughout history, ending with his own modern-day version … which had only one of the ancient wonders on it … the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Something curious about the original ancient wonders — only those who lived between 280-265 BC would have had a chance to see all seven of them.  I’ll have to check that out when I get home.

After a quickie lunch with Mui at the Terrace Café, I spent my afternoon writing on the Deck 5 promenade … the veranda was pretty much in the sun all day due to Insignia’s heading.  Before I knew it, the laptop battery was running dry and it was 4:30p.

Tonight was the Captain’s Cocktail Party.  We didn’t attend, but did take advantage of the free drinks available around the ship to get a beverage for our own private party.  While we were sipping our wine, Concierge Diego stopped to visit with us.  His wife will be joining us for a few days in Hong Kong.  We made arrangements to have dinner together before they both disembark on April 10.

GM Yves also stopped by while we were chatting with Diego.  Before leaving the ship, GM Victor briefed him, so he is well aware of our problem with the fumes.  In fact, he came by with the maintenance people to inspect the cabin.  We appreciate that everyone understands there is a problem and that changing the filters has not resolved the issue.  Not much can be done short of a full overhaul of the ventilation system unfortunately.

Mui and I had dinner in the Grand Dining Room.  Just the two of us.  I think we set a record for getting in and out.  It was 7:00p when we were seated.  An hour later, we were done.  Why the hurry … just tired after being up early … not in the mood for a leisurely meal.  In fact, now — 30 minutes after dinner — I am putting a period at the end of this sentence and turning out the light.  Tomorrow we expect to have another hot and humid day in port in Indonesia … need to rest up for it.

P.S.  We took advantage of being in port overnight in Bali to weigh ourselves.  Our gain is just about a pound (~ ½ kg) … a good chunk of that is fluid retention due to our increased salt intake.  Our clothes still fit as they did 70 days ago, so we’re doing good.  Being active helps and we intend to maintain or do better in that regard in the days ahead.

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