Saturday, 1 April 2017
At Sea — Bay of Tonkin … En Route to Vietnam
Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:00p (ICT) … UTC 1:00p (1 April)
Temp: 67.3F (19.6C)
Position: 20.15.30N / 109.12.95E
One of the gladdest moments of human life, methinks, is the departure
upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort
the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of routine, the cloak of many cares
and the slavery of home, man feels once more happy.
~ Sir Richard Burton ~
It was overcast and the seas were choppy to start out. And it was cold — too cold to sit outside at the Terrace Café for breakfast; and too cold to sit on the veranda. So, I spent much of the day sitting in the lobby on Deck 5, writing about the past two days.
At 3:00p I joined Mui for Peter’s destination lecture on northern Vietnam. He wrapped up with a brief talk about the layers of religion in Vietnam … Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Dao Caism … to name a few. The latter is a new religion that combines bits and pieces from the various religions around the world.
Part of our day saw us transiting the Hainan Strait (aka Qiongzhou Strait) from the South China Sea to the Gulf of Tonkin. This body of water separates the Leizhou Peninsula of China’s Guangdong Province from Hainan Island, which is a province of the PRC … People’s Republic of China … aka Taiwan. In his noon announcement, Captain Luca explained that Insignia received special permission from China to transit the strait! We were told that no photography is permitted of any military vessels we might encounter during the six hours it would take us to get into the gulf.
Hot Tea and Stroopwafel — a gift from our Dutch friends — Perfect on a cold day.
Tonight we were witness to something interesting. Might not have been unique, but it was a first for me to see fishing boats lining the horizon like a pearl necklace. With very strong bright lights and nets they were fishing for squid, attracting them to the surface with the lights. I tried taking a photo, but the lights were so bright that all I got was a great big bright blob.
Tomorrow we leave the ship for an overnight junk cruise. That means I need to pack … sigh! I won’t need to take much, but the cold front that fogged in Hong Kong yesterday has dropped the temperatures, so I have to go prepared with layers to stay warm.
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