Cyclone!!

Cyclone!!

Having left the wonderful Airlie Beach anchorage and visiting the Great Barrier Reef, we headed off to Darwin. Three days at sea and then a visit to the most culturally diverse and tropical portion of Australia. However, on day 2 at sea our intrepid captain advised there was a low pressure system swirling around near Darwin. He did not elaborate but we (Ken and I) tucked this info away. The next morning as we finished breakfast we realized that the ship’s motion had changed…and the sun was not where it had been the hour before. A check of the ship’s televised position chart showed we had made an abrupt right turn and were headed north rather than west. Sure enough, during our daily noontime address by the captain, we were told we would miss Darwin as Cyclone Marcus was going to pay a call and we needed to be well away from any possible dalliance with Marcus.

Disappointed but very happy about cyclone avoidance, we headed toward Bali, a very anticipated port. Again, however, that port was now not an option to us due to lack of immigration officers who would have boarded in Darwin and a national holiday in recognition of silence. That meant we could not clear customs timely enough to. make a 9 or 10 hour visit possible. Indeed, silence in Bali meant turning off national internet so that communication became impossible for alternate arrangements to even be made. We were staying at sea, until Singapore if nowhere else was available.

Singapore Bound…or the day we ran out of bananas and tomatoes.

It turns out that it is a very long distance between Darwin and Singapore. NINE days at sea, precisely. We will arrive this evening, March 22, and hope a berth will have cleared for this gigantic ocean liner to rest. We will be in port overnight, giving us extra time in Singapore, and we are looking forward to stepping on shore!

As it turns out, we need to make landfall and reprovision the ship. Breakfast room service advised today “So sorry, madam, but we have no bananas. Nor are there any tomatoes. We will have them after Singapore.” What a good laugh at that. There is, of course, no danger of anyone starving on this vessel for a long time.

Now we are headed into the Singapore Strait, and we are passing container ship after container ship, some moving out and some waiting to go in. Approximately 2000 vessels pass through the Singapore Strait every 24 hours. Incredible to see the heavily laden container vessels and think of all the goods being carried all around the world these days.