Day 76 - 25 Sept - At Sea to Sydney - 2

It seems like yesterday when we boarded the Maasdam July 12, 2019 in Seattle. Tomorrow we leave the ship in Sydney for the time being and spend some time in Australia before flying home.

Our day started with a group coffee chat with all of the EXC presenters. Greg Redfern then gave his last talk on NASA which was followed by an excellent remembrance service led by Lance. He read a prepared speech, George, a retired chaplain in our Interdenominational Bible study gave a prayer and all veterans were invited on stage and recognized before they individually gave their name and branch of service. There was even one veteran of WWII in the group!

Our interdenominational Bible study group met for lunch in the Canaletto private dining area. Afterwards Lance presented his last port talk on Sydney, Ron Orenstein presented a talk on what birds and other critters can be seen in and around Sydney. And Terry Greenberg terrified everyone with his analysis of China and what holds for the future.

Our last interdenominational Bible study was good and we finished Mark 6. Several of us then attended the Catholic mass before we enjoyed a final leisurely Lido dinner.

The evening entertainment was a variety show with the mentalist, Ace McDermott, working his magic for the first half hour while Darren Sanders, comedian, gave another flat performance but he was highlighted by a surprize show ending performance by The Other Guys for a final song. We then did our final packing before starting our final sleep on the Maasdam this trip. It's been good. Thanks for coming along.

Day 75 - 25 Sept - At Sea to Sydney - 1

Two more sea days and it's over. The reality is sinking In especially now that we have received our disembarkation paperwork. The day started with a coffee chat with Ace McDermott, the mentalist. He was followed by Ron Orenstein's excellent presentation on large extinct prehistoric Australian mammals. Lance gave a long and interesting presentation on Sydney. Because we've visited Sydney so many times, nothing was new in that presentation, but it generated fond memories.

For lunch our new friends this cruise, Roger and Caroline joined us for our 51st wedding anniversary in our the Pinnacle Grill. After lunch Terry Greenberg presented 5,000 years of Chinese history in 45 minutes. John Shively then presented part one of his battle for control of Papua New Guinea in WWII. We wrapped up the afternoon participating in the interdenominational Bible study. 

To celebrate further our 51st wedding anniversary, we once again had dinner in the Pinnacle. One year earlier, off the coast of Peru on the Maasdam we celebrated our 50th and my wife wore her wedding dress to dinner.  

We went to both shows of The Other Guys who did boy bands from the 60's to the present. They were great! I still liked their West End/Broadway show the best. In between the shows, John Shively presented part 2 of his Papua New Guinea war talk. I really liked his presentations for his attempts at accuracy and clarity in presenting the battle situations.

We have a final sea day tomorrow before reaching Sydney. Stay tuned for more.

Day 74 - 23 Sept - Kuna, Île des Pines, New Caledonia

We woke up to Lance's very early PA announcement that the ship was cleared and tendering could begin. Since this is such a small place, that was our signal to roll over and get a few more winks in. Who wants to go ashore at 7am on a sleepy little island! So by 8am we were ready for some breakfast and following that we headed to the Wajang theatre where 4 & 5 star Mariners are assembled for tendering. We were immediately assigned to a tender and escorted to the tender platform.

The water was a beautiful greenish blue with very little litter washing up on shore. We were greeted shoreside by native dancers.. we walked toward the snorkeling beach but came across a local tour operator selling two hour bus tours for $20pp. So we made a reservation for the 9:45am tour and continued our walk to the snorkeling beach. 

The water at the beach was a bit chilly with air temperatures in the high 60's. So we decided not to snorkel and walked back to the bus tour start. Our driver didn't arrive until close to 10am. The tour covered the main items of a tourist interest including beautiful beaches, the former prison, a village, a convict cemetery, a Catholic Church, a missionary/WWI memorial, and a few other things. It was definitely worth the $20. There was another bus tour that lasted an hour and made a few different stops but added the caves. Friends took that bus trip and really liked the caves.  

Back at the beach area, we walked to the restaurant and hotel and to the ceremonial rock. About that time a rain squall blew in and it was umbrella time. We wandered our way back to the tender port with a stop at the Portico (arts & crafts area), and the police station. These two sets of buildings are located within the ancient walls of the old prison administration area.

We tendered back to the ship and ate a late lunch before adjourning to the Crow's Nest to watch the sail away. Since we were at anchor, 'all' that needed to be done was to retrieve the tenders, raise the anchor, and pivot the ship to the open sea. In his sail away announcement Captain Jutten noted that in order to reach Sydney in time it will require a high rate of speed. Another passenger and computed it would need to be over 17 knots. Later I looked at the course video screen and we were traveling 17.2 knots.  

Tonight was the guest chef's dinner in the Pinnacle Grill. We were seated with a wonderful couple from Australia, Michael and Susan. The conversation flowed especially when Michael and I learned that we had a common interest in vintage cars. The dinner was excellent with kimchi and variants served in several of the courses.

We wrapped up our evening watching a Karen Carpenter tribute show put on by Sharon Calabro from Sydney. It was very nostalgic.

Two sea days are ahead of us and our 75 day cruise will be finished. The astute reader will note that today is day 74 with two days to sail until Sydney. Back around day 50, I got out of synch, but it's two time consuming to fix. So I left it alone. It's been a wonderful cruise and the opportunity to visit two new countries: Russia and Papua New Guinea. Our health has been good despite a major pre=trip scare. We've renewed friendships with many cruisers we've sailed with and we've met a bunch of new friends. That for us is a major part of cruising and it's gotten so much better as we've sailed more in recent years. Seeing old friends is a real treat and catching up on where in the world they've been is special.

What's ahead? We're home a for a short while and then we leave on another extended cruise ending on January 5, 2020. Stay tuned for details about that. I'm not prepared to share details just yet, but it promises to be a good one and is on another 'dam' ship we love to sail on.

Day 73 - 22 Sept - Noumea, New Caledonia

The Maasdam approached the dock and rotated 180° before using the thrusters to gently approach its berth at the container terminal. I led my final interdenominational service at 8am in the Wajang theatre.

After church and before our LIDO breakfast we came back to our room to a note that our snorkeling trip had been cancelled. So we put plan B: do a virtual snorkeling trip by taking the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus to the aquarium. But rather than wait for the HOHO bus to fill we took the shuttle from the container dock to the cruise terminal. We then walked a few blocks to the morning market and toured it before catching the HOHO bus to the aquarium.

Being seniors, the entry fee was 2250 CHP or about $22.50. The aquarium was very nice and we learned the names of fish that we had seen on our snorkeling trips. It was especially poignant to see the sea snakes in action up close. After visiting the aquarium we walked a couple of miles back to a shopping mall which was now closed as it's Sunday. There we caught the HOHO bus back to the aquarium (it only runs one direction) and then back to downtown where we got off at the New Caledonia Museum (currently closed for renovation). But nearby we went to McDonalds for a late lunch and to use their WIFI as our GlocalMe didn't work in New Caledonia.

We walked back to the cruise terminal and caught the shuttle back to the Maasdam. As we entered the container port, we noticed that there was a ship berthed in front of us: the Pacific Aria, a P&O Cruises ship which was the former Holland America Ryndam. In 2015, we sailed the last westbound Ryndam sailing from Europe to Tampa before it was sold to P&O. In his sail away announcement Captain Jutten said the Ryndam was the first ship he sailed on.

The sail away just after 4:30pm was nostalgic with the Maasdam and Pacific Aria exchanging horn toots. We enjoyed dinner with Alex and Barb in the LIDO and they shared their day using an electric car to drive to all of the high points in the city. Ron Orenstein gave a talk on the New Caledonia Crow and in the Majority Rules Game Show, our team won 1st prize which yielded a DVD of the Crew Shows. For us, that's a treasure. Afterwards, we watched Rocketman on the Showroom big screen.

Tomorrow we are supposed to be at Île des Pines, but we'll see if we can tender. It's quite windy tonight with lots of ship motion. Stay tuned!

Day 72 - 21 Sept - At sea to Noumea - 2

Today's EXE programming was limited due to a Mariner's award presentation. We and another couple received our Gold Medallions for having sailed over 500 days. Personally I never thought we would reach that milestone, but something happened and we started spending more time on ships. The next level is Platinum (700 days sailed) and we'll be well on our way to that level by the end of next year.

The coffee chat was with Patrick Roberts, violinist. It was an interesting interview. In the afternoon, Ron Orenstein presented a lecture on New Caledonia. Terry Greenberg spoke on East West differences. And we enjoyed the interdenominational Bible study. 

After a light Lido dinner, we attended Greg Redfern's talk on his top 13 space movies and then we saw the comedian, Darrell Sanders, from Melbourne. I personally didn't care for his humor or presentation style. Greg then told his travel story in the Crow's Nest.

Tomorrow we're back in Noumea which we visited 3 years ago on this ship. We were unable to snorkel due to winds. Would that happen again?

Day 71 - 20 Sept - At sea to Noumea

Throughout the evening before and today, there was motion to the ocean. But it wasn't too much. The pace today was pleasant. We started with a terrific coffee chat with the Band members (4 guys) followed by an EXC lecture by Ron Orenstein on Coral. Lance presented his port talk on Noumea and Île des Pins. After lunch, it was Ask the Captain and a Future Cruise presentation by Joanne on South America cruises. The interdenominational Bible study was rich as we finished Chapter 5 of Mark.

We enjoyed a Lido dinner with Erik and Marilyn before watching The Other Guys perform Broadway and West End tunes. This was their best show so far as they are all actors. Greg Redfern then spoke on topics related to the Moon. We finished up our evening watching a documentary Pavarotti on the life of the legendary tenor.

Tomorrow is another sea day with light programming due to a major Mariner event. Stay tuned.

Day 70 - 19 Sept - Honiara (Guadalcanal), Solomon Islands

6:30am came early, but we had to meet our tour group of 7 at the gangplank at 8am. With the group assembled, we walked out of this container port and met our contact who took us to our van. There we waited for over 1/2 hour as the tour company tried to put others with our group. We had paid for an exclusive private tour and stuck to our arrangement. Our tour guide eventually became a tour guide for a single person and we were given Michael who could speak a little English but whose father had been a Coast Watcher in WWII.

We visited Bloody Ridge, Alligator Creek, the mouth of Alligator Creek, Red Beach, the American Memorial, Henderson Field (now the international airport), the Memorial Garden next to the Airport, the original control tower built by the Seabees, a former Marine Hospital on the grounds of a Catholic boarding school, and a small museum at Betikama Adventist College. At the Adventist college there was a small outdoor and indoor museum of WWII memorabilia including a partial fuselage including engine of a P-39 Air Cobra plus a dive bomber they didn't know the model # of. Several in our group thought it to be a TBF Avenger, but I knew it wasn't that. Then I realized it was a Dauntless DB5 dive bomber and passed that information on to the docent. In the back of the museum they had an American 6 cylinder bulldozer made in August 1942 with the brand name Cletrac made by the Cleveland Tractor Company. There was another one in the field next to the first. They also had a piece of nose art from a B-24 (Goldie) which is submerged off the island. It was a pleasant little stop.

We drove back to town and 3 of us got off at the Central Market to look around and walk back to the ship. The Central Market was packed with primarily all types of produce with a few handicrafts and clothing. There wasn't much if any meat for sale. The walk back was hot and crossing the crowded streets was an interesting challenge. At the port, there was a building materials business called Bowmans and that required a selfie. There were still local vendors selling their wares alongside the ship and we found a beautiful block print postcard being sold by the artist, so we bought it for our stateroom door collection.

Back on board it was once again shower time to cool off and get rid of the perspiration. Since we didn't have lunch we ordered food from the Dive-In as it was the only thing open. This eliminated the need for dinner! We watched the sail away and the Maasdam steamed away from the port and out into Iron Bottom Sound (so named for all of the ships that were sunk there during the war. A passenger, Dan, organized a small remembrance ceremony on Deck 11. There were more sailors killed in Iron Bottom Sound than soldiers on land in the battle of Guadalcanal.

Our evening entertainment was a variety show with our pianist, Patrick Roberts, and violinist, Stephen Kane. Both were excellent! John Shively, our Battle historian, told a travel story about visiting a Russian/Japanese battle site in Mongolia where the Japanese were decisively defeated. He entertained a number of questions. And we wrapped up our day at the 10:30pm feeding.

Tomorrow is the first of two sea days before we reach New Caledonia. Stay tuned.

Day 69 - 18 Sept - Ghizo, Solomon Islands

And the last shall be first. We started our day as 5 star Mariners by being escorted down to deck 3 (tender deck). We were at the end of the line and they decided to tender from the other side of the ship so we became the head of the short line of 9 or so people. It took the crew a bit to shuffle and set up all of the security gear and platform, but eventually we were motioned to tender. I got to be number 1 off the ship. The flip side of being number 1 off the ship on to the tender is that one then has to wait for the tender to be filled. And it gets stifling hot in a tender in the tropics.

The tender ride was about 20 minutes to the dock as the helmsman had to navigate around some reefs and through a narrrow opening. Once at the shore we left the tender and were greeted by native dancers. We made our way to the Ghizo Dive Shop to see if we could secure a snorkeling trip. A number of divers had pre-arranged their dive excursion, so they were processed first while we waited. Eventually one dive boat was filled included our friends Barb & Alex, but there were snorkel spots available. So we took them.

Our twin Yamaha 60 outboard powered boat swiftly took us to the first snorkeling and dive site which was the remains of the Tao Maru, a freighter that was torpedoed and tried to run up on an island, but failed and sank, rolling on its starboard or right side in about 100 feet of water. Angela and I donned our snorkel gear and snorkeled for the first time over a shipwreck. The ship was about 25-50 feet below us and is now covered in beautiful coral. The outline of the ship is clearly distinguishable and we had a couple of large angelfish that shadowed us throughout our snorkel trip. It was also interesting to have the divers' bubbles come to the surface around us.  

After the divers used up their air, we reboarded the dive boat and headed to a small island where we were served a barbecue of mahi mahi, chicken, rice, eggplant, squash, watermelon and pineapple. This shore time was important for the divers as they had to 'off gas' (get ride of gasses in their joints after being down at 100 feet for an hour). For us a snorkelers it was a good time to explore the coral just off of the reef. At times it was like swimming in an aquarium with all of the many colors of the small fish and the beautiful coral. Our GoPro and Nikon AW130 pictures turned out very nice.  

After the divers finished their 2nd dive, we reboarded our dive boat and headed back to the dive pier. We gathered our belongings and walked back to the ship exploring a number of the little shops in a quite rustic setting. We took what was likely the second to last tender back to the ship and the swells were pretty big and periodically the tender would dive into a swell and water would pass over the roof of the tender. At the tender platform we were in the lee of the ship which reduced the swell action on the tender operation.

Back on board, we took showers to rid ourselves of the sticky salt and perspiration from the heat of the day. We had a light LIDO dinner before attending the Space Rocks lecture by Greg Redfern. We went to the mentalist's, Ace McDermott, 7:30pm performance which was a copy of the one we saw on an earlier segment of this cruise. After Ace's show, we re-attended the Space Rocks lecture and finished up our evening watching the 1962 movie, The Thin Red line and having some tea afterwards in the LIDO before retiring for the night.

Tomorrow is a planned small private excursion to visit WWII Guadalcanal battle sights which should be interesting. Stay tuned!

Day 68 - 17 Sept - At Sea to Ghizo, Solomon Islands

After losing an hour of sleep due to our clocks being advanced by an hour we had a light day at sea today. The weather was overcast with a light swell for most of the day.  

The Other Guys were the 9am coffee chat guests and received a lot of questions. There were no further events until 1pm when the newly embarked guest chefs Sharon Flynn and Roger Fowler demonstrated the creation of Kimchi. Angela attended and is now a convert to appreciating and enjoying it. While she attended that session, I secured a seat in the Showroom at sea for the 2pm talk on the Battle of Guadalcanal by John Shively. Seats have been at a premium for most all of the EXC lectures in the Showroom. They've been the best attended sessions of all segments we have been on the Maasdam for the past year with the exception of our Easter Island lecturer on the sailing from Chile to Easter Island. Lance finished the afternoon programming with his port talk on Ghizo and Honiro (Guadalcanal).  

After another great interdenominational Bible study in the Pinnacle Grill, we happened upon the Sip & Savor which featured Kimchi. So we joined in and enjoyed it and had a very pleasant chat with a couple from Australia.

While it was Gala Night, we chose to eat a salmon dinner in the LIDO before attending Ron Orenstein's lecture on Sea Turtles. A new artist, violinist Patrick Roberts entertained us in the Showroom at Sea.  

Tomorrow is a tender day and we are planning to find some independent snorkeling to do. Stay tuned.

Day 67 - 16 Sept - Rabaul, PNG

Today was our 3rd and last day in Papua New Guinea and it was a full day with an all day tour with Kokopo Tours. We were docked and left the ship shortly after 8am and found our tour company. They offered a full day, a festival tour and a walk up 1/2 day tour. After paying our $100/pp fare, we boarded a very nice 20 person mini-bus and headed up to the volcano observatory. This area is seismically very active and there's 24/7 monitoring.  

In fact, the town of Rabaul was covered in 15 feet of ash following a September, 1994 eruption of Mt. Tavuvur. Following a week long spewing of ash, substantially all of the businesses of the town relocated to Kokopo which is located on the other side of the island and reachable by a 45 minute drive by car. About all that remains is the port area because of its significant deep water location in the very ancient and large caldera.

After our visit to the observatory, we made our way to the former Japanese tunnels that housed the small ships that were winched into the tunnels for protection. All that remains now are the severely rusted hulks of 4-5 ships. The salt water environment has taken a real toll on them. Also there are a number of bats that live in the cave. A number of merchants set up their colorful wares and we ended up purchasing a couple of very colorful shirts. This was probably the most popular souvenir item plus a significant number of locals were. Wearing them as part of their 44th Anniversary of Independence.

The Kokomo War museum was our next stop and it had all kinds of military memorabilia stored on the grounds and in buildings. These items included tanks, an airplane, a raid roller, a generator truck, cannons, machine guns, and the like. When we left Kokopo to visit the Bitapaka Memorial and cemetery, we encountered a very long parade of autos and trucks heavily decorated in the Anniversary celebration colors. There were so many vehicles, we had to wait a good 10-15 minutes to be able to make a right turn on the cemetery road. We were able to observe a memorial service for the fallen. An Australian Air Force veteran was invited to participate in the service and afterwards I was able to share a few pictures of him with his wife.

We returned to Kokopo to the gazelle International Hotel for a simple hamburger and French fries lunch. The hotel was located next to the fairgrounds where the festival celebration was taking place. Many people were there and we could hear numerous speeches like at a political rally. The crowd was really enjoying it.

After lunch we headed back to Rabaul and went to the volcano viewpoint. There were many vendors set up there. The viewing area was on top of some extensive geothermal activity as the sand and ocean water were extremely warm. There were a couple of small very hot streams that flowed out of the ground and down to the sea. In one of them, the water was crystal clear and one could see the steam rising out of the ground under the water! And the view of the crater remaining after the 1994 eruption was terrific.

Admiral Yamamoto's bunker was our last stop. It was also very hot down in the bunker due to the thermal activity. There's also a small museum nearby. Our shuttle driver then took us back to the ship where Angela and I walked back out of the port onto the main drag where we found a couple tapestries we liked and used up most of the remaining amount of our kina.  

The local Methodist church choir serenaded us before our departure. One last tour with 7 vans arrived just after 4:30pm. Shortly after they boarded we slipped away from the dock, rotated clockwise to point the bow of the ship out to sea. The Captain announced that he would rotate the ship 360º in front of the volcano. Also, the reef pilot provided a bit of commentary. It was a very pleasant viewing from outside up on Deck 14 and as the sun set, the lighting was perfect for photos.

I ate a very light dinner of a couple appetizers and we watched the Game Show 'Call My Bluff before watching the excellent documentary 'The Biggest Little Farm'. With my light dinner, we went to the 10:30pm feeding before retiring for the evening a losing an hour on the clock as they were set forward an hour overnight.

REFLECTIONS on Papua New Guinea

I sort of didn't know what to expect in visiting these three ports. A number of persons on the Cruise Critic website got pretty worked up about the need for mosquito protection as well as malaria. We had bug spray with us, but for one instance, we didn't feel the need to use it. It was pretty hot in all of the ports (in excess of 90º Fahrenheit). What really surprised me was the amount of crime. Several passengers lost cameras and/or cellphones. It was relatively hard but not impossible to easily get local currency. This was especially true at our first port of call at Wewak. Also at Wewak, which was the poorest of the locations, I felt like many people were scoping us out. But I'd have no hesitation in returning or recommending others to visit. Just plan to come with local currency and be very cautious with displaying locations of where one's money or valuables are. Seeing the water village at Wewak on the Sepic River was a clear highlight but came at the cost of a 3 hour each way ride on a very rutted road.

It's a sea day tomorrow so we can catch up on rest. Stay tuned.

Day 66 - 15 Sept - At sea to Rabaul, PNG

Our When & Where (daily program) played a cruel trick on us today. It put the interdenominational service at 7:30am instead of the normal 8am. But I was ready to lead it and most of the regulars read the When & Where and arrived on time. Afterwards we had breakfast before doing some special scenic cruising in the Garove Caldera in the Witu Islands. This former volcano has collapsed and there is a wide and deep opening to sail into the sea filled crater. All the while, the reef pilot gave periodic commentary. There are a number of small villages around the shoreline and a Catholic monastery near the entrance. We went in and circled the perimeter before the ship did two 360° rotations on its center axis. We were accompanied by several native canoes and it was great sport to sound the ship's horn to their delight.

After exiting the caldera, we continued our cruise towards Rabaul at a leisurely 9 knots. The afternoon was filled with EXC programming: Ron Orenstein on whales; Terry Greenberg on SE Asia; and Lance with his Port Talk in Rabaul. 4pm found us in the Pinnacle Grill for the interdenominational Bible study.

After a light dinner, The Other Guys performed a good show and we watched the movie, 'They Shall Not Grow Old' about British troops in WWI. It was really good. Be sure to stay through the credits.

Tomorrow we have an all day tour in Rabaul. Stay tuned.

Day 65 - 14 Sept - Madang, PNG

I keep a tally of the countries we visit and forgot to note yesterday was our first visit to Papua New Guinea. Today we didn't have to tender as we were docked. We ate a leisurely breakfast and left the ship to the accompaniment of a native dance troupe in full on native dress or lack thereof if you get my drift.

We walked into town aiming to get some local currency and visit the Coast Watchers memorial. The Madang Resort opened its doors to the cruise ship and there were native dance presentations throughout the day. We made a quick stop at the front desk and got a little local currency before walking out to the Coast Watchers monument. This tall white monument with a beacon on top commemorates the WWII contributions of the people who reported on the Japanese ship movements and lived in great personal peril.

After a nice lunch at the resort we booked a snorkeling trip at the Dive shop. We sailed out to Pig Island where the snorkelers were left to snorkel for about an hour over some very pretty coral and lots of small fish. Angela even saw a sea snake which frightened her when it surfaced and brushed her.  

Our snorkel launch took us directly back to the ship and we got off under the stern mooring lines. Angela and I walked back into town to buy a postcard at the local drugstore. We walked the long way back to the ship and found an ATM to obtain local currency. I was the 16th from the end to reboard the ship. We quickly showered and then watched as the Maasdam slipped away from the dock and backed about 1/2 mile into a more open and deep part of the harbor. There we turned around clockwise and sailed out past two cargo vessels into the open ocean.

Bruce Mathiske, virtuoso guitarist, was the evening entertainment and it was like being in a jam session. Later at 10pm was the Orange Party up in the Crow's Nest. I donned my orange Dutch Football Club shirt, orange baseball cap, and orange mustache. It was also Florin's, our hotel director, 52 birthday. Afterwards I finished up my sermon for the interdenominational service for the next day.

It was a long day that created a short sleep night. It's a sea day tomorrow with something special on tap. Stay tuned. 

Day 64 - 13 Sept - Wewak, PNG

We are always up for a good adventure, and this day did not disappoint! The Maasdam arrived at its anchor location shortly before 8am and we could hear the sound of the anchor chain being deployed as it clanked its way across the deck and overboard into the beautiful blue green sea. We were on a private excursion so we gathered in the Wajang Theatre to obtain our tender tickets. 4 and 5 star Mariners have first priority in getting on the tenders.

Shortly after 8 we were escorted down a hidden stairway to deck 3 where we boarded the first tender of the day. A short 20 minute ride later we were on shore and greeted by native drummers and dancers. We found our guide, Mary, and driver, Edward and the 4x4 Toyota LandCruiser that would be our beast of burden for the day. In these vehicles I should add that except for the left front seat, all of the passenger seating is in the covered pickup bed on lengthwise running benches. Every bump is immediately transmitted to one's spine!! But what adventure would be good without a 3 hour bone jarring ride?

Mary was from Port Moresby the capital city and we chatted throughout the journey. Did I mention it was bone jarring as we drove up and over the mountain range on our way to Angoram located on the Sepic River which is about the 110th largest river in the world. At the meeting point on the River we were met by a local guide and we had to do an adjustment to our schedule now that we knew it was nearly 3 hours to get back to the ship.  

The 6 of us and our two guides boarded the banana boat (named for its narrow long shape) and we headed up the Sepic River. The river is pretty muddy and has lots of debris floating down the river. Our driver skillfully guided us up the river past numerous houses built on stilts, many birds, fishing nets, and an overall very primitive culture. At the turn around point there was a large village on stilts with crops growing on floating rafts, pigs on rafts, and lots of people waving to us. Many of the younger children were buck naked. Seeing the village and the way of life was a total highlight of the trip. We were in a totally primitive society with the only reminders that this is the 21st Century with the occasional outboard motor and western clothing.  

Back at the docking point, we enjoyed some watermelon and headed back. About halfway to the dock we were coming down a steep hill and a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle - essentially about a 2 ton flat bed truck with a tarp roof and bench seats running the 20 foot length of the bed) appeared to lose traction or have brake failure and started rolling backwards. The driver cramped the steering wheel to the right and the truck went up on the left side tires before slamming the rear of the PMV into the bank ejecting the rearmost passengers. We stopped but could render no assistance. We continued on for a few kilometers and reported the incident to the construction crew who headed back along with three more packed PMV's to render assistance. It was totally surreal to have this happen in front of us. For about a half an hour even our driver temporarily reduced his speed, but eventually he was back up to his typical fast driving which led to some pretty sharp jarring in the back seating area.

We made it back to the port area by 3:50pm where there were lots of locals hanging out. Unfortunately they didn't have any money changers so we couldn't purchase anything but we walked around a bit and caught the next to last tender.

Back onboard we cooled off with showers, watched the retrieval of the starboard side tenders, ate a leisurely Lido dinner and then attended John Shively's 6:30pm lecture on PT-109 (JFK's boat that was sunk in WWII) and both main stage shows by Colleen Williamson. She's probably the best female singer we've seen on a ship. If not, she's in the top 3.

Tomorrow in Madang, PNG is planned for something totally different. Stay tuned. And I'll leave you with a few pictures from today. I have many, many more.

Day 63 - 12 Sept - At Sea to Wewak - 3

Some sea days are meant for resting and this was one of them. I got a good 8 plus hours of sleep last night with the aid of my breathing machine and the gentle rocking of the ship. Yesterday the Captain announced that we would be crossing the equator at 9 am and he's usually quite accurate in his predictions. So Angela and another lady made arrangements to be in the LIDO pool at 9am. I had my GPS compass on and precisely when we reached 0 degrees, the ship's horn sounded which signaled crossing the equator. My camera was running so I also got a short video clip of the event. Good fun was had by all.

With that task completed, I went to the coffee chat which featured a deck officer and the ship's senior doctor. There were interesting questions. We then secured a front row spot for the King Neptune ceremony at the aft pool where the Polliwogs (those who have not previously crossed the equator) are transformed into Shellbacks (those who have) in an elaborate ceremony involving kissing a dead fish and getting slathered with slimy colored egg white and covered with seaweed (noodles). Some then have to sit alongside the pool and let the concoction dry while others get to jump into the pool. Their choice of fate is determined by a court chaired by the Captain. It's all good fun and my favorite was seeing the younger ship's doctor get thoroughly slimed and then having to sit in the sun and let it bake on.

It was several hours until the next talk at 2pm by Terry Greenberg on the history and current status of Papua New Guinea. There was another period of free time where I attempted to help a fellow with his PC which was getting quite full and he didn't know how to clear it. While I wasn't successful because he didn't know the Administrative password, I got him started on the recovery path.

Our interdenominational bible study went well and the LIDO dinner was relaxing. Greg Redfern presented a talk on the NASA lunar ship LADEE and Stephen Kane performed a masterful concert on the piano with a focus on show tunes.  

Tomorrow is our port call in Wewak and we are on a private shore excursion on a 4x4 vehicle and up the Sepik River into the wilds of Papua New  Guinea. Stay tuned to see if we return.

Day 62 - 11 Sept - At Sea to Wewak - 2

Today was a pretty light day programming wise. There must have been a Mariner event as there were no talks between 11 and 1 except for Lance's repeat presentation at 1pm on our two upcoming ports of call.

The morning started with the 9am coffee chat featuring Subaru, the Executive Housekeeper. The big thing we learned was that there would be no more towel monkeys due to instructions from Seattle after receiving a complaint. It's another way in which political correctness has gone totally awry.

John Shively then presented a talk on the U.S.S. Franklin and two Indiana men whose paths crossed on that ship. In the afternoon Ron Orenstein presented on Bird of Paradise and Bower Birds. He was followed by Joanne, the FCC, who presented the 2020 and 2021 Maasdam Itineraries. After our interdenominational Bible study, it was a gala night which we didn't participate in. But our quiet Lido dinner was wonderful.

Terry presented his slide show on the Great Wall of China including scenes of the wall not seen by tourists. We had new entertainment from 'The Other Guys' a Frankie Valle tribute group. They weren't up to the caliber of the Jersey Tenors in terms of voice richness or sound comparison to the original group. They were still worth listening to and have 3 more shows.

There was no bedtime story tonight so maybe we'll get to bed before midnight. We cross the equator tomorrow about 9am and there's some special activities planned. The seas are calming down as we get farther from the huge tropical depression behind us.

Day 61 - 10 Sept - At Sea to Wewak - 1

I was really tired I guess as I didn't stir until 7:30am and then didn't even get out of bed until 9am as I wanted to attend the first lecture of the day. I missed Terry Greenberg's 9am coffee chat, but I've seen and chatted with him previously. Ron Orenstein gave a strong presentation to a packed house on the animals of New Guinea. It's truly a unique area of the world. Following Ron, Lance gave his first presentation on the two upcoming ports of Wewak and Madang. He emphasized that these ports are really, really, very tiny small and to not expect the tourism infrastructure we're used to in larger ports 

There was a Mariner lunch today as the LIDO was pretty empty and the only afternoon talk was Terry Greenburg's Modern Legacy of the Spice Trade. It was interesting to watch the crew stretch a net across the LIDO pool all the while large waves were splashing each end. Several of the crew got thoroughly drenched. Throughout the day there was a lot of motion to the ocean and at our LIDO dinner after the interdenominational Bible study, a supervisor commented to us that several of his staff were in bed with motion sickness. It was very pretty to see the intense white waves cascade from the ship when it came crashing down after being lifted up on the oncoming swell. Unfortunately, several staff got very wet.

Tonight's entertainer was Bruce Mathiske, a chameleon virtuoso guitarist and oboe player. He was one of the best guitarists we've seen perform on a ship. His Chet Atkins song was especially beautiful. We then re-attended as a remedial session for me Greg Redfern's talk on the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. I should comment that the former Evening Insight talks in the Wajang are now just called Talks.

Also today a new version of the Navigator was released today. This Navigator app available on board and not needing to purchase an internet package is used to access the daily program, explore dining shore excursion information, the Paid Internet, and much more. The change seems to be providing a cleaner and more modern user interface.  

I'll leave you with a picture of tonight's sunset. It was a good day, and I like the rhythm of sea days. 

  

Day 60 - 09 Sept - Guam

Our visit to Guam today went not exactly as I planned it. First we had to go through another immigration check with US Border patrol officers, most packing sidearms. This was done again in the Explorer's Lounge on Deck 8. We were assigned a number 3 which was planned to be called around 9am. Shortly before 9am it was called and we were through in about 15 minutes. We then gathered up our things and headed off the ship to take the shuttle into town which is about 40 minutes north of the port. Miss Guam World and Miss Guam Universe were there to present guests with bead necklaces.  

The shuttle bus line was already over a bus load long and as a rain shower approached the line was broken into sections standing beside one another in three groups. There was also a heavy police presence including several officers with assault rifles at the ready. Personally I really don't see the need for the extreme display of firearms for the arrival of a cruise ship (and I'm not opposed to gun ownership). End of rant!

We ended up waiting an hour under the tents and took the second shuttle in to town and it looks like a typical American town. The Micronesia Mall is large in a star shape with an anchor tenant at the end of each of the 4 points of the star. There's a very large food court on the second level of the mall where I found a Taco Bell and had 5 tacos and a gordita. After lunch we found shuttle that would take us out to Two Lovers Point where legend has it that a warrior and his lover who were restricted from seeing each other, tied their hair together and jumped to their deaths off the cliff. Now there is a statue honoring them and a full tourist site with gift shops, a restaurant and an elevated viewing platform. And did I mention that it poured cats, dogs, and monkeys!  

After our visit to Two Lovers Point, we caught a shuttle back to the mall to dry off. We also purchased all the September date coded Pepsi at one store. So now we have enough Diet soda for rest of our voyage.

The shuttle back to the port took 45 minutes door to door and we had once again a full bag inspection & examination by US Border agents. Fortunately, unlike our visit 4 years earlier where there was a full face to passport inspection in the bus at the port entrance, the armed guard wished us a welcome and said the entertainment was arriving shortly.

Back on the ship, we changed out of our wet clothes and littered the bathroom with wet articles to dry out. With our new dry clothes donned we went out to deck 6 to watch the sail away. Eventually the sail away music and dance troupe assembled under the plastic tents before performing native dances and music in the steady rain. Finally around 6pm the Captain announced we were waiting for our US Coast Guard escort, but because we are missing Jayapura due to civil unrest, we have extra time to sail around a deepening tropical depression. It was still twilight, but it wasn't until during the 7:30pm BBC programming that I fell the whir of the bow thrusters kick in which announced our departure. The next day I asked the Captain what it meant to have a Coast Guard escort, and he said it was to have them sail around us in their rubber boat as we depart. Only now the ship had to leave in the dark which was not his preference. He wasn't a happy camper.

Greg Redfern gave a presentation on the future of US manned space flight and paid honor to those astronauts that we lost to accidents. Ron Orenstein presented his travel story about how he got started in birding and the value of birding.

Tomorrow starts the beginning of a three day sea day segment before reaching Wewang, Paupa New Guinea.

Day 59 - 08 Sept - Saipan

We previously visited Saipan in 2015 on the Statendam's final voyage to Singapore. That day we elected to walk into town and beyond in a driving rain. This time we chose to do a 3 hour HAL ECO snorkeling trip which had a planned departure at 9am.

The American immigration process started promptly at 7:30AM. We were in line shortly after 7am and near the front. Once immigration started (there was a line for US passport holders and another line for all others), the process went fast and smooth with very friendly immigration agents. I was then able to eat a quick salmon and tomato breakfast before leading the interdenominational service. We then went to the Showroom to meet up with our HAL snorkel trip. When our group was called we got our #4 sticker and headed off of the ship and boarded several 12 passenger vans. Our driver had no speaker system so the trip was pretty much in silence until the stops.  

We visited Suicide Cliff, Bird Island, the Japanese Peace Memorial, the Grotto, Suicide Cliff, and snorkeling just south of Marianas Beach. The snorkeling was in very shallow water with lots of sea cucumbers, a few small fish, and Angela found a brilliant blue starfish.

After the trip was over I realized that we didn't really do the itinerary having missed the forest walk and a visit to the highest point on the island. While the substitutions were good, the guide should have been straight up telling us why the deviation. I shared my observations with shore excursions and am waiting to hear back from them.

Back at the ship we ate a quick LIDO lunch and then took the shuttle bus back to town, where we walked around, bought some souvenirs, visited the American Memorial. Park, and noted a huge Chinese Casino which is being built and actually open for business while construction continues.

We caught one of the last shuttles back to the ship, watched the sail away (no shoreside singers or dancers), and the Captain announced that he struck a deal with the pilot. In exchange for being able to sail past Tinian. Island (launching point for the B-29's that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan), the pilot would get a free overnight cruise as he's the pilot for Guam. While we were about a mile off shore, we couldn't see the 4 runways, but I can visualize them as the wind was blowing right towards the runway. It was a moving time.

Terry Greenberg gave a short presentation on Saipan and Guam before WWII and Pingxin Xu presented his last hammer dulcimer concert to a standing ovation. We wrapped up our evening watching the movie Flags of our Fathers which is the companion movie to Letters from Iwo Jima which we watched earlier. And all too soon it was midnight and the day was done.

Guam is tomorrow and since we visited the war related sites there in 2015, we just planning to take the shuttle to town. We'll see how that works out. Stay tuned. 

Day 58 - 07 Sept - At Sea to Saipan

We lost an hour of sleep last night due to the ship's clock being advanced. And this morning cane early with a coffee chat with our EXC photographer, Ben Smith. Ron Orenstein gave a chilling talk on the effects of the brown tree snake in Guam (virtually all of the native bird species became extinct). Bruce Petty continued his series of oral history tales talking about the battle of Saipan and another talk about the home front in New Zealand. Lance presented his port talk on the two upcoming ports of call in Saipan and Guam.  

We enjoyed a lovely LIDO dinner with Terry & Yoko Greenberg before watching the Emperors of Soul perform the evening entertainment. Afterwards Bruce Petty gave a good presentation on the Aircraft carriers of WWII. Angela watched ROCKETMAN movie while I prepared for tomorrow's sermon in the interdenominational Bible study.

Tomorrow we re-enter US territorial waters and have to go through immigration which starts at 7:30AM for our group 1 assignment. Hopefully we can get through in time for me to lead the interdenominational service. Stay tuned.

Day 57 - 06 Sept - Iwo Jima

Today was a very special day in that we got to cruise by Mt. Sirabachi and view the landing beaches of Iwo Jima. Our approach started just before 2pm and Mt. Sirabachi became obscured with a rain cloud that quickly passed over the island. The Captain went about 1/2 way down the landing beach and then rotated the ship 360° for all to have a chance to face a view of the island. At one point, we were facing the beach just like the young marines would have done back in February, 1945. And all the while, we were under surveillance of a Japanese Coast Guard ship.

There was a wisp of steam coming out of crater and another steam vent down near the beach. A quick Internet search yielded that this volcano has the potential for being the most destructive in the planet in that the tsunami it might create would be highly destructive all along Southeast Asia.  

Iwo Jima, actually now called Iwo To by the Japanese, is closed to the public as it's a Japanese military base. Once a year on one day, Americans are permitted to visit the island. One flies to Guam, spends the night, takes an early morning charter flight to Iwo Jima, walks from the tarmac to and up Mt. Sirabachi, participates in a memorial ceremony there, visits the landing zone beach with its black volcanic sand, and flies back that day to Guam before returning home. I'll leave the reader to do their own research on the battle as it's been well covered. And I wonder how long these visits will be permitted after the last WWII veteran is dead.

After the ship did its 360° rotation it changed course slightly and headed towards our next port of call, Saipan. We went to the Lido to mentally process what we had just seen. A few hours later I was looking out the portside window and spotted what looked like a tip of an ice cream cone poking up from the sea, and it was partially obscured by clouds. As we got closer we could see it clearly and it was an island. Using Google maps, I identified it as South Iwo Jima Island. Angela did some more research and surprisingly she discovered that it was the setting for the Japanese School of Wizardry in the Harry Potter series. For more details do an internet search.

All of the preceding took place from 2pm to 5pm and was like the filling in an Oreo cookie. Let me describe the hard parts of the cookie that contains the filling.

Our morning coffee chat was with Greg Redfern, or sky guy. He was followed by Terry Greenberg speaking on the Japanese Aesthetic Sense. Bruce Petty presented oral histories of Australian and New Zealand WWII servicemen and women. After lunch John Shively described the battle of Iwo Jima in pictures and words which was an appropriate introduction to what we were about to see. 

We joined for dinner 3 other cruising couples (Barb & Alex, Ann & John, and Barbara & Dan) that we sailed with on many previous cruises. It's what we affectionately call our Anniversary Dinner. We contributed our CostcoTravel sparkling wine gift. It was a fun time and the sunset wasn't bad.

We made it to the 7:30 Elton John Experience performance by Greg Andrew and Ben Smith's, EXC photographer, 8:30pm showing of some of his work. We then saw a repeat of the Elton John Experience. While we really liked the show, his diction wasn't clear enough to hear the words to the songs, all of which were and are massively popular. I don't know if it was the ship's audio system or what else that caused it.

Tonight we lose an hour to adjust to Australia time. But it was a good day. Oreos are always good.

Day 56 - 05 Sept - At Sea to Iwo Jima

Before I recount the day's activities, I need to mention that our friend got their replacement passport at the American Embassy yesterday during our brief port stop. They were obviously relieved and grateful for the ship's personnel's help in making that happen. We also took on more fuel in order to make it to Australia.

Overnight the seas were not very rocky, so we slept well. Our morning started with a coffee chat featuring Tim Kaminski, comedian. Next we had a presentation on the first 24 hours of WWII by John Shively. Then Bruce presented an overview of Iwo Jima followed by a a short 1/2 hour documentary on the 50th anniversary return of veterans to Iwo Jima. This movie was excellent.

Today was the Collector Voyage Indonesian lunch which was followed by Ben Smith's interesting lecture on starting a podcast. Afterwards I spent an hour talking tech subjects with a cruising friend before leading the interdenominational Bible study in the Pinnacle Grill. While tonight was a gala night, we enjoyed a quiet Lido dinner before the 6:30om and another remedial talk for me at 8:30pm by Bruce Petty on the Role of the Naval Officer in the Pacific Theater of WWII.

Colleen Williamson sang an excellent program and Ben Smith, EXC photographer shared his travel stories at the 9:30om bedtime story time. We finished up the evening at the 10:30pm feeding.

Throughout the day we sailed away from Typhoon Lingling and towards the next tropical depression which is located beyond Iwo Jima. But the seas were relatively flat. There was a nice electronic map on display on deck 8 and printed versions near the front desk. 

Tomorrow afternoon we'll circumnavigate IWO JIMA plus the day is filled with EXC lectures.

Day 55 - 04 Sept - Naha, Okinawa, Japan

Our 5:45am alarm came mighty early! After a quick breakfast, we left the ship before 7 and met our traveling companions at 7am. We secured a cab rental for 13,100 yen or $131US or about $34US per person. Our driver took us across town to the north to Urasoe City Park which is the site of the famous WWII battle of Hacksaw Ridge which was the subject of a film of the same name from 2016. The film is excellent!

We spent 2 hours in the park examining it and we enjoyed it immensely. There were no other tourists there until we were leaving. The park also has a little museum with a 109 Yen entry fee. We watched a nice local movie about the battle that was fair in its approach. Promptly at 10am we headed back to the ship. In downtown, we spotted some friends who were walking back to the ship, so I left Yen with Dan to pay the driver and we walked back to the ship and were able to purchase a postcard for our door.

Ospreys at a Marine base below Hacksaw Ridge

After clearing our exit immigration from Japan, I was 35th from the end to reboard the ship at 11:32am. We watched our just after 12 departure before enjoying a late Lido lunch. Angela attended a movie (Paradise Road) about Indonesian girls imprisoned by Japanese in WWII and how they used music to survive. I attended the Bermuda Triangle EXC presentation by Greg Redfern and Lance's Secret Language of ships. Afterwards I used the time to begin catching up my blog and moving pictures from my Canon camera to my iPhone.   

I was also out on deck with friends and we watched a brown Boobie bird suddenly go vertical and then dive into the ocean for its next meal. It was impressive to watch.

Tonight's Lido dinner was the last Japanese themed one and was excellent! Greg Redfern gave a talk on The Life of Stars, and the Emperors of Soul did a Motown set that I really liked and we had better seats for this show.

After departing the port, the seas got progressively worse as we approached Typhoon Lingling. After we reached the closest we would be to the storm (several hundred miles away) the seas have gotten progressively smoother, but there is still motion to the ocean at 10pm as I write this.

3 sea days are ahead of us on our way to Iwo Jima. Stay tuned.

Day 54 - 03 Sept - Naze, Amami, Japan

Our alarm went off at 6:30am as the ship was entering the small harbor of Naze, Amami. Today we shared a car with Alex and Barb to be able to independently tour the island. We exited the ship before 8am and walked into town to pick up our car. When we got there we learned that our car was at the port. So the rental agency had to send a representative back to the port to retrieve our and many other's cars. Anyone reading this blog and contemplating a car rental should get explicit instructions as to where to pick up their vehicle.

After a brief wait during which we finalized our list of attractions to visit, our car was delivered to us and we were off.

Our first and furthest stop was Cape Ayamaru Park where we enjoyed the natural beauty of the ocean and beach as well as some 5" spiders and hermit crabs. From there we drove to a lighthouse which had a unique dam at the bottom of a waterfall along with a giant turtle sculpture and a sign indicating the site of a lunar excludes in 2009. There were also a large number of fishing floats washed up in the beach, so we collected a sample.

Amami Crater forms a bay and was quite scenic. But the highlight of the day for me was the time we spent in the National Park observing butterflies, birds, bugs, and even a snake! On the drive back we found a store where we purchased a local postcard. Fortunately we were able to drop the car off at the port, and we made our way back on to the ship. For this port I'd highly recommend renting a car (do it in advance) as there is infrequent public transportation to pretty remote sites.

During the Captain's sail away announcement he made a special announcement that because of Typhoon Lingling, we would be arriving at 6 am and departing at noon with an all aboard time of 11:30am. And all HAL shore excursions would be cancelled and refunds made to shipboard accounts. I began to wonder if our friend would have sufficient time to make it to the American embassy to get a renewed passport.

After watching the sailaway and the appreciative small send off crowd, we ate a Lido dinner with Roger and Caroline before watching the comedian's, Tim Kaminski, perform his second show. We wrapped up our evening with a bedtime nite sky story by Greg Redfern. Given we needed to meet with our small group At 6:45am, It was going to be a short night.

Day 53 - 02 Sept - At Sea to Amami, Japan

We're back to sea days. This leg of the cruise will have many sea days as we make our way to Australia. I woke up in time to make it to the coffee chat featuring our WWII historian. He was followed by Terry Greenberg lecturing on Naha (Okinawa) and Ron Orenstein shared pictures of the unique wildlife of our next two ports: Oshima and Okinawa.

After lunch Ben Smith shared famous photos demonstrating one doesn't need a fancy camera to take excellent photos. Ron was back with a Ring of Fire lecture with Lance following with his port talk on our next two ports: Naze and Naha.

We held our first interdenominational Bible study in the back room of the Pinnacle Grill and that worked out well plus we had 12 people participating. We went to the 6:30 presentation on Submarines, but I needed to return for a remedial session at 8:30. In between Greg Andrew presented the Elton John Experience which was quite good. 

  

Then a small group of us (50 ish) joined our astronomy lecturer, Greg Redfern, for a stargazing time. This was followed by a really interesting time in the Crow's Nest with a ship's officer, Gavin, demonstrating the features of and the use of a sextant. 

It was a full day at sea. We're in Naze tomorrow which will be a first visit for the Maasdam.

Day 52 - 01 Sept - Nagasaki, Japan

This port sort of sneaked up on us. It's one we've visited twice before so we didn't focus on getting up early enough to see the sail in. But we had to be up early enough for me to lead the 8am interdenominational service which coincided with our projected arrival time. Fortunately we arrived before 8am so the arrival announcements were completed before the service so it went on without interruption.  

Afterwards Angela and I left the ship, grabbed a map and purchased an all day tram pass for 500 yen ($5) each and set a primary goal of riding each of the four tram lines to their end. And along the way we would hop off, do something interesting, and then hop back on to continue the ride to the end of the tram route where we'd get off, sometimes visit an attraction of interest if available and then get on the next tram on our agenda. For those curious, we rode the lines in the following order: red, blue, yellow, and green.

On the red line, we attended the 11am Sunday service at the Japanese Baptist Church and visited the Suwa-jinja shrine. On the blue line we took a ride on the Ferris Wheel on top the CoCo shopping mall for 500 yen. On the green line we stopped to photograph the Meganebashi (Spectacles) Bridge and the Confucian temple.  

At the temple, a very elderly lady was trying to carry a very heavy sack of garbage and assisted by an elderly man. He left her to move the sack, but in her elderly hunchbacked condition that wasn't happening very well or fast. So I walked over and picked it up and carried it out easily but with her not letting go. In the end when we set the bag down at the curb, she thanked me profusely in broken English and excellent Chinese. And with shared smiles about the shared task completed we went our separate ways: her back to the temple and us on to Chinatown.

Chinatown was a ghost town and we quickly walked through it looking for a Nagasaki postcard. We found the main shopping street and after looking for a bit, we asked a shopkeeper where we might find a postcard. She directed us to a stationery store which we located and purchased a postcard which was added to the collection we have posted on our stateroom door. To get back to the ship, we took a blue line tran to a transfer point and switched to the following green tram. A short walk later and we were back on the ship just in time to join the evening program.

It was a special evening with a presentation of gifts (typically done in conjunction with a ship's first visit to a port) from the port to the ship and vice versa. Normally this is a private event, but the port wanted a public event. After this we watched local talent perform an excerpt from the Madam Butterfly Opera. The costuming was colorful, but I couldn't understand a word!

The final entertainment was the 'Guess my name' game show with Lance, his replacement, and Tim Kaminski, the comedian. We went to the Lido to find some dinner and ended up chatting with a pastor and his wife for the next couple hours.

Tomorrow is a full sea day on our way to Amani, Japan

Day 51 - 31 Aug - At Sea to Nagasaki, Japan

There's nothing quite like having one's TV set come on at 6am to wake one up. Fortunately it did or I would have missed the scenic cruising through the Kanmon Straits. So on the day commemorating my 74th year of being on this planet, I quickly dressed and headed up to Deck 14 and joined a small group to watch our passage through this narrow and strategic passage. It's the 3rd time in the past 4 weeks we traversed it. For much of the time I spent chatting with Alex and Barb.

Ron Orenstein was the guest in the morning coffee chat and Bruce Petty presented an interesting talk on the Missing Persons from WWII. This was followed by Lance's port talk on Nagasaki.

 For my birthday, Angela invited two other couples to join us for a nice lunch in the Pinnacle Grill. After 500 plus days of cruising we had never eaten there for lunch. We ate a leisurely lunch with lots of conversation and memories of cruising together and more. It went so well we missed the presentation on Pluto as well as the showing of black and white photographs of the aftermath of the Atomic blast at Hiroshima.

We had a short but good interdenominational Bible study in the Hudson Room but were rudely interrupted by one member of the 'Friends of Bill W' group. Later I was able to find a probable change in venue. We'll see if that comes to pass on our next sea day.

Since lunch was so filling, dinner in the Lido was light and we attended the 7:30pm entertainment which was Pingxin Xu, a masterful player of the Hammered Dulcimer. We went to a short repeat of Terry Greenberg's Behind the Mask: Hidden Culture of Japan. We finished up the evening watching a documentary film, Last Flight Home, about searching for MIA soldiers of which there are 88,000 still missing. The film focused on airmen and was very good.

Tomorrow we have a long port day in Nagasaki which will be our third visit in three years. Stay tuned.

Day 50 - 30 Aug - Hiroshima, Japan

This was our second visit to this city which was leveled by the first atomic bomb in history on August 6, 1945 and 25 days before I was born. We arrived and were docked at 10am to a small welcoming committee. Our plan for the day was to independently tour with Alex and Barb whom we've previously cruised with.  

We caught the second shuttle which took us downtown to City Hall from which we walked to the tram a few blocks away. It was two stops to reach the Peace Memorial Park where we were to spend the bulk of our time. The remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (now known as the A-Bomb Dome) was our first stop. It marks close to ground zero where the bomb detonated in the air above it.

From there we made our way to the Flame of Peace (never to be extinguished until there are no more nuclear bombs), the Memorial Museum, the Victims' Memorial Hall, the Children's Peace monument, the Memorial Mound (70,000 persons buried there), and several other memorials. They are all a somber reminder of the effects of the use of nuclear weapons. Here's a layout of the park.

From the park we walked to the Hiroshima Castle and toured it before walking over to the wonderful Shukkeien Gardens where we spent a relaxing couple of hours walking the pond, feeding the carp and turtles, watching fish jump high out of the water, finding beautiful land crabs, and admiring the manicured beauty of the garden. There was virtually nobody there and we closed it up at 6pm.  

We walked back to the location of a tram we could take back to the ship as the last shuttle left an hour earlier. We ended up hailing a taxi which dropped us off in 20 minutes at the ship. A tram ride would have been close to an hour plus a 10 minute walk.

We grabbed a quick dinner and were joined by Ann and John and we chatted as the ship slowly left its berth at 8pm and headed out to sea in pitch black darkness. We went to an 8:30pm repeat of Terry Greenberg's Japanese culture lecture and then participated in the comedy show of Tim Kaminski. It was fun. I played the scarecrow in a recreation of the Wizard of Oz. We finished off our night at the 10:30 feeding before retiring.

Tomorrow is a sea day and we're passing through the Kanmon Straights for the 3rd time this cruise. Stay tuned.

 

Day 49 - 29 Aug - At Sea to Hiroshima, Japan

All day today we sailed as fast as we could against a stiff headwind. At noon the Captain announced that we would be arriving in Hiroshima two hours late tomorrow at 10am due to the strong headwinds. Our departure time will be set back two hours. As we sail south it's also been getting warmer again.

The last Cruise Critic meet and greet for me of this long voyage was held at 10am in the Crow's Nest with over 100 attending. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Someone 'borrowed' both my Sharpie pens which I use for other purposes than making name tags.

There was a full set of EXC lectures today along with Gala Night. Terry led off with his repeat lecture on Japanese customs. Lance presented two Hiroshima port talks, and Bruce Petty gave his first WWII talk on an introduction to the causes of WWII. Greg Redfern presented his first talk on being an Astrophotographer during the 6:30 and 8:30 time slots.

The Emperors of Soul, a black quartet presented their first set of the cruise. They sang mainly soul music classics in a style similar to the Jersey Tenors. Before their first show, there was a Captain's toast but we missed it because the 6:30 talk went long. Afterwards we watched 'Letters from Iwo Jima' on DVD in our stateroom.

Day 46 - 27 Aug - At Sea to Yokohama, Japan

Today was our final sea day of this leg of the cruise. First on the agenda was the group EXE coffee chat in the Showroom At Sea. Frankly it wasn't well attended and the questions weren't flowing from the audience that was there. Terry Greenberg followed with his excellent talk on the two major religions in Japan: Shintoism and Buddhism with a smattering of time spent on the "modern" religions which are principally quite cult like. Lance gave his port talk on Yokohama.

After lunch Nigel Atherton presented a slide show of some of the earliest photographs taken in Japan or of Japanese people. At 2pm I felt there was a major snafu in the programming: Two EXE presenters gave presentations. Terry took questions in the Wajang Theatre and Ron Orenstein gave a presentation on Whaling History in Japan, I elected to attend the whaling lecture while my wife sat in on Terry's Q&A session. Then at 3pm Nigel was back with a super black * white slide show of crew members throughout the ship. At 4pm I led the final interdenominational Bible study of this segment,

We attended the Guest Chef's dinner and sat once again with Don & Barbara. This meal was much better than the previous one and featured a Kobe beef steak that was probably the best cut of meat I've ever eaten. We were then able to catch the final show by Tom Suha, the very good rock and pop and classical violinist. My tummy wasn't doing well for some reason so we retired to our stateroom. It was sure good to not have to pack!

Throughout the day we sailed at over 17 knots and per the Captain, we had to deviate from a straight course in order to not enter a restricted area used by the Japanese Air Force for practice maneuvers.

Tomorrow is the turnaround day in Yokohama and we'll do something near the ship as the weather wasn't projected to be all that nice. Stay tuned.

Day 45 - 26 Aug - Hakodate, Japan

Tiredness must have caught up with us as we didn't set an alarm and woke up at 8:30am. Turning on the TV bow cam indicated we were in the final stages of docking. Since our plans were open today, we casually got ready and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast before boarding the complementary shuttle to down's JR rail station. At the drop off point, we were once again greeted by helpful local high school students eager to help us and practice their English. Their teacher was with them and I thanked him for doing this.

The students helped us find the best way to the Ropeway (cable car) up Mt. Hakodate which was to take the tram (600 Yen ($6) for an all day tram pass) to the Jujigai station and walk up the hill to the Ropeway station. There we bought a one way cable car ride and took the cable car to the top where we took in the views for about an hour before beginning our walk down the mountain using a marked path and a hand drawn map that the Ropeway ticket seller provided us.

We walked the forest path down the mountain and somewhere the trail didn't follow the map. But we hiked on and the trail narrowed to just wide enough for a person to walk between the undergrowth. And all along the trail were shrines which I took pictures of every one. Finally at the bottom we came out at a large cemetery and the burial place of one of Japan's most famous modern sculptors: Nakahara Teijiro. Since the Ropeway wasn't nearby like we expected, I consulted my electronic maps and determined that the tram line was nearby and down the hill.  

So we walked down the hill and headed to the Hakodate Dock-mae station (end of the line). Along the way an American classic car in a building caught my eye and we went in. There was a black '59 Chevrolet convertible and light metallic green '63 Chevrolet convertible. Both were immaculate. In the back of the store was the trunk area of a '71 Thunderbird that was customized into a sofa. When I verbally identified the vehicles, the proprietor was visibly stunned. That led to me sharing pictures of my classic cars and despite our English/Japanese language difficulties, the language of cars transcended it. It was a wonderful encounter that only happens when one walks around with eyes open and a sharing heart.

We caught the tram (it runs every 10 minutes) at station number D23 and rode it across town to near the airport and stop D2 where the Botanical Garden and the monkeys were located. A small group of Japanese high school students were headed to the same place so they 'adopted' us and we chatted along the way so they could practice their English. Just before the Botanical Garden there was a yard with a sheep and a goat in it.

At the Botanical Garden, we paid the 300 yen ($3) per person entry fee and headed straight for the monkeys. There were about 50 of them in a large enclosure and we fed them monkey food pellets that the students had purchased. Some of the monkeys were very adept at catching the pellets and some even gestured for us to throw pellets to them. It was a cool encounter.

We briefly toured the Botanical Garden which was a large dome with lots of plants and a fish pond with coi and turtles and a few parakeet type birds. Outside the dome building was a covered shelter over a hot water pool, so we soaked our feet for a bit. It was then time to head back. We walked a few blocks and stopped at Lawson convenience store for a very late lunch of some sushi and a zero calorie Japan cola. Just a tip when traveling in Japan: the convenience stores (Lawson, 7/11, Family Mart, etc.) generally have healthy food items and are relatively inexpensive. 

We got on our tram at stop #D02 and rode it back to the JR Railway station (stop D17) where we did a quick tour of it before boarding our shuttle bus back to the port. Back onboard the ship, the Lido was serving a Japanese themed dinner so I enjoyed my fill of sashimi along with Bok Choi and short ribs. And Captain Arno ate his dinner wearing a Japanese robe. I thanked him for the credit we received and we shared my observation about being still on the ship for another month. He noted that after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all the ports are new for him until we reach Papua New Guinea.

Terry Greenberg gave a presentation on Japanese proverbs and etiquette which was quite good. The only other evening entertainment was a showing of Avengers End Game. About 7:45pm the ship left the dock so I went outside to watch the night departure before heading up to the Crow's Nest to watch the continuing sail away. There we chatted with another couple for several hours while watching the bright lights emanating from the numerous fishing boats. 

Tomorrow is a sea day before reaching our turn around port of Yokohama.

Day 44 - 25 Aug - Otaru, Japan

After a very leisurely overnight sailing, we arrived in a wet Otaru around 8am. The Japanese immigration authorities would not flex on their timetable of arriving at 9am and setting up their equipment for a full face to passport inspection of all passengers starting at just before 10am. We were assigned group two so we started a group two line before group one was finished. But HAL held our line until 10:20 and we were done by 11:00.

We gathered our day packs and left the ship and walked to the north end of the Otaru Canal (where we ate a Lawson Convenience store lunch last segment) which is a half mile long remaining fragment of a former commercial canal used to move goods from the main harbor to warehouses adjoining the canal. Now the whole area is a tourist with canal boats taking rides plus many local vendors plying their wares from 10x10 pop up tents.  

From the north end of the canal we walked one block west to Ironaiodori Street which at its southern portion becomes a major shopping and tourist street. There are many shops, restaurants, cafes, hotels & historical buildings. Numerous stores provide samples and glass shops are a significant shopping opportunity.

At south end of Ironaiodori Street, there's a nice music box store and free museum which we enjoyed before eating a late noodle lunch at the Snoopy Cafe. The Japanese definitely have a fetish for Snoopy as well as Hello Kitty. The lunch was so filling we didn't bother to go to the final Gala dinner after returning to the ship.

We walked back to our ship with a couple from Puyallup and the drummers were set up alongside the ship to perform at the sailaway. About 4:30pm, about 9 HAL tour buses arrived nearly simultaneously and the line to reboard the ship stretched across the parking lot! It was the longest last minute port call line I've seen for a HAL ship. We listened to the drummers and let the line dissipate before reboarding just before 5pm. Passengers continued to board until after the on board time of 5. At 5:10pm the gangway was stowed and by 5:15 the Maasdam silently slipped away from the dock to the accompaniment of the Japanese Hula dancers and the drum corps. Shortly after departure (usually it's given before departure), the Captain gave his departure message indicating we'd sail at a brisk 18 knots to reach Hakodate by 9am tomorrow.  

The Jersey Tenors performed their final shows tonight and we attended both performances. Their theme was Broadway and More and it was really good and different from the same show on the last segment. Tonight was the Indonesian crew show, but it was a bit late for us plus we've seen it many times. It was also the chocolate surprize night on deck 8.

The promised $100 per person credit was posted to our shipboard account today along with refunds of the 3 missed ports port charges. We're currently sitting on an over $1100 credit balance in our shipboard account. We'll likely use it for an internet package, some nice dinners, and maybe a shore excursion. We have prepaid gratuities so that won't be a way to reduce the credit balance.

 Tomorrow is our last port of call on this segment before our sea day on the way to Yokohama and the start of our final month on the ship this cruise. Stay tuned.

Day 43 - 24 Aug - Almost Korsakov

Overnight I slept like a baby rocked in our bed by the constant motion of the ship. My wife, on the other hand, didn't fare as well and was kept awake by the motion. When my alarm went off at 6:30 and I turned on the bow camera in our inside room it was obvious we weren't yet near our moorage as we were still sailing at 16 plus knots. I showered and dressed and headed up to the Lido for breakfast expecting to see land. But the low clouds and drizzle obscured it until finally it came into view and the lonely pilot boat first came out, we anchored, and a larger boat containing the immigration team arrived with their important passengers.  

About this time Captain Arno came on the PA system for his first announcement that it was not looking promising to be able to tender with 6 foot swells and a 35 knot wind. From the Lido it really didn't look bad. Lance came on the PA system to tell all guests to not proceed to the locations on their HAL shore excursion tickets or the Ocean Bar for those going ashore independently. We were to wait for further instructions.. 

At 8:35 am Captain Arno announced he was cancelling the port call as the tenders were experiencing a 5 foot swell while at the tender platform. Later in his noon update Captain Arno said the winds were so strong we were dragging the anchor and even the thrusters running at full power couldn't keep us in position. So, after disembarking the immigration authorities, the test tender was retrieved, the anchor retrieved, we pivoted clockwise and slowly proceeded out of the harbor into the rougher open seas.

Lance came back on the PA system and announced a change in the programming and that a revised When & Where would be distributed. He'd re-present his Japanese ports talk at 10am and at 11am Terry Greenberg would share some personal travel history in a talk called Tairy Tales which we've seen before on the Volendam. Ron did a a special talk on Guano which turned out to be quite interesting.

During lunch my wife and I both saw a pair of flying squid that Ron had described in a previous talk. They fly using a jet boost of water and their flukes flutter as they fly about 10 feet before touching down and relaunching. The 2pm movie wasn't of interest, so I took a nap in the library before participating in the rescheduled 4pm interdenominational Bible study.

Tomono Kawamura performed her last piano concert of this cruise. At 10pm the Orange party was held up in the Crow's Nest and it was well attended. Much of our time was spent with a Japanese couple communicating with the aid of Google Translate. They have 9 cruises booked after this one primarily on MSC.

We also received a letter tonight from the Captain apologizing once again for the missed ports and extending a $100 per person shipboard credit plus another Future Cruise Credit usable within a year amounting to 15% of the value of the 14 day segment. While it was certainly not expected, it was a nice gesture.

Tomorrow we are in Otaru and have the lengthy arrival immigration inspection. We think we have an interesting day planned. Stay tuned.