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.
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