Day 10

Day 10

Friday, 3^rd June. Today we were fortunate to experience a 25 hour day. As the ship sails west, and into different time zones, the clocks on board are turned back to align with the updated time. Last night we shared a bottle of champagne with friends on our balcony before heading off to the restaurant for formal night. It was whilst we were sitting on the balcony; the ship sailed through the straight between Bali and Lombok Islands and into the Java Sea. During this time we noticed the sea had white caps and was quite choppy. We became  alerted when we felt the ship's momentum slow, and to us, seemed to almost stall, it was then  we saw what seemed to be a gutter of say a 3 meter wide trough of calm water about ½ meter lower than the choppy seas on either side. Once the ship sailed over this  strong current, its speed returned to normal.

Speaking about engines, we have been informed the still unrepaired engine will need further work to restore it to operating standard and there could be cancellations of a port or two. Talk around the ship……..isn't speculation is wonderful, is we may even spend a few days in Singapore, maybe in hotel accommodation?, whilst the ship goes into dry dock to have the engine repaired! Well, who knows till we hear the latest update from the Captain.

I do know that the laundry on the 11th deck had been flooded and everyone had to use another laundry!  Also talking to passengers in a cabin on the 9^th deck aft, who experienced flooding yesterday.

Having left Darwin well and truly behind the ship sailed west for about 24 hours before heading north. Seas are reasonably slight with air temperate in high 20c's.

The routine at the moment goes like this; Paul attends choir practice every day, usually after we have been to a lecture from the Economist. After lunch we head off to hear another speaker who had worked as a British Diplomat in Uganda, Seychelles, Afghanistan, Vanuatu and Hong Kong.  We usually head off to the afternoon quiz. Maybe some live entertainment after dinner before retiring to our cabin.