Up early this morning to walk Promenade Deck and watch the ship arrive in Phuket. Firstly the sun had not risen so I could discern the area only by the lights from the resorts on the coast and the 3 small freighters anchored nearby. Then 10 minutes later there was enough light to see the ship had actually stopped proceeding up the marked channel and shortly after tugs were pushing the ship back out of the channel to standby whilst we waited for the ship to continue its sail in.
It was interesting to see what was going on board. Passengers all dressed and equipped for the day, were starting to arrive at the designed meeting points for various tours around the ship, unaware of the delay unfolding outside. The ship was scheduled to dock at 7am but it was now 7.45am and we were still hovering outside the channel.
Finally with the help of the two tug boats we traversed backwards along the channel to the deep sea port of Phuket to arrive just over an hour late. I am not sure what caused the delay but think it may have been either the strong winds or fast running tide, or both to alter the way we arrived.
DH was still recovering from our day in Singapore, so we decided to stay on board. We had already visited Phuket several times before, so felt we weren’t missing out. I ventured ashore to wander around the markets which had been set up on the wharf.
Then on sail away we headed to the rear deck to watch as the ship left. It was such a perfect occasion sitting back in the shade, wine glass in hand, a warm breeze fanning our position whilst Thailand receded from our view. How lucky are we!
We the decided to head up to deck 12 to have some pizza and watch firstly the Australian Tennis Doubles’ Final and then a movie on the big outside screen. A perfect warm balmy night.
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