January 15, 2019 - Sea Day - Tuesday, Day 10

January 15, 2019 - Sea Day - Tuesday, Day 10

Today we are cruising on our way to the port of Dili on Timor - Leste or East Timor. While the staff is always wishing us a restful day at sea, we have difficulty passing up the many interesting things to do. So we have once again filled our day with lectures and cooking presentations. 

But first I started my day with a 4 mile walk at 5:30. The crew that washes down the deck has gotten to know me. They start at 5:00. Today I joined them at 5:20. They were well along, but have a sixth sense that alerts them to my approach from behind. They always direct the spray for there hoses out of my way. There is one other walker. This lady may be from Australia. She walks in a clockwise direction while the normal usage is counter clockwise. We meet at the same point on both sides of the deck. We are walking at the same pace. During my cool down I was able to enjoy a fresh breeze on the starboard side. The temperature was already 88 and the the breeze felt very good. It did not offer much drying as the humidity is also in the high 80’s.

Our lectures had to do with local geology, the various things to do in Dili and a fish preparation. The time passed quickly and we were at dinner before we knew the time had passed. Rianto let us know as we entered the dining room that he had assigned us to the table for two at the window next to our original table. We will still be able to chat with new people as  they are assigned to our formal table. Our server, Sinar, and our wine steward Yvette, both teased us about being promoted to the better table. We do enjoy them.

In his talk from the bridge the captain alerted us that when we arrived at Timor there might be a delay in starting the tender operation. We would anchor by 7:00 .but the local authorities  would make us wait until 8:00 before they came out to the ship to clear us in. He was also sending an engineer and carpenters ashore in the first tender to modify the steps up to the dock for safer landing. He had been in touch with the port earlier to check out the facilities. They sent him pictures of the dock, and he was concerned about the condition of the steps.

East Timor does not receive very many cruise ships, and their facilities are not up to the usual standards. Every effort will be made by our crew to assure the passengers’ safety. We had received a letter from guest services last week to let us know that every passenger will be required to have an East Timor visa whether going ashore or not. The ship would process our applications and charge $55 per person to our shipboard accounts. There days later we received another letter advising us that the authorities had decided we would not need visas if we did not go ashore. Alice and I had attended a lecture that indicated the local infrastructure and cleanliness standards might be less than passengers are accustomed to. Expectations should be lowered accordingly.

Since we will be returning to East Timor later in our journey, we decided that we will stay onboard for this visit. We will listen to the comments of those who go ashore and decide if we will go ashore next time.

We skipped the entertainment, set our clocks back 30 minutes to rejoin the rest of the world and retired early.