Every about twelve hours we get the changing news as to where we are going and then where we are not going. Darwin tomorrow, ah, nope, no Darwin tomorrow as the unusual chime rings in our ears at about 4:20 pm today with the Captain announcing that the Australian government has shut the ports, okay so what does that mean? A bit of a confusing message but an emergency conference call was to made tonight at some time to determine if we are “in transit” or a newly visiting ship - given that we have been in Australian waters for over a week you would think that we are “in transit”. You see if we were a newly visiting ship we would need to be quarantined for 14 days before anyone goes off or on. Tonight, through a grapevine we heard that we are now making a bee line for Perth with no further port calls along the way. Now that was a grapevine and that still is some five or so days away, so even if it is true that we are going directly to Perth, that all could change once again as this news continues to change. We still have no communication as to what this means to us and our fellow travellers, flights, luggage, transport ??? I heard today that some people will have 31 pieces of luggage, also because of the Fort Lauderdale on board residents, some travel with their own lazy boy chairs and big screen TV’s - crazy. It will be interesting to see how HAL manages and champions this project. I still feel that in the name of safety for all it is best to just make a bee line for Fort Lauderdale, with only mandatory fuelling and re-provisioning along the way as needed. That would be simple giving the news of today, what better way to keep us all safe than to keep us on board in our safe cocoon for the next 25 days. It appears this is not in the best interest of HAL, they seem to want to simply disembark us even though this could mean 2,3 or 4 flights and some 40 hours to get home, so much for a safety cocoon. I understand that this is all new to everyone involved but I also don’t feel that this situation is being handled in the best way, this should not be a one size fits all packaging, we are not being given all the information along with options that may work best for us and everyone’s individual needs. Stay tuned…. tomorrow is another day.
So given today was Sunday, we had to enjoy what maybe our last Sunday Brunch, great opportunity to sample many different bit size pieces of delicious food. Also, we were very happy to have Ray, our tai chi instructor, join us for dinner tonight. We met Ray many years ago when he was a guest just like us - great seeing him teaching our class. Beautiful sunset tonight and great harpist and singer tonight, Alana Conway. She is supposed to be playing in a concert next Saturday in Sydney, she is not sure that she will make it. A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day - “This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas.” - Pope Francis
What a nightmare?
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