It’s a lake out here.  We have left Indonesia and are headed to the Philippines.  We are traveling due North and crossed the equator in the middle of the night.  So, we are still a day ahead of you, but we are no longer upside down.  It feels good for the blood to rush out of my head. 

We are now in the land of dirty water, white skies and 82.4 temps, 24/7.  I’m not handling the heat so well, so I am staying in the A/C areas.  As we travel north, it will become cooler, and people will again complain of being cold. 

In Bali, the hostess of the dining room brought her family on board.  I was sitting in my designated chair on deck 9 when she brought them by.  She stopped and addressed me.  “Mr. Sharp. This is my family, my mother, my brother, my uncle, my cousin, etc”.  They all bowed to me, it was moving that she took the time to do that.  That’s Seabourn. 

Speaking of the Seabourn experience, I would like to share with you 2 stories that I have witnessed.  First, a couple from Germany were supposed to disembark in Darwin.  Their flight was to go through Dubai.  Because of the war in Iran, that was no longer possible.  Seabourn could not find a reasonable alternative flight, so they let the couple stay on board an additional two weeks and fly out of Bali.  Free two week cruise, wow, go Seabourn.  Then there was a passenger that didn’t have a passport that expired 6 months after the cruise ends and have a certain number of blank pages.  In the very beginning, we are told that our passport has to be good for 6 months after the cruise ends.  We had to get new passports because we didn’t have enough blank pages, so we know the gig.  This passenger was 5 days short of having 6 months left from the end of the cruise May 15^th.  Indonesia said that they could not enter the country because of that, so Seabourn flew him to the Philippines and put him up in a hotel until we arrived there, go Seabourn again.  This is all stuff that costs the passenger nothing. Can you say all inclusive and mean it, Seabourn can.

When they say lobster dinner, they don’t mean little bits of lobster, all you can eat.

So, we were sitting with our normal lunch mates when he said its going to rain. I said, no it isn’t. About an hour later, I said it’s going to rain within 15 minutes. When he said it was going to rain, there were clear signs of the rain.

When I said it’s going to rain, there were no such conditions. Sure enough it started raining. He asked how I do that?

It’s easy, when the sky bar phone rings and the bar crew picks up the towels, it’s because the bridge just called and told them to prepare for rain. Simple observation, not genius.

Eat your heart out Trump, I have more buildings with my name on them than you do!

Bali

In our clearence process for Hong Kong, it ask if we had had contact with a bat, I guess this guy’s in trouble.

Just for my linemen friends.

Care to monkey around a bit? Nice Banyon Tree.

Finally some sea life. I was talking with an officer that has been at sea for over 30 years and he too said that he never remembers going this long without seeing sea life. Odd.

We had a little visitor on our veranda.

Finally, before the sun sets:

Pool chrnicles, you just can’t make this shit up.

A Guy orders a virgin Bloody Mary, okay. And my wife will have a virgin Screwdriver. For the non drinkers out there, to make a Screwdeiver, you mix Vodka and Orange juice.

It’s a lot cooler today. I checked it was still 82.4 drgrees.

Sitting in my deck 9 chair while at port and the Chief Engineer walks by. He asks if I went ashore today. I responded, as I told the Captain, I’ll only leave the ship if you tell me it’s sinking. The Engineer said, well the Captain and his wife are ashore right now, I hope he didn’t forget to give you the message.

Mid day sky.

Never a lack of beautiful sunsets. And I said to myself, what a wonderful world.

More later, I promise! Thanks for the comments, it keeps me connected………