Trouble at sea

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Still at sea; The trip is over

 We’ve run into a problem: The charter plane which was to take us from Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands to Brisbane, Australia on Saturday afternoon has broken down, and will not be repaired in time for our trip.  NG/Lindblad has only been able to find a replacement to leave at 3:45 AM on Saturday morning.  As a result, we must sail directly to Honiara without any of the stops along the way for snorkeling, to visit Samarai Island, Papua New Guinea, and to tour Guadalcanal, the site of important WW II battles.  Our trip effectively ended after our second day of visiting the Asmat on Sunday, and we will spend five full days aboard the ship.  They have created a lecture and demonstration schedule to try to keep us occupied, but there is a large number of distressed and upset people aboard, including us.

 Our schedule, then is to dock in Honiara late Friday, depart Honiara at 3:45 AM Saturday for Brisbane, a four-hour flight.  Arrive, sleep-deprived, in Brisbane Saturday morning and go to our hotel which, they assure us, will have availability to check in early morning.  On Sunday afternoon we fly Brisbane-Singapore, 7 hours 50 minutes, arriving at 8:30 PM Singapore time.  We then leave Singapore at 12:40 AM Monday morning for Newark, 17 hours 50 minutes, arriving in Newark the same day, Monday, at 5:30 AM, Newark time after crossing the International Date Line.  Our final flight is Newark-Rochester at 11:00 AM Monday.

 So, our trip is effectively over except for getting home.  Let’s hope all goes well with the connections, so that the only consequence will be extraordinary tiredness.  Thank you, all, for traveling with us, and unless something unexpected happens, this will be the last post to this blog.

 My sincere appreciation to all who sent notes and comments,

 Victor

Comments

  1. xctravelerDecember 14, 2022 at 3:43 PM

    So sad to have your trip cut short. You certainly have already had incredible experiences making the trip memorable. We do not envy you the next 4 days. Oy
    Paul & Carol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ralph P. LockeDecember 14, 2022 at 5:44 PM

    Ouch! Sorry to hear about this big change resulting from a single glitch. ("For the want of a nail....") I hope you do have some good additional lectures over the next few days, also discussions about what you all have experienced, either one on one or in groups. I myself am still trying to process some of the amazing things that Victor wrote up and shared via photos and videos (with singing and instruments!). Thanks again for letting us share a tiny bit in your explorations!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rwa442December 14, 2022 at 5:50 PM

    Sorry to hear the troubles for the final trip visits. I know they would have been very interesting. Hopes for smooth sailing and get as must rest as possible on those flights home. It will be grueling.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asmat

Image
 Saturday, December 10, 2022 Asmat Yesterday was completely at sea, headed towards the Asmat area.  We had three lectures, one on flying fish, one on photography looking at photos taken by the travelers (we were each invited to submit two), and one on how to tell a story with photography.  All extremely well done.  We had an ice cream social in the afternoon preceding the cocktail hour preceding dinner. Today was unforgettable.  Classic National Geographic, as we visited one village of the Asmat people.  The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea who live in a region on the island’s southwestern coast bordering the Arafura Sea:  The coast is challenging, consisting of mangrove and enormous tidal swamps.  The mud flats extend out so far from the coast and are so gradual, that the distance from the high tide line to the low tide line is two kilometers!  Of mud!  There is no place near the shore for ships to go, and we anchored more than a mile off of the coast by the tiny town of Agats.
Read more

Uwus Village

Image
Sunday, December 11, 2022 Uwus Village Today we had a visit to another Asmat village, one even more remote than the one we saw yesterday, and even more affected by mud. We started out in the Zodiacs going east along the New Guinea coast, going past the river which we had used to get to the Per village, and ultimately turning up another river.  We then continued upriver for about five miles, and then slowed.  Suddenly, from a tributary off to the side, came war canoes as if in an ambush: The men of Uwus Village really surprised us.   They herded us upriver: Where we were met by another force of Uwus canoes:  Had it been real, we would have been in a pincer between upriver and downriver forces.  It had been raining lightly, but now a steady heavy rain began as we went ashore to land which only an hour before had been underwater with high tide.  Everything here depends on the tides, and the tide was going out.  We were welcomed with drumming: The women stood out in the pouring rain moving
Read more

Banda Neira

Image
Monday, December 5, 2022 Banda Neira We are truly remote, now, in the northern portion of the Banda Sea, at Banda Neira, part of the Banda Archipelago, probably better known as the fabled Spice Islands.  Nutmeg and mace were once found exclusively on the Banda Islands, leading to the immense spice trade and the brutal colonization of these parts.   Few tourists visit here, and it’s a big deal when an expedition ship arrives.  We were met by a long boat:   Multiple boats joined in the welcome parade: We docked at the waterfront: The temperature was in the 90s and the humidity 100%.  We broke into small groups, each with a local guide, for a two-hour walk through the town and surrounding area.  Our group’s first stop was at the local museum, located in an old residence: The most dramatic thing there was a painting depicting a massacre of 44 chiefs of Banda on May 8, 1621 by Japanese mercenaries hired by the Dutch Governor General, Jan Pieterszoon Coen (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D
Read more