Sunday 18th March 2018.
It was announced by Captain Peter Philpot at the end of this morning’s church service, that Darwin had endured its worst cyclone in (if I remember his address correctly) 30 years and that much damage had occurred. The Indonesian immigration authorities who were scheduled to board QM2 at Darwin, in fact, had not travelled there, already aware of Cyclone Marcus. QM2 had also made a dramatic change of course northwards to begin with, then northwest, away from danger, to around 100 miles from the epicentre, before continuing westwards.
Bali is currently celebrating the Hindu Nyepi Holiday. This translates to “Day of Silence”. Everything shuts down, including Bali Airport, and the internet is disconnected to the island. This has exacerbated problems particularly concerning communication. Cunard has done everything possible to avoid cancellation of our call at Bali, as well as seek an alternative last minute port of call. All to no avail. This now means an earlier arrival at Singapore on the evening of 22nd March. The up-side is arriving the day before, early in the evening, rather than feeling obliged to get out of bed early the following morning to observe QM2’s arrival there.
My steward has just delivered an epistle from the Captain with a complete and comprehensive explanation of the difficulties and circumstances encountered. Also, a bottle of Chardonnay as a gesture from the Company. Thankfully, the few people I have been in conversation with are, while understandably disappointed, philosophical and thankful to be on board QM2, and not enduring an encore of Britain’s tedious winter. It could be worse!
Thanks for reading,
David.
David's Cruise 