"This morning, Dawn Princess approached her anchorage off the port of Benoa, Indonesia. Once the vessel is brought up to the anchor, we will commence our tender operations. Behind the scenes of a cruise ship there is a very active deck department (including bridge officers) who make up a large team of trained sailors responsible for the maintenance, upkeep and working of the vessel. Each member of this team has professional nautical qualifications that allow them to carry out jobs such as: working the mooring lines and anchor, deck maintenance, tender driving, helmsman and bridge lookout. Life at sea is very multicultural and this department is no exception with sailors from all over the world. However, it is interesting that many of our team come from Indonesia and when asked why they chose a life at sea often their reply will be that their fathers and grandfathers were also seamen."
A challenging day again today with a tender ticket system to go ashore. Many crew members are Indonesian, but very few will have the opportunity to go ashore as the priority is given to the passengers. Fortunately, we arrived early and 750 persons were already out prior to our schedule time of arrival. We had as well the support of a catamaran larger than our tender boats to disembark passengers faster.
I did go to deck 7 to see the anchor being released. I was so surprised with the speed and the noise it made! Loved it!
I did not book any tour in Bali and just took a taxi for the day, driving to the Ubud area. I went to see three temples, "Eat, love, pray"!
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Rice Terrace in Tegal Lalang |
Pura puses in Singapadu:
Pura melanting in Ubud:
Pura Desa in Batuan Village:
We had a fantastic sunset coming back on board the ship that night. We could observe as well a phenomenon purple storm with lightning a fair distance away on our port side.
