Timing is everything redux

Lots to catch up on. Firstly, we had another medical life flight off the ship yesterday afternoon. It breaks my heart when I hear about that. It's not just the medical issue itself, that's bad enough. It's so much worse. One minute, you're on a world cruise, top of your game, enjoying the fruits of your labor and then suddenly you're in a helicopter, spending on avg 150k (if you don't have insurance) for a life flight, dangling 500 feet above a moving ship and your loved one can't accompany you in the helicopter or to the hospital. So you have no health advocate and you're in a foreign country. I can't imagine how profoundly devastating that must be. More on that after the second update.

The second update is our stop in Darwin (our last stop in Australia) has been cancelled due to high winds (60mph). So we're rerouting toward the following port on our itinerary, komodo Island. The Seas will be rocky for the next 24 hrs and lots of people are already wearing patches. For me and my wife, we're fine, no sea sickness. But for others, this can really negatively impact their cruise.

I feel terrible for those who joined the cruise in Sydney. Their ports so far have been Moreton island (in my bottom 5), Airlie Beach (Rained all day and also in my bottom 5) and Cairns (which we loved). By the time we get to Komodo Island, they'll have spent 11 days total on the cruise, 3 port days and 8 sea days. Not a good ratio, even if you like sea days.

What you also may not realize is a lot of restocking (food/alcohol) and staff/entertainer changes happen in the major ports. Darwin would have been a big one for all that since the next restocking port (Singapore) is 5 more days away. So we'll have the same entertainers now till Singapore and there may be some shortages of popular and fresh items. These are first world problems for me and my wife but some people will get upset.

Back to update # 1, Komodo island doesn't have an airport. So the spouse/ partner in update #1 will need to wait till Singapore to fly back to Australia (8 more days) to join their loved one, adding to an already stressful situation.

So what can we learn from this as it relates to a long cruise.....and life? Timing is everything. Cruise Plans can change on a dime due to storms or illness. Life plans can change on a dime as we know from covid since march 2020. Our first 40 cruise days had nearly perfect weather. It was amazing. The last 10, not so good. The other take away is to take it all in stride. It's still pretty frickin awesome to be on a world cruise. Just keep it in mind if you plan an adventure like this, plans will change.

As for the day, I didn't work at all, unusual for me as my Sunday is Saturday at home and therefore is a quiet catch up day. But I needed a full day off. I didn't even exercise. Just engaged with people all day, played some cards, both casual with friends and at the black jack table (broke even). Dinner was a lively bunch again. Our table has been a bit raucous (in a loud laughter way) the last few nights causing a lot of attention from tables nearby. So our table fills up quickly now. The show was a pianist, who was ok. Not my thing but the older crowd really enjoyed it.

And that's about all for the day. Tomorrow's an unexpected sea day and we'll find the joy in it. I just got a non-fiction book called The Money Confusion from a buddy on board so I'll read that after some early morning work. A long workout and sauna time will also make the days itinerary. The day will find its own rhythm for sure, they always do.