India’s Out; Western Australia’s In

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Day 61, Grand World Voyage 2020

Thursday, March 5, 2020; At Sea, Tasman Sea

I don’t typically write a blog post about sea days, as most are pretty much the same and there isn’t a lot to write about. But I’ve always been a reporter at heart, so when there is something to write about, out comes the laptop.

No one was surprised today at noon when Capt. Jonathan ended his noon nautical and meteorological report by saying he had an announcement to make. Our schedule is changing again.

Most passengers are happy that instead of heading for Sri Lanka and India, we will sail south down the western coast of Australia and then across the Indian Ocean to Réunion Island, off the coast of Madagascar. Hearty applause greeted the captain’s announcement throughout the Lido pool deck, where I heard it. Most people like the idea of seeing more of Australia.

Yesterday we heard rumors that Sri Lanka had decided to deny stops by cruise ships, so the ports of Colombo and Hambantota (added last week) already were in doubt.

The issue with Mumbai was two-fold. A number of passengers were not interested in stopping in India, thinking that it is awfully close to Asia and the spreading coronavirus. In addition, the Indian visa process is said to be onerous and lengthy. There was some hope that India would make an exception and issue a blanket visa for the ship’s passengers, but that didn’t happen.

So now we will almost do a circumnavigation of Australia. After calling on Sydney this weekend, we’ll head north up the eastern coast to Townsville and Cairns and circle north to Darwin. Then instead of heading to Indonesia as originally planned or Sri Lanka per the first revision, we’ll sail south down Australia’s west coast, stopping in Broome, Exmouth, Geraldton and finally in Fremantle (by Perth) for an overnight.

Fremantle will be the end of our current segment, replacing Singapore (original schedule) and Colombo (first revision). I’m hoping that my friend and lecturer Kate Ross will catch up with us there.

From Fremantle we will sail west for seven sea days to La Possession, Réunion, and then pick up the earlier schedule.

I’m fine with living with a degree of uncertainty, because I fully expect that we will have at least one more revision. Last Sunday some angry crowds greeted a Princess cruise ship in Réunion – they didn’t like that the ship had been in Thailand much earlier. Daily we see new developments in the spread of covid-19, as this coronavirus is called, and in the measures countries take to protect their residents.

A healthy dose of patience doesn’t stop the rumors flying around the ship. This morning someone said she heard that 200 people plan to leave the voyage this weekend in Sydney and fly home. A few early departures wouldn’t surprise me, but I doubt it would be anywhere near that number. Someone heard that after spending some time in Australia we would head to Hawaii and then back to the states. Someone even suggested (wishful thinking?) that maybe we could go back to the Falklands to pick up our missed stop there — or just hang out sailing around Antarctica until the virus goes away. Yes, it’s crazy.

Meanwhile we’re all washing our hands constantly, and I’m trying to stop myself from touching my face (which just makes my nose itch). I’ve scheduled a three-day overland safari to Kruger National Park in April to replace my cancelled trip to the Maasai Mara in Kenya. And I’m still signed up for this fall’s Grand Africa circumnavigation and next year’s world cruise, with stops planned in Japan, China and Italy.

After all, travel is an adventure, and almost anywhere we go will be new to me. So I’ll just end with a few travel memes from the interwebs….