Boo hoo, but safety is the first thing Captain Jonathan thinks of. For Raratongo Cook Island there was 2 plans....because of the large swells and the reefs. Plan A was to anchor off the main downtown area and tender in. Everything was there except for the beaches, they were down where Plan B was. So the Captain tried to get in as close as he could and the swells were just to big for the tenders. So Plan B was the next thing to do. He took the ship to the other side calmer side and there is nothing but beautiful beaches there with the exception of the 2 shuttle buses to take us into the town. Well that didn't happened either, the Captain waited for 20 minutes to see if the swells we going to calm down to get the tenders out but it was just to rough. So he came on the intercom and said that it was just too rough and safety came first and he was sorry that we could not go onto the island. He stayed for about 15 minutes so people could get there pictures from the ship. So this is the first port we have missed in 24 days. Bob and I are having a wonderful time and chatting with Carol Manico lots especially in the mornings as she is a early riser like us.
So the next 2 days are Sea days and we love our Sea days.....
So stay tuned to find out more of our journey. Update this just was delivered to our room.
Far way to our west a tropical storm is brewing. This is going to affect our call at Alofi Niue. In a nutshell if we call as scheduled on Friday it will be right on top of us. Winds would be 40mph and waves 3.5 meters or around 12 feet it would be raining cats and dogs to boot. This would make the call to port utterly impossible. The Captain also says that he has no wish to subject us, or his crew to natural forces especially when we have a home to move. So we are cruising on a westerly track heading for Tonga and making a speed of 15 knots. This should take us south of the forecast track of the storm which should drop in far behind us after we have passed. There are no alternative ports to the west of Alofi other than Tonga itself. This is why we are heading towards it at a far faster speed than was initially required. Rather than to subject us to yet more days at sea waiting for Monday and our scheduled docking there we will be docking on their Saturday evening and don't forget we cross the International Date line and lose a day. We will now have the opportunity to have the evening ashore and 2 full days on Tonga the Sunday and Monday at which time we will resume our schedule and sail for Auckland.
So our new itinerary is as follows now:
Wednesday January 28. At sea
Thursday January 29 at sea
Friday January 30. Crossing the Internatioal Date Line. This day does not exist......
Saturday January 31. Nuku'alofa Tonga. 7pm arrival
Sunday Feb 01 Nuku'alofa Tonga. Overnight
Monday Feb 02 Nuku'alofa Tonga depart at 4 pm
************So there you have it.......stay tuned you just never know.....
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