Sabin’s on the Sea - Day 28 - Sea Day #15
by Nina Sabin - Travel Blog
Today we woke up to another cloudy and rainy day. The rain affected us being able to tender to Dravuni Island, Fiji. For passenger safety there was no way to use the tenders to get to the island.
The seas were too rough for the small tender boats. It was especially hard to step from a big to small boat. 4-5’ swells!
What is sad is all the tender boats were out and ready to go. Passengers including us were dressed and ready to go.
A few minutes before were planned to go ashore the Captain made the announcement that said today’s stop had to be cancelled. He even said one of the boats snapped a bow line with the seas being so rough. With the island being very small, there was really no leeward side to get wind and wave protection from the open sea.
The rough waters affected drifting of the ship, even with being anchored.
So we ended up with another day at sea.
Just clarify we have had 15 seas days so far in total, the other days have been at ports. We have had 13 land days. Two of them were at beginning of our trip in Vancouver.
The ships stabilizers really helps make our ride smooth, even with rough seas. However, we were only going nine to ten knots. We are going at a slower pace so we don’t arrive at our next destination too soon. With the slower pace you can feel the rocking more.
The ship’s personnel was prepared for another sea day and updated the daily program by adding a movie and a dance class.
I unfortunately, did not see the update about the dance class, but I was good with that because I was able to work on writing my book.
The morning was very relaxing sitting by the pool after our room service breakfast.
Afternoon involved eating lunch in the dining room and playing Eucher with our Canadian bridge playing friends.
We took a walk along deck ten and found people looking over the rail at a bat. He must of flew on when we were by the island.
He will have to wait until the next port to find a fruit tree. I feels so bad for him that he will be away from his island and family.
We believe the bat was a fruit bat aka flying fox.
Bats are the only native mammals in Fiji. There are six species in Fiji, out of which five are threatened or critically endangered.
The bat species are on 30 islands out of over 300 Fiji islands.
The bat was definitely our highlight of our day.
The day finished with a ventriloquist as our entertainment. As I wast he’d the show, I realized I have seen this same ventriloquist another time we were on Holland America.
Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to go to port since we won’t be tendering. We will arrive in the morning to Lautoka, Viti Levu, Fiji.