Wednesday, Day 60 - Mar 7 - 8am to 6pm, Semarang, Java Island, Indonesia. Canceled! Becomes a Sea Day Cruising the Java Sea

Running aground while sailing out of Bali's Benoa` Harbor, we were held up in Bali an extra 32 hours, caused Semarang to be canceled. This was very disappointing to us as we really wanted to see the Borobudur Temple Compound.

We missed seeing Semarang, a city on the north coast of the island of Java, Indonesia. A major port during the Dutch colonial era, today, Semarang is a commercial port and administrative capital of Central Java. More a business center than a city for tourists, it is, however, an excellent gateway to the mountainous interior of Central Java and only some 60 miles away from world-famous Borobudur, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monument is located in the Kedu Valley, in the southern part of Central Java, Indonesia. The world's largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur was constructed between 778 and 856 during the Syailendra Dynasty, using over two million cubic feet of stone. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs. There are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. Laid out in the form of a lotus, the sacred flower of Buddha, Borobudur Temple Compound is an exceptional reflection of a blending of the very central idea of indigenous ancestor worship and the Buddhist concept of attaining Nirvana.
     
This morning we wake up about 6:30AM to find the ship at sea. We are already out of the  Benao Harbor. The TV map shows us in Badang Strait and says the next port is Kota Kinabalu! Thank goodness we are finally moving!

 Sunrise

 Goodbye Bali

The Captain comes on the PA system and tells us the divers arrived at 11PM and entered the water at 2:30 AM. They cleared the ship at 4:30AM after finding only a few scratches on the surface of the hull. The Captain then gets the go ahead from Lloyds Register and Regent home office. The prearranged pilot arrives at 5AM and we sail at 5:30AM. He tells us we will be skipping Semarang and will have three seas days as we sail to Kota Kinabalu.

We go to breakfast and have a routine morning with all the regular activities.Carolyn goes to lunch for a bowl of the wonderful French onion soup. About that time a letter from the Captain arrives outlining again what happened and what is being done as a result.

Basically the letter says: "The ship took evasive maneuvers to avoid an unlit local fishing boat causing the Navigator to be grounded on soft sand. No one in the fishing boat or on the ship was hurt. An extensive, ship wide inspection was conducted, third party experts, Lloyds Register were invited to confirm the ship was unaffected and certified divers were flown in from Java to ensure the ship’s hull was undamaged. The ship has been cleared, but the scheduled had to be changed. Semarang Java is canceled, we will have three sea days, then be in Kota Kinabulu Malaysia, 2PM to 10PM and then Muara, Brunel Darassalam, 7AM to 3PM, another sea day and finally Singapore at 8AM. Due to the disruption of the voyage everyone will receive a Future Cruise Credit of 10% of their cost of this segment as a good will gesture. Nice gesture that they didn’t have to do.

Dick plays on the computer all afternoon and Carolyn works on the Blog, but keeps falling asleep. We change for dinner and go to the Navigator Lounge for a drink and to listen to Clive for a while. On to dinner where the food is good as usual, but the timing was really off with long waits between courses.

Now that all the uncertainty is over with, we should sleep better. We saw the Captain at dinner and he really looked tired! We know he will sleep better tonight.