Traveling with Ray Owens

Today was to have been a second day anchored off of Mystery Island, Vanuatu. By the way a bit of a Google search unraveled the mystery of why mystery island has that name.

First of all, the island is called Inyeug by the inhabitants of the nearby islands. In 1974 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip visited the island as part of the tour of what was then part of the British Empire. The people who were reporting on the visit to the media thought they could spice up the report a bit by calling it Mystery Island. The cruise industry does very little to dispel the misnomer.

That was the plan but last evening the captain announced the we would not return to Mystery Island because there was a medical emergency on board that required hospitalization. The nearest place to transfer the patient was in New Caledonia. So we would go there and an ambulance boat would meet us.

So that is what we did and about 8:00 this morning the transfer was made. We then began to make our way slowly to Brisbane. The slowly was to avoid getting there too early. At about 9:30 another announcement was made by our good captain. It seems that there were two more people that needed to be transported to the hospital. So we turned this rig around and went back to New Caledonia.

Now the mystery has transferred from the island to the question of what was wrong with these three people. The captain did not divulge that information but he did encourage the passengers to appreciate that the cruise line would have done the same thing for each passenger and/or their loved ones.

So Penny and I had a relaxed day. We ate lunch in the 2-70 cafe, soup and salad was the option.

We played two different rounds of cards in the Music Hall. I was generally humiliated in both rounds.

After lunch, before round two of cards, I thought it was a good plan to nap to gather strength. That seemed to help as I won the afternoon card games.

Dinner tonight was Italian, so-so quality. The wait staff serenaded us with Italian songs. They were enthusiastic if not always on key.

After dinner we went to the production show called “Sonic Odyssey”. Penny saw someone play an earth harp before on America Has Talent. The strings are stretched from the stage above the audience to the balcony railing. There were also singers and dancers as part of this very spectacular show which we really enjoyed.

Tomorrow and Friday are also sea days.