Sailing the South China Sea – February 11

Low 30s, humid, breezy

Today was very much like yesterday in that we had no real schedule. We did however have to repeat the ship’s safety drill – apparently it has to be repeated every 14 days.

We also had to do Philippine immigration. Seems like immigration people got on in Brunei. This way when we arrive in Philippines we can just walk off of the boat. This is typical, but usually the immigration people get on as soon as we arrive it usually doesn’t take very long and we really have nothing to do with it. The boat has our passports the entire cruise and takes care of the vast majority of all immigration procedures. The Philippines also wants to know about our health – if we’ve been to some African countries, a slaughter house etc…the usual questions J They also take our temperatures. If I wasn’t told this was happening I wouldn’t have noticed. It’s basically a camera set on a table that we walk in front of, no stopping, pausing…just walking.

Next was napping, reading, relaxing with a few cocktails, dinner, a bit of casino and bed.