Day 62 - Tuesday Feb 28 Anchored in Halong Bay

Halong Bay photos

position at 8:45 am: N20 57.5 latitude E107 3.55 longitude
(Bai Chay)
temperature: 59F, 90% humidity, cloudy but not foggy as it was Yesterday
distance since FLL: 21,035 miles

Today we woke up around 6am to be ready to sail out. It was about 50 degrees and misting again. But, without the heavy fog of yesterday's sail in. It was very windy and the water was really choppy. About 2 foot waves in what might be called a river vs. bay where we are docked. We did not sail out until about 7:30am, a half-hour delay. Most of the delay was caused by the fact that a freighter docked in front of us had its rope on top of ours and a coalition had to meet to work out the logistics of that. We sailed out about 10 miles. If the rocks were not in the way you could see Hong Gai and Bai Chay from our position. After we rounded the corner under the bridge the wind really calmed down and so did the waves. Good. Debbie was sweating the Junk ride already.

Debbie went to 8:15 Morning Stretch class. She said she could use a good stretch after 6 hours on the bus yesterday. She found out then that Jacquie had added Fat Burner Aerobics at 9am and Absolutely Abs at 10:15am. Now she had a real dilemma, if she had known about the classes yesterday morning she would never have booked a 3 hour Junk boat ride. Jacquie, and Peggy in class, encouraged her to take the Junk boat that it would be unique and she agreed. That is why she booked it. That and to avoid a sea day at anchor! But, still not wild about the thought of all that time on a small boat. At the end of stretch class, she could decide or not until after setting foot on the junk boat and she could bolt then if she needed to but would still miss classes.

Our tour was rescheduled while we were at breakfast in LaVeranda. It is now at 9:20am instead of 9am. We are in group 2. Group 2 wound up not being boarded on the Junk boat until about 10:10am. This was a great tour. We had a wonderful morning. The water was not glassy smooth, but the ride was not rough and bouncy either. It was OK. Debbie took a double dose of meclizine this morning and wore her Relief Band. Debbie started out in her big red parka, but Clay convinced her it had warmed up to about 70 degrees. Now she could see the temp outside was only 60, but let him convince her to just take a windbreaker. Big mistake. It was a chilly, windy morning. We boarded and went to the top, open-air deck of the Junk to ride. It would have been very pleasant if we had been better attired. It started raining near the end and we got under the covered area up top then. Inside it was set up with booths and a center aisle, like a diner. There were windows all around but you couldn't see much. Then there were the vendors. About an hour out, one of our fellow passengers came up and said Debbie was missing all the shopping and some guy's wife was spending all his money. Debbie went up and down after that. It was like a shopping party or something. They would bring out pearls, then embroidered T's, then embroidered bags, then silk robes, then men's shirts, then tablecloths, at one point she heard them say next was mah-jongg sets! The problem was that then everyone was watching the center aisle and completely missed the scenery through which we were sailing. Debbie did buy 2 things. But, mostly she was enjoying the scenery and the fact that she was riding on a Junk boat in the open-air and not enclosed and queasy. We saw lots of strange rocks, little fishing boats, a fishing village, a pearl farm, caves, and a couple of island temples. Between 11am and noon, as we were sailing back to Voyager, Debbie spotted a big white cruise ship sailing towards the unfinished bridge of Bai Chay/Hongai. We watched it until it turned the corner to the dock. It looked familiar and about the same size as Voyager, but it was distant. Debbie went down and asked the guide. He said it was Oceania's Nautica. He said it is sailing north as we sail south and this is where we cross. He said he had been down in Saigon doing guiding for them and the reason he was on Halong Bay today was for their tours this afternoon. (Remember that these tours just became available for us!) Debbie said, well so much for the low tide reason that we had to leave the dock at 7am and the guide just snickered behind his hand and shook his head. He said that Nautica was docking there now and had been scheduled to be there, so we could not be docked there until 3pm as originally scheduled no matter what.

We are very glad that we had the opportunity to do the Halong Bay Junk tour and would highly recommend it. Dress accordingly and do not be afraid to go for overkill. You could always take some off or put some on. Bring small bills of US dollars as there is shopping.

We stayed at anchor until 3pm waiting for the 1-hour tender return of the overnight guests to Hanoi. They had to be picked up by tender in Hongai. Because it was an hour tender ride, they are the only guests to tender here. No other tenders ran. Debbie was half-way watching and did not see the tender arrive. We assume that it did arrive because we started turning and sailed out at 3pm with no announcements or horn blowing. The interest and distraction of the afternoon was the beggars in boats. People were throwing them fruit, cokes, shampoo, etc. from their cabins. It went on for about an hour and seemed like a bad idea. The longer it went on the more of them showed up. It may have been going on all day. When the Junk boat returned to the tender gangway about noon today we got behind 3 small local boats with families aboard, as well as their laundry, and dogs. It was not clear why they were there then but apparently that is what they were doing. It was amazing that we did not have more little boats show up when word got out that it was like Halloween trick-or-treat time here around Voyager.

Debbie had 2 exercise classes to go to starting at 4:30pm. The Gulf of Tonkin seas were not smooth as before and once we left Halong Bay things started getting ugly. The later it got the rougher it got. Debbie's first class of Yoga/Pilates was hazardous. Everyone in the class fell at least once. Debbie toughed it out after earning her sea legs this morning. When she got back from class though she had had enough. Tonight is Informal and when Clay asked her where she wanted to go for dinner, she didn't. She studied the menus upstairs and down and decided that she would just as soon order a pizza and watch TV in the room. Well, so much for well laid plans. The pizza we got was just cheese, not 3-meat. The movie that was to start at 7pm on channel 11 and was the only one we had not seen never came on. Channel 11 just played static for the next hour. Debbie called and ordered a 3-meat pizza again and this time we got 2 of them. Oh, well. We tried and we won't go hungry anyway.

Tomorrow's Passages says that the expected high temperature in Da Nang is 64 degrees F with a quarter inch of rain expected. Not a great weather day. Also, it says that starting tomorrow they are having Casa D'Angelo in LaVeranda. Apparently, this is a Fort Lauderdale restaurant that is sharing some recipes. We will try it some night soon and report back. For now rough seas, may send us to bed early. At least we will be ashore tomorrow.

Halong Bay photos