Day-06: The Birds Of Singapore & "Ready For Sea Captain"

Day-06: Friday, February 7, 2014

Beginning Location: Singapore, Aboard M/V Nautica
Final Location: South China Sea, En-route to Ko Samui, Thailand

Could we now be on a normal schedule? We awoke at 0600 not so different than a normal day at St. Pete Beach or Kitty Hawk.

In thinking about the one pound per day weight gain threat typical of cruises that I mentioned in yesterday's blog I set out early to defend my waistline. By 0730 I was in the gym and running in place; I won't say it was my fastest 5K, but it's a start. The gym has much of the same weight equipment as we have at Duck Woods, with a few more treadmills, stationery bikes and stair-masters to accommodate an obviously larger crowd.

To balance out the calories burned we proceeded to the Terrace Cafe for breakfast and honestly we were quite conservative in our selection. I may have had corn beef hash, bacon and eggs but it was in controlled portions. Somehow I need to evolve my breakfast selection from meats, eggs and fresh breads to a simple plate of fruit.

For the balance of the morning we wandered through the ship, worked on our activities list and in my case prepped for my afternoon tour, a 3+ hour visit to the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.  The tour began with a 20-minute bus ride for twenty of us to the park. Along the way our guide Bryan described the sights and scenes before us and provided a brief history of Singapore. The bird park is one of the best such parks I've seen; its large bird enclosures, the World of Darkness exhibit and it's captive breeding program all contribute to making the Jurong Bird Park well known amongst wildlife enthusiasts.

In addition to the wide variety of birds, the orchid collection was like none other I've seen; the colors, the varieties and the arrangements throughout the park were almost as interesting as the birds themselves. Of special note, after unsuccessfully searching for the hard to find Cassowary in Australia two years ago, I saw one, albeit not technically in the wild, but at least alive and walking in an open-frame enclosure in the "ancient or dinosaur birds" exhibit.

Our tour ran a little late, as such we were the last twenty to board the ship just a tad later than the "be on board no later than 1600" directive. In any case it was a ship sponsored tour so no problem being a few minutes late. Sheila later told me that she had been called to see if my whereabouts were known. Good to see that someone is keeping track.

With everyone aboard and a sailing time of 1700 approaching we had one more event before the cry of "underway, shift colors" could be announced. The event, an important one, was our general safety, evacuation and abandon ship drill. All ships do it, some before sailing, some soon thereafter. At the sound of the alarm and acknowledgement that this was a drill, we gathered up our life jackets from our closet and proceeded to our muster station in the Grand Dining Room. With everyone accounted for, we were instructed in the proper procedure for donning the life jacket and given instructions for handling a variety of emergency situations. Finally, we were directed to our life boat stations to stand-by for further orders. Today no boats were lowered, no one screamed in shear panic and no one had to determine if in this age of gender equality, women and children would go first.

With the drill complete, the Captain ordered the crew to "take-in all lines and proceed to sea".


The exercise was relatively simple, move out and astern from the pier and then execute a 180 degree pivot to align the bow with the departure channel. The maneuvers were handled easily with the ship's thrusters and a single tug standing by for security and assistance if needed. Soon after 1700 we were outbound for the South China Sea.









The departure route offered a glimpse of Singapore as a world class commercial shipping port with hundreds of ship moored, docked or riding at anchor, a location for petrochemical processing and of course a business and financial center of Southeast Asia represented by the city skyline.








Around 1800 we proceed to our first of two "get-acquainted" receptions. The first reception was for a diverse group of cruisers with a common thread as users of a web based cruise planning service, "Cruise Critic". Though not officially part of the group, we had been invited to join by a couple we had met at breakfast. It was a good intro, allowing us to meet a number of other folks like ourselves, generally from the U.S. and a few from Canada. Our second reception was the one sponsored by our cruse agent, GoNext; the attendees included guests from 6 or 7 different alumni associations, including USNA, USMA, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn and a couple of other schools that I don't remember at the moment. Again it was a nice social gathering allowing us to meet more people with similar life experiences and interests. After several G&T's (more Malaria antidote) and appetizers it was clearly time for more food, aka dinner.

For dinner we paired up with two of the couples we had met at the last reception. We intended to dine in the Grand Dining Room but were offered a table in one of the two specialty restaurants, the Polo Grill as an alternative. The dinner was great, Sheila had a fish entrée and I had a rib eye steak, both well prepared and well presented. Of the others, three had lobster, a hearty serving I will note. So all-in-all our first "fine dining" experience was a winner. As for the company, seems that the six of us are similar in backgrounds, families and general interests. All of us were travelers, one of the couples having been to Antarctica and both of the others having been to Russia, all via cruises though not necessarily with Oceania. One thing is certain, we are rank amateurs when it comes to cruising, we probably trump the others when it comes to small boats such as in France and Alaska, but when it comes to the big ships, we still haven't found anyone with less cruise trips than us.

One other thing we have found in common with the people we have met is our 'late night stamina". Seems to me that the majority of the ship's guests are ready to call it a day, somewhere in the vicinity of 10 PM. We'll see if that changes over the next few days.

So for our first day underway, we've successfully adapted to shipboard life and met a number of folks very similar to us and the friends we have at home.