March 18
We are sailing through very overcast skies to Hong Kong. I feel sorry for the 100 people who got off the ship to go to Beijing to see the Great Wall as the weather there is not so good. We thought about taking that tour but you really don’t get to see enough of China and the threat of cold weather stopped us. We hope to return to China on a land tour. Today is just a lazy sit-around day to get ready for the two days we will spend in Hong Kong. We even skipped trivia as we are bought drained, mostly just stayed in the cabin and watched the silent movie “Girl Shy” produced and starring Harold Lloyd. Considering it is a silent film it was pretty funny. We are still sailing south-east along the coast of China.
March 19
Up early this morning, to find the same depressing skies. Looks like Hong Kong might be cloudy with a chance of rain. The forecast for today is a high of 73 degrees, I don’t think that will happen. The forecast for tomorrow is 77 with partly cloudy skies. Today we continue sailing thru the Taiwan Strait (sometimes known as the Formosa Strait). It is a stretch of water between mainland China and Taiwan. It is also known as the Black Ditch, it is on average 110 miles wide and links the South China Sea to the East China Sea. It’s a valuable resource way of life for many fishermen and is fed by the waters of the Min and Jiulong Rivers. Even in the overcast and rough seas we have seen many fishing boats and fishing net markers.
This morning we had another Scholarship at Sea with Suzanne Lloyd on “Life with Harold Lloyd”. It was very interesting. We went to trivia and did average, it is fun to go, but some people are very smart and we just can’t beat them.
The evening show was a Classical Piano Recital starring Tim Barton, the ship’s orchestral leader. He is very good and quite informative. Betty went and I skipped it to catch up on the blog and watch the movie “New Years Day”.
During the night we will sail the southern coast of China. A pilot will embark in the morning to assist us with the navigation through the shipping approach channels of Ta Thong and the eastern Fairway into the large natural harbors of Kowloon and Hong Kong to our dock on the Hong Kong side at the China Merchant Wharf.
