Ship damage repaired…New York Harbor sail away…

This photo illustrates how the gangway was jammed into the ship.

In six days, we’ll arrive in Fort Lauderdale. This has been a fantastic cruise for us. We’ve met many interesting people, enjoyed hours-long lively conversations, dined on excellent food, and as always, have had a fun and playful time together, often staying up well past midnight.

Not used to such late nights, every four nights or so, we try to get to bed a little earlier and “catch up” on sleep. “They,” say you can’t make up for lost sleep, but we both find ourselves rejuvenated and refreshed after a long night’s rest.

A crane was used to hook a cable to relieve tension on the jammed gangway to
extricate it from the ship.

Need I say, we’re having such a good time! I am feeling well, able to walk up and downstairs when the elevators are slow or packed, and each day I’m accumulating plenty of steps on my fitness device from frequently walking down the long hallways and walkways on the ship.

Today, we’re in Boston for a shorter layover than initially planned due to yesterday’s late departure from New York with the damage incurred to the ship from the jammed gangway, as illustrated in the photos.  

Finally, the ship was freed, and we were on our way, waving to the workers who assisted in the process.

Again, without warm clothing with us and the overly long walks required, neither of us had any interest in visiting the big city. We aren’t “city people,” and although we appreciate the many good aspects of big cities, we can’t push ourselves to tour them from the ship.

Besides, we don’t generally cruise to see big cities. We cruise for the convenience of getting from one location to another to avoid flying and for social interaction. 

“The Colgate Clock is an octagonal clock facing the Hudson River near Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jersey. It has a diameter of 50 feet. It is currently situated 400 meters south of where the headquarters of consumer products conglomerate Colgate-Palmolive used to be sited before it left the area in 1985.”

We prefer to visit other countries on our own time and in our way, primarily by living in an area, among the locals and experiencing the full “flavor” of the location, its natural environment, its culture, and its people.

This particular cruise has fulfilled our expectations, and now with only six nights remaining until we arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, we look forward to the next leg of our journey, spending two months in the US visiting our family and friends.

Ellis Island…Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, within New York and New Jersey, containing a museum and former immigration inspection station of the same name. As the nation’s busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 to 1954, it processed approximately 12 million immigrants to the United States through the Port of New York and New Jersey. Today, the island is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, a U.S. national monument. The north side of the island hosts a museum of immigration, accessible only by ferry. The island’s south side, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is abandoned but accessible to the public through guided tours. In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson, a component of the fortifications of New York Harbor. It later became a naval magazine for storing artillery. The first inspection station opened in 1892 and was destroyed by fire in 1897. The second station opened in 1900 and housed facilities for medical quarantines as well as processing immigrants. After 1924, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center; during World War I and World War II, its facilities were also used by the United States military. Following the immigration station’s closure, the buildings languished for several years until they partially reopened in 1976. The main building and adjacent structures were completely renovated in 1990.”
We have a lot to do while we’re in the US, including arranging for new passports, acquiring visas for India, replacing our driver’s licenses in Nevada, purchasing new laptops and phones, purchasing and replacing some of our clothing and supplies.
In addition, we’ll both have our teeth cleaned in Nevada, and I am planning to book an appointment for a heart check-up while in Minnesota or Nevada. We’ll see how that all rolls out.
As we sailed past the Statue of Liberty…The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The Statue of Liberty is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left-hand carries, a tabula was inscribed in Roman numerals with “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating the recent national abolition of slavery.”

All of these tasks will occur amid spending quality time with our kids and grandkids, siblings, and friends. On top of that, right now, we are perusing options for the two months we’ll spend in India after the Maharajah Express train tour in early February. It will be a busy time.  

How the time flies! We can only pray for good health to continue our journey with the joy, freedom, and excitement we are feeling today.

May your life be filled with joy!

Photo from one year ago today, November 2, 2018:
A lioness and her kudu kill on the bank of the Crocodile River. For more photos, please click here.