July 27, 2024

Floating the Ship and reinstalling lifeboats!

Finally the new rudder stocks have been approved by DNV and both rudder assemblies reinstalled. I was so excited Tuesday to get the video of the dry dock finally filling up with sea water! On Wednesday saw they were floating and reloading the life boats. The next hurdle is passing all the agency inspections and testing, now that we are finally floating. DNV has signed off on 2 generators and 2 more need to get reviewed over weekend. Then they have to do critical test for Transitional Power. Everything needs to go off and switch over perfectly to pass! Anything that goes amiss, will have to tweak to get perfect.  PSSC and MCA are the agencies for all the technical testing. From the Hotel perspective we are all good to go. The PNI Insurance Policy has been approved and to be in place for 7/31, allowing embarkation of residents. YAHOO!  We got these updates this afternoon and Sunday we are to going to get more insights. Based on today's zoom call,  I changed my Aer Lingus return flight to Dublin, from Sunday night to Tuesday night arriving on 7/31. I have learned to always buy fully refundable, no change fee tickets!

 

By Pat Patrick June 6, 2026
I am so blessed and lucky to have found such a great group of friends and to be do this amazing adventure! Today was fabulous, because of the quality time I got to spend with these individuals. We had no rain and some rare sunshine! Wave swells slowed our journey and some of our snorkeling energies, but I think everyone was happy at days end! Psalms Tours was again super flexible and provided outstanding services!
By Pat Patrick June 6, 2026
We decided to do something different and unique today, perfect for a rainy afternoon, we took a pearl class to make some jewelry! Delia, Terri, Suen and I all went to Pick a Pearl Jewelry Store on the main street of Coron . We each picked a frozen giant clam shell, that had been put in a fresh water farm to develop cultured pearls. The bounty of each shell was random, we averaged 28 to 30 varying size pearls and the colors were also random. I got a mix of white, pink, lavender and pale gold pearls. Terri went first and below is the step by step process.
By Pat Patrick June 6, 2026
Due to stormy weather, we got an additional four days in Coron, Philippines since our intended destination at Boracay Island was an anchorage where our tenders would not be able to operate safely in the projected wave swells. No worries, we had been to Boracay before and there was lots to do in Coron . Many residents had good reviews of a local restaurant called The Lobster King, so we went with good friends to celebrate my buddy Stacy's Birthday!