July 11, 2024

The dreaded Rudder Stocks!

So completing the installation of the new Rudder Stocks, continues to be the critical path for getting the ship out of drydock. We found out today that this is a unique situation because rudder stocks typical last the life of a ship or 60 years! So the delicate machining needed to get new stocks made and retrofitted into our ship is not among the common practices in a ship's scheduled maintenance.  Therefore, VVR has had to fly in some experts, to help get this done and this translates to additional time waiting in drydock. Lots of other improvements and retrofits are still on going, but the two rutter stocks being milled and fitted into the existing housings is the critical component to getting the ship in the water. Once the ship is floated, they have testing to complete to get the final ok's to sail!

The VVR staff are still hopeful that all this will come together and the Ship will depart from Belfast on July 20th. However, another new

wrinkle discussed today is that Northern Ireland celebrates a Bank Holiday called The Battle of the Boyne and this is a four day Holiday starting this Friday 7/12. Supposedly, this is a Protestant Holiday and the Irish Catholic workers in the shipyard will still work. But it is unknown right now, if that will be a big enough crew, to keep progress on the rudders! Please say a wee pray! As my Dad would say "it is, what it is!" Life goes on, I'm enjoying time at home in Philly, back to the rooftop pool and yoga classes. All good here!

KOTA KINABALU, SABAH, MALAYSIA

By Pat Patrick • May 25, 2026
We only had about 8 hours of port time in KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia today, due to Port operations. I went out with Delia to see one of the most notable buildings in town, the floating mosque or Masjid Bandaraya. Our GRAB driver actually took our picture when we asked him to wait for us, and then take us to the mall afterwards.

SANTUBONG RIVER, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

By Pat Patrick • May 23, 2026
MALAYSIA , on BORNEO ISLAND made palm seed oil their biggest export back in 1966 and was the top global exporter until 2008, when Indonesia surpassed them. Sadly, the resulting tropical deforestation has created major habitat losses and population declines for the Borneon Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants and Proboscis Monkeys . Many of us on the ship took tours to see these amazing creatures and I wanted to share some of their amazing photos too.

KUCHING, MALAYSIA - BORNEO ISLAND

By Pat Patrick • May 22, 2026
BORNEO ISLAND is a fascinating place, that I had honestly only heard of from the reality tv show Survivor. I'm still learning so much, but I had no idea it is the largest island in Asia and 3rd largest island in the World! It is a mini continent, with 3 different Countries sharing the island's land mass ( Indonesia 73%, Malaysia 26% and Brunei 1% ). We are only going to 2 ports in Malaysia now, one in each of the states of Sarawak and Sabah . Below is a video that highlights and explains thing well.