July 21, 2024

New rudder stocks being installed. Oh happy day!

Finally the tides have turned in our favor! The two rudder stocks have been signed off and approved by the inspection agency and are being installed on the ship. The hope is to be flooding the dry dock tomorrow and allowing us to finally float again. They will then move the ship out of dock area and get the all the in water testing done and signed off, so we can embark and set sail out of Belfast on our maiden voyage. The anticipated sail date and time is 20:00 ( or 8pm ) on Tuesday, July 30th. Below is the revised itinerary showing the departure of July 30th and the revisions needed to balance of segment & two to incorporate the delays. Canada and the East Coast of USA have been removed for now, for several reasons. I actually like revisions, in that it gives us back some of European ports I was looking forward to sooner than later and adds Portugal, the Azores and Bermuda sooner than later. By segment 3 we are caught back up to originally planned itinerary. So any guest want to join me in August , September or October? Just let me know!

Revised Itinerary
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
By Pat Patrick July 14, 2026
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.