September 6, 2024
Sea Trials were done yesterday and today!
Map shows the Odyssey leaving the dock yesterday afternoon and doing Sea Trials. They got a late start on test due to tugboat issues. They had to dock Ship in the sea overnight and complete the test this morning. No significant deficits were reported. We are now just waiting for ALL AGENCY to do their final reports and sign off! Insurance company is keeping all residents off Ship, until this is complete.
Hope to get update tomorrow to see if I should fly back to Ireland Tuesday night, to be part of Inaugural Sail on Wednesday 9/11/24.
Another great day exploring the South Pacific ! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara , and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands . It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!
Fun fact - Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the World! It is estimated that there are at least 826 Papuan languages. Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000. (Thanks - Basia & Wikipedia for sharing this information).
Tully is a small sugar mill town about 2 hours south of Cairns and we traveled here with a group of about 20 other residents to go white water rafting in the Tully River at the Gorge in the National Park. It is the beginning of the wet season and the river was running at a high level, so the rapids were class 4 out of 5. We had some trepidation, but were excited for the adventure! OMG so much FUN!!