Along the Chinese coast

                                     Borealis 25.03.2023

The day began badly before it had even begun. I woke up in the night and felt moisture welling up in my nose. By touch I realised I was bleeding again. Keeping my head up I rushed into our bathroom and sought for some ten minutes trying to take control of it. Each time I tried to clear up the mess the bleeding began again. Eventually I steered my way back to bed with my head up trusting that it had stopped. Unfortunately, when I got up in the morning, I found that there was blood on my sheet and on two of my pillows. The new maid, Atitaya, who joined us in Singapore, managed to change our sheets without too much fuss over the blood.

I fetched a breakfast for Albina and went to the Neptune Theatre at a set time to take a covid test under the strict direction of the vessel’s medical team. This was a requirement for visiting Hong Kong next day. Luckily our readings were all negative. We were asked to take a picture of the cassette with our name on it and keep that in case we were asked by Hong Kong immigration authorities.

At lunch time the Captain announced that we were passing the large Chinese island of Hainan on the port side and the disputed Paracel Islands on the starboard side. Neither was visible. Of course, the Captain said nothing about the islands being “disputed”. No need to alarm the passengers.

I attended a lecture that afternoon on the 24 different excursions available in Japan. That is roughly six excursions for the four ports of Hakata,  Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama.

It was formal night but also the Masquerade Ball today. Dinner at the Borealis Restaurant in my dinner jacket (on my own), and a General Knowledge Quiz but with only 9 correct answers out of 15. I attended the Masquesrade Ball for about half an hour, even though I was maskless. Some of the ladies' masks were truly spectacular with black feathers, or garish colours They had obviously brought them with their luggage and saved them up for this one event. I thought I might convert a typical covid mask, cut out the eyes and wear one, but then again it could upset some of the right on formalists. So I joined those on the dance floor and eventually succumbed to bed.