Shanghai, China

Qindao, China
11/14 - 11/16/07

Halfway between Xingang and Qindao, we celebrated Martha's birthday in the Yangtze River. We made the day special with two games of Scrabble in the afternoon and presented her with handmade gifts before dinner: A handpainted silk scarf from me and a marlin-spike woven necklace and bracelet from Doug. Chef Jonni and Steward Gani presented Martha with an amazing cake sculptured in the shape of our ship on the sea. The sea was a yellow sheet cake and the ship was a rich dark chocolate with a small photo of Martha on the bow. Martha bought a couple of cases of beer for the crew to help celebrate and after dinner, we invited Barbara over and watched the musical "The Sound of Music." A memorable birthday I'm sure.

Qindao was a bit of a disappointment as the big attraction in this area apparently are the beautiful beaches but it was so cold and damp, and it was not close, that we didn't go there. We arrived at night but had to wait for our passports and our departure time was so uncertain that we didn't feel comfortable leaving the ship for long. There were several locals aboard the ship selling all sorts of items from clothing to electronics and watches to copy DVDs and one of them gave us a ride into town to his shop (where we bought a few small items) and then to an internet cafe. It was a bit of a bust because Martha couldn't access her email (not sure why) and I was unable to post a blog (the computer I was using didn't recognize the program I'd created the document in). The pharmacy the driver took us to didn't have the medication Doug wanted and the bank couldn't dispense U.S. dollars that Martha wanted. The area of town we drove through was pretty dismal - the way I remember parts of Russia and East Berlin. We thought we might have lunch out but didn't see a restaurant that looked remotely interesting.

That afternoon the ship was in such a flurry of activity as the officers and crew prepared to depart and the new group was coming aboard. It was hard to say goodbye to all of our friends - especially Gani and some of the other crew members who were such fun to party with. The Captain's wife, Barbara, was a bit teary-eyed and gave Doug a gift of a bottle of Johnny Walker Red as a thank you for the English lessons. I gave a few scarves to some of the guys for their wives and one to Barbara who promised to keep in touch by email. She and the Captain are going back to Poland for a week or two before boarding his next assigned ship. Chief Engineer, Marenko, made us promise to visit his area of Croatia which I'd love to do. Everyone finally left the ship around 4 AM, after which the ship left the dock about 6:30 AM to a container loading dock on a nearby island. Since we were leaving at noon and there was nowhere to go, we stayed aboard except for our short trip to the Immigration office to clear out (they needed to see us in person).

We've met the new Captain (Romanian) and Chief Engineer (Polish) and I'm sure we'll get to know and like this crew too. They are from Philippines, Sri Lanka, China, Germany, Poland and Romania. Should be interesting - a real international experience.

Next stop: Masan, South Korea