It took 27 hours of circling the Capetown harbor area, but we finally were able to take on the pilot who has to be on the ship to give docking instructions. The pilot is dropped off on our ship from the pilot boat. We heard that we would be docking in 45-60 minutes at about 9am this morning. Hundreds of us went up to the 6th deck forward to watch the proceedings! It was an awesome site for us to see this beautiful harbor as we entered. We could see why the pilot was anxious all day yesterday and this morning to let us enter. The entry into the harbor is very narrow and with the winds and tide swells we might have been tossed into the barricades.
As we entered the harbor with the waters calm, we saw people on other boats and others on docks all waving at us, so we must have been a site to behold! This ship looks awesome when we are returning to the dock from a side trip, but I can't imagine what we look like gliding into a harbor...all 500 feet of us!! Then the captain maneuvered this ship by making a 90 degree turn to park this thing on the starboard side! Fun to watch and be a part of. Some family members flew in to meet their relatives and were wildly waving.
We now are hearing about all the trips that people thought were cancelled and now have been rescheduled. Quite a feat by the staff here. They have been amazing through this whole ordeal and have been working nonstop on contacting tour guides, airlines, buses and vans and letting them know our predicament! They now are rescheduling many of the trips including plane trips to go on a couple of safaris.
The girls and Fred and I are ok with our trip today. It was to be at 9 am-1pm but is now set for 1 pm-5 pm today so ours was relatively easy. So we are heading up to lunch and off we go! Another day of delay, boredom, excitement, and lastly overall feeling of gratitude for this amazing voyage!
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