{"id":3004,"date":"2014-03-04T19:07:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T03:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3004"},"modified":"2014-03-04T19:07:42","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T03:07:42","slug":"higher-still-and-higher-manila-philippines-03012014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3004","title":{"rendered":"Higher Still and Higher \u2013 Manila, Philippines \u2013 [03\/01\/2014]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Higher\"<\/a>I will give you that sail away parties are normally anything but a party. They normally involve a few people milling around the deck with a glass of wine, a few free appetizers and one or two sets by the band (who play their hearts out I will give them that) \u2013 and then you wander off to dinner. They are certainly far from emotional.<\/p>\n

Except one.<\/p>\n

When we sail away from Manila, I\u2019m not the only one who finds that she\u2019s a bit teary-eyed. It\u2019s a strange kind of crying, certainly not hysteria, perhaps part nostalgia (the sail away format harkens back to the days of ticker-tape send offs that have long since gone by the wayside), part just tapping into the energy on the deck as so many of the crew bid farewell to their families for another long long period of time. Some would say that I cry because I\u2019m a sucker for pomp and circumstances, and perhaps that is part of it I mean after all I take after my mother in that respect.<\/p>\n

But no\u2026I think it\u2019s something more than that\u2026.<\/p>\n

Not that they don\u2019t go all out with the farewell of course\u2026quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

This is the only port that gives us a send-off that I sometimes can\u2019t help but feel we don\u2019t always deserve. For one port we are given marching bands and flag throwers and baton twirlers. Whispering across the years from a time when such things were commonplace. And off to one side, shaded from the intense heat, the children from the orphanage who came aboard to perform for us this afternoon boogie on down like only children can.<\/p>\n

And then, all of a sudden, the two bands, the flagbearers, the kids, all of them, line up in single file along the edge of the pier and start playing Aulde Lang Syne<\/i>, the bridge sounds three heavy hauls on the ship\u2019s whistle, the lines let go and we leave the Phillipines behind, and I can\u2019t help but think that we\u2019re a little poorer and a little richer than when we dropped anchor there.<\/p>\n

Because this isn\u2019t just a port, this is family\u2026<\/p>\n

We\u2019re distant, we don\u2019t all know each other, we\u2019re a little bit clich\u00e9d sometimes,\u00a0 heaven knows we don\u2019t always get along, and we certainly put the \u2018fun\u2019 back in dysfunctional but never the less\u2026we are family\u2026<\/p>\n

And we are so very lucky\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will give you that sail away parties are normally anything but a party. They normally involve a few people milling around the deck with a glass of wine, a few free appetizers and one or two sets by the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,72,16,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-grand-world-voyage-2014","category-ports-of-call","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Ms","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3006,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3004\/revisions\/3006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}