A lot of crew members were sad to sail out of Manila after their family reunions, but Manila gave us a great send off.  There was a brass band with twirlers and majorettes.  They played while we lined the promenade deck rail outside my stateroom to wave and cheer back.  Some of the routines that the girls did would probably get a teacher in the States fired — very suggestive.  As we pulled away the band followed us down the pier playing “Auld Lange Sine.”  As the song faded the bartenders turned up the reggae on deck, the captain sounded his salute and we sailed into the sunset.

Sailing out right after us was a new Chinese cruise ship, The MS World Vision, christened in November 2017, owned by a Hong Kong company but registered in the Bahamas.  It caters to Chinese travelers.  I enjoyed super graphics on the side.  It is a big ship, 1009 feet long.  It carries 3400 passengers and 2000 crew.  We will see her likeness again in Hong Kong.  The cruise ship terminal has the largest Lego cruise ship model in the world, a model of this ship.

Cruising out of the harbor we had nice views of the Manila skyline with a classic old ship in the foreground.

 

We sailed by some fish traps.  At night the fishermen hang lanterns, the fish are attracted to the light and get caught in the nets.

On the way out the Captain pointed out the USS Bonhomme Richard. She is a Wasp Class assault ship and is is the third US Navy ship to bear the name of John Paul Jones’ frigate from the American Revolution.  Jones named it Bohnomme Richard in honor of Benjamin Franklin who was the US Envoy in Paris.  I suspect there may be come connection to Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac, at least that they told us in school.  I paid particular attention to that lesson because the ship was named after me, “Good Man Richard,” or I suppose it could be Rick Goodfellow.

Finally, the sunset behind the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island at the entrance to Manila Bay.

 

Good-by Manila.