Best laid plans of mice and men

We've just learnt that the rest of our truckmates, who should be on a ferry to Jakarta, Java now, aren't because the ferry has broken down. This happened to the trip last year too, but instead of taking a different ferry to Sumatra then a bus ride to the south of the island and hopping across (again by ferry) to Java and on to Jakarta as last year's group did, our lot have all had to buy plane tickets (at short notice and out of their own pockets) to fly from Singapore to Jakarta. I'm SOOOOO glad Corinne found us the cruise we're taking from Singapore to Sydney. Imagine our (and especially Juli's) distress on discovering we had to fly when we've made such a big thing of doing the whole journey on the surface. We will forever be in your debt, Corinne; good luck the rest of you.