Still hugging the coastline, we did notice a lot of rocking and rolling last night. It appeared to be getting worse, as the Captain had warned. However, to our surprise, when we woke up this morning, the seas had flattened and the worst of the clouds were gone. The system that was causing the rough seas appears to have moved away, and there is a chance our visit to Townsville tomorrow will not be a wash-out.
We all appreciated the hour back and many Pinnacle Grill breakfast-goers showed up early. We needed to ask Kumar or Jonah when the remainder of the formal and dressy evenings are planned. That way we can make the rest of our dinner reservations in the Pinnacle Grill on casual evenings. A printed version of these dates was available prior to the cruise, but the actual dates were missing.
An interesting lecture took place with the Pilot onboard who is the expert on piloting the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully we can locate this talk on our TV.
Our morning was spent by one of us walking the promenade deck, and the other working on pictures. To tell the truth, it was way too hot and humid to walk outside even at 10am. Going to the Seaview Pool, we enjoyed several mugs of iced lemonade thanks to Ramon and Emmanuel the cool deck guys. Captain Rens came on with his talk and said we had 352 nautical miles to reach Townsville. He said we still had a 6 foot swell, with the temperatures in the low 80's and very high humidity. He added we may have escaped the storm that was brewing north of us. It appeared to us that we have following winds at 18.3 mph. And we have entered the outskirts of the Great Barrier Reef. The color of the sea water has been almost blue/green and is probably shallow. Later in the afternoon, we passed by several small islands….some close and some far away. And we must be in the shipping channel because we saw some commercial ships going south.
We ran into long time friends in the Lido Poolside who just joined the cruise in Sydney. It sure is nice to see some of the usual crowd again. One disappointment we were told was that there was no room for any more watercolor guests, and she would have to wait for an opening. Knowing our friend, she will not take that lying down and will see to it she gets included.
Lunch was room service Cobb salad, a shared club sandwich, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup. A perfectly prepared bowl of soup full of carrots, celery, onions and chicken chunks with lots of spaghetti. Gave up on the noodles. Our travel agency hosted a dining room lunch at noontime, but since we like a proper breakfast, noontime is too early for us.
With the time change yesterday, we were treated to a rather nice sunset before we went to the dining room at 7:30pm. Otherwise, the sun has been going down during our dinner time and on the wrong side of the ship, wrong because of where our table is located on the starboard side.
Dinner was good with one salad, two shrimp appetizers, followed by the pasta dish and a beef tenderloin meal. Both good. Dessert was one scoop vanilla ice cream and a plate of watermelon. The dining room was not full of guests on either level, but there was a Tamarind Dinner in the Pinnacle Grill that drew some folks away.
The World Stage Cast did a performance this evening called "Drive In", a rerun of cinema's most unforgettable music.
The seas have calmed down and there is no rain at the moment, so we hope it holds true for the next two days.
Bill & Mary Ann
