Subject: Report # 37 Sailing Towards Melbourne, Australia February 6, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 71 degrees 4 Pictures
Report # 37 Sailing Towards Melbourne, Australia February 6, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 71 degrees 4 Pictures
The seas remained turbulent throughout the night, rocking and rolling us like babies in a bassinet. Everyone we know seems to like the motion at night, when you are comfortably in the safety of the bed. Some others have not felt the same, because they were experiencing mal-de-mar, or motion sickness. This morning we noticed the absence of the usual guests relaxing on the lower promenade deck. Perhaps it was partly due to the fact it was wet from the sea spray, but also it was cold and windy. Also, the deck was closed once again, for the two fellows to continue repairs on the tender boat. The blue tarp was hung again to prevent the dust from covering all of the surfaces. Barb's room happens to be right there at the spot of the work site. She said her room is cast in blue tones from the tarp, and she gets to wake up to the noise of power tools. In her humble opinion, she thinks the Sistine Chapel was painted quicker than these repairs are proceeding.
Gray, overcast, wind, drizzle. We are not used to this type of weather, but then, this is typical of the Tasman Sea crossing. We've been lucky to have crossed several times with little negative effects. This time is different. Of course, we are spoiled with warm, balmy days for the most part, so we will appreciate these days even more when it warms up.
So we did a few things today for a first time. Such as attending celebrity chef George Geary's cooking show in the Wajang Theater. It's neat how the theater turns into a culinary center with a functional kitchen set. He was preparing cream of chicken and corn soup along with chicken picatta. Really, his demo was more about the stories he intertwines with his cooking. With his sense of humor, the hour passed by quickly. Every one of us in the audience got a sample of the chicken, which was delicious of course. We'll probably try attending again before he leaves.
Our big job for the day was picking up our passports at the front desk. We will have to present ourselves for the face-to-face inspection once we get to Australia in a few days. We assume the passports will be collected, and returned to the ship for safe keeping. At least that is the normal drill.
We have been taking several walks despite the cold. A big treat was watching four wandering albatrosses soaring over the wake of the ship. They seem to never flap their massive wings as they dip into the deep bottoms of the waves. Cool to watch.
As we get closer to the next port of Melbourne, a little info on Australia is in order. It's big…….2,967,124 square miles with deadly snakes, spiders, and sharks to name a few. It sure did not stop people from coming here as today (2014), the population is 21,007,310 citizens. The capital is Canberra, and the official language is English. The beauty of the country is diverse from endless plains to dense tropical rain forests, to wild southern beaches. The Aussies love sports and the outdoors, but also have a passion for food and art. From our experiences over the years, we have found the locals to be young or young at heart. And friendly as ever. You'll hear, "G'day mate" everywhere you go.
The best time to visit? Anytime is the right answer. It could be cold down south, yet warm up north. On this visit, we will be heading up the east coast to Sydney, the Gold Coast, Cairns (for the Great Barrier Reef), and finally Darwin. So there will be an astounding amount to see and do. We'll cover that as we do it.
What's to eat in Australia? Try Sydney rock oysters, kangaroo steak, cooked so rare it's still hopping, and vegemite, an acquired taste which is similar to a concentrated soup stock. Tim Tams….a most delicious chocolate-covered crispy cookie. They are addictive.
What do they drink? Boutique beers and plenty of local wines, produced from the fertile valleys.
A random fact is many inventions have come from this country, like the bionic ear, the black box flight recorder, the notepad, and the wine cask. Bet you never would guess that?
Tonight was another Gala evening, with folks dressing up with no special theme. Barb had a date in the Pinnacle with her two "boyfriends", Don and Peter. They were continuing to celebrate her birthday. We filled Bonnie and Paul in on the party last night. They were disappointed that they missed the extravagant caviar appetizers, and the deliciously moist carrot cake. They had been invited to the Captain's Dinner, also in the Pinnacle Grill last night. They might not have minded being squeezed into a table for nine, if the food was more to their liking. They described it as fancy, perhaps a bit over the top, but adequate. Like us, they prefer the meals in the dining room….good "home-cooked" meals. They were hosted by an officer and his wife, both from England. That made their evening pleasant.
Our entrees tonight were excellent…..the chateaubriand was fork tender with a particularly tasty gravy reduction. Sure would love the recipe for the gravies. We ended the meal with a slice of carrot cake, almost as good as last night's, and a healthy scoop of frozen yogurt with a chocolate sauce drizzle. OK, it was mostly healthy.
The 7:30pm spotlight show of the Sounds of the Didgeridoo was cancelled, because the musician Dhinawan had blown his eardrum during practice. He will be out of commission for a while for sure. That hurts. The main show time featured the singers and dancers performing Mundo Latino, a South American flavored production. Always a delight to watch.
One more sea day, and we will be in Australia. And, the clocks went back one more hour tonight. Like that a lot.
Bill & Mary Ann
A wandering albatross has joined us
Soaring over the wave tops
Back and forth without flapping his wings
Very sharp beak is used to catch fish
