Report # 123 Day at Sea March 9, 2020 Monday Partly cloudy, rain & 69 degrees

Last evening, we put the clocks back one hour, which was so nice, because everyone we knew sure needed that extra hour of sleep.  Having such invigorating days in Sydney sure was fun, but in hind sight, three days here might have been better.  At least we have a few days at sea to decompress.

 

It sure would have been nice if the weather was better as we sail in a northerly direction to our next port of Townsville.  The day began great with a nice breakfast and lots of coffee.  We had a thoughtful gift from Dave and Linda, who sit across from us in "Ganville".  They had made magnets with the 2020 world cruise printed on them, and dedicated to Captain Mercer.  It will have a special place on our refrigerator in our room, then have a space on the big refrigerator at home.  Speaking of home, we are all speculating if we will make it home as planned on May 12^th.  So much alarming news on the virus, whether it is hyped or not, has us all worrying that we might be turned away from the upcoming ports, even Ft. Lauderdale for that matter.  Not that we have the bug, at least not yet.  And from the extra precautions the crew is taking, we never will have any virus survive onboard this ship.  We found out that the entire carpeting on each deck was sprayed last night, with extra sanitizing in all of the dining areas.  Sure hope it does the trick, as well as all of the guests and crew washing their hands.

 

For the better part of the day, we stayed inside working on the computer.  As the day wore on, the weather seemed to be changing.  Captain Mercer informed us during his PM talk that we were a mere 20 miles off of the coast, but sailing in shallow waters.  Earlier during our walk, we noticed that the ship was rolling and the winds had picked up. It was confirmed that bad conditions would be coming later in the day with wind gusts up to 55 mph.  The sea swells may reach 13 feet, and rain should be falling.  Guess it will not be a pool day.  And the prediction was that these conditions will last throughout the evening.  Time to pop a seasick pill for one of us.

 

The usual activities took place all day, but we did notice that some of the staff has gone home and new ones have appeared.  For starters, there is a new Piano Bar entertainer by the name of Anna McBryan.  We seem to remember Barb saying that some of the dance hosts were also leaving.  Of course, there are new speakers that lectured on Albert Einstein and coral reefs of the Pacific. 

 

We sort of skipped lunch today, because we had reservations in the specialty Tamarind this evening.  We have booked three out of the four offered, since the selections in that venue are so to our liking.   A few slices of cheese and crackers filled the void until 8pm.  By the time we took a break for a walk, the decks had been roped off.  Not that it was too wet or windy yet, but that would come soon enough.   We snuck out the end doors on deck three and had a pleasant walk anyway.  We had company of two fellows doing the same thing.  It was beginning to rain, but if we hugged the wall, we did not get wet.   Shiv was outside with his crew, folding up the lounges and tying them to the railing.  He admitted that he did not like angry seas like this.  Makes his job even more complicated.  We talked about some of the upcoming ports, and he told us that more ships had been turned away from French Polynesia, such as Papeete, Bora Bora and Moorea.  Guess that rules out the possibility we could head back that way.  We think we are good until the last port in Australia, Freemantle.  From there, who knows?  

 

We had a wonderful meal in the Pinnacle Grill, enjoying the wasabi-crusted steak.  It was cooked perfectly and so tender, you almost did not need a knife to cut it.  Starters were a beef papaya salad and one order of crispy spring rolls.  That comes with a stack of tiny glass noodles and shredded carrots…so tasty with the rice vinegar dip.  We added sides of stir fry veggies and a bowl of Hainan rice.  We shared a dessert order of the donuts with three sweet sauces.  Just right

 

Just in time for the second show, we went to listen to the harpist, who turned out to be a fantastic singer as well.  Her name was Alana Conway, an Aussie, who said she was here back in 2015.  We must have missed her show, because we sure would have remembered her.  Her performance was a class act.

 

Now the ship was really rolling, and it took extra care while walking from point to point.  The best place would be our room, where the motion is by far minimal compared to the upper decks.

 

Hopefully this will get better tomorrow.

 

Bill & Mary Ann