At Sea and Port Douglas

At Sea

On Saturday, 6 December, Jesse awoke at 7:30 AM for his daily e-mail download and awoke the second time at 9:30 AM.  After our excursion to Darwin, Sally was exhausted and slept even later.  We went to a late breakfast and then for a swim after 1:00 PM.  In the pool and hot tub, we conversed with Lynn from Brisbane for a long time, so that it was 3:00 PM by the time we made it to lunch.  There we talked with Brian and Julia until almost 5:30 PM.  They also introduced us to two of their friends, Lyle and Maureen.  Looking back, we spent a great deal of time today just talking with friends we have made onboard.

At dinner, we shared a table with Bevin and Beverly from Adelaide, whom we had met previously, and Peter and Kay from New South Wales.  We didn’t finish dinner until 9:15, and when we went to the wheelhouse Bar, the Soul Wave had just started their break; therefore, we returned to our cabin without dancing and Jesse watched Transcendence on TV before retiring for the night.

2nd Day At Sea

On Sunday, 7 December, Jesse awoke at 3:30 AM to download the e-mail and then worked on the computer for a couple of hours before returning to bed.  Although Sally awoke at 9:30 AM, Jesse slept until 10:00 and we went to breakfast at 10:30 AM.  Jesse spoke briefly with a young black man who said he was from Indiana, and Jesse remarked that there aren’t many of us on this cruise.  By “us,” Jesse meant “Americans;” however, since he and his wife are the only other (obvious) black passengers on the ship, we wondered if the young man had misinterpreted the comment.

We went for a swim at 12:30 AM and then, instead of going to lunch, we attended the Afternoon Tea Dance, with the Soul Wave.  There, we drank tea and ate finger sandwiches, pastries, and cookies.  However, most of the time, we were on the dance floor.  Peggy started dancing with one of the waiters, who was actually a pretty good dancer; however, he really should have put down his tray first because he ended up spilling milk all over the dance floor, which the waiters had quite a job cleaning up.  Although Peggy tried to help, the waiters waved her away.

At dinner we sat by Gail and Archie from Florida, and Jenny and Bevil from Australia.  Gail and Archie were originally from Nebraska, but then taught for 30 years in upstate New York before retiring to Florida.  So far, they have been on about 30 cruises.  After dinner, for an hour we danced in the Wheelhouse Bar, where Annie and John also danced; however, we saw none of the other “regulars.”  Two couples arrived just as the Soul Wave went on break, but we were surprised that Paul was not there and wondered how Mary was doing.

Port Douglas and Great Barrier Reef

            On Monday, 8 December, we awoke to our alarm at 6:30 AM.  Since Jesse had not awakened earlier, he quickly downloaded our e-mail and uploaded a posting to our blog.  By 8:20, we had finished breakfast and were in the Wheelhouse Bar, awaiting our excursion to depart.  At 8:45, we boarded a ship’s tender (and were lucky to sit on top in the open air instead of in the hot, stuffy interior) for a 20-minute ride to the pier.  There, we then boarded the catamaran for our excursion to the Great Barrier Reef.   The air-conditioned catamaran was very comfortable, and fully equipped with restrooms, covered areas, a sunning deck, and closed circuit TV.  During the one-hour ride to the outer Barrier Reef, we were served morning tea and cookies.  Other snacks and both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages were available for purchase.

              Also, during our trip to the Barrier Reef, a marine naturalist hosted an informative presentation on the reef complex on the closed circuit TV.  One of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef is the most unique ecosystem on earth.  It stretches over 1,600 miles along the Queensland Coast, is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs, and forms the largest reef system in the world.  This underwater botanical garden supports the lives of thousands of marine plants and animal species. The basis of the reef is the corals, which can be found in every color, shape and form imaginable. Rainbow-colored fish, giant clams, starfish, sea cucumbers, anemones, sponges, eels, rays and turtles along with countless other creatures call the Great Barrier Reef home.

About noon, we arrived at a pontoon dock on the outer reef, where we were given 3 hours of free time to indulge in a wide variety of aquatic activities. There were many options to choose from.  We chose first to descend a stairway to an underwater observation area.  Through the glass windows, we could see corals and fish, as they swam along outside the structure.  However, it was very hot and stuffy down there, with no space for seating; we stayed only for a very few minutes.  

Pontoon Dock

Semi-Submersible Boat

Next, we boarded a semi-submersible boat for a guided coral viewing, a fantastic way to see the underwater world without getting wet!  We boarded the craft and descended the stairway.  The body of the craft was very narrow and held about 30 passengers.  We entered the seating area and folded down a cushioned board behind us for seating – two passengers per seat.  Most passengers were seated with spouses or friends, though apparently not the two seated in front of us; the woman quickly pointed at a space between them on the bench and told the man sitting next to her, “There’s the line.  Stay on your side of the line.”  The man quickly squeezed as close to his side of the craft as possible and never turned to look at the other side of the vessel again!  The woman also screamed to the guide that he needed to speak up because she couldn’t hear him.  Although Jesse is usually very friendly, this was not a woman he was interested in meeting!  During our 20-minute underwater tour, we saw many varieties of coral and fish; however, it was so hot and stuffy that Sally felt as though she would have passed out if the tour had been much longer.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a hot and cold buffet lunch with fresh tropical fruit for dessert.  Here we joined Connie (the retired airline stewardess from Arizona and Minnesota, whom we had met previously), and Jackie from Alberta, Canada.  When they left for other activities, we were later joined by Jenny and Steve, from London, England, whom we had also met previously.  Although Jenny and Steve are not married, they have been together for 14 years and have been on 9 cruises.

Although several other activities were available, including guided snorkeling tours, certified and introductory scuba diving, Seawalker platform helmet diving, and scenic helicopter flights, we opted to spend the remainder of our “free” time relaxing in the air conditioned catamaran.  After talking with Connie, Sally considered doing something more exciting and renting a lycra body suit (as protection against stingers), but she hadn’t brought a swimsuit or towel.  [As several others whom we spoke with agreed, not enough advance information for this excursion had been provided.]

At the end of our time at the reef, the catamaran returned us all to the pier (while we talked with Connie and Jackie), where we boarded a large boat for our return trip to the ship.  Always in our previous experience, ship tenders have provided transportation between ship and pier; however, this boat was assisting at this particular port, and was faster and much more comfortable than the ship’s survival craft which double as tenders. 

By 5:00 PM we were back onboard – and Jesse immediately went for ice cream, since the excursion lunch had included only fruit for dessert.  (He had felt a little deprived!)

After we returned to our cabin, Sally (tired from not sleeping well the previous night, getting up early, and then being very hot during some of the day) slept until 7:15 PM.  At our very late dinner, we sat next to Sally and Peter, from London, whom we had met previously (but hadn’t heard their names that time), and Lyndon and Graham from Melbourne on the other side.  Since dinner was unusually fast, we were dancing in the Wheelhouse Bar by 8:50.  This time, Paul and Mary were there, and we danced a couple of dances with them.  Apparently, Paul had problems with his back the previous night and had not been able to dance.  Mary is recovering from her minor concussion sustained from a fall a few nights ago.  (Her discolored face shows clear evidence of her bad fall.)  We also danced two times with Kevin and Martha before returning to our cabin soon after 10:00 PM.