Well, I apologize for the long break since my last post. I guess I needed a vacation from my vacation. I feel like the little boy that never spoke a word until he was 5. Then he said very clearly, “soups cold”. His parents were so surprised that he finally spoke and asked him why he had never spoken before. His answer, “everything has been perfect until now”.
Well, I’m back.
This trip is amazing. We finished our tour of Australia, and we can now claim that we have sailed from Sydney North to Darwin and from Sydney South to Darwin. I doubt that there are many people that can put that on their resume. It really doesn’t mean anything, but I think it’s kind of cool. We had several stops and several sea days. As I said, Australia is huge.
This is an open iron mine, it is said that the iron is so pure that one can take two rocks and weld them together.
Learning about Western Australia was fascinating. The people make sure that you know they are from Western Australia as opposed to just Australia. It’s kind of like in Oregon, you’re a Duck fan or a Beaver fan and don’t even think they are equal. Western Australia (WA) is rich in mineral deposits. The country is divided into states, much like the US. Each state gets to keep the revenue from the mining, so, WA is very well off, government wise. At every stop, we were treated to a great transportation system and infrastructure. The government buildings were modern, as were the schools. Very different from the “other “side. As I have said many times before, this is an educational experience.
Kim found this fun sphere.
And this memorial to the fallen.
The weather has been, for the most part, very good, low 80’s. We had a couple of days in the 90’s, not so good. It rains for a few minutes every so often, but that’s where we are. The tides are extreme and at one port we went into, we had to wait until noon to get in and had to stay until 10 PM to leave. Today, we are 9 degrees south of the equator.
At one port, a brewery enticed me to get off the ship and walk a mile each way for a local beer. It was very good. I was reminded of the old commercial, “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” I walked a mile for a beer.
I’m not telling you how many times that I have left the ship, but the sushi bartender has caught me off the ship twice.
As I told you, we now have Diamond statis and got the “priceless” diamond pin. Refer to couple of my previous posts to find out just how priceless they are, not.
One of our stops was at a place that had a bunch of towers, over a thousand feet tall. It is a communication system for our US submarines, it transmits at less than one megawatt in power, so it’s hard for our enemies to listen in. I checked it out with my brother, the submarine Captain, and he verified that until this system was activated, they had to reel out an antenna to the surface to get and send communications, this would allow the enemy to locate them. With this system, they can have the antenna below the surface and not be detected. Also at this stop, there were several large white towers that were part of “Trumps” space wars and could track and communicate with others. It is how we get the detailed photos from China. Who knew?
What time do you close?
We also had our third close encounter. We had lunch with a couple from Walla Walla. Something came up about Cycle Oregon and they said, “I guess you know Jerry Norquist then”, Jerry was the director of Cycle Oregon when we started our journey with them. Turns out, he’s, their neighbor!
We were quite pleasantly surprised when we got a Whatsapp call from our new Canadian friends that we met and they got off in Sydney, it was so good to hear from them.
I am also missing Savas, one of the bartenders that I have made friends with. On his last day, he came to me early on and asked for a hug goodbye. He said if he waited any longer, he would cry like a baby. The connection between crew and guests is real.
Sheep ship, stay up wind.
As always, there is;
Pool chronicles, you can’t make this shit up.
We were sailing along, and the guy at the next table said, “the clouds just stopped moving”. I immediately started singing “where were you when the world stopped turning”.
“We’d be a lot richer if Seabourn hadn’t found us”. True, but I think we found Seabourn, really?
Victor, a waiter on the pool deck came to me and complained that the guests were first complaining that it was too cold, so I told them to get in the hot tub, now, they are too hot and I told them to get in the pool. I said, you are dealing with a lot of Goldilocks.
I got more, but I’ve gone on too long tonight.
So, I’lle you with another amazing sunset.
More later ……
G day mate, yes, I learned a new laguage!
Steve, reading your blog is just like talking to you. A good feeling!
We enjoy your observations and sense of humour. You take us right to Western Australia. And those sunsets! Ross and I wish we were still enjoying them on deck with you and Kim. Lorna