Time change again last night and we are on Indonesian time.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Sea Day Mon Feb 27
The sea is really rough today. Good white caps with the tops being blown off. The waves are on the bow mostly. The ship is bouncy. The waves are creating a lot of spray, evan up on the 4th floor. It is grey and raining on and off.
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Sunday Feb 26
Big Sunday Brunch on the pool deck. The staff went all out. Entire roast lambs and all the seafood, cheese and dessert bars. They had the entire pool deck and wintergarden set up.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
Saturday Feb 25 Sea Day
We went back an hour last night.
10 am Wildlife watch included a lecture on photography. which was convenient as it was very gray stormy and generally very poor wildlife viewing conditions.
Today was spent mostly editing a bunch of Go Pro videos from the snorkeling and diving on the trip. I will upload the results to You Tube if the bandwidth on board the ship allows and post links on the blog.
Tea in the afternoon and dinner in the world café.
Letter from Viking explaining in our cabin when we got home from dinner about changes to the Ho Chi Minh city timetable. we will be getting the day before planned on 3/8 at 12:30pm and leaving a few hours early on the 11th.
Preview of fish:
Friday, February 24, 2023
Friday Feb 24 - Thursday Island
Another tender port. Not much to see here. No buses even. The included excursion is independent exploration.
I decided to go on shore to find some birds and look for the bat colony
Around 11 am Martha texted the the ship is recalling all pax as the weather turned and they had to move the ship further out to get the anchor to hold
I waited a while for the rain to stop and took a short cut over the island and through the cemetery back to the boat.
Then it was deja Vu as I was on the last tender back and we were waiting at the dock for over an hour for the last few folks to finish the museum.
We pulled out of Australia around 1 pm well ahead of the scheduled 6pm departure.
Tea with Robin and Chris in the winter garden on sail away in the storm .
Dinner in the restaurant with Frank and Kelly. Nice evening.
Tonight is back an hour again
Feb 22 Cairns
Today is the main port for the Great Barrier Reef 🪸.
We were at the dock locking out over the terminal and a flying fox was in the air. We did the snorkel and scuba tour out to Hastings Reef.
It was a very grey day with a few small squalls blowing through. I went though the scuba briefing just in case. I pulled up an old dive letter with my cert #.
The reef was about 30 miles from shore and was about 1.5 hour ride on a giant motor cat. The boat was setup well for getting everyone into the water.
The water was not as clear as I hoped but it was ok. The surface was rough and bouncy making the snorkeling a little challenging.
After the snorkel I was able to do the second dive.
Video coming soon. Stay tuned
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Tuesday Feb 21 Arlie Beach
The tenders were running behind schedule again. We were late getting our group on to the giant purple catamaran. It is a king tide here unfortunately the water is murky and cloudy. They took us to an area of coast that had absolutely no coral and we saw no fish. We went back on the catamaran as snorkeling was a complete waste of time. The crew of the boat blamed Viking for getting us off so late they didn't have time to go out to areas with better visibility. After that debacle we get back to the tender and there is a huge line and we are past the back on board time. We waited in the tender at the dock for 2 guests that never showed up for well over an hour. Many of the folks were trying to talk over the person next to them as it was very loud. Then some woman who drank too much decided that row row row your boat would lighten the mood. She was wrong.
Better luck tomorrow
Sea Day Feb 20th
Cruising up the Australian coast.
9:30 am lecture from David Drewry on the weather patterns and currents of the globe
Several pods of bottle nosed dolphins
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Sunday Feb 19 - Mooloolaba
Mooloolaba say that twice.
Hot day in port with a big competition going on at the beach
We did not feel like doing the bus ride so we just tendered ashore for a little bit and walked out along the boardwalk. It was very busy onshore so we went back to the ship for lunch. Back on board was at 4 pm. We did the 4:30 talk live on the TV. It was about 🪸 reefs, formation and lifecycle. David Drewry did a nice job explaining the history of how the reef is formed and how the coral grows in conjunction with the algae.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Saturday Feb 18 sea day
Breasey sunny cruise up the coast of Australia. Quiet rest day of reading mostly and 50 min on the bike.
3 pm lecture about about boat pilots that are required for transiting much of the Australian coast and bays
Dinner in the Restaurant with 2 other couples
Friday, February 17, 2023
Friday Feb 17 Sydney day 2
Late morning start after last night. Shuttle into town from the white bay cruise terminal to kings wharf a block away from the aquarium. We were going to do the hop on hop off bus but it took too long so we just Ubered over to the botanical gardens. The gardens were some of the best I have ever seen. Some of the trees were close to 2 hundred years old.
Then lunch at the cafe in the garden
Then we walked up to the art gallery of New South Wales.
This last one was in the new building to the north an was huge
Feb 16. Sydney
Morning sunrise sail into Sydney Harbour. We sailed past the opera house while having breakfast on the back deck
A stop in a small town and a lunch before heading back to the ship
Uber back to the ship and they had a late night seafood buffet
Then on to our tour of the blue mountains.
A couple of stops to see some sites on the way up. Hit a knitting store at one of the stops.
Lots of bus time. Stop at Scenic World
Back at the boat we had a charcuterie tray delivered to the room for a lite early dinner.
We had purchased tickets for the symphony a couple months before the cruise They played a concerto for the left hand that was amazing. We were in row F just left of center and had a perfect view of the piano 🎹
It was a very long day!
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Feb 15 Eden Aus.
Wow what another Great day! We arrived around 7 am. Room service had brought the coffee an hour before and we watched the dock at sunrise eating at the world cafe. Today's tour was kayaking the pembula river. What great tour there were about 10 of us Melinda picked us up at the dock in a mini bus and drove about 5 miles to an oyster farm on the pembula river.
We kayaked about an hour through the oyster farm and out along the river. Passing lots of birds and 2 separate sea eagle nests
We landed on a beach for snacks and tea and it was covered by millions of little
A little crunchy -joking
Then we paddled back to the oyster farm and had a snack
Some of the best oysters I have ever had!