Officially,
today is Sea Day #4, but it is the fifth day sailing due to yesterday’s Cairn
shore excursions cancellation due to the wind and sea conditions. The sky had
some puffy white clouds; the mid morning temperature was 26 C with some wind. The waves were gently rolling no white caps.
We started the
day with breakfast in the dining with two Australian couples, one from
Canberra, Australia’s capital city. It
was a relaxing morning of reading and walking circuits on Deck 5 or around the
ship. Periodically Reef Pilot Ian Perry gave announcements about the mainland
or island that we passed and historical information. The ship had just a few
hours left to sail north along the Great Barrier Reef when we arrived on Deck 5
about 10 a.m. We were going to be only
10.4 degrees south of the equator as we rounded Cape York to enter Torres
Strait. We went past Port Albany, the
first settlement in the area, which was abandoned over 100 years ago and moved
to Thursday Island which is now the administration town in the area, with
schools, a hospital, a pilot station and government offices. We passed Tuesday Island,
Wednesday Island and Thursday Island which were named by Captain Blyth of HMS
Bounty.
We left the
Pacific Ocean as we headed west, with Papua New Guinea not far to the north as
the ship entered the Torres Strait. There is a beacon as a navigational aid
that the northern tip of Australian is nearby. Shortly, we passed a tiny island
where officially the waters become known as the Arafura Sea, which is part of
the Indian Ocean. Close by is an island
called Booby Island which might have the booby bird living there, I am not
sure. The distance the ship travelled
from Cairns to Booby Island is over 400 miles.
As we approached Cape York, the water colour changed from a light indigo
to a turquoise green with the low swell of the waves sometimes having tiny
whitecaps. We also noted that the fluffy
white clouds are growing taller and getting a bit greyer, but there is lots of blue
sky above. This is not a deep part of
the ocean. The ship only was only seven
meters above the sea bottom. There are
14 shipwrecks in this area because of shallow water, reefs, strong currents as
well as powerful tides. The Arafura Sea is home to manatees and sea turtles.
We arranged to
meet Maureen and Bob for the 1:15 special interest talk about Darwin’s history.
The talk was presented by Australian historian and travel photographer, Philip
Schubert. Darwin has a population of
142,000 and has been destroyed several times by cyclones and flattened during
World War Two. In 1838, the area was
first explored by the Captain of the HMS Beagle, the ship which had taken
Charles Darwin around the South American coast and out to the Galapagos
Islands, several years before. A free
settlement, Palmerston, was established in the natural harbour, with a
different name. It became the terminus
of the overland telegraph, from Sydney, in 1870 where a sea cable was laid to
Indonesia. It is the capital of the Northern Territory state. Cyclones
flattened the area in 1897 and 1937 then again on December 25, 1974. The harbour and town were victims of Japanese
bombs on February 19, 1942. It is the 75th
anniversary in a few days. The bombing was
more extensive than the bombing of Pearl Harbour where 142 tons of bombs were
dropped. In Darwin there were 185 tons
of bombs dropped on the American naval fleet and U.S. air command stationed
there. Some of the same Japanese pilots who
bombed Pearl Harbour also carried out the Darwin bombing raid to disable the
American threat in Indonesia. A docked
ammunition ship exploded in the harbour, as well as huge oil tanks on shore and
ships were sunk in the harbour. The air
field and runways were bombed and because it was a communication center, the
town’s telegraph station, post office, government house, police station and
other administration buildings were destroyed.
The most recent devastation was caused by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day
1974, with its 217 km per hour winds making a direct hit on Darwin. The buildings had not been built to withstand
the cyclone forces and were blown apart with the swirling debris causing more
damage. The town had to be evacuated
since everything was gone. We may hear
more about the rebuilding of Darwin when we visit there. Our ship will be docking at Stokes Wharf near
the Convention Center and a swimming lagoon which is protected from crocodiles
and sharks by a 5 or 6 meter wide net at the sea water intake to the lagoon.
We dashed up to
Deck 11 for a light lunch before returning a bit late to the Aurora Theater to listen
to Reef Pilot Ian Perry’s presentation about the Great Barrier Reef.
After the talk
we joined Maureen and Bob for coffee on Deck 11’s Windjammer buffet. They graciously offered to allow us some of
their Internet time to post the last few days of blogs and check email. The satellite Internet is not as fast as high
speed land based Internet, especially loading the pictures which could take 5
or 10 minutes for one to load when the speed was especially slow.
Tonight was the
second of three Formal evenings which usually has a musical production
performed by the ship’s dancers and singers.
The dinner
choices tonight were Crab cakes and Tomato & Fish Chowder for appetizers
and Greek Vegetarian Mousaka as the main course. Bailey Irish Crème Brulée was the dessert
choice.
Tonight, the
musical production was called City of Dreams, with costumes depicting six
famous cities or countries in Europe and Asia.
Tonight the
clocks were turned back one hour to Darwin time, which the Time Zone maps show
as only a 30 minute time difference.
Steps = 10127
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