Tuesday, 21 February 2017

February 21, 2017



     Another beautiful Sea Day (#7) with a calm sea and sunny sky showing just a hint of tiny clouds at the extreme edge of the horizon as we walked some circuits around Deck 5 before we went for breakfast in the Deck 4 dining room.  The temperature on my little “Midway” compass & thermometer read 26 C and there was a brisk wind.
After breakfast it was time to take our completed Australian Customs form to the Deck 5 dining room balcony where a process was in place to return passports and then go through Australia Customs. Just a short wait in line, then one of four Australian Customs and Border Services officers interviewed you.  Since we are staying on board for the next cruise, we then had to surrender our passports to the ship again.  It will assist the process of embarking on the second part of the journey in Perth, since we will be travelling to New Zealand on part of the next cruise along with over 600 other guests.  The passengers (all 2,092) on each deck were assigned a time to go to see the Australian Customs and Border Services officers over an eight hour period.
    We returned to Deck 5 to walk more circuits.  The temperature had risen to 28 C, the clouds at the horizon had multiplied and were a little larger, leaving a space between the sea and the sky before the appearance of the line of puffier clouds, but overall it was sunny.  As we finished our walk, we met Bob and Maureen as they were starting their walk.
    The captain’s noon announcement disclosed that the ship is sailing to the east of the main shipping route to China. Both the air temperature at noon and the ocean temperature is 28 C.   There were sightings of freighters, many carrying iron ore to China and Japan from Port Hedland.
     After lunch we attended the Port Hedland presentation by Philip Shubert, his final talk.  The town is a major port for the export of iron ore from the inland mines in the Pilbara region.  We joined Maureen and Bob for coffee in the Windjammer buffet restaurant while they ate their lunch.
    Then it was back to the stateroom to purchase a day’s Internet package and then connect to the Internet to upload the past few day’s posts and read before getting ready for dinner with a formal dress code this evening.
    The choices this evening were Gourmet Mushroom Meatballs, Jalapeño Potato Soup and Bacon Lettuce & Tomato Salad.  We both chose Cranberry-Apple Turkey Roulade with mashed potato, steamed carrot, Brussels sprouts and eggplant slices.  The desserts chosen were Kahlua Cake and Honey Walnut Tart with vanilla ice cream.
   The evening show was a tango dance and song show by the travelling performance show: “Tango Buenos Aires”.  It was just as good as the Tango show that we saw in Buenos Aires, five years ago.

Final step count 12,639

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