Noon Report:

• Location: S 14° 08.06′, E 144° 30.13′
• Speed: 15.5 knots
• Course: 295º
• Weather: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: 26º C, 79º F
• Wind: SSE 14 knots, 16 mph

Today we’re sailing up the last of Australia’s east coast with the continent on our port side and the GBR on our starboard side. Our reef pilot is really earning his pay today as the channel between the two narrows.

Being back at sea we reset the alarm to normal ‘up and exercising’ time. I hit the deck while Cheryl stayed in bed. Overnight her temperature broke and she was pretty exhausted. Once I got back and showered we headed up to Mamsen’s (on Deck 7) for a quiet breakfast of her favorite waffles.

She had a 9:00 massage scheduled which she rescheduled and I left her on the pool deck (also Deck 7) reading and soaking up the warm humidity while I went down to the Theatre (Deck 2) to take in a lecture on “The Australian-American Alliance”, a review of Australia’s move away from the UK toward the USA in it’s strategic alliance following the beginnings of WWII.

After the lecture it was back upstairs where we went looking for a quiet corner with a nearby hot spot to call daughter Kim. She was scheduled for an important (and potentially difficult) meeting today and we wanted to check in. Of course she was fine. We weren’t actually worried but it was good to chat anyway.

During the chat Cheryl noticed the interesting painting on the wall behind us.

Can you spot the train? What else do you see?

Following that chat it was back to the pool deck for Cheryl and back to the Theatre for me for a lecture on Douglas Mawson. Being so close to Antarctica, Australia has had significant interest in the ‘continent at the bottom of the world’. At the turn of the 20th century Mawson was a significant figure in early exploration of that vast region.

Then I climbed back to deck 7 (yes, I’m feeling a bit like a yo-yo) to grab Cheryl and head for lunch. We enjoyed eating out on the terrace while taking in the views of the shoreline to port and passing reef islands to starboard:

Then it was back to the room where we chatted with the Hunts and Cheryl got some sleep before the 3:00 lecture that we both wanted to attend.

This was the last lecture by our Reef Pilot. He will leave the ship after guiding us through the Torres Strait on Saturday. The Torres Straight is the passage between Australia and Papua New Guinea. It is also the place where the Arafura Sea (Indian Ocean) and the Coral Sea (Pacific Ocean) meet. This causes significant challenges in winds, currents, and tides.

The Nautilus isn’t the only vessel to have difficulty negotiating the strait. Many ships have come to grief in this passage. If the difficulties caused by the meeting of the oceans aren’t enough, this area is particularly shallow. During the last ice age it was actually above sea level and it is now dotted with many small islands.

We viewed that lecture on our stateroom TV, from the comfort of our bed. Then it was back to the pool deck where we both sat and read until the final lecture of the day:

William Buckley (no relation) was sentenced to “Transportation” in the early 1800’s and escaped from the prison colony, to be adopted by a band of Aborigines. He lived with them for 30 years and became so acculturated to their life ways that when he next encountered Europeans he had forgotten how to speak English. From there it became the story of culture clash that is so common when imperial powers seek to claim a new land.

Dinner in the Cafe featured roast pig:

BBB saw us back to normal, just over 50% with 12/23 – good for 3rd place.

Then it was back to the stateroom to put Cheryl to bed and finish this post.

I’ll tell you about tomorrow – tomorrow.

Till then, TTFN, R