Cruise Australia 2018-19

December 29, 2018 Sea day today as we sail to Komodo Island in Indonesia. New lecturers came on board in Darwin. One who will be with us for about 2 weeks is Pieter De Vries, an Emmy award winning documentary film maker. His first lecture included tips on photographing animals including information about the Komodo Dragons. He also gave helpful hints on photographing sunsets, which we plan on utilizing. Typical sea day activities filled our day. Dave played and his team won a deck game against the officers for more Regent Points. You collect the points throughout the cruise redeemable for Regent logo items like tshirts, umbrellas, etc. We completed the Mensa questions and did better at Trivia = more Regent points. So far, we have sailed 4,000 nautical miles. We are not even at the halfway point of this adventure! Pictures below are Mensa Daily Quiz, we are getting better at solving them; map of where we are and where we are going; and for our OLLI friends—OLLIver was invited fo...

December 28, 2018 We arrived in Darwin Harbor early in the morning. Although it is twice the size of Sydney Harbor, it is much shallower. It is the capital of the sparsely populated Northern Territory and the gateway to the Outback. We took a harbor tour and saw some of the huge natural gas processing plants that fill LNG tankers headed to Japan and Hong Kong. Australia supplies 25% of the gas needed by Japanese power companies. It is ironic that Darwin is the supplier to Japan. In 1942, Japan dropped more bombs on Darwin than they did at Pearl Harbor. Casualties were lower as Darwin was less populated than Oahu but the attack totally destroyed the city. Casualties included Americans and two American war ships. Today more than 2,000 US Marines are based in Darwin. Australians have fought and died with Americans in every major conflict since then. Darwin is also a center for the pearl industry and aboriginal art. The harbor is very clean, but we saw no one at the beaches. It is the ...

December 25, 26, 27, 2018 Christmas Day was to be spent in Port Moresby, the capital of PNG. This did not happen. Lessons from a third world country—always expect the unexpected. An announcement was made as we left Alotau that the Port Moresby cruise terminal was closed (we later learned a ship was quarantined there) and that the tour company decided not to work on Christmas. So, we began three sea days. You may wonder what we do on sea days. Here is a brief rundown. Breakfast. Exercise. Pick up Mensa puzzles. Lecture. Crew vs. passenger games. Lunch. Bridge for Dave. Pool time. Trivia (we don’t have a very good team). Dress for dinner. Eat again. Go to show. But, each day something happens to vary the routine. The ship put on a very nice Christmas show before dinner on Christmas Day. The dinner menu included traditional turkey dinner. Beautiful sunsets are viewed from our balcony while sipping champagne. And, the crew had a life raft drill in the pool to inflate the rafts. A c...

December 24, 2018 What a surprise Alotau was to us! We were expecting a similar experience to what we have had in other poor Asian countries—crowds, begging children, lots of street vendors. Instead we found beautiful green mountains surrounding Milne Bay and an orderly, but undeveloped small port town. We were greeted by dancers in traditional dress beating drums to greet us. Our tour’s first stop was an overlook of Milne Bay, an important WWII battle site for Australians and Japenese. Next was a tour of the local high school, closed for the holidays, where students were our guides. Buildings were rudimentary, with vents near the floor for “air conditioning”. The dining hall had posted rules and a prayer for students to say before eating. And, yes, I asked about a library—very small with a few computers which all students in grades 9-12 share. Bill Gates, where are you? The school tour ended with a cultural show where traditional dancing that tells their history was explained....

December 23, 2018 A sea day, which means lots of lectures, games, and general silliness. Morning lecture concerned Papua New Guinea, one of the poorest countries in Asia. But, it was the afternoon lecture that really got our attention. We had not spent much time considering how the ship was navigating the reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. Not to worry, we have had a reef pilot on board since Sydney. Captain Roderick Maharaj was our speaker this afternoon. With 27 years of experience he insured the Mariner was safely taken through the entire length of the Reef and that the Reef was protected from shipping accidents.He will leave the ship in Darwin on the 28th. His last piloting hurdle will be the Torres Strait connecting the Coral Sea to the Indian Ocean, We have always wondered how ships are provisioned for cruises where few major ports are visited. It turns out the ship’s comptroller is responsible for supplying the ship. Dmytro Luziamin from Odessa was our dinner companion this ev...

December 22, 2018 We really enjoyed the BBQ last night and woke up to see David on the inhouse TV channel as part of a group doing YMCA on deck. Today our tour took us around Cairns and up to Kuranda Village in the Kuranda Range, which is near the peak of the tropical rain forest. Called the Wet Tropics, the northeast part of Australia is home to more than 2,200 plant species of which 670 are found nowhere else in the world. The forest is also home to tree kangaroos, unique butterflies, and the country’s heaviest flightless bird, the Southern Cassowary. We took the Skyrail over and through the Barron Gorge National Park, getting a chance to see Barron Gorge Falls actually visible because there has been some rain. This is a 4.7 mile cableway with two stops where you can get off to do boardwalk hikes through part of the rainforest. At the end of the cableway we walked to Kuranda Village, where there were galleries and shops selling aboriginal art, jewelery, etc. Beautiful large fig t...

December 21, 2018 Arrived in hot, steamy Cairns at 8 am. By 8:15 we were walking to the boat that would take us out to part of the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling. We hadn’t planned to snorkle here because we had heard about crowded boats, the dreaded stingers (jelly fish), and the dying reef. Well, we decided going home and not experiencing the Reef would be really stupid.  We had a wonderful day! Calm seas, beautiful weather, an uncrowded boat and pontoon just for the Regent group, made for a relaxing experience. Yes, we had to wear the stinger suits and no, the Reef is not dying but is stressed, primarily from warmer water. Snorkeling was good, saw lots of different types of coral and fish. The crew educated us throughout the day; first on safety and then on reef conditions and the creatures that call it home. A glassbottom boat ride and hands-on lesson about sea cucumbers and starfish completed the day. And, the fun just kept coming. Often when Regent ships overnight in a...

December 20, 2018 We are docked in Townsville, the unofficial capital of North Queensland and home to Australia’s largest military base. Today’s adventure was to the Museum of Tropical Queensland (conserving items from shipwrecks, displays of daily life in area, coral specimens) and to Reef Headquarters. Reef Headquarters is not only the administrative center for reef management but also an aquarium for reef species. Lots of volunteers were available to interpret the exhibits. The highlight was the turtle hospital where we met Teresa, a large green sea turtle who has been there since May and eaten nothing, but is improving. In the picture, she is getting her back rubbed and wriggling around contentedly. Another ill turtle is Avo, a much smaller green sea turtle. Both are likely to survive. Fun fact—six of the seven species of sea turtles in the world are found on the Great Barrier Reef. Sad fact—plastic is found in 100% of sea turtles brought in either for research or autopsy. In 2...

December 19, 2018 We were anchored off Airlie Beach early in the morning. The tenders were put in the beautiful turquoise water to begin ferrying passengers to shore, a 30 minute trip. People going out on the dive/snorkel tour were offloaded directly from the ship to the dive boats. Airlie Beach is a small beach community, one main street, lots of lovely vacation homes. The water is pristine but at this time of year loaded with jellyfish, so no one was swimming at the beaches. Because we will be doing a snorkel trip out of Cairns in a couple of days, we took a tour of the area that included a stop at a bar called the Northerlies for some craft beer and a visit to a local community museum. The Proserpine Museum, run by volunteers, had exhibits of everything from early Australian homes, to WW I and II artifacts, Vietnam, Italian immigration, and much more 😊. This is also sugar cane country with fields that seemed to go on forever. We spotted some kangaroos out in the fields. ...

December 18, 2018 Our ship entered the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef today.  The excellent lecturer on the Reef pointed out big things in Australia are called great (Great Barrier Reef, Great Australian Bight, etc.) while in the US we call them grand (Grand Canyon, Grand Central Station. ...). We will spend 4 days at various areas of the Reef. There was some excitement mid day as one of the passengers was airlifted off the ship for medical reasons. The upper decks were cleared and everyone told to stay off balconies.  Australians safely extracted him despite high winds.

December 16, 17, 18 We are settled on the Mariner, greeted several familiar staff members, and are ready for the next adventure. Today, the 17th, was to be a port day in Mooloolaba in southern Queensland. We arrived right on time, anchor went down, and then the announcement came—too much swell to launch the tenders. Up came the anchor and off we sailed. A major disappointment for many was missing the Australia Zoo of Steve Irwin fame. A zoo representative is onboard lecturing, showing wonderful pictures and educating us about their unique way of conserving and saving wildlife. We have a revised schedule with lots of activities—lectures, bridge for David, craft demonstrations, passenger vs. crew games, music, trivia (came in third) and plenty of opportunities to eat. Tonight is one of our favorite Regent events, the Block Party, where you meet in the passageway with your neighbors, enjoy wine and appetizers and the ship’s senior staff races through the ship greeting everyone. Jan ac...

December 15, 2018 We arrived safely in Sydney on the 14th. After checking in to the Four Seasons Hotel, we walked over to the Opera House and then decided to walk around The Rocks (oldest section of Sydney) area and look for a pub to have fish and chips. Upon a couple of recommendations, we found the Australian Hotel. We were surprised to find that all tables were reserved as it was before noon! Well, “it’s Friday afternoon in the summer, mate!” was the answer to our puzzled looks. The bar tender did find a place for us, we enjoyed really good fish and chips and beer, watched cricket on the tvs, and vacated the table before the reservation took effect. In the evening, Regent held a reception and dinner for the Circumnavigation passengers at the hotel. About half the ship (360 passengers) is doing the complete 36-day trip. Dinner was very good and then the evening got better. Koalas, a wombat, a baby wallaby, a baby boa, and a small crocodile were brought in by zoo keepers. Lots of ...

Circumnavigating Australia, December 15-January 20 Regent Seven Seas Mariner December 10, 2018 This is our first blog ever, so please forgive any clunkiness. We will try to post some interesting experiences and photos. Today we will “Set the Table” for our upcoming adventure. From the day Regent announced this cruise, Jan wanted to take it. Dave was not quite as eager. However, after the frustrating delays of house building, Dave came onboard. The adventure begins on Wednesday, December 12, when we fly from Charlotte to Houston to Sydney—about 24 hours air time. Despite a snow/ice storm and power loss, we are finishing our packing and getting ready to go.