Cruising the Great Australian Bight

January 10 and 11, 2019

There were two sea days to get from Esperance to Kangaroo Island. This part of the ocean, off Southern Australia,  is called the Australian Bight. Nothing south of us but Antarctica about, 6000 km away.  This is probably the closest Jan will get to Antarctica. Ocean and air temperatures are significantly cooler than we experienced in Northern Australia. Very few people at the pool today as it was windy with temps in high 60s.

 One of our guest speakers this week was Dr. Alan Stern. He is Director of the NASA New Horizons program that explored Pluto and then kept going to reach the Kuiper Belt and the dwarf planet Ultima Thule on January 1. Amazing technology.  Pluto is the size of a continent on earth while Ultima Thule, where they just did a flyby, is 22 km long. They were exactly on target in reaching both. The spacecraft travels at 52 Km/per hour. Launched in 2006, it reached Pluto in 2015.  Ultima Thule was  discovered by the Hubble telescope after New Horizons was launched,  but they were able to modify the plan and extend the mission past Pluto. Stern was an excellent speaker and showed some great digital photos of Pluto.

 The destination speaker talked about our upcoming visit to Adelaide, which is the capital  of South Australia. Our trivia team finally scored a win, boosting lagging team morale. 

 We were reminded that all good things come to an end, received our disembarkation questionnaire 😢. Our last specialty restaurant dinner of the trip was in Chartreuse. We have been lucky to be able to enjoy both specialty restaurants (other is Prime 7) several times. There is no charge for these restaurants but reservations are limited.

 Another sea day activity is hanging around the Coffee Connection where you can get specialty coffee creations, a light breakfast or lunch and fresh baked cookies available all day. Oatmeal raisin are the best! This is another one of the all inclusive benefits that passengers enjoy and one of the many reasons we like Regent.

 We ended the two sea days with shuffleboard and after dinner drinks on our balcony. Calm seas, beautiful evening.













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