Up And Over...

Tuesday, February 10. Smooth sailing. 31 C.

Best to be inside or on the shade on deck today. We are not used to this heat under any circumstances. Fortunately the glitch we encountered yesterday has been overcome and I can now do my little blog thing without too much of an issue.

I think it is going to be rather boring for the next four days folks. We ourselves are settling in and catching our breath after a couple of exhausting days ashore. The ship is amazingly quiet today and people are unashamedly admitting they need a break. 

This is what went wrong yesterday. This is where I sat for over an hour yesterday, waiting for the train to take us on a trip down through some beautiful but rugged mountains. The engines were modern diesel but the carriages, 12 of them, were restored carriages from about 1901. Very comfortable and super clean and well maintained. Surprisingly we got a refund from Holland America this morning. The delay at the very beginning meant the rest of the day was very hurried and took the joy out of the rest of the day. [We did sleep very well though!] Many people were envious but stated that they could not get up after sitting down like that.

All that we have seen today is the occasional island or Light Stands on croppy bits of rock. Today at noon we only had 45 feet of water under the keel. That is nothing at all. We are working our way up and through the Great Barrier Reef that is off the upper East Coast of Australia. It is massif, roughly the size of Italy. Yup, really big.

Captain Cook made his way through it which was an outstanding piece of navigation. That was in 1770, the ship did run aground and they spent weeks repairing the ship but continued on their voyage. Cook was quite the man.

[The ship's clocks go back 30 minutes tonight. That make us 6 1/2 hours behind West Coast time, but still a day ahead.]

A Good Relaxing Day.

This will be the bulk of our view from the deck for another three days until we hit Darwin. Too hot to sit out there except at 5:45 in the morning. It is then quite exhilarating!