This post covers three consecutive sea days. The following images were taken from the sliding door of our stateroom.
There was an event on deck 7 on Monday to celebrate our first full month at sea. Cheryl with Executive Chef Alastair. Captain Marcus is the very tall man in the last image (he walks around the ship a great deal, actually). The culinary staff works very hard to create special events like this and other little pop-up events like a donut bar or a gravlox bar. Cheryl: My willpower is being fully tested on this ship!
Looking forward to a few sea days to relax a bit after five busy and wonderful days in New Zealand. There’s always fierce competition for the washers/dryers on sea days.
Enrichment: History of Australia: From Dreaming to 1851. Explore early Australian history from the settlement of indigenous people until the discovery of gold in 1851 – Bryan Babcock.
The continent was inhabited by the Aboriginal People for 65,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. The Torres Strait Islanders inhabited northern Australian islands 2,500 to 10,000 years before European arrival.
The continent was first sighted by the Dutch in 1606. Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and confirmed Australia as a continent. European occupancy was a British Penal Colony for 80 years. The British Federation was established in 1901.
Very informative and dense, as is true of all of Bryan’s presentations.
Enrichment: Australia Founded on Convict Labor. Land in Sydney Cove with the First Fleet and lay the foundations of a great nation – Michael Barnett
In 1788, the first settlers and convicts arrived in Botany Bay and quickly relocated to Sydney Harbor (England could no longer send criminals to the American colonies, news to Bob). The British Parliament appointed a series of governors with varying degrees of success. A handful of local settlers had tremendous success and were frequently at odds with the appointed governors. Rum became the de facto currency, controlled by the military (an obvious recipe for success). In 1840, the transport of convicts ended after 150,000 had been relocated from the UK.
There is almost always either string or piano music being played at night in the “Living Room”.
On the night of Monday, February 2, we experienced our first significant weather event. We were warned early in the evening that both the seas and winds would be extreme. Starting late Monday night and continuing until 8 am on Tuesday, we navigated through very high winds and turbulent seas. While we never felt at risk, it was a very uncomfortable night. Numerous items fell off the desk in our cabin, breaking a glass, and at least half of the items in the bathroom fell into the sink, the ground, or the shower floor. Captain Marcus told us that the swells were 2-3 meters, and our lead steward, Andi, told us that this was the worst he had experienced in four years. The Tasman Sea is well-known for its rough seas and is one of the two “rough spots” we’ll encounter on this cruise.
The crew was absolutely terrific during and after the event, checking in with us first thing in the morning to assess the damage. Monday evening and early Tuesday morning, they were on call to deal with the many issues that arose throughout the ship. They did not get a great deal of sleep for 48 hours (none of us did, in all honesty).
Tuesday morning and early afternoon, all restaurants were closed, with both breakfast and lunch delivered via room service. All shipboard activities were canceled until late in the afternoon. It took at least 8-10 hours for the ship and everyone on board to feel any sense of normality.
I have been fighting a serious head cold for the last 4-5 days (many, many people on the ship are sick), and Cheryl is just starting to feel ill. Things have really slowed down for us as we deal with this bad weather and illnesses.
Enrichment: Rich Indigenous Cultural Heritage of Australia: Trace the highlights of the world’s oldest continuous civilization, its deep connection to land, language, and cultural heritage – Molly Townes O’Brien
After arriving, the Europeans disregarded the local inhabitants. The locals were decimated by continental diseases. 90% of the Darug Aboriginal people around Sydney died of smallpox. The fourth image shows the diversity of the Aboriginal tribes.
The treatment of native people on the Australian continent is essentially similar to that of both the North and South American treatment of Native Americans, Aztecs, and the Incas.
Enrichment: I listened to a presentation by Benny Elias, a former renowned Australian rugby player. He “revolutionized the hooker position in the Rugby League during the 1980s by transforming it from a traditional, purely defensive, and scrum-focused role into a dynamic, creative, and attacking position.“
