Waking up at 5am on a sea day is a waste of a good lie-in opportunity. Worse, a notice in the letter box told me that I’m being inspected at 7am tomorrow, by Australian customs. I guess I’ll pop along, say hi then just head straight ashore, if we’re there.
On deck I wanted to photograph a passing rain storm, the sun lighting the seas beside it, but my camera lens fogged up as I went outside and took too long to clear. By the time I could take photographs a new rain storm was above us, the ship sailing through the edges of a cyclone.
I was in socks and walking shoes, an attempt to put on my sandals revealing that yesterday’s nascent blister is in fact a full blown weeping inch of raw flesh that screamed on contact with the very part of the sandals that had caused it. I’ll give it some air and some rest today and it’ll be fine in my walking shoes tomorrow. It’d better be, I have walking planned.
The good news is that I probably just did my last laundry for the cruise. Only a week left then I’m in a hotel for two nights that has a laundrette, so I can safely work through my clean clothes.
A talk by the Barrier Reef pilot was interesting. Compulsory pilot zones, how the pilot works, the relationships with the ships’ crews, why he’s even on board. We’re crossing the Coral Sea (again), large swells making the ship sway, none of the passengers able to walk in a straight line. I left the lecture laughing at the old lady in front of me, nearly bouncing off the walls of the corridor because she was swaying so much, but I wasn’t doing much better myself.
The sea was choppy but nothing alarming, the ship just moving around a lot. Back in my room the clothes hanging to dry were swaying too, the hook magnets attached to the ceiling so that the hangars could move a fair bit without hitting a wall.
A final check of my email before I lost internet access again. At lunch a couple of the ladies had been discussing how slow the link was; they’d bought the full internet package because they couldn’t possibly be offline for more than a few hours. I pity them, even I coped just fine with a week offline – my first since pretty much the mid-90s.
The rest of the day was spent trying to let my foot recover. I barely left my cabin, which meant I didn’t have to wear shoes.
I put on nice shoes for dinner, another Gala night. Parmesan crusted portobello for started, filet mignon without the crab thank you for my main, which was rather nice.
I went for the Linzer Torte for dessert, not knowing what it would be but expecting a cake. It was a tart instead.
Tasty though.
Due to the blister and a desire to be walking tomorrow nothing else happened. Early night – meeting Australian border officials at 7am. As you do.
