Day 41 - Downunder 2016 - Sun - 11/06/16 - Geraldton

Talk about an undersell. All the information we received about Geraldton indicated there wasn't much here. Our Captain made arrangements to dock on this sunny Sunday so we would not need to tender. Because of the swells in the bay, he had to employ some hydraulic tensioning machinery and setting that took up some time. We were able to depart the ship around 8:20am and make our way down the long and steep port provided gangway. Since we were docked in an industrial port, we had to take a shuttle bus to outside the port. Unfortunately the entry ramp jammed on our bus and we were delayed a few minutes while it was manually forced into the stowed position. The bus couldn't be driven with the ramp extended.

From the shuttle stop we walked up to the HMS Sydney memorial via the very Art Deco downtown and McDonald's and took the free guided tour of the memorial. It was excellent. We walked back to the downtown area via the cathedral and enjoyed touring it along with the recently opened museum about the Architect/Priest who designed and built the cathedral. He was an Anglican Englishman who converted to Catholicism and became a priest. From there we walked the downtown area where I found a book on the Batavia in a used book store. We found a nice sandwich shop and caught up on email and the like plus I was able to restore my Google account by logging on with my Kindle Fire tablet and having a confirmation code sent via SMS to my phone. I also downloaded to the Kindle 'Batavia' by Peter Fitzsimmons which is a novel about the famous sinking in 1627.  

After lunch we walked up to the Western Australia Museum so we could see the display about the Batavia shipwreck. I also found Nemo there in an aquarium exhibit. We then walked back along the really nice beach area to the shuttle pickup point.

I should add that Geraldton rolled out the red carpet for us with lots of volunteer tourist information guides. They were so friendly and helpful plus the TI office was open on Sunday.

We were able to make the 4pm interdenominational Sunday service before watching the sailaway. The sea lane into the harbor is also narrow and twisty like some other ports we have visited. It did get quite windy out on deck 13 above the Crow's Nest. In order to make our evening a bit more simple, we ate dinner in the Lido and it was quite good.

The evening's entertainment was the English comedienne and Celtic singer in a variety show.