Day 43 - Downunder 2016 - Tue - 11/08/16 - Fremantle - Day 2

After getting back to the ship late last night and an even later Lido dinner, our 7:30am alarm blared all too soon on this second morning in Fremantle. Since it was Tuesday morning here it was supposed to be Monday night back in Seattle where our Seahawks were to be playing against the Buffalo Bills. But nothing showed on our stateroom TV. So we ate breakfast in the Lido, and we got internet connected with my Verizon iPhone with an Australian Amayasim SIM card. 

By the way, if there is sufficient interest, I could do an entire post on how to obtain relatively inexpensive internet while cruising or traveling internationally. Post a comment or send me an email if that might be of interest. I never purchase internet time from the ship. End of commercial; back to our regular programming.

I learned the game was about to start, so we finished breakfast and headed up to the Crow's Nest to watch it in the big screen TV. We got a crew member to turn on the TV and we watched the game to its conclusion. While watching it I noted that the Emerald Princess had arrived that morning and was moored in front of us. I posted a picture of it on Facebook and soon received a reply from our exchange daughter in Melbourne that her in-laws were on the ship which had sailed in from Southampton, England via a last port of Bali where we had been 4 days earlier. It's a very small world out there!

Watching the game was interrupted a few times by lifeboat drill announcements for the Perth embarking passengers and the captain's sailaway announcement, part of which included words to the effect that we would be traveling quickly and to expect 'some motion in the ocean'. We actually got underway just before 12 and as the Seahawks game successfully concluded. We moved sideways from our berth and started forward motion past our 3,000+ passenger capacity cousin (both Holland America and Princess are owned by Carnival Corporation). 

While leaving the harbor area we passed a strange looking vessel that sort of looked like it might have been an ocean going cattle truck. I learned later from another passenger that it was a sheep and goat transport ship to the Middle East. There was also an automobile transport ship for new cars arriving as well.

We adjourned to the Lido for lunch; and as we were finishing, a humpback whale was spotted on the starboard side and I got a pretty good tail photo. We walked a mile on the deck in increasing swells in the ocean which caused the ship to move in a porpoise like motion up and down stem to stern. The wind was also blowing quite hard which combined with the ship's motion made for difficult and chilly walking. So we quit walking and took a seat in the Showroom At Sea for Kelly's 3pm port talk. I used that time to begin my read of Peter Fitzsimmons book, Batavia, which is a historical account of the ship and its eventual demise near Geraldton. Mr. Fitzsimmons is a very good Australian author one of whose books I've previously read. 

Kelly's talk was interesting and afterwards we spent more time reading until time for dinner. At dinner in the Rotterdam dining room, we really experienced the 'motion in the ocean'. For a long time I have thought that the axis for ship motion in swelling seas was the center of the ship. On this trip, I've really come to realize that the least motion appears to be in the stern area.

Because of the 'motion in the ocean', the cast show was postponed and we had a comedienne from Melbourne who was pretty funny and not at all vulgar. Another similar act is scheduled for tomorrow. Given the main stage is in the front of the ship, there's a lot of motion there!  

We finished our evening watching the Australian movie, 'South Solitary', which was about an isolated lighthouse keeper in the late 1920's. it was a strange and unsettling movie with an incomplete feel to the ending.