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| Sunset |
(560 miles E of Albany, Australia, our next port)
temperature: 60F, 69% humidity, cloudy, breezy-65km/h headwind
distance since FLL: 15,110 miles
The Great Australian Bight has, unfortunately for us, lived up to its reputation for rough seas. As Debbie described, last night was like sleeping in the back of a old pickup truck without shocks coming down a rutted mountain path. We bumped and grinded the whole night. We pitched and lurched and rocked and rolled while the cabin creaked and cracked and snapped and popped and groaned. The creaks were continuous, punctuated by ship hitting potholes or speedbumps every two to three minutes. Debbie took dramamine about midnight and again about 6am, and plans to just sleep through the morning, hoping the seas will calm down. We are getting swells hitting the ship at about 280 degrees and a constant cycle. Occasionally, the harmonics will kick in and we will get a new swell exactly as the ship has peaked from the previous swell and this gives rise to an extreme pitch and rock. Suspect there will not be many people out and about this morning.
Chocolate croissants and strawberries were on the buffet this morning. Clay took a couple of croissants back to the cabin for Debbie if she shows signs of life later in the day. Debbie got up just after 11am and took meclizine and ate her croissants and had a glass of juice. But, she did not get out of bed and refused to go to lunch or answer whether she would go to afternoon exercise classes. The noon announcement by Freddie the Navigator was that the wind had died down some and that while the skies were still completely clouded that we had entered the promised high pressure. He said we had 10-15 foot swells coming in from the Eastern Indian Ocean and that was making the going rough. He said we had another 400 miles or so to Albany. We have only been making 14-16 knots since the rough patch started and we have never made more than 400 miles in a 24-hour period without going over 19 knots so it is unlikely that we will see Albany as scheduled. The published schedule only had us there from 7am to 1pm. There is not a lot there but of what is there everything opens at 10am except the brig ship replica, Amity, at 9am. Two days ago Roger announced that all aboard would be 11:30am for noon sailing and today Jamie confirmed that. They said there would be a locally operated shuttle from the dock to town that would be one local bus run back and forth and it would take at least 20 minutes to either walk or shuttle to the few closest tourist attractions. If nothing is open before 9am and it takes 45 minutes or so roundtrip, then that only leaves an hour or so to see sights. So, if we don't get there at all at this point, we suppose that won't be too much lost anyway now.
We got a World Cruise 2006 Segment 2 Sydney to Hong Kong directory last night. There are only 585 people for this segment.
The seas have not calmed at all today. In fact, if anything, the swells have gotten larger. We had a nice sunset. We ordered room service. Three courses each from the Compass Rose menu and they brought all three courses at once. It was fine. Clay went downstairs and got us a video to watch.
According to the Daily Passages delivered this evening, tomorrow February 10th, is Captain Dag's 50th birthday. They have a plan for a special buffet lunch in the main atrium at noon and a special show at 9:45 with Kenny Smiles and Jamie Logan.
