Day 34 - 11/05/22 - At sea to Moreton Island, Australia

 Overnight the ship was definitely rocking and rolling.  As we ate breakfast, we observed that there were many whitecaps and wind and large swells.   The morning coffee chat was with Vicky O'Keefe and Thomas Armstrong-Robley who are Australian artist musicians who have performed on stage.  It was interesting and Rachael had to leave for a crew drill and Vicky and Thomas continued to answer questions.


After the crew drill was over, Rachel gave a presentation on Moreton Island and Sidney which are our last two ports of call.  After lunch she hosted a Meet the Artist session with the Ocean Bar band,  It turned out that the group graduated from a musical school in 2020 and were specifically contracted to play the 38 day crossing.  They have been terrific with great chemistry together.  


In his noon message the Captain noted that the Covid count was down to 30 persons (28 passengers and 2 crew members).  He also set the stage for a possible rough tendering operation tomorrow.  We read that as setting expectations for the possible cancellation of tomorrow's port stop at Moreton Island.


Dr. Jack Hardy gave his presentation on the Main Stage concerning Sea Monsters: Are they real? After his presentation, Angela and I voted in our area's general election using an online method.  Essentially we had to access a website, mark our ballot, download the ballot, print the ballot, sign and date the ballot, print the ballot to a pdf file, photograph the signed ballot, and send the signed PDF's to an official site.


Tonight was a dressy night but we ate in the Lido with Erik & Marilyn before attending the violin performance by Patrick Roberts who's really good.  We've seen him several times previously and he practices his craft very well.


After the Main Stage show, we met with another couple that we have been trying to find for 3 weeks.  They own the house across the street from our church.  It was a great chat and it turns out that they are on the ship almost twice and long as we are!  And they travel with just a backpack and a travel pillow stuffed with clothing each.  And we thought we traveled packing light!  We enjoyed the chocolate surprize with them on deck 2 at 9:30pm.


When we got back to the room tonight, we had a letter telling us of another itinerary change in our next segment.  Our 11/14 stop at Kaikoura, NZ has been cancelled and an additional day was added at Wellington.  For this inconvenience, we are being given $250 each and a Bonus Future Cruise Credit of 10% of the fare paid for this cruise.  There was another letter advising us of a 20 Kina ($5.85US) charge from Papua New Guinea Quarantine Fee.  


Here's hoping we have a stop tomorrow.  But I'm not optimistic.


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