Day 55 - 11/26/22 - Port Arthur & Hobart, Australia

 Overnight out of Eden, the seas were flat and we arrived before 7 in the bay off of Port Arthur where we tendered ashore to relatively new dock facilities.  Port Arthur is a former penal colony from the 1800's that after closing was ravaged by vandals and fires and two bush fires in 1895 and 1897 leaving only the exterior brick walls on many of the buildings.  Attempts were made to transform the property in the early 1900's into resorts and hotels and the like, but those were unsuccessful.  They became property of the government and conservation efforts began.  They attempt to tell the story of what happened here.  It's not pretty and it's not sugar coated. 

Church Spires

Big Burned out church

Main Penitentery Building which was gutted by fire

Guard towers

We visited here some 20 years ago on our first trip to Tasmania and many of the structures seem the same to me, but they've increased the conservation and curation efforts with lots of signage specifically about real people who were sentenced here.  In the Commandant's house, there are extensive placards and billboards describing each of the Commandants and their impact on the Penal Colony.  Not all of the original structures still stand and those who have succumbed to the elements and to fire or other damage have been torn down and their remains are used to help conserve remaining structures.  

There is an extensive English Garden on the property which is precisely laid out much like the precision with which the operation of the Penal Colony operated.  There's even a placard describing this.  

After walking the grounds we ate a meat pie lunch in the cafeteria.  They were outstanding and we look forward to having them on the ship as soon as they find them.

Because of projected high winds, our stay was cut short and we had an all aboard time of 2:30pm.  Those winds never materialized but we left early anyway.  However, this turned out to be a blessing as we got to see Cape Raul with its dolomite columns.  The ship even slowed to 8 knots so we had more than ample opportunities to see it and take pictures.  We then sailed on to Hobart where we were docked by 7:45pm.  Our plan was for our friends to pick us up at 8pm so that we could see the Cantaré 7pm show.  They were once again excellent. That worked out well and Virginia met us at the port exit and we enjoyed dessert with her and her family and got to catch up on many years of history that passed since we last saw them.  She brought us back to the ship after 10 and we re-boarded to sleep on the ship as it's staying overnight.  She'll pick us up in the morning and we'll attend their church service with them before going to her sister's nearby place for a barbecue lunch and more visiting.

We had a small increase in our Covid numbers, but the number is still pretty low.  I'll report on those in detail in tomorrow's report.  The Captain also continued to set expectations about the motion of the ocean for Sunday night and Monday (read that it will be rocky).  We better not be complacent with the smooth water of the past few days.

I should note that this is the first time we can recall that we had two complete port stops in one day.  It's pretty cool and we really like overnight stops.  It removes lots of stress in seeing a location and in this case allowed for extensive personal visitation time.