We left Darwin at 5.00 p.m. The next day was spent at sea before finally sailing into Komodo Island, Indonesia on 3 Jan - early in the morning. Komodo Island is where they have Komoda Dragons – big, ugly looking lizards that stand waist-high, with poisonous drool - that simply bite their prey, let the prey run off whilst they wait until the poison kills them, before they track them down and eat them. There were a couple of small fishing villages there who sent small canoes out to the ship that was anchored off the Island. We thought it was a welcoming committee, however, “Hello - Dollar” became a very familiar phrase during this cruise. The ship wouldn’t allow anyone off unless they were on a guided tour, as it was too dangerous with the ... read more

28 Dec we left Cairns at 2.00 p.m. to sail up to the Great Barrier Reef, past Lizard Island and the Ribbon Reef Region, overnight anchored at Sherrard Island and the next day through the Torres Straight. 3 days of sailing and at sea and celebrating New Year’s. I thought going through the Great Barrier Reef would be spectacular but it poured and we didn’t even see any turquoise water - just a few islands dotted around.... read more

Christmas eve was spent at sea and at 6.00 a.m. on Christmas Day, we arrived in Brisbane. I decided that if possible I was going to be up for every sailing into port, so this meant a 4.30 a.m. rise (I regularly saw dawn on this cruise). After all the rain and dark clouds in Sydney, it was nice to see the sunshine again in Brisbane - and phew, was it hot. I hadn’t planned any tours of Brissy having been there before, so I caught the ferrycat up the river and back for a few hours, which was enough for me in that heat. At 5.00 p.m. on the dot we sailed out of Brisbane.... read more

Made my way to the ship on Friday, 23rdDec at 11.00 a.m. and by 12.30 p.m. I was onboard and enjoying an Embarkation lunch. We sailed at 6.00 that night amongst storms and rain in Sydney and a forecast of 2 cyclones off the coast, one off Brisbane and the other off Darwin. Even if a cyclone dissipates, it leaves big seas, so we were all wondering whether or not we'd feel the effects of these 2, or worse still run into them. We've had one weird summer this year as its rained in Sydney throughout December, January & February. So here’s a tour of the ship.... read more

Arriving into Hawaii, this time I LOST 4 hours of my day (which made a nice change, although again took adjusting to). After all that travelling, I intended to simply spend the entire 6 days lazing by the pool in the Sheraton Hotel (which is right on Waikiki Beach) simply with my nose in a book, sunbathing. Well, as luck would have it, it rained for 5 of those days so I only got 1 day of lazing around. The remainder of the days I occupied myself with long lunches/dinners, walking around, shopping etc. Talking of food, I am not in the least bit surprised a lot of Americans are so overweight. Their meals are HUGE - I could never finish one of them and one of their favourites seems to be fries with cheese on ... read more