Passing Tasmania

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Saturday 25th February:

We've had a glorious day today with perfect cruising: blue skies, calm seas, wall to

wall sunshine and nothing much to do. I know some people find sea days boring but we've

definitely cracked how to relax and absolutely love them. It gives us time to make

progress with our scrapbook which I think is going to become a wonderful memory jogger

in years to come.

I'm fighting my second bug so far on this trip so for the first time I didn't go to the

gym this morning. I'd spent so much time coughing through the night that I curled over

and snoozed again while Richard went up for his daily workout.

This afternoon, the ship's entertainment crew picked a perfect film to show in the

theatre: the Baz Luhrmann film "Australia" with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Neither

of us had seen it before and really loved it. As usual I had a good sob for most of the

last half hour. And equally as usual, some guests displayed very strange cinema going

behaviour. Why would you arrive to start watching the film when it's already been

running for over an hour? And then stick around for a good 45 minutes before deciding

to get up and walk out. Others watched about 2hrs 20 minutes of it before they walked

out which seemed a bit odd considering the film only ran for about 2hrs and 30 minutes!

It is now 7.30 pm and it's such a glorious evening that we've just been out for a stroll

around the decks. We are currently passing Tasmania and Clarke Island. This is a

narrow stretch of water and we can easily see the land on both sides of us. We also

managed to see a pod of dolphins, several flying fish, 2 albatrosses and lots of other

sea birds skimming the surface. The sea is crystal clear and the birds' reflection is

like a mirror on the water.

Tonight we gain an hour's sleep as the clocks go back but it is definitely worth it

because that puts us on to Australian time. My ex boss and friend Kathleen is flying in

to Melbourne in the morning and it's been fun today texting each other with final plans.

The forecast is fantastic: over 30 degrees and sunny and dry all day - although I may

well not be dry eyed when it comes to saying good-bye at the end.

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