Day 31: Sea Day with a twist

                                            Day 31 - Another Sea
FADE IN:

EXT. CRUISE SHIP - DECK 9 - 9:00 AM
JAN ROGERS and BRUCE MCCAY, two world travelers and cruise addicts, stand on the open deck to assess the weather conditions.  It’s raining, cold, windy.  Large swells pitch the ship about, making it difficult to stand without holding on to the railing.  Another nasty day at sea.  Jan grins.

                                                                 JAN
                                  It’s a perfect day to finish my screenplay.

Jan rubs her hands together excitedly, to emphasize her point.

                                                               BRUCE
                                  I have lots of work to do, too.  Gotta pay for the next cruise...

Bruce smiles broadly.  They walk to the stairs.  Descend.

INT. CRUISE SHIP - STATEROOM 4011 - 9:50 AM
Jan and Bruce gather their laptops and working materials.

INT. CRUISE SHIP - DECK 6 CENTRUM - DAY - 10:00 AM
Jan and Bruce sit by the windows on Deck 6 with a view of the rolling ocean.  Nothing but open seas and endless whitecaps of the large waves for as far as the eye can see.  They both type away on their laptops, each focused on their own work.

INT. CRUISE SHIP - CROWN VIKING LOUNGE - DAY - 5:00 PM
Jan and Bruce sit at a table, still typing away on their laptops.  Bruce sips champagne, Jan has her thermoboost drink and a protein bar.  In the b.g., small groups of passengers are huddled around tables.  A din of voices and laughter fail to distract the dedicated writers from their tasks.

INT. CRUISE SHIP - STATEROOM 4011 - DAY - 11:00 PM
Jan types the words THE END.  Finally finished with the first draft.  Emails it to her trusted writing partner in Colorado for review and feedback. 

                                                            JAN
                                            Ahhhh, the thrill of victory....


FADE TO BLACK.

Day 30: Sea Day

Day 30 – already.  Just 10 more days.  I can’t believe how fast they’ve flown by.  We’ve had some amazing experiences in spite of the nasty weather that has seemed to follow us around.

Today is the first of 2 sea days on our way to the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia.  My goal is to polish off the book I’ve been reading which was under consideration to become a movie.  Then I have to write a book report and email it to our business partner in Los Angeles.  It’s a beautiful sunny day and the seas are calm.  It’s a great day to read.

Mission accomplished.  The last 100 pages were a breeze compared to the first 425.  The ending was pretty good.  I wrote a report suggesting that if we do the movie, we focus on the end and only throw in bits of the beginning as necessary to set up the plot.  It would be a challenging task to condense this tome down to a two-hour screenplay, but I’m up for it if he decides to buy the rights to the book.

He promptly emailed back that he has decided to pass on this project.  I think it’s a wise decision.  But I am almost ready for a new project so we’ll have to come with something.

Day 29: Sydney Part 2

Sydney, Australia – Part 2.  Last time we were here it was freezing cold, windy, and really nasty.  Look, Ma – no coat!!

We had a beautiful sunny day – 75 degrees with just a slight breeze.  We had a leisurely morning before we headed off to explore this amazing city.  At least today is a weekday and everything is open.

The Rocks is a shopping district just 2 blocks from the pier.  We went there first to get educated on the beautiful Australian opals.  The prices are just crazy expensive and I knew I couldn’t buy any, but I wanted to see them and learn all I could about them so I won’t get ripped off next year in the Caribbean or Mexico when I probably will buy some at a much more reasonable price.  We went to a few high-end stores and saw some gorgeous jewelry.  Mission accomplished.  I now know everything to look for – and more importantly – what to avoid.

Next we headed towards Darling Harbor and looked at souvenirs along the way.  We found everything we were looking for.  I also visited the chemist (pharmacist) again for some cough medicine.  I’ve pretty well licked the sinus infection and bronchitis, but can’t quite kick this nagging dry cough.  After coughing all night long – again – and not sleeping much – again – I really needed something.  The brands of medicine are so different from US meds, so it’s impossible to know what to buy.  The chemists are knowledgeable and helpful, thank goodness.  Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

We went to the Queen Victoria Building, as we had been told by a native that it was a must-see.  I agree.  It’s an old building (1898) that has been other things, but is now a mall.  Wow, it’s stunning.  We didn’t buy anything, just looked around.

We got on the free city bus and rode the whole loop around this part of the city, just to see more of it without walking our legs off.  I’m still so impressed with the blending of old and new.  I just don’t know how to describe how beautiful this city is.

Our last stop was the famous Sydney Opera House.  It’s right across the pier from where the ship is docked.  We almost didn’t go there since we took lots of pictures of it last time.  But I’m glad we went.  I was so surprised – it’s such an optical illusion!  Every picture I have ever seen – including all the ones I took 2 weeks ago – make it look like it’s all one building.  It’s not - it’s actually 4 separate buildings!  I was shocked to discover this.  Here’s the proof – this picture shows the gap between 2 of the buildings.  What a well kept secret! 

 

We came back to the ship, had lunch, and relaxed in our room.  I ‘m so pooped from night after night of coughing.  We went out for the mandatory muster drill and OMG – Brrrr again.  It had rained a bit and turned cold with a sharp wind.  Good thing those drills are short.  It’s just after 6:00 PM and we’re sailing away in a lovely sunset over the city and harbor.  I just can’t get enough of Australia.  We’ll return here one more time before we fly home. 

We’ll have 2 sea days before we reach the Isle of Pines, New Caledonia on Saturday.  The captain says we should have calm seas and warm temps all the way there.  Hopefully I’ll be rested up and ready for a beach day by then.

Day 28: Sea Day

We thought we’d have a nice, relaxing day at sea and get a lot of writing done today.  Ha!  Any time two blonds take off on a 40-day trip, you know it’s bound to happen – we’ll both have a “blond moment” at the same time.  Today was the day. 

Last night we had a time change – only this time we lost an hour.  We somehow overlooked this in the Cruise Compass and didn’t hear it in any of the PA announcements.  We stayed up late last night and slept in late this morning – REALLY late, as it turns out.

We had a luncheon at 11:15 for those of us continuing on to Fiji.  We decided to have a light nibble at (what we thought was) 10:15.  We got back to the room and started getting ready for the luncheon.  All at once the Captain started doing his noon report.  We thought, “That’s odd.  Why is he doing that so early?”  Bruce turned on the TV and sure enough, the ship’s time was noon.  Ooops.  We’re now an hour late for lunch.

There were customs forms and other papers to pick up, and info we needed to know, so this was not good.  We hurried up and went to the dining room.  Luckily the lady was still there so we got all the paperwork.  But we should have had our room keys already delivered and they weren’t.  We’re still waiting for those.

We didn’t stay for lunch, we just went to the Windjammer later on because we had all this paperwork to do, like fill out the customs forms and the customer service survey for this leg, and looking over the excursion list for the next leg so we can pre-book anything we want without waiting in line.  We get priority booking this way before all the new cruisers come on board tomorrow.  We had to run all sorts of errands also, like turning in our pool towels, getting cash for the gratuities, booking our next open-ended cruise, and all that jazz.  We also had to get the lottery numbers from last night to see how much I won on my tickets: zilch.  I guess I had in fact used up all my luck earlier in the day.  Today seemed like a whole day of things we HAD to do and nothing we WANTED to do. 

Tonight is about saying good-bye to the departing passengers and thanking all of our servers for this cruise.  I must say, it’s been a fabulous experience here in Australia in spite of the rough seas getting here and a few days of nasty weather.  I have a deep affection for the people and animals I met here.  I’m sad to be leaving and hope to return here many times in the future.

Tomorrow we will dock again in Sydney.  I sure hope it’s warmer than the last time!  They said that day was the coldest day of the year and was very unusual.  Most of the passengers will be leaving us and we’ll have new ones coming on board.  It’s hard to believe how fast the time has flown by.  Next time it’ll be us leaving the ship.  Boooo!

We’re planning a day of walking around Sydney.  We’ll probably explore The Rocks, an area very near the dock known for great shopping, and maybe we’ll go over to the Opera House for a photo op.  I’ve also heard that the Queen Victoria Building is a must-see.  It was built in 1898, and has been converted to a 5-story shopping mall.  The architecture and fixtures in the building are supposedly incredible.

We’ll be sailing out of Sydney tomorrow evening at 6:00 and heading off to the Fiji islands.  The last leg of this trip should be more conducive to writing.  I hope so!  We’ve been playing more than working, for sure.  Is that such a bad thing?

Day 27: Brisbane & Australia Zoo

Today was Brisbane.  They say it very quickly – BRIZ-bin.  We docked in a container port very far away from the city.  I was up at 6:45 to get in line for tickets to the Australia Zoo.  I was first in line and they only had 3 tickets left.  Had I not gotten up we wouldn’t have gotten them.  I’d have been crushed!!  I went back to bed for a bit after that.

We had a big breakfast and met our tour group on the pier at noon.  There were 3 big busloads of us.  We drove an hour and a half to get there.  We drove past lots of forests and marshes.  Lovely country.  Finally we reached our destination.

The Australia Zoo was founded by the Crocodile Hunter from Animal Planet – the late Steve Irwin.  It was designed for foreign tourists to be able to interact with the animals, not just look at them in cages.  All the habitats are as natural as possible and quite expansive.  I will say that it wasn’t exactly easy to get around, though.  Everything was in circles and it felt like we walked in circles all day. 

We only got 2 hours there, so we had to rush.  We headed straight for the roos.  They were roaming free in a large area.  You can buy a paper bag of roo food for $2, which I did.  It was cracked corn with some little pellets.  They’re much softer than I thought they would be.  And as long as you have food, they’re friendly.  I did try to pet one without having any food and he very gently slapped my hand away and gave me a little nudge with his back foot (he was lying down).  I can now cross off another thing from list – I’ve petted a roo at last.  I could have spent the whole day with them, but there was so much more to see and our time was very limited.

Next we saw the koalas.  These were so much softer than the one I petted in Sydney.  I will amend my prior statement, they really could be cuddly.  Except that they really don’t like to be held and they’ll pee on you.  Holding isn’t allowed at this zoo.  The only place I know of where you can hold them (for an extra fee, of course) is the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary here in Brisbane.  These guys were awake and fairly active, so I got some cute pix.

We saw the Crocodile show and then headed over to see the dingos, wombats, Tasmanian devil, cassowary, and parrots.

We had just enough time for one more surprise bonus – I got to feed an elephant!  I’ve always wanted to pet an elephant and I even wrote one into our screenplay “The Murders of Curly Evans” just so I would get to be up close to one someday.  I only got to give it a wedge of watermelon and get in one quick pat on her trunk, but at least I got to do that much.  Bruce wasn’t able to get a very good picture of it, though so we posed this one.

I had bought a magnet and a kangaroo pendant to go with my lapel pins that I hope to make into earrings.  They were in a brown paper bag exactly like the one the roo food came in.  We had a little roo food left over and I offered it to 2 elderly ladies.  Little did I know that I had mixed up the bags and gave away my magnet and necklace!! 

We almost had to run from the elephant pen at the back of the zoo up to the entrance in time to catch our bus.  I don’t know why I happened to open the sack, but for some reason I did.  I was horrified to find a sack of roo food!  There was no time left to go back and no other opportunity for another magnet from this port.  Horrors!!  I remembered seeing the tell-tale sticker on the ladies I had given my treasures to - #19 which was our bus number.  I looked around the bus and spotted them.  As soon as I approached them, they told me they had given the sack to the sales clerk in the gift shop.  I begged the bus driver to wait for me while I ran back there.  Sure enough, she had it.  Whew!!!  

We made one quick stop at the famous Ettamogah Pub on our way back to the ship.  Bruce had a sample...

So after all the incredible things that I got to do today, and then recovering my lost purchases, I think I’ll buy a ship lottery ticket tonight.  Maybe I’ll win the $100,000 jackpot, if I haven’t already used up all my good luck for the day!

Day 26: Sea Day

Today we were at sea.  I had planned a nice relaxing day of writing.  That’s what I get for planning.  It ended up being a social day. 

First, we were invited to a luncheon for “American continuous cruisers”.  There were about 30 of us.  They divided us into 3 groups and assigned 2 American crew members to sit with each group.  It was really nice, but did take a lot of our time.

After the lunch, we dashed off to take a dance lesson on the waltz.  We’ve done it before but figured we could us a refresher course.  Somehow it was much harder than I remembered!

We had a couple of hours where we both wrote a bit.  Then we had to get ready for formal night.  We were invited to have dinner with the Staff Captain.  He’s the 2^nd in command on the ship.  If anything happens to the captain, he would take over.  We had a wonderful meal much like last week.  There was one major difference in the menu options – kangaroo was added.  Yes, I’m serious.  No one ordered it.  So, they brought around a plate of it and offered everyone a sample.  I might have tried it if we weren’t planning to go pet the roos tomorrow.  Somehow it just felt like I couldn’t have looked them in the eye after having eaten their cousin the night before.  The ones who tried it said it was like venison.

After dinner we went to the Diamond event with the captain.  He remembered us from last week and we visited with him for a few minutes.  He told us the weather forecast was good for Brisbane.  I was relieved to hear it.

Then it was bedtime already.  We had finally decided to go to the Australia Zoo.  We hadn’t bought the tickets yet, so I set the alarm for 6:45 AM to be first in line at 7:00 when the Excursion desk opens.  I’m really excited about getting to interact with the roos.  They’re so funny!

Day 25: Airlee Beach

Airlie Beach is one of the most stunningly beautiful places we’ve ever been.  It’s part of the mainland, but considered the gateway to the Whitsundays – 74 neighboring small islands.  We were anchored off shore and had a gorgeous view of many of the islands.  The water was so beautiful, too.  We had a few puffy clouds in the otherwise blue sky, and it was warm and humid.  What a relief to have a nice day for a change!

Here’s a shot of the lagoon.  Notice nobody in the water.  That’s because it’s full of box jelly fish.  Ouch!

The town scheduled their annual Reef Festival to coincide with our arrival.  They had a fair with a carnival, air show, regatta, helicopter joy rides (6 or 10 mins), and get this – camel rides on the beach!!  Who would ever guess that one?  It was tempting, but I didn’t do it (just in case you were wondering).

Bruce had to work until almost noon, so we got a late start.  We were tendered into town via catamarans like we rode to the Reef.  The current is so strong going through here that they couldn’t use anything smaller.  We walked along the boardwalk beside the beach into the main part of town – about a 15 minute walk. 

We shopped a bit, but only bought a magnet.  Then we discovered where the fair was.  We walked all through that and took a lot of pictures.  Then we headed back for a late lunch on the ship.  We were reminded once again how draining the humidity can be. 

Too bad we didn’t get two days here.  I could have stayed much longer.  Tomorrow we’ll be at sea all day on our way south to Brisbane.  We’re not sure yet if we’re going to do an excursion.  We’re a bit gun shy after our bad experience at the Reef.  But we might take a bus ride to the Australia Zoo – founded by the late Steve Irwin.  Or we might go to the Lone Pine Koala Park.  The jury is still out – check back for the verdict.