The Great Barrier Reef Sailing

Nov. 6

44 days on boards and certain people and things are really starting to get on my nerves.  I didn’t really want anything for breakfast today, except my mango. Nothing.  Anything my heart desired and I had a bowl of Frosted Flakes, and the milk wasn’t even good. I want my Wisconsin skim milk, not whole milk from I-don’t –know –where. It tastes funny. And some of us are really tired of being told what to do and when to do it it. I saw Bess in the women’s changing room. Remember Bess who held my hand at the Bullet train? Well, we commiserated about being  really tired of going on shore and never having enough time where we want, and too much time where we don’t want before someone calls our little colored number and sends us back to our little numbered stick to find our big numbered bus. I am fantasizing about being in New Zealand and going into a drugstore and taking as much time as I want to buy hairspray, toothpaste and deodorant. And someone from our table complained to me about having to eat late tonight because we are having a special family/ table dinner in the upstairs Italian dining room that one of the Aussie’s spent a lot of time putting together. This was at the end of mass and I almost told her to get over it and shut up. See. It’s time to bail.

And actually, I could jump overboard today and swim to shore.  We are cruising The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and all day we have been within sight, and often quite close, to islands, shoals and reefs. We actually took on the reef pilot yesterday and he will stay with us until Brisbane. He is a senior member of the Australian Reef Pilots Association and without him we could not get through these waters.  I am told, (I don’t go to the lectures, of course) that at times we are only clearing 10 feet of water. That is Titanic material! The tides have to be watched very carefully and we will actually set anchor tonight and sail again tomorrow. Unfortunately, today has been cloudy and rainy and the real camera buffs have been disappointed as they awoke at 5:300AM to capture sunrise at Booby Island on their lens. There is also a Booby bird. I’m not kidding. And as interesting as the lecture must have made it sound, and the coffee and pastries and live commentary they presented on several decks at that time, I slept through the disappointment of no Boobys. But even as I type, through the clouds, I see we are passing a rugged, mountainous and sandy island less than a quarter mile from the starboard side of the ship. So, I could conceivably jump and may have to if I start lipping off to people who get on my nerves.

Nov. 7

I see on CNN that we were truly lucky in Indonesia as Mt Merapi is still erupting and spewing ash. We were extremely close to the volcano and visited Borobudur at about the only time the monument was clear of ash for several weeks. Our weather here in the Reef is still not cooperating and we are experiencing lots of clouds and rain. All the outdoor activities planned have been canceled or scaled down. Our scenic cruising is still quite phenomenal, but obviously much is obscured by poor visibility. We are constantly passing sand bars, and tiny crags poking out of the ocean along with larger, uninhabited cliff-type islands. I don’t know how any craft can sail through these waters and not run aground. Passengers have been seeing barracuda, small sharks, dolphins, a whale and even one Booby bird. I have seen nothing. Tonight we will sail out of the park and into the Coral Sea and then by morning we will be back in the park and docking near Cairns, Australia. I will spend the day out on a pontoon/oil rig type structure snorkeling and swimming with the fish and coral.

I haven’t been sleeping well and I know it is because I am only half on the cruise. The other half of me is preparing for New Zealand and my next leg of the trip. I am truly sad to say good bye to the new friends I have made. I will really, really, really miss June and having her call me “Girl’ all the time and all her little Australian-isms. I’ve decided to let her adopt me and move to her island off of Brisbane – just during the Wisconsin winters. Mr. and Mrs. Ugly American have been a real treat too –big demands, big hearts and lots of wonderful stories to tell. All my tablemates, my friends at daily mass, the wonderful crew members, the ice cream boy, the coffee girl, the young man who is always vacuuming everywhere I go on the ship, my assistant waiter who actually unseals my tea bag, puts it in the hot water and opens the jar of honey and stirs it into the tea for me – how will I live without him, without all of them?  And my boyfriends – you know I meet a new one just about every day. The world is full of lonely hearts and this ship is carrying more than the quota. If you’re part of a team, grab your partner and thank them and God for the good times and bad, for together you really are travelers. The people who are alone are often wanderers.  I see the difference in their eyes. My heart aches for the lonely as they can only fill time and space, not the emptiness within. But boy, does Holland America try! And God bless them and everyone else in the world who reaches out to touch and help the lonely. It is always an act of great compassion and kindness.

And soon I will be travelling very alone . I CAN’T WAIT.  At this very moment I am feeling very constrained. That gangway in Sydney is way too far away. I have received more advice on my trip to New Zealand than I can write about in a book and I just want to get there, do my own thing, make my own decisions, and make my own mistakes. I do believe I hear strains of ‘I Gotta be Me’ playing constantly in the background. I’m afraid of who I’m becoming and what I may say or do. Thank God I’m not finishing the whole 69 day cruise and going another 19 days to San Diego.  Tonight I have decided not to go into the formal dining room and instead go up to the top deck and take my time and watch the reef go by and take photos for an hour or so while I eat at my own pace.

Unfortunately, the fog so socked in the ship we didn’t even slow down for sunset over Lizard Island as planned and I had a beer overlooking what I think was some island formation and took no photos. After a leisurely dinner with a boyfriend on the Lido Deck I went downstairs and slowly collected a group of international compatriots in the Piano Bar. As one would walk by, I would flag them down and collect them into our corner for the evening’s sing-a-long. Eventually we had Aussie’s, Americans, Canadians and a Norwegian. We couldn’t out-sing the Aussie contingent in the bar- they had more people- but we were declared the UN of the bar. Well, if you can’t enjoy the reefs you might as well sing like the Sirens.

Tomorrow, rain or shine, I swim the reef.