In Fremantle, “Freo” the port for Perth, we started looking for stamps for our postcards and the perfect beach and ended up looking for the tooth fairy. Along the way we found a delightful small city, some nice beaches, and … Continue reading Looking for the Tooth Fairy
The simple reason we wanted to go to Perth is to see what the city looked like with people in it. We had been in Perth in 2018 and it had people but was largely under massive reconstruction. In 2020 … Continue reading Perth with People!
A Dutch Sea Captain (Not Captain Friso of Zuiderdam) named Willem de Vlamingh “discovered” an island about 12 miles off the West Coast of Australia in 1696. He said it was infested by giant rats so named the island Rott-Nest … Continue reading Not a Rats’ Nest
Objectively speaking I should like the Adelaide cruise terminal less well than the White Bay terminal in Sydney. It is at outer Harbor, which is further from downtown Adelaide than White Bay is from Sydney. There is no shuttle bus, … Continue reading Before the Fringe — Adelaide
Sydney almost cannot help but make a good first impression when you sail into her harbor. It is one of the world’s magnificent sights. It’s a complex harbor with bays and inlets, small ferries dart about dodging sailboats. The sails … Continue reading Sydney, Main Post
March 23, 2020, Perth, Australia On Saturday I was pretty upset with the Australian officials, changing their minds on us, first we can get off the ship and wait in hotels for flights, then we can only get off if … Continue reading In Defense of the Aussies
March 23, 2020, Perth. Australia Yesterday Suzi and I were sitting in a café where each table was separated by a couple of meters watching the hop-on/hop-off bus drive by with exactly three people on the top open deck. I … Continue reading A Final Port Call
March 14, 2020, Cruising off the North Coast of Australia. As the elevator door opened, I heard one of the staff say to a colleague who was holding a box of pencils and pads of paper for trivia “I’m not … Continue reading The Ides of March Come One Day Early.
March 12, 2020, Cairns, Australia Rain, Old Testament rain. The slight rain in Townsville was just the preview for the heavy rains Cairns. We went to Great Barrier Reef HQ in Townsville as kind of an insurance policy. It was … Continue reading Ersatz Reef
March 11, 2020, Townsville, Australia In our lectures we’re warned of several different types of jellyfish with stingers that can cause a range of reactions from discomfort to heart stopping paralysis. Then there are crocodiles, sharks to eat you, fish … Continue reading Things Here Can Kill You!
March 8, 2020, Sydney, Australia Two years ago, two days in Sydney wasn’t enough, we explored “The Rocks” the original part of town, did the Opera House tour, explored Circular Quay, went to Bondi Beach, had tea in the Queen … Continue reading The Australian Trash Bin Bird and Other Downtown Delights.
Sunday Sydney Ferry. March 8, 2020, Sydney Harbor The ferry sails through fleets of Sunday sailors in every sort of sailboat. There are hundreds of them, sometimes tacking and heeling over like some sort of synchronized ballet regatta. There was … Continue reading Sunday on the Ferry
March 9, 2020, The morning after Sydney, Halfway home. Sydney marks the halfway point in our journey. The second day in Sydney was the 64th day of our 128 day ‘round the world cruise. Marked in time zones we’re 9 … Continue reading Halfway Home? Who knows?
March 7. 2020, Sydney Opera House Two years ago, we stumbled on Badu Gili, a projection of animated Australian aboriginal art onto one of the sets of sails on the Sydney Opera House. I found a flyer tucked into a … Continue reading Water Light (Songlines)
The main thing we wanted to see in Perth was the Swan Tower and its bells from St. Martin in the Fields (see earlier post.) and by the time we got to the tower I thought post would be titled … Continue reading Perth Post
Fremantle, Australia was the last port Pop sailed into before reaching Calcutta and the CBI Theater in World War II. In one of his letters he described an “armada” of allied shipping gathered in this staging area, although, to me, … Continue reading Frebo
Each Community Station is unique but somehow we are all the same. This was to be our one shot at seeing Australian Wildlife in the wild. Instead we found a community radio station. Kangaroo Island is an island nearly 100 … Continue reading Community Radio and Kangaroos.
I am writing this Thursday afternoon. Wednesday we were hove to off the island of Tasmania, nose into the wind, blowing up to 90 knots, surrounded by green water, 9 meter (29 foot) seas and making no process. We made … Continue reading Public Art and Pocket Parks — Hobart
To my dad Hobart was a kind of heaven. He had been on a troop ship, the Washington, for a long time out of San Francisco. The Japanese had reported sinking her but she zig zagged safely through the North … Continue reading Fulfilling Pop’s Dream – Cruising into Hobart.
A highlight of the Central Business District (CBD( is the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). It’s one of those Victorian iron and glass structures that followed the first world’s fair at crystal palace. It was an architecture style that was used … Continue reading QVB in the CBD
Bondi Beach is the closest beach to Sydney, only 7 km (5 miles) from the center and on public transport. It’s a 1.5 KM long crescent of sand between two headlands. Bondi is an aboriginal word for “water breaking.” Rebellious … Continue reading Working Man’s Beach — Bondi
At Sunset each night and again at 9 PM “Badu Gili” or “Water Light” is projected onto the Eastern Bennelong Sail of the Sydney Opera House. It is a 7 minute moving display of aboriginal art set to music. Continue reading Badu Gili – Water Light.
The Sydney Opera House is one of those iconic structures that define a city, like the Eifel Tower, the Statue of Liberty or Big Ben. But perhaps it is misnamed. It is more an overall performing arts center. The concert … Continue reading Sydney Opera House.
The Rocks is (I labored over this, “The Rocks is” sounds bad but “The Rocks” is a district so I am counting it as a singular) the birthplace of Sydney, on a peninsula of land in the harbor. Now the … Continue reading The Rocks Is