March 13th - Busselton, Australia

Well there isn’t much to tell about Busselton because we didn’t go ashore. 

This is a tender port, not anyone’s favorite thing but this one is an especially long trip to shore and there are no mega size ferries to help out as there have been in other ports.  Busselton is a sleepy little town that doesn’t offer much in the way of distractions.  The ship offered excursions of course but almost all of them went to local wineries.  This is the area that put Australia on the wine map.  We’re not interested in wineries and the long tender ride didn’t bother us but I have a nasty cold (just a cold!) and I really don’t want to infect all my fellow passengers.  Fred could have gone in but chose not to. 

We had some chop in the morning with a strong wind and you can see how it affected the tender in the first picture.  Later on, the wind died down and it got calmer thankfully so the ride was a lot nicer and they even let folks up on top.

Tomorrow we’re in Fremantle for the day so that’s good.  We know the town having been there just a few weeks ago and we’re docked so there’s no trouble there. 

So yes, we are hearing all the news around the world about the virus.  Princess and Viking cruise lines are suspending all their cruises for 60 days and ending their current ones.  The Princess world cruise will end somewhere here in Australia.  Everyone will have to get off and go home.  I think that cruise originated in Florida so there will be a lot of Americans looking for a ride home and that is one long flight.  The Crystal world cruise will be ending in Fremantle in a about a week, one month earlier then planned.  As with Princess a lot of folks are going to have to find a way home.

On the other hand, the Regent world cruise, who docked with us in Adelaide a few days ago, is changing their itinerary but still going on with their cruise.  They will skip India, the Mideast and the Med and go to Africa and South America, that’s quite a change in itinerary!  It’s good news that they think Africa is going to be okay because that’s where we’re going next.  Also, the Holland America world cruise said it would continue on with the understanding there may be more changes to their itinerary.

This evening the Captain made his usual departure announcement and I expected that he would address the news on the other cruise lines suspending service but he didn’t.  We are changing Captains tomorrow in Fremantle and maybe he wants to give that ‘privilege’ to the new Captain.  The new Captain is actually our old Captain.  Christopher Wells was the Captain when we did the transatlantic (and boy does that seem like a long time ago).  The Captains are on a 2 ½ month rotation so it was time for him to come back.  We’ll miss Captain Aseem Hashmi he has a great sense of humor.

Captain Hashmi did an ‘interview’ with the cruise director where he talked about his life and how he got into his current position, met his wife (on the ship of course) and what he does in his spare time.  He reminded us that at the beginning of this trip we were worried about the riots in Hong Kong and the trouble in the Middle East.  Oh, to have such minor things to worry about now!

Honestly, we’re prepared for anything.  Stay, go, continue whatever it’s out of our hands.  We hope we at least make it to South Africa; we’re supposed to be there starting March 27^th.  Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if the ship high-tailed it to England after that. 

When they say these cruises will be unforgettable, they aren’t kidding!