Western Australia Whaling Community of Albany

We arrived at Albany (pronounced Ahl-bany, the residents call themselves Albanians), Western Australia following two days of rather rough sailing through the Great Australian Bight.  The Bight is an area of the Southern Ocean that extends along the southern coast of the Australian continent.  There is nothing but cold ocean between Australia and the Antarctic continent.  As we crossed the Great Australian Bight, there was a storm near Antarctica causing seven to ten foot swells all the way to the Australian coast.  The Silver Whisper's stabilizers kept the ship from severe rolling but we pitched a bit up and down.  Surprisingly, I have not been seasick since the first night of my first cruise nearly four years ago.  Michael, however, was a bit uncomfortable and refrained from using his computer during the worst of the rocking and rolling.  I can see why cruise ships rarely travel along the south coast of Australia.  The captain even said that this is one of his least favorite places.  Most of our cruises have seen little to no rough seas.

Albany is Western Australia's oldest city.  It is a small city, 300 miles south of Perth that has become in recent years, a popular vacation and retirement spot for Western Australians. Albany got its start as a whaling center in the early 1800's.  Whaling continued until 1978 and ended just before the international ban. Today the port sends bulk shipments of wood pulp to Japan, wheat to the rest of Australia and container ships resupply the Albanians everyday needs.  Its 30,000 residents are isolated on the beautifully rugged southwest tip of the Australian coast. Fewer than ten cruise ships visit per year.  This place is really remote.

Michael and I were surprised that Silver Whisper was able to obtain a replacement large pane of glass.  A window on the pool deck broke when a wooden towel bin slammed into it during the rough seas.  We're not sure whether there was a replacement glass window available in Albany or if it was shipped overnight from Perth.  Either way we were impressed both with the availability of replacement parts so far from any manufacturer and with the ability of the ship's agent to source needed materials so quickly.

Michael and I took a Silversea tour that included a visit to the whaling museum (the former whale oil factory), the rocky coast in a scenic national park, and a drive through the town to the overlook and monument on Mt. Clarence, the highest hill.

The local non-profit group that runs, Whale World, the whaling museum offers an excellent tour.  We learned more about the messy and dangerous business of turning whales into oil and fertilizer than I had ever thought about learning.  Part of the museum's message is the need to conserve these magnificent creatures although the tour guide was very matter of fact about the business of whaling.  I think many people would just as soon not know the details.  We saw a very good three-D movie about whales and there were exhibits and films on every aspect of whaling.  The Whale World portion of the tour was far better than advertised if a bit graphic.

Our tour bus driver, a retired local farmer, drove us to the Tondirrup National Park for some spectacular views of a natural rock bridge and "the gap," an opening in the rocks where the sea foams and swirls.  The wind was blowing the wrong way to see the blowhole phenomenon.  It was just as well as we probably would not have been able to walk to the shore had it been blowing the other way.  Judging from the big wind farm outside of town, the wind always blows in and around Albany but apparently not necessarily consistently in the same direction.

Our half-day tour took up all the time we had.  The ship departed at 2:00 PM for a twenty-four hour smooth sail to Fremantle, the port for Perth Australia.  There are not a lot of tourist attractions in Albany, Australia beyond water sports. So I believe we saw the best that the little city and environs had to offer.

Adelaide, Pretty Little South Australian City

So many Australian cities seem to be at the end of nowhere.  Australia is a very thinly populated big continent.  Each Australian state has at most one or two real cities.  Most of the cities are miles and miles from each other.  Adelaide, as many other Australian cities, grow significantly after the nineteenth century gold rushes in Australia.  Gold profits paid for the lovely Victorian buildings that are Adelaide's legacy from the past.

The Torrens River, which runs through the city but is not navigable, was not its commercial center.  Adelaide was a planned city development some miles inland from Port Adelaide, the city's original port. The central city is laid out in a grid and surrounded by thousands of acres of park land.  Northeast of North Terrace, the northern boundary of the central city grid, lies the University of Adelaide. The university is a mix of Victorian gothic and modern architecture.  The school draws students from all across Australia and lends the city an air of a university town.  Though not a bustling metropolis, Adelaide provided enough sights and things to do to for Michael and me to spend most of a busy day.

Silver Whisper docked at Outer Harbor, mainly a cargo port with some passenger facilities.  Outer Harbor (no u in harbor as in Sydney or Melbourne) is located about twelve miles northwest of Adelaide.  Silversea provided a complementary shuttle bus to downtown Adelaide but Michael and I chose to avoid the crowd from the ship and take the railway, located steps from the pier, instead.  The train ride to Adelaide took a little more than half an hour.  We arrived and were walking around the city at least ten minutes before the shuttle bus came by where we were walking. 

Michael and I spent a good hour at the Rundle Pedestrian Mall using the free Wi-Fi.  Michael wanted to make several Skype calls but started downloading updates to his i-Phone and everything locked up.  As a result, I very carefully didn't update any applications on mine.  I lent him my phone and spent some time exploring the stores along the outdoor mall.  Myers department store was having its summer end-of-season sale. (It is now late summer in the southern hemisphere.) Even the sale prices on clothing and shoes were much higher than we would pay in the U.S.  I guess my only souvenir from Australia will be my wristwatch purchased in Hobart, Tasmania.  Shopping opportunities are a very popular part of many Silversea tours but I'm not really interested in collecting useless things from around the world so they are mainly lost on me.

Michael's phone finally finished downloading and installing its twenty or so program updates and we were able to leave the free Wi-Fi zone and explore some of the city.  We saw the Parliament building, Art Museums and civic monuments.  We wandered through the University of Adelaide campus and stopped in at the student center.  That was the first time I had seen chalkboards mounted on the doors of the stalls in the women's room!  They had nothing written on them.

We walked down to the river and photographed the green and peaceful scenery.  We plotted a route through the botanic gardens to the National Wine Centre of Australia.  The route went through the botanic gardens' hothouse.  It was difficult to tell it was a hothouse; the temperature matched that of outdoors but the humidity was higher. To Australians exotic plants are those from the Americas.  Their exotic plants were ordinary to our eyes.  To me the grass and bushes lining the ordinary sidewalks were exotic.

The wine center is located in a beautiful modern building but the self-guided tour was a bit disappointing.  It was too early for us to appreciate the somewhat expensive wine tasting though it was fascinating to see all the bottles and unfamiliar labels.

Michael and I decided to hike back to the railway station and catch a tram to the beachside town of Glenelg (a palindrome as it is spelled the same way left or right).  The ship's Destination Lecturer had said it was about a half hour ride but when we acquired a timetable, we saw that it would take more than an hour each way.  If we went the whole way to the beach, we would have to come back almost immediately in order to get back to the ship in time for sailing.  Instead, we took the tram through Adelaide, through the parklands and into the suburbs and disembarked at a tiny stop and made our way to the return platform. We waited a few minutes for a return tram – the service was good.  Too late to take a picture, Michael noticed a sign that said, "Hail the Tram." We joked about writing an ode to the light rail.

Back in Adelaide, we checked out the local market. As to be expected, all the local restaurants that could provide a fast meal seemed to specialize in fast food. We found an underground passageway back to the railway station and returned to Silver Whisper for another very late lunch. 

A Hot Day in Melbourne

Following our departure from Sydney, the Silver Whisper took a full sea day to cover the distance to Melbourne on the south coast of Australia.   I had intended to spend time writing this blog but between attending lectures and time spent reading "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, I did not really get to composing text.

Melbourne is a port city in the southeast corner of continental Australia.  It is the capitol of the state of Victoria and is located at the top of huge Port Phillip Bay.  The land around is dry and moderately fertile.  The city is newer than Sydney yet projects an air of substance and culture. Melbourne served as the capitol of Australia from the time the federation was formed in 1901 until 1927 when the capitol moved to Canberra.  It still has the look of a center of politics and commerce.  Sailing into the harbor was impressive though not as beautiful as sailing into Sydney.

Michael and I had scheduled ourselves for a four-hour tour, "Kangaroos and Koalas in the Australian Bush". This was only the second ship's tour we took since leaving Los Angeles on January 5^th. The tour left directly from the pier at Port Melbourne several miles from the city center. Our tour bus drove through suburbs into grassland to the private game reserve called Serendip Sanctuary  to view kangaroos and emu and then to You Yang National Park to see koalas.  The tour was as advertised.  The wildlife viewing was most successful. I have dozens of photos of kangaroos in the distance, singly and in groups. I also have photos of a mother and baby Koala.  The mother never moved but the baby ran up a "eucalypt"" or "gum" tree, afraid of the crowd of tourists trying to take his picture.  I have pictures of a number of emu standing in a field of grass, one trying to steal food from the tourists and a couple of photos of rare owls sleeping on the limb of another gum tree.

 The tour bus would not start when it was time to leave Serendip and a replacement bus was called in from the nearby town of Geelong.  We were delayed maybe a total of twenty minutes.  Our tour guide handled the delay in very Australian "no worries" fashion. He did not realize that we would have to transfer to yet another bus after our ride through You Yang as the operator of the bus from Geelong was not allowed to drive in to Melbourne with that bus. We all were required to transfer again to a third bus, this one dusty and with malfunctioning air conditioning, at a lonely spot on a back road near the park. We endured a sweaty drive into the city of Melbourne.  The temperature was near 100 degrees F.  Everything in Australia seems complicated and takes a lot of time. No one expects efficiency and, as Michael says, "No worries" means they are not worried.

The tour bus dropped off in the city center those of us who wished to spend the afternoon in Melbourne.  Michael and I were the first to leave the bus.  We went to a Chinatown noodle shop for a quick, late lunch of excellent pork and roast duck rice bowls.

We were able to walk some and checked out the very Victorian Flinders Railway Station briefly as we were more interested having time to ride the free antique but unfortunately not air conditioned tram that circled the central business district and the new Docklands business and entertainment district.  Of course, we stopped for the free Wi-Fi.  This time Michael's iPhone 5 worked while my 3GS iPhone could not quite pick up a strong enough signal.  Silversea, for some reason having to do with local Melbourne rules, could not run a shuttle service to or from the city.  We purchased tickets for the #109 tram and rode the few miles to the port during a crowded rush hour. We had a nice chat with a woman on her way to the train station.  She was interested in why two lone Americans were riding the tram in Melbourne. I think she was more accustomed to see tourists moving in packs. She welcomed us to Melbourne.

We walked down the pier and onto Silver Whisper, working our way through the crowd boarding the overnight ferry to Hobart, Tasmania.  The pier side shops were closing for the day as we made our way to the gangway, hot, tired but happy.

Sydney by Public Transport

Silver Whisper cruised into Sydney's harbor as dawn was breaking on February 4, 2013.  We had a most photogenic sail in.  When Michael and I were last in Sydney in January 2010, we arrived by air.  Then we saw the Silver Whisper from above sailing into the harbor as we were landing.  This was the first time I had sailed in past the little islands in the harbor and under the iconic Sydney Bridge.  The approach to the city by water was much more beautiful than from the air. Coming in to Sydney Harbour is one of the great sights in the world.

When Michael and I took the same ship from Sydney in 2010 we traveled up the east coast of Australia to Hong Kong.  This time we are going around the bottom of Australia.  The only port in common, aside from the beginning and ending points will be Bali, Indonesia. 

Michael has been to Sydney many times.  In 2010, he showed me in just over 24 hours as much of the city as we could possibly see in such a short time. This time we had about six hours to see things we missed the last time.  First we stopped at Circular Quay (pronounced KEY) to get all day transit passes.

With day transit passes in hand we took a bus to Bondi Beach.  Bondi is the most famous beach in New South Wales, perhaps in all of Australia.  It sits on the Pacific Ocean several miles east of downtown Sydney. Moderate surf crashed on gorgeous white sand. There were sunbathers and surfers even on a Monday morning.  We walked along the beach, took pictures and used the free Wi-Fi to check e-mails. Then we took another bus to Watsons Bay, a small community at the end of the south headland protecting Sydney harbor from the Pacific Ocean.  On the route to Watsons Bay, we saw both ocean side lighthouses and sand dunes to the east as well as marvelous views of Sydney to the west.  We caught a fast ferry back to Circular Quay and the Silversea shuttle bus to Darling harbor and the Siler Whisper.  Michael and I saw some wonderful scenery and passed through parts of greater Sydney that neither of us had seen before.

We set out on foot to explore more of Sydney after a quick lunch aboard ship.  We walked along the quay and into the city toward Chinatown. Michael and I had taken the monorail that circles the Sydney central business district when we visited in 2010.  I was curious to see all the monorail cars passing by painted "Farewell Sydney." It turns out that the monorail will be discontinued at the end of February after 25 years of service.  It's sad to see something so much fun to ride end.  As we reached Chinatown, Michael remarked that the district is now larger than it was years ago.  It appeared to be busy and prosperous.  People of many Asian ethnicities and languages filled the streets.  We boarded a tram for a short trip to the central rail station.  After looking at this wonderful old building, we took a train back to Circular Quay and caught another ferry to Darling Harbour.  We certainly used our transit passes.  At the end of the day, we were exhausted but happy.  The sail out of Sydney Harbour was as beautiful as expected and an opportunity to relax.

Our time in the city was somewhat shorter than it might have been.  Michael and I moved from deck four to deck five during the changeover day in Sydney.  The ship staff did most of the moving for us but we needed to move the safe contents and pack our personal toiletries in our carry-on bags.  We could not access our new suite until the couple that had been there since Los Angeles left.  They had been told they needed to vacate the suite by 9:00 AM and they were going to use every minute of the time.  They finally departed shortly after 9 AM at the urging of the Guest Relations Manager.  Michael paced and I fretted while the housekeeping staff cleaned and set up the suite.  We were able to move our valuables, get new room keys by 10 AM, and start our day in Sydney shortly thereafter.  When we returned for lunch, everything had been moved and clothing, books and papers had been put in the same places they had been in the old suite.  Our new butler and room attendant introduced themselves.  Life was good; we now had a veranda.

Another Sea Day – Below Deck Tour of the Ship’s Stores

The Silver Whisper spent one full day moving from Tasmania to Sydney, Australia.  A highlight of the day was a Stores Tour offered to guests.  This gave me a chance to see the storerooms, refrigerators and freezers on 3 Deck where the food and beverages used during a cruise are stored. 

Deck Three is a crew only area as the lowest guest deck is Four. So we, the guests on this by reservation only tour below, were escorted through the door to the forbidden area by a security officer as well as the Stores Officer.  Once in the crew corridors, we walked around pretty much at will.  The Stores Officer showed us the storage room directly over the propellers.  It was extremely noisy but I doubt the packages of flour, rice and sugar and the canned goods stored there cared.  Things got a bit confused on the way to the beer locker.  The passageway was narrow and the walls had huge posters showing pictures of all the world's edible fish and shellfish.  Many stopped to look at the pictures.  Those of us who actually made it to the beer locker, which incidentally has some champagne and hard liquor as well as soda stored in it, were left standing alone for several minutes.  Typical of the independent spirit of Silversea guests, some of us started looking around the refrigerators and freezers on our own.  The Stores Officer was left explaining things to the few people who could get comfortably near him and were patient.

The rear of Deck Three is divided into various storage rooms in which dry goods are stocked by type.  Items likely to be used together are placed near each other.  Someone asked how anyone can fine items required, for example in the kitchen.  The storerooms seemed to be mazes of stacked boxes.  The answer is that the person responsible for finding and delivering the stores to the hotel side of the house is the one responsible for storing them when the ship is provisioned in port.  Each item must be checked off individually, out of stores and into the hotel.  The stores department keeps a computer inventory of everything received and used.

Produce is treated the same way.  Individual refrigerators are kept at different temperatures for storing fruits and vegetables at the optimum temperature for each type of produce.  Meats and other frozen products are kept in walk in freezers.  Again, they are at different temperatures depending on product and how soon it will be used.

Red wine is kept in an unrefrigerated storeroom.  There is a special refrigerator for white wine.

I learned that there is a two-story opening on the port side of the ship for taking stores on board.  The opening on the starboard side opposite it is only one story.  The provisioning officer prefers that the Whisper dock with the larger opening toward the pier at provisioning ports.  He can then use a forklift directly from the dock.  Otherwise boxes are loaded individually using a small conveyor belt when the smaller opening is used. Of course, the Captain docks the ship as he and the harbor pilot see fit.

It is always fascinating to see how the inner workings of a ship operate.

Tasmania: Feels Like the Land Time Forgot

The Silver Whisper arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on February 2 after two days at sea.  I spent much of the time reading and finished Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential".  I also attended a number of lectures and another cooking demonstration, billed as a contest between the restaurant manager and the cruise director and the cruise consultant and the human resources director. It was funny and fun. The guest tasters even said the food was good.

The crossing from New Zealand to Australia can be very rough sailing.  We had a relatively uneventful trip experiencing some heavy swell the first day. The weather stayed pleasant and guests reserved lounge chairs by the pool all day with their belongings even though this is against ship policy. The pool attendant will place a new chair on deck by the pool anytime someone asks. Either the guests don't know this or they are so selfish they do not care.

Michael had visited Tasmania twice previously, once in the late nineteen eighties and again about ten years ago.  The first trip was by air.  The more recent visit was by cruise ship from the direction of Melbourne. He was curious to see what changes Hobart had experienced in the past ten years.  Aside from a tall building with a strange looking windmill on its top, Hobart had changed little in the past thirty, let alone ten years.  We planned a walking tour combined with some shopping to take care of "infrastructure needs" and spend some of our Australian dollars.

Michael's first order of business was finding free Internet service.  The whole downtown appeared to have it but connection times were way too slow to be usable until we reached the Salamanca Market.  I wandered about the market and saw a combination of food products, nice craftwork, and tourist trinkets while Michael wrote e-mails and posted to Facebook. I did not find anything compelling although some of the things for sale were interesting.

We next walked up a steep hill to Arthurs Circus. The guidebooks said that original early Victorian houses lined a circular road that is the "circus".  We met a fellow Silver Whisper guest on his way down the hill.  He informed us that he didn't think there was anything there but a few old buildings of little interest.  Michael and I found them lovely examples of early Hobart history, very English.  Travel is totally wasted on some people. These are the same people who are constantly complaining that the weather is too hot or too cold, never right.

We continued through the Battery Point historic district and found it to have blocks of well-preserved buildings.  Many have been repurposed as restaurants and boutique shops. The area has an up-scale neighborhood feel.  Again, it all looked very English, except with palm trees.

We continued back toward the central business district, a longish hike.  Hobart has a mix of architectural styles that will never win any prizes but it is a real living city.  We searched out an enclosed mall for some Optician services (tightening screws on both our glasses) and a department store where I replaced my dead watch. We then walked to the other end of Hobart and climbed a hill to the Cenotaph Memorial to service members from Hobart killed in Australia's wars.  We had never heard of some of the conflicts listed there.  By then it was time to head back to our ship. A whirlwind tour indeed.

The Silver Whisper's visit to Hobart lasted hardly more than half a day.  One of the ship's tours was an all day tour of the historic prison site at Port Arthur. We sailed at 2:00 PM to pick up the tour participants and arrived off Port Arthur later in the afternoon.  Along the way, I photographed scenes of sailboats, dolphins and many wonderful vistas.  The prison is in one photo, a yellowish institutional building near the shore.  The area is now national park.  Tours are given several times daily, showing the ruins of the prison where Australia's worst of the worst criminals were sent. Solitary confinement and other kinds of mental torture were supposedly invented there.  The Silver Whisper anchored off shore and sent a tender to retrieve the twenty or so people who took the tour.

Perhaps the most memorable moment occurred as Michael and I were returning to the pier in Hobart.  We met a local woman near the former jam factory, now stores, offices and restaurants.  We exchanged pleasantries about the city.  Michael mentioned that Hobart has not changed much in thirty years.  She looked him in the eye and said firmly, "We like it that way."