Day 41 Geraldton - Not

Today we were to anchor in the Geraldton harbor and tender in to visit the city. Shortly before we were to drop anchor the Captain made the decision that the forecast for higher winds and rougher water would not allow us to anchor safely. It seems that the harbor floor is a thin layer of sand covering a rock bottom. This geology would not provide for a secure anchoring as the wind was forecasted to increase to 30 knots. In addition, the channel in and out of the harbor is narrow and difficult to navigate safely in strong winds. The result was a decision not to stay in Geraldton as planned but rather to continue on to Singapore.
It is days like this that reminds me why I am not a daily columnist. Finding topics of interest to write about on the ship where you are essentially cut off from the outside world except for a few television channels and the internet is difficult. Now, if we were traveling on the Orient Express where there were murders on board or other significant news that would provide an opportunity to write about something of interest. Unfortunately, this is a "target poor" environment during sea days once you have covered the basics of the ship.
If there is news that is originated on this ship you will certainly be the first to hear of it thru this blog. So you can either wish for a unexciting cruise or exciting so your own on board personal reporter can give you a live report if something does happen to make it news worthy.
Tomorrow another sea day and no doubt some more dribble from me.

Chris - "The Day that Wasn't" as Paul noted we didn't actually get off the ship in Geraldton, as planned, but the ship DID stop offshore to discharge a medical emergency. Haven't heard the gossip of what kind of emergency, but there was one. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get off in Geraldton as it's known for its sunshine and lobster. We were planning on going into town , only a 15 minute walk, and visiting a memorial to an Australian ship that was destroyed off the coast here in WWII by the Germans and all crew members were killed. There were slightly less than 400 crew members. The memorial is considered to be the "jewel" of Geraldton. After walking through town we were headed to fisherman's wharf to have a lobster lunch (now you know why I was disappointed we couldn't go in), then off to one of their renowned white sand beaches. Truth be told I swam more today in the warm pool up on the pool deck than I would have in the cool Indian Ocean. The Captain did say the ocean water was 72 degrees today.
37 miles off shore from Geralton is an archipelago named Houtman Abrolhos, derived from Portuguese for "Keep Your Eyes Open!" The Islands are notorious death trap for ships. Seeing how we're about 80 miles from Geraldton and are still moving with no mishap, I guess we dodged those islands! Hence Paul had no "exciting" news today.