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Just before we entered the Torres Strait, the ship came to a stop in a spot called The Wednesday Islands, just off the Australian coast. It is quite a picturesque spot. There was a need for a medevac, a passenger required urgent hospital attention so they were transferred to the land for transport to a hospital, most likely via the Flying Doctor.

This wasn't the first medevac of this cruise.   With number of elderly post 80 year olds on board, many using walking sticks, others with walkers and motorised scooters or wheelchairs, you could have expected a couple of medevacs per day.

While the ship waited, word spread quickly that there was mobile phone reception. Our cut price plan accesses up to 98% of the Telstra mobile network and I now know that The Wednesday Islands area falls into that 2% that our network doesn't cover.

It later turned out that most likely the passenger was offloaded to Thursday Island.

Darwin

We were due to dock at Darwin around 7am as our next port of call on the cruise. When the phone went off with notifications of emails, messages or voicemail missed calls at around 5:30 am we knew we were close to land as our phones reconnected with the phone system and came back to life.

We were able to walk easily (around 15 minutes) to the main city area of Darwin despite the tropical heat and humidity from where the ship docked.  It was no hotter than mid summer at home but the humidity was a little higher. Though it was similar to a mid summer's day on the  Sunny Coast, there wasn't the coolish north easterly sea breeze during the afternoon to temper things.

There were older buildings in Darwin beautifully maintained and now in pristine condition (photo above). There were modern hotels and some of the big stores you would see in any modern Australian city. It certainly isn't a large city but looked a fun town to be in.

We found a Telstra Air WiFi point and added photos to earlier posts and did all our updates. Trish even helped an older fellow traveller upload 4 or 5 photos to her Facebook page for her.

By 1:30 we were back on board with my clothes rinsed and drying on the balcony. I did have an icy cold beer in hand as well.

The following 4 days at some sea followed a familiar pattern. Wake, eat, chat, short walk, trivia, cards, eat, chat, relax, drink, sit on our balcony and drink, eat, show, trivia, bed. A quiet one on the balcony was always enjoyable.

The weather continued hot and steamy as we sailed from Darwin across to Milne Bay in New Guinea.  Upon our arrival in Alotau were instantly reminded of our time in Penang, the humidity, the heat and the threat of a storm.

Broome to Darwin

Regretfully the Broome stop for the Sun Princess was disastrous for us and many others. The ship docked around 14k's from the town itself. Passengers were then to be ferried via 12 or so buses between the ship and town. The jetty was under repair and there was only room for one  bus at a time to travel one way or the other.

Rather than lining up 4 buses at a time and loading them all at once and then a convoy of buses head in to town laden with passengers, they did it one bus at a time. There would be several buses lined up ready to take passengers but only the first bus would be loaded.

Upon arrival to catch a bus you were given a numbered ticket and told to wait on  board. Tickets in the 200's were called to board their bus as we arrived at around 11:20 am.  We were issued with tickets in the low 1020's. That the first lot had gone around an hour earlier gave us good reason to believe we had a lengthy wait in front of us (and we were right).

We were told by others that the problem was the jetty construction works and the strict OH&S conditions for the worksite . But to the lay person it appeared that, with a few modifications, you could load several buses at the one time without any problems with OH&S guidelines.  There wasn't any flexibility in anyone's mindset on the dock nor was there senior enough ship's official to push the case.

But what was worse was the lack of communication from the ship's management team to the 100's of waiting passengers on what was happening.  There was no apology, no information no nothing. From comments being made by those waiting, you felt Princess Cruises had lost 100's of future travellers.

We eventually arrived in Broome itself around 2:20. We had to be back on board by 7pm.

The one place we both really wanted to see was Cable Beach so we boarded the "City Tour Bus" and 15 minutes later we were at Cable Beach and it's impressive, long wide sandy beach fronting on to the Indian Ocean. (Photo below).


Broome has a wet season and a dry season. This wet season had been quite dry so the locals were delighted with the 40mls they had received in the morning. And I guess they were even more delighted when another 30mls fell in 20 minutes that afternoon, just as we were stepping onto Cable Beach!

We sought cover (along get with 30 or so others under 2 small bus shelters) to catch the bus back to town. We weren't drenched through but we were wet enough to require a change of clothes.  The rain had been enough to cause some street flooding in town so any proposed shopping we wanted to do had to be done ASAP. This was completed reasonably quickly but I got wet feet walking through 20mls of floodwater.

Finding free WiFi in town wasn't a priority because of the rush for time and the wet weather. Standing around in wettish clothes didn't help either so the missing photos for the previous blog will be uploaded if possible at Darwin.

The wait to catch a bus back to the ship was a mere 30 minutes, a relative wink of an eye compared to the wait we had to get into town. My supply of VB cans in our cabin was a very welcome sight after arriving back at the ship and jumping in to dry clothes.

A hearty meal, an entertaining Floor Show and a 90 minute Rock 'n Roll band on stage under the stars completed a long day.

Both Friday and Saturday are days at sea.  On Thursday the ship sailed close to the Kimberley Coast providing all passengers with sensational close up views of red cliffs and the glorious colours in the sunset (photo above).  The ship stopped for over 15 minutes giving passengers on either side of the a wonderful Kimberley experience.

There was footy to watch live over the weekend. Hawthorn played and won on Friday as Geelong did on Saturday. On Saturday it was Patsy's birthday so we celebrated with a Steakhouse Restaurant meal.

The weather on deck currently is very hot and steamy.

We arrive in Darwin on Sunday.

In Broome

Getting from the Sun Princess to Geraldton on Monday turned out to be quite a huge task.  Geraldton is a 'tender'  port where we go ashore using the ship's lifeboats to land as the harbour is too shallow for the ship to navigate safely.  Previously this has been a reasonably time consuming task but this time getting to Geraldton took us over an hour on board waiting to be called and then a further 20 minutes for the trip itself.   We wanted to leave the ship around 10 am but by the time things actually happened it was around 11 before we even departed the Sun Princess.

The highlight of the day ashore was visiting the HMAS Australia Memorial as per the photos. In the top photo you can see the ship anchored off shore in the background while the other photo below shows the major section of the Memorial display.

We walked around Geraldton and got a bit of a feel for the place.  It is a lovely clean city with wide streets, numerous historical buildings and a delightful foreshore area.

After the debacle which was getting ashore we made sure we were back on board early for a bite to eat followed by happy hour. Usually a can of beer costs around $6 but the deal was buy one and get the next for $1. That made it around $3:50 a can which is more than reasonable.

I bought 3x2 cans, 3 I drank at the bar and 3 which found their way into the cabin's bar fridge. It was all very pleasant.

Wednesday would be our first full 'day at sea'.  We are not accustomed to a day at sea from our previous cruise so this was to be a new experience for us, one we would need to get used to on this cruise. Our day went eat, explore, drink, eat, explore, rest on our balcony, drink, rest on our balcony and then eat and drink some more and finally enjoy the ship's entertainment.

We caught up with friends Patsy and Eddie throughout the day. More often it was only with Patsy as Eddie  continually found himself 'lost' on the ship.  This is not hard to do.

There is no mobile phone connection out off the coast where we are.

So again on Wednesday it will was eat, explore and rest on our balcony. After another 'happy hour' the small bar fridge in our cabin has enough supplies for any emergency.  There has been a noticeable increase is the daily temperature as we head further north. There are times when our air conditioned cabin becomes quite a haven.

We did find a pleasant spot in the shade above the pool Wednesday afternoon and spent some relaxing time there before Happy Hour.  The temperature was now well over 30 so it was quite warm poolside unlike the chilly water in all the pools.

Thursday we arrived in Broome despite stormy skies and the occasional squall with winds reaching 50 knots. For a time it seemed we wouldn't be able to dock but the squall soon passed and we arrived in town. The port is some way out of Broome so shuttle buses were provided.

Geraldton

We are aboard the Sun Princess just off Geraldton in WA. The weather is sunny and we have settled in to life on a cruise. We will take a tender ashore shortly.

We have caught up with friends Eddie and Patsy and despite a few hassles with bags we all sorted and settled. Today will be quite laid back and not very strenuous.

The ship has all we need but things generally seem a tier down compared to life on the New Amsterdam on our cruise last year around the Mediterranean.  The cabins are smaller than last year, the shower not the same, the food in the casual dining is served on melamine plates but on the positive side drinks are less costly.

Because of some problems the stop at Cairns has been cancelled giving us one time when we have 4 days at sea. For those still working this is a bonus, for those of us who aren't working it may be a disadvantage.

As the photo shows this is a 'tender' port where passengers wanting to go ashore are ferried between the ship and the land by the ship's life boats.

So if I manage to post this entry it will mean I have found a free WiFi spot on shore.