FEB. 13th -- EN ROUTE TO MOOLOOLABA, AUSTRALIA

We have a sea day today.

We are up early and go down to the Destinations Desk and set up some excursions for the coming segment of our cruise.
Quiet day today.

Watching the water.

Barry was out on our balcony, watching the water, this morning and he saw 6 dolphins running alongside the boat; just coming to the surface.  He watched them for about 30 minutes.  While watching the water, Barry wrote the following...

"I find myself sitting on our balcony a lot and watching the water.  I do this most often when we are cruising from one place to another.
I was wondering why I did this so much and finally realized why.  It is the anticipation of the things that may happen at any given moment.  A large oil tanker may suddenly appear and cruise by.  I might suddenly see land, or islands appear, and then they're gone.  Birds may appear and dive for fish.  A whale may suddenly come out of the water, or a shark or a school of dolphins.  I might see 200 or 500 tuna go swimming by and jumping out of the water.
Below the surface of the sea are millions of creatures, fish and mammals.  Wonderful."

I was sitting at the back of the boat this afternoon reading and a crew member came out and cleared the deck -- Deck 11 -- as it was getting very windy.

At  4:00 PM today...see the tunnel-like cloud just above the water?  Weird.

Sun peaking through clouds

This sort of shows the total effect.

We have a very strange looking sky today.  There is a cloud formation I have never seen before.  It looks like a 'tunnel or a sand-storm" running all along the horizon and the sun pops out every so often.  I tried to get a picture to show what it looked like.

There is the "Block Party" tonight...at the sound of the ship's gong, we all grab a glass and step out into our corridor and meet our new neighbours, that just got on the boat in Sydney.  It's about 1 hour or so, drinks and canapés are served and it is a fun "Happy Hour".

We meet.....
Susan & Brent
Susan & John
Susan & Len
Sue & Gwen
and Laurie & her fireman husband...don't remember his name.
I don't think we'll have a problem remember the names, right?  A lot of Susans!
They are all on the boat until Hong Kong.

After the Block Party, Barry & I head down to the Stars Lounge and we bump into Cath & Dave (from Liverpool) so we join them for a drink.  Another couple from Iowa joins us -- they were Karen and ???..really don't remember his name.  They were both 81 and a lovely couple.

We head to the Compass Rose for dinner...there is Grouper on the menu tonight.
Back to the room.
We have a 9:00 AM excursion tomorrow.