January 5, 2026 Second Cruise Sea Day #1

This is the first Sea Day of 28 day Australia and Pacific Islands cruise finishing in Auckland, New Zealand. There will be eight more sea days this month.

At 7 a.m. this morning the temperature was a pleasant 23°C, wind North 18 kph, broken cloud, 80% humidity and travelling at 14 knots on course N 17.8°. The sea was calm.

For the first two Mondays of this cruise, the dining room will have 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Brunch rather separate times for Breakfast and Lunch on these Sea Days.

News: just can’t get away from the American Trump administration activities, on the stateroom television which carries, British, Australian and American news channels. Other channels are HGTV and Food Network

We went up to Deck 3’s Library Café for cappuccino, Americano and pastry Then there was time to walk on the Promenade Deck before attending Coffee with Robbie. (4,374 steps) The guests today were four members of the Human Resources team.

The team answered passenger questions after Robbie asked a few questions. It was mentioned that the singers and dancers are the first team to present the shows we are seeing. They have seven different shows to present during the next 28 days.

The crew of the ship have their medicals needs provided by the ship’s Medical Centre which also is available for passengers.

Every crew member must have a Seaman’s Book. It is a record of the person’s time at sea and can be used for tax purposes. It is like a passport and some countries require that each crew member has one.

There was a Meet and Mingle at 10:30 a.m. with about 40 members of the online Cruise Critic group at Deck 3’s Billboard Onboard.

At 11 a.m. we joined other passengers for a Merengue dance lesson. There were over 50 people participating. We then attended the World Stage talk by Eileen Coloretti about Fun Facts and quirks of Australia.

- Until the late 1890s Australia was six independent colonies. After referendums and debates each colony put to a vote whether they should unite. In 1901 they became the Commonwealth of Australia. Then there was the debate of the location of the capital with Melbourne and Sydney vying for the honour. Eventually it was decided to locate a new city, Canberra, about half way inland between Sydney and Melbourne. Canberra’s site was chosen in 1908 to become the permanent Australian capital. Construction of the planned city began in 1912. The Australian Federal Government moved to Canberra in 1927.

- A coat of arms was designed to exclude a crown, but include the Emu and Kangaroo and the natural flower, the Golden Wattle.

- In 1932, in the farmland around Campon, thousands of Emus invaded eating the crops. The government sent in the army for the so-called Emu War. After a year less than a thousand Emu had been killed, having outsmarted the humans and the army departed.

- In 1967 a national referendum officially recognized the Australian Indigenous people.

- An Australian dessert known as Lamington is a sponge cake rolled in chocolate and coconut. There is a manufactured chocolate covered biscuit called Tim Tam which we have sampled that is tasty.

We went to the Deck 2 dining room for the Australian Brunch just before noon. There were very few in the dining room which had been serving the brunch since 9:30 a.m. As starters we chose an Australian fruit plate consisting of slices of kiwi, strawberry, pear and berries with goat cheese rolled in crushed pistachio or Fig and sliced Banana Greek Yogurt Parfait. Followed by deep-fried fish, shrimp, Calamai and French fries or bacon, spinach and mozzarella frittata with arugula.

The captain’s announcement happens about noon on Sea Days. Today he reported calm seas, but with a strong 4 knot current. The ship is travelling at 14 knots. The temperature was 24°C. Wind SSE 10 knots. Waves are less than 1.5 meters high, fairly calm. The ship has travelled 240 nautical miles and had 248 nm to get to Morton Island tomorrow morning. There could be rain this evening. Tomorrow’s high predicted to be 26°C. The ship’s position was southeast of Woolgoolga around 30° south latitude.

This afternoon at 2 p.m. there was a Meet and Mingle for about 20 members of the online Facebook group on the port side of Deck 10’s Crow’s Nest Lounge. It was a hard decision for some, as at the same time, there was a presentation about Oceania in the World Stage theatre, an initial Military Meetup in the Ocean Bar, duplicate Bridge, a Wine Tasting, Learn to Line Dance in the rolling Stone Lounge, signups for a ship building contest, an Origami Folding in the Art Studio and Vivace, a violin and piano duo, had a concert. During the event, we found out from one of the couples, with a stateroom on our section of Deck 1, that one of our stewards, Slam, was off sick today. Nova had all of the staterooms to attend by himself. He did a great job.

At 3 p.m. Berny Barona, the travel guide, gave a port talk about tomorrow’s destination, Morton Island and Wednesday’s destination, Brisbane.

The dress code for dinner tonight was dressy. We met the people at table 44, our new table. Sue and Sandy from Inverness, Scotland, who had the table to themselves last evening, and Margaret and Ted from a town south of Ottawa, Ontario. The menu was one of the special “Gala” menus. Waiting at the dining room exit was a waiter dispensing, dates, sugared ginger pieces or peppermints. Back when we first started cruising 25 years ago, after every dinner a junior waiter was stationed by the exit doing the same job. Now it occurs just on the “Gala” nights.

We ordered our usual after dinner coffees from the Library Café to take to the World Stage theatre and find a seat for the 7:15 p.m. Captain’s Welcome. Waiters at the entrance were handing out champagne or sparkling wine for the Captain’s Toast after he introduced his Senior staff.

The Captain’s Welcome was followed by tonight’s performance by Irish vocalist Rebecca Harkin and her Australian husband, pianist Kurt Russell.

When we returned from the theatre, Nova had laid out tomorrow’s daily program, two chocolate wafers, a map of Morton Island with points of interest and a reminder card that the clocks go back one hour overnight.

At 9 p.m. the ship was due east of Mullumbimby, New South Wales travelling at 16 knots on course 358.6° North. Temperature outside was 26°C. This was possibility the average temperature for this time in the evening for the next three weeks.

Total steps 10,381