Everyone is in high anticipation of our next port of call Sydney, Australia. The CEO of Holland America, Stein Kruze and his wife Linda are on board till then and the Mariner Appreciation events continue. In the morning at knitting Stein came to acknowledge Arna's Linus Project. Up until now the knitting group has made 27 blankets and numerous baby hats and booties - all with volunteer labour. Stein was truly moved by this effort, as HAL does a lot of charity work in many of the world ports in which they cruise. They took lots of pictures and thanked Arna for leading this very successful effort. It seemed to me that there were about 50 or 60 people - men and women present who had either knit squares or entire blankets. This group has been one of the highlights for those of us who go, as we have met so many great people whom we have gotten to know. Seven people learned to knit on this cruise and they are now making plans to buy more yarn in Sydney to knit for themselves. Everywhere you go on the ship there are women knitting!
We had a formal night tonight, that began with a cocktail party hosted by Stein and Linda in Queen's Lounge at 6:45 p.m. Everyone was dressed to the "nines" as there was also a "President's Club" dinner after for those with thousands of sea days to their credit. Jack and Gloria joined us at our table for dinner and we had another very fun evening with them.
Friday, Captain Jonathan Mercer surprised us all by announcing that he had made a slight change in course to take us by one of the Unesco World Heritage sights in the middle of the Pacific Island, called Ball's Pyramid. This rock structure wasn't even discovered until the 19th century. It is the world's tallest freestanding volcano. I have been speaking about how truly vast this ocean is, and it is no wonder that no one, including those Polynesians in dugouts happened upon this wonder - it is like finding a needle in a haystack. Across from it is Howe Island which has a few resorts on it... but it is largely and unspoiled and desolate island about an hour and a half flight from Australia. This underwater formation extends north by 600 nautical miles. This was a real treat for all of us to see, and I hope you enjoy the pictures. By the way they recently found an insect, that they thought was extinct, on Ball's Pyramid that had been eliminated from Howe Island by the rats on some early ships.
Hows Island!
A Bird on our ship!
Ball's Pyramid!
The Blue Water of the Pacific!
We attended a lecture by the New Orleans psychic, Cari and and just generally chilled out by doing our chores, like laundry and working on m classes. Then after dinner we attended the last performance of the band from New Orleans!
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