Random thoughts from the sea
Day 67, Grand World Voyage 2020 Wednesday, March 11, 2020; Townsville, Queensland, Australia What can I say about Townsville? Actually, not too much. I took the free shuttle to town, ran into a friend, went to a bar for a beer and came back to the ship. It was a
Continue reading
Day 65, Grand World Voyage 2020 Monday, March 9, 2020; At Sea, Coral Sea One of my daily highlights is the morning watercolor class, offered on every sea day. This year’s instructor came prepared to teach and inspire us, and she is delivering. Carol Mitchell is an experienced artist who
Continue reading
Day 64, Grand World Voyage 2020 Sunday, March 8, 2020; Sydney, Australia When does the display and ownership of indigenous art cross the line into unethical appropriation? I gained an insight into this thorny issue today while on a docent-led tour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the
Continue reading
Day 63, Grand World Voyage 2020 Saturday, March 7, 2020; Sydney, Australia Sydney is all about the water, and the excitement starts before sunrise as the Amsterdam sails into the harbor. We pass between two cliffs – the headlands – and turn first to port and eventually to starboard as
Continue reading
Day 61, Grand World Voyage 2020 Thursday, March 5, 2020; At Sea, Tasman Sea I don’t typically write a blog post about sea days, as most are pretty much the same and there isn’t a lot to write about. But I’ve always been a reporter at heart, so when there
Continue reading
Day 60, Grand World Voyage 2020 Wednesday, March 4, 2020; Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand Today’s port call at the Bay of Islands in northeast New Zealand was remarkably similar to the one I made in late 2017. If I’m fortunate enough to come back here a third time,
Continue reading
Days 58-59, Grand World Voyage 2020 Monday & Tuesday, March 2-3, 2020; Auckland, New Zealand There is so much to see and do in Auckland, but we found ourselves thoroughly enjoying a lazy afternoon — watching America’s Cup yachts come and go from the Viaduct Harbor while eating seafood chowder
Continue reading
Day 55, Grand World Voyage 2020 Friday, Feb. 28, 2020; Nuku’alofa, Tonga Tonga was great (and hot) today, but more about that later. Our bigger news is changes in the itinerary, mostly due to COVID-19, aka the coronavirus. The Amsterdam will skip our Asia stops — four ports in Indonesia
Continue reading
Day 54, Grand World Voyage 2020 Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020; At Sea, South Pacific Happy Ash Thursday! Yes, you read that right. Ash Thursday. After I went to bed last night after the Mardi Gras party on board, we crossed the International Date Line. We turned our clocks a whole
Continue reading
Day 52, Grand World Voyage 2020 Monday, Feb. 24, 2020; Rarotonga, Cook Islands I should have realized how small Rarotonga is when I tried to download its map on my Planet Earth phone app and couldn’t find one. As it turned out, it took little more than 30 minutes to
Continue reading
Recent Comments