At Sea En Route to Exmouth, WA February 18, 2017

Quokka

Perth in background at 12X Zoom from Rottnest Island

Pinkie Beach

Welcome Home! Good to be "Home" after four days away.

South 25 Degrees 49.381' E 112 Degrees 54.911'

The seas are fine with a rolling swell off our port bow. We are heading at 336 degrees at 14 knots and it was about 75 degrees as the sun came up while walking on deck. It will be a warm one today in the low 90's and pool volleyball at sea will be a hit today at three.

Fremantle:

For our overnight stay in Fremantle we decided to go off ship for dinner and have a look around. The Little Creature Brewery and restaurant was our first target to check out. No taxis at the port so we headed off by foot in town. Wandering aimlessly about we hailed a taxi and asked for a ride to the brewery. Really? he said an pointed down the street to our destination a few blocks away. Little Creatures is a fantastic operation featuring beers such as the White Rabbit Ale. The food is equally as good. Orders are taken by people with cell phones and arrive very quickly. We started off with an order of mussels and sticky lamb ribs and both were awesome. It was followed by a prawn pizza. Taxi back to ship. The next morning we walked the town early getting many morning steps in. With nothing scheduled we decided to try for the Rottnest Ferry at 9:45 am. Bill and I were the last passengers to board and Dawn didn't make it. The island has a laid back vibe with no cars but many bikes and we opted for walking. On our walk to Pinkie Beach by the lighthouse we found three little Quokkas, Australia's smallest marsupial and a little rat like in appearance. Up to the lighthouse then down some sand dunes we reached the beach and walked in, Wow! the water was a shocker at maybe 68 degrees. Deterred by the cold water we headed back inland walking under trees with the ever present forlorn crows singing their weird sad song. found a nice seaside restaurant and settle in to wait for the 2:10 pm Ferry as we had just a short stay. Ate a Lamb and Olive pizza to boot.

Geraldton, 40,000 People and lots of Wheat.

Industrial Port

Aussie Outback BBQ day. Hop on our tour bus for a first stop at an old farmstead. They had old farm stuff and barns, ho hum. Australia has a chain of restaurants called Lord of the Fries. This area is lord of the Flies! Little black pesky buggers that are in your ears, nose, eyes, etc. They handed out flynets for the face. Off the the BBQ and had a nice sampling of meat and beer although Bill said it was too hot to drink beer! Back to the ship for a long pool session. Young Felix (World cruiser 5 yrs. old) lead us in his own game with ping pong ball catch in the pool.

What's a weed wacker called in OZ? A Whipper Sniper. McDonalds here have a few new things, first you order off a monitor not through a person. Second they have Mc Cafe, it is inside the facility but separate and is a duplicate of Starbucks.

Announced last night we must skip a port of call in Taiwan. China will not let us go direct from Taiwan into chino so we go to Japan and anchor out for two hours before proceeding to Shanghai.

Lamb Pizza

Dawn at farm with fly netting

Food Plate at Geraldton Outback BBQ

Whisper from Geraldton WWII Memorial

Outback BBQ Place

Note: This is going out 24 hours late as we had NO interenet yesterday at sea. The flies followed us on board and everybody was swatting at their faces yesterday. Fumigated the deck last night but we are just approaching Exmouth and here they come!