Esperance, Australia – March 15

what else to do??

A few wispy clouds, 27 degrees, lovely for what could be the last day on the balcony.


My teeth were brushed, my purse was packed, and I had just pulled my dress over my head when…ding, dang, dong. Chris and I looked at each other with dread…what now? An expletive may have been used. We learn from the captain that strong winds coupled with the 2.5-metre swell means that we are likely blowing off our tender port of Esperance. He says we may blow it off but will see how the morning progresses and get back to us. Ok, we’ve been in this situation before, not on this cruise actually…we’ve dealt with many, many other issues since Jan 6, but weather hasn’t been one of these…we’ll live.


Although I’m dressed, I climb back into bed and get back online – these days this could be a full-time job. We look up how the swells are and what the forecast is and investigate the tides. Not long after, comes another ding, dang, dong. The captain confirms that the port will be blown off, not necessarily because of the weather, but because head office in Miami has order the ship to our final port of Perth (Freemantle) immediately…now there really were more than a few expletives. The captain goes on to say, that he doesn’t have any more information and doesn’t know why we are to make a beeline for the end…I can think of one reason…and it’s not good – we should be there tomorrow around 3PM.

Ports around the world are closing to cruise ships, New Zealand just did yesterday, Australia can’t be far behind. However, this part of the world is fairing quite well in terms of the virus, so maybe we’ll have a few days. Also, the ship has been in Australian waters since February 29, so hopefully that’ll work in our favour…WHO KNOWS!!


We’re dressed with no where to go, so we decide to go to the main dining room for breakfast. It happens to be a Sunday, which means champagne and caviar – we have absolutely nothing else to do, can’t make further travel plans, don’t want to feel sorry for ourselves, so we make the best of things.
Not much more info was given during the captain’s noon announcement, other than to say that all the berths will be full tomorrow, so we’ll be at anchor until the 18^th which is our scheduled day of arrival. It is possible to disembark the ship with luggage using a tender, but it’s less than ideal. We may not even disembark until the 18^th if we can’t get a flight out. Now ours is scheduled for the 22^nd, but our travel agent is trying to get an earlier one.


Sometimes we figure we could go it alone and not use a travel agent…during this ‘situation’ our travel agent has been invaluable.

Many, many people have been reaching out to see how we are doing – some even asking what they can do (other than teleporting us home, there’s nothing anyone can do.) This really means a lot to us.