Tuesday, 10/15/13 Day at Sea

Tuesday, 10/15/13 Day at Sea

Lecture day.  First, I attended a lecture on the Great Barrier Reef by the Pilot Guardian of the Reef .  Each ship that travels through the reef is required to have a pilot aboard, and this pilot gave a presentation of the history and functioning of the reef.  After that lecture, I attended the port lecture on Port Douglas, including not only the reef, but also the rain forest and other attractions in Port Douglas.  Then I attended a lecture on the biography of Captain James Cook, the British naval officer who discovered and mapped eastern Australia and many other South Pacific islands as well as other places.  The lecturerer described his death by natives in Hawaii.  After lunch, I attended a photography class, which turned out to be too simple for me.

Finally, after much effort, I found the Passenger Services Director on the ship, Cynthia, and asked how to get my prize.  She said that she would talk with the art director and ask him to contact me.  After dinner, when I returned to my room, the prize had been delivered to my room.  It was a lithograph of sound waves by Billy Dee Williams titled, “Jazz Chords.”  The prize was prepackaged, and a very small photo of the lithograph was attached.

I also talked with the Passenger Services Director at some length about the long delay in being transferred from the airport to the ship in Sydney.  She professed no knowledge of the situation, and told me that she would look into it.  She apologized for the long delay.  When I returned to my room after dinner, she had sent a message apologizing for the delay, refunding the transfer fee, and having a bottle of wine delivered to my room.

I was not interested in going to the entertainment, a comedian, so I stayed in my room.  Later, I noticed that “The Big Wedding” was showing on TV.  When I saw that Diane Keaton was in the movie, I turned it off.  I’m not a fan of Diane Keaton.