Cruising the Great Australian Bight

The sun is shining and there are hardly any clouds in the sky. The sea is not rough, nor is it calm. It has great big wide ranging swells far enough apart to just keep us rocking but not pitching. It is not great but knowing that it could be so much worse I'm trying to look on the sunny side. The captain says we're heading in a straight line due west for 2 days and nights to reach our next port of Albany. We only have to run half our generators to average about 16.5 knots. He says swells are out of the south-southwest and are running 6 to 10 feet high. They are widely spaced so it is not a jolting motion but more a rocking. Not smooth, not rough. Captain says it should be like this all the way.

I've titled this post from the date's itinerary label. The captain announced we're sailing in the Southern Ocean. We are definitely in the Bight which is a big bay that is part of depending on whose definition you follow, the Southern Ocean or the Indian Ocean. I'll let you Google it and decide.

It is Saturday so I treated myself with fried eggs, hash browns, bacon and an English Muffin this morning. Bonus was a bunch of giant grapes that I had to cut in half and core like tiny apples!

Before lunch we crossed paths in the distance with another cruise ship headed east. It was white with a dark blue funnel with something yellow on it. It was too distant to read it even with binoculars.

Tonight is formal night. We have a reservation at Umi Uma. We move the clocks back an hour tonight. Tonight is also Supper Club according to waiters and fellow passengers. This is new onboard Serenity since her fall rehab. Crystal has a lot of advertising and hype about it online and in the press, but not one official word about it onboard. We did not see anything online in our PCPC for booking our reservations before boarding. We've been on over a month before we heard anyone talking about it. We just assumed it wasn't up and running yet, but it seems too be running instead like a code-worded speakeasy. If you don't know someone or the right someone, it is a secret and you're not invited. That works for us as I have a firm policy against combining dining with entertainment and we wouldn't go anyway. It is just odd to me that Crystal would advertise it so heavily and then say not word one about booking it as available onboard or after you've booked and paid for your cruise. Anyway.

We went to the Hollywood Theater at 2:30 pm to watch the movie "Alpha". We enjoyed it even though it was subtitled, and the popcorn. The rocking calmed while we were in there. When we got back to the cabin we were out on the balcony in amazement. The clouds had filled the sky and the sea had darkened as well. Everything was in motion like rippling mercury! This is the smoothest, calmest Bight crossing we've ever had. Fingers crossed that it lasts.