Day 8 - Sea Day

Sunday 11^th January 2009 9.17am

Our day in Melbourne was fun! After Starbucks and posting to the blog, Jordan and I went shopping in the mall. The David Jones and Myer stores in the Bourke Street mall are amazing! I got a cute Table Eight cardigan for less than half price, which was good. We have found that we are now used to the motion of the ship when we are at sea, but we are struggling with motion sickness when we get back on solid ground. Our time in Melbourne was good, but I felt very dizzy and sick for the most part. Mum, Em and Tristan found the same thing. Emma and Tris spent their time in Melbourne catching up with Nanna Pye and visiting the art gallery, while Mum and Dad wandered aimlessly along the Yarra.

Once back on board, we attended the sailaway party to listen to the band and watch Melbourne fade into the distance. Port Phillip Bay is huge and the entrance into it is very narrow. We enjoyed watching as we went through this on the way out. Jordan went to the gym twice this day! The rest of us went only once. We are trying to go each day and work really hard so we don’t feel bad about how much we’re eating! The Bass Strait is quite rough!! The dining room is above some of the props, which were making loud noises during dinner. Our waiter, Wayan, said that it was because the boat was moving and the props were coming up slightly. Jordan disagrees – but cannot explain the noise! At any rate, Emma started getting nervous, which made me nervous and then Dad was asking stupid questions about lifeboats and the Titanic. Surprise, surprise!! Because it was fairly rough, we all went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday, Saturday 10^th, was a sea day. We sailed from Port Phillip Bay down to the north eastern tip of Tasmania, and then out into the Tasman. We had to turn our clocks forward by one hour, which made us 2 hours ahead of Townsville. We slept in until 9.30am, and then had breakfast until 10.30. The seas in the Tasman are much calmer than the Bass Strait. We are very thankful that they are still that calm, even this morning. After breakfast yesterday, Jord, Tris, Em and I played Jenga and cards and enjoyed the most delicious hot chocolate in the world!! After that we went for a dip in the Thalassotherapy (‘Thalassoraptor’ to us) pool, which is just like a giant hot bath with bubbles around the sides. We all piled into our room again to watch a movie and then went down to lunch at about 3pm. After lunch, it was time for a nap, then off to the gym. Before dinner, Jordan and I went to Michael’s Club, a piano bar, to listen to some Frank Sinatra songs. After dinner, we all went to a karaoke session (lame-o!!) and then to the nightclub to dance to motown songs played by the live band. It was heaps of fun, both the dancing and the spectating! There was a completely hilarious older couple who had some smooth moves. HAHAHAHA. He had good hip action for his age, actually. Quite impressive!! After this, Jordan and I got more good hot chocolates and played cards until 1am (well, 2am really because we had to wind our clocks forward by an hour again!).

This morning, Sunday 11^th, Jordan got up after only 4 hours of sleep and went to the gym again. I did not. No way Jose.... I wanted to sleep! We are about to go to ‘church’ now!! We have managed to find a group of younger people who are Christians and they have organised to have a bible study type of thing this morning. Should be fun. I had better go and post this so we won’t be late. Xoxo