Sunday 1^st March – Day at Sea.

Well – this has been a busy little day with not much eating but a lot of drinking!

We attended Captain Wells’ last church service – as both he and the Deputy Captain get off in Darwin (hope somebody will know how to steer the boat!) We then blagged our way into the Balmoral Suite as its large balcony overlooks deck 8 aft, which is where the crossing the line ceremony was taking place.

The suite’s occupants, Stuart and his children Emma and Simon were taking part in the ceremony as was Diane and Jenny – so whilst Nesta was recording the ceremony from the girls’ point of view, Ian was given Simon’s camera to record his family’s progress towards becoming “shellbacks”! Their butler (yes, really!) was instructed to keep our beer and wine topped up whilst they were away…It’s a hard life…

After the ceremony we continued chatting (and drinking) with them and realised we had missed our choir rehearsal (and lunch!)

We decided it would be best to clear Australian Immigration sooner rather than run the risk of missing it. Luckily it was quite straightforward and didn’t include a breathalyser – so we’re in! It is certainly much easier crossing borders on board a ship than it is on land!

In the evening we met up with the gang and planned our “flash-mob” of the Captain at his final cocktail reception. He was duly surrounded by 10 of us singing our song “This is your farewell song, it doesn’t last too long – wow!” and on the “wow” we presented him with thank you cards. (Well, it seemed a good idea at the time and he did seem to be pleased with our gesture. He has, after all, been very professional but also quick to join in with us and not take himself too seriously) What’s more, we also set the whole event up with Jess (the person who makes the voyage DVD) so we may end up on the World Voyage video – again!

After the party, we went into G32 (the nightclub) where the drinking (and smoking) recommenced and went on so long that we missed our evening meal as well!

Good job tomorrow is another sea day – it’ll give us chance to recover…