The gap at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay is called the RIP , or The Heads, which can be very dangerous. The gap between the two points of land is just over three kilometres, so of course to pass into Port Phillip requires a pilot. It is said that this stretch of water is […]

We sailed from Fremantle on the 5th April, the weather was fine and we hoped it would remain so as we were about to cross the Great Australian Bight, renowned for rough seas and sensitive stomachs. The Great Australian Bight stretches from Cape Pasley in Southern Western Australia to Cape Catastrophe in South Australia. There […]

Two and a half times around the deck equals one mile (1.66 km) Yesterday we thought we’d do the mile before breakfast, only to find that the deck we wished to use was ‘closed’ due to the crew washing down and they didn’t want anyone to slip and hurt themselves. We climbed to various other […]

Once again my fellow cadets and I joined the excursion ashore to see this time the sites of Istanbul. We visited St Sophia’s  (pictured above) – the first church on this site being built in 360 AD, the second church was built in 415 AD, the third church was opened in 537 AD and remained […]

We were picked up from the ship at 7.30 am for another day of sight seeing with TJ Travel. Our first stop was the the souvenir shop owned by the agency so that we could pay for our two day’s of sight seeing. The shop was quite large and the items on display interesting and […]

Port Vila the capital of Vanuatu, which used to be called New Hebrides. The first Europeans to visit these islands were the Spanish, who arrived in 1606. They thought that they had found La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo or “The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit”.  The largest island was named Espiritu Santo, which has […]

This was the second part of our ‘back to back’ cruising from Sydney in Diamond Princess. We spent a day in Yokohama before sailing to cruise the Japanese coast and a single foreign port in South Korea, Busan, which is across from Japan via the southern part of the Sea of Japan. We would stay […]

Port Vila the capital of Vanuatu, which used to be called New Hebrides. The first Europeans to visit these islands were the Spanish, who arrived in 1606. They thought that they had found La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo or “The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit”.  The largest island was named Espiritu Santo, which has […]

The normal high standard of Princess cruising has, in my opinion, slipped somewhat, but for us it started last year when we sailed in the Majestic Princess from Rome to Singapore. We have completed a total of nine cruises, seven of which were with Princess, so I think we can judge when standards are falling. […]

This was the second part of our ‘back to back’ cruising from Sydney in Diamond Princess. We spent a day in Yokohama before sailing to cruise the Japanese coast and a single foreign port in South Korea, Busan, which is across from Japan via the southern part of the Sea of Japan. We would stay […]

Once again my fellow cadets and I joined the excursion ashore to see this time the sites of Istanbul. We visited St Sophia’s  (pictured above) – the first church on this site being built in 360 AD, the second church was built in 415 AD, the third church was opened in 537 AD and remained […]

We sailed from Ras Al Khaimah for Dubai, which was a very short ‘voyage’ of about 112 km (70 miles) or about four hours at a very economical speed. Dubai Creek in the 1960’s. As you see the creek was too small for a deep sea ship to use, so we anchored off the coast once […]

Two and a half times around the deck equals one mile (1.66 km) Yesterday we thought we’d do the mile before breakfast, only to find that the deck we wished to use was ‘closed’ due to the crew washing down and they didn’t want anyone to slip and hurt themselves. We climbed to various other […]

This was the second part of our ‘back to back’ cruising from Sydney in Diamond Princess. We spent a day in Yokohama before sailing to cruise the Japanese coast and a single foreign port in South Korea, Busan, which is across from Japan via the southern part of the Sea of Japan. We would stay […]