Alongside Fremantle – 07:00 to 18:00

Prior to the cruise neither Judi or I have visited the Perth/Fremantle area, bur since joining the cruise we have met many of the 300 pax departing today and they all speak highly of the local area, so we are eagerly awaiting our all day tour. Today we are driving around Fremantle followed by the drive into Perth and then cruising back along the Swan River to Fremantle. With some nice weather and clear skies, we look forward to a great day.

Temperature: High 23C/73F, Low 15C/59F

Wind/Weather: SW’ly winds up to 20 kts with partly cloudy skies

Sunrise/Sunset:  07:11/17:48

Clox: Z+8 (no change)

Navigation

During the early hours of the morning, Sea Princess steered generally northerly courses towards the Port of Freemantle. Once embarking the local pilot she followed the buoyed channel into harbour, berthing port side alongside the passenger terminal about 07:00. Once all pax and crew were aboard the lines were let go and Sea Princess departed Fremantle Harbour following the buoyed channel, once the pilot departed course was set to NW x N or 326G towards the next port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Sea Princess alongside Fremantle Passenger Terminal

Freemantle & Perth

Perth is the capital city of the State of Western Australia and is the 4^th largest city in Australia. They are located at the mouth of the Swann River and along the long, narrow Swann Coastal Plain, which lies along the coast between the Ocean and the inland Darling Scarp.

Founded in 1829 by Captain James Stirling, it was the administrative centre for the then Swann River Colony. It gained city status in 1856, being named by Sir George Murray, then UK Secretary of State for the Colonies. Named after Perth, Scotland – a city I know very well, having lived there for 8 years, as a child.

Western Australia contains about 1/3 of Australia’s land mass, but only has about 2.4 million of a population. With a current population of about 2 million, Perth is frequently in the top ten list, of the world’s most liveable cities.

Sunrise over the Passenger Terminal

 

Activities

 

Inside pages listing the day’s activities

 

Based on the schedule of daily activities, we plan to attend the following:

• 07:00 – Breakfast in the dining room
• 08:15 – Depart on all day tour
• 16:00 – Return to ship, work on blog/photos
• 17:00 – World Cruise Champagne sailaway party
• 19:45 – Dinner
• 21:45 – Princess theatre showtime

Our day started in the dining room for breakfast, then back to the cabin to collect everything required for the tour. At the appointed time we headed down to the tour assembly in the Wheelhouse Lounge. Today’s tour includes a drive around Fremantle and Perth, with the return to Fremantle being a cruise along the Swan River. I will create a separate post for the tour in the next couple of days.

Cruise Staff Ladies with 2015 World Cruise sign

Upon our return to the ship, we sat out on the balcony, hoping to connect to the port authority free wi-fi in the passenger terminal. Alas, no free wi-fi was available, so we got caught up with world news, email, etc using the ship’s notoriously slow internet. From Fremantle all pax are completing the entire World Cruise or at least one segment, no more coastal pax, so they have deemed the World Cruise to start tonight. Consequently, they hosted a champagne sailaway party on the top deck, with one of the bands backed up by 3 chaps from the orchestra. The cheap bubbly flowed freely and an excellent evening of refreshments and dancing was had by all.

Ship’s resident band backed up by 3 members of the orchestra

Few pax and cruise staff warming up on the dance floor

We had a great couple of hours meeting and chatting with other pax and even enjoyed a couple of the freely flowing refreshments. After the party we returned to the cabin, getting ready for dinner at 19:45. Only 3 couples tonight, which isn’t uncommon after a busy port day. Bob & Christine decided on a quiet evening and were missed. However the 6 of us managed to soldier on, ensuring that our table is one of the liveliest in the dinning room. I finally remembered to take a sabbatical from the lively conversation when dishes were served, to take a quick photograph.

Potato & Leek turnover appy, which was well prepared and thoroughly enjoyable.

Baked Sea Bass with risotto and asparagus, which was brilliant. The fish was cooked to perfection

 

After dinner, 4 of us headed to the Princess Theatre for the evening show, starring comedian Steve Allison. It will be interesting to see how the Australian comedian compares to the Kiwi a few nights ago. He had a great start, outlining the guidelines provided by Princess on content, which basically eliminates most content used by comedians. Regardless, he put on a good show and in my opinion was vastly superior to the previous comedian.

On return to the cabin, we sat out on the balcony, briefly enjoying an abundant display of stars on a very pleasant evening.

 

As another day closes, we bid you farewell, till tomorrow and hope for fair skies and following seas.