Fremantle-Perth

November 3, 2012

This morning, Saturday, we were awakened at 6:30 by a knock at the door.  We were told that there was a medical emergency and we were required to leave our cabin.  There was a helicopter hovering right above our balcony.  As well, there was a naval ship close to the port side, the side we are on.  We went to the buffet on the 14^th floor to wait it out.  The helicopter was circling the ship, over and over.  We were told that the copter had dropped two persons onto the ship and the supposition is that they were medical personnel and that they were trying to stabilize the patient.  Perhaps the naval ship was there in case the copter needed to be rescued from the sea?  Finally, the copter made several hovers over the rear of the ship, above our cabin, probably taking the patient and medics off, one by one.  The Captain told us this afternoon that the passenger is doing much better in the hospital.  The ship was scheduled to do some maneuvers with the naval ship, when the emergency came up.  The captain of the naval ship offered the services of the helicopter which saved our ship from changing courses to get to a port to unload the passenger.  So we are on course and the patient is better, all is good.

Yesterday we landed in Fremantle, the port for Perth.  It is the first time on this cruise that we were in ports on back to back days.  Next, we have three consecutive days at sea before we get to Adelaide.  We docked at 7am and did not leave until 11pm Friday night.  The ship had 440 passengers disembark and another 440 board to replace them, as well as taking on a lot of food stuffs.

We went off the ship at around 9am, and took the train into Perth, a 35 minute trip for $4.00. We took a bus up to Kings Garden and explored it and saw some very beautiful and unusual plants. Some plants have the flower way down the stem from the tip.  Looks very different from what we are used to.

The town of Perth has a great number of exceptional looking buildings.  We think in the Art Deco style.  John took pictures of dozens of them.  There are also some fine churches and cathedrals.  The only one we toured was St Mary’s Cathedral.  Huge and beautiful.  We just missed Mass.

After Perth, we back to the ship for lunch and John had a SCAN.  That is Aussie for Senior Citizen Afternoon Nap.  Very cute, these folks!  Then back off the ship to explore Fremantle and its famous market, open from 8am on Fridays until 8pm.  We stopped and had a beer and fish and chips and then called it a day, getting back onboard around 7pm.  Long day, tired feet.

Colleen and John