A different cruise to Esperance

The Astor arrives before breakfast

It's apparent that you can cruise to Esperance in greater comfort than in our lil' ol' 42footer. We awoke day 2 of our time here to the view of a passenger liner manoeuvring to anchor in Esperance Bay. As it turned out it was a gorgeous morning with little wind.... A day yet to be repeated, so now that we notice that the floating landing jetty is once again being craned into position we are hopeful that the expected arrivals can get repeat conditions. It would suit us just fine seeing as we are hammered day and night by the 'sea breeze'. So much so that a screw worked loose on the Bimini and some of our mooring leads have chaffed through! the breeze probably sounds rather nice if you are somewhere that is very hot at the moment like Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne etc? It's hot because there probably isn't any 'breeze'. The Bloke and I wish we could send you some of ours. It's usually a minimum of 20knots and is mostly in the 25-30knot range. If you are unfamiliar with knots and prefer kilometers let's round this out to 50-60km/hr. Think - blowing dogs of chains!

The good news is that we are not out to sea because the breeze at present is coming from where we want to go. Sunday and Monday are looking favourable for our next sector of the coast. We'll be ready!

Advance party arrives to get set up for the day trippers

All we need now is the passengers

The cruise ships send an advance party who then set up a little welcome tent. Tour operators and officials like Customs greet the passengers.












The setup generally takes about 30 mins according to Deck Cadet Octavian. He is from Romania and is in training to be a ship's navigator and probably a Captain. He's an only child and his Mum who fainted when he announced his calling to the sea, has not seen him since September and will next be able to give her boy a hug in May. Sounds familiar. We left in November and will return in May.

Deck Cadet from the Astor

This cruise ship is spending the northern winter in Australian waters catering to our national appetite for cruising. The Astor left Fremantle for a 5 day cruise to include Esperance and will stop in at Albany and Bunbury on the way back. Believe it or not, Customs had to attend the boarding station because a couple of passengers were joining the ship here.

Late afternoon and the last 'lost' passenger is taken back

The first of the Esperance tourist attractions to be seen by passengers

Hardy Esperance kids at Vac swim lessons

Swim instruction begins