Leaving the Great Barrier Reef, we have been working our way north west toward Borneo, and our next port, Kota Kinabalu. We have been sailing through the islands of Indonesia, and just west of the Philippines. Days at sea involve lectures on global warming, oceanography, fish of the coral reefs, and some insight into the BBC series Human Planet. There are also opportunities for wine tasting, and duplicate bridge. The weather has been in the high 80s, and generally sunny. There was another party for those of us on the full world cruise - drinks and hors d’oeuvres . The evenings provide entertainment - musicians, singers, dancers, and magicians in the Queen’s Court theater. After the show, there is an opportunity to dance in the Queen’s Room, the Yacht Club, or listen to a vocalist - piano player in the Commodore Club. We are getting some reading done as well. We are both enjoying a recent John Le Carre novel, Our Kind of Traitor. |
| Sumner, Jean, and friends from the cruise |
We have remembered to do our experiments on the Coriolis effect - whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. This means that water flows down the drain in a different direction after you cross the equator. It’s true! We crossed the equator yesterday - coming back into the Northern hemisphere.
There are lots of Australians on the ship. They are a lively bunch - even some of the entertainers are from Australia. Cunard offered them a good package price, including airfare for the leg of the trip from Sydney to Hong Kong. They have reduced the average age of the guests traveling in the Queen Elizabeth by at least 10 years.
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