December 23, 2025 Philip Island a no go

At 7 a.m. the ship was making her final approach into Philip Island harbour travelling at 14 knots on a course of East 66.2°. Philip Island is less than 140 kilometres south-south east of Melbourne, Victoria state’s capital. The ship was to be anchored by the town of Cowes until 11 p.m. this evening. The temperature at 7 a.m. was 15°C under mostly cloudy skies. Light grey clouds covered some of the sky. The WSW winds were blowing at 40 kph and the water was choppy. The ship was anchored in the Western Passage near the town of Cowes.

Today we climbed the stairs up to Lido Deck 9 (from Deck 1) for an early breakfast. The preliminary stages to lower the tender boats had started on the lee side of the ship, to protect them from the wind. At 8 a.m., the captain announced a two hour delay for getting off the ship into the tenders boats for the 20 minute ride to the pier from our anchorage. It was hoped that the weather and sea conditions might improve. There was a strong sea current and the wind measured at 40 knots which is about 75 kph. The two meter waves were topped with white caps.

To fill in the time, we went to the Library Café for Caramel Lattes. The server, Nutcha, was working there today. She had served us yesterday both at the Library Café in the morning and in the Ocean Bar during Happy Hour. We decided to search for the homemade Christmas trees created by various departments and scattered on the ten decks by bars and elevator lobbies. We accumulated about 3,000 steps in the hunt.

First was the sleigh made by Team 10 Technical/Waste Disposal; next the Art Department’s tree topped with an angel; in the casino, their tree was created from playing cards, poker chips and lottery tickets. By the Ocean bar on Deck 3 was the Team 12 Technical/Workshop carpenters and upholsterers wooden spiral tree. At the Deck 3 Dining Room entrance was the Team 1 Pastry tree made from using egg trays and cardboard. In the Deck 4 midship elevator lobby, we found the Team 7 Machinists rotating Christmas tree made using chains and wheels. The Team 6 Pastry #2 tree used up recycled ice cream containers, berry packs, Pringles tins and silvered baking cups. On Deck 9 by the Lido pool, the Beverage team used red Coca-Cola cans and green Heineken beer cans. On Deck 10 by the Kids Club, tucked away in a corner, we found the Team 9 Entertainment crew’s tree of construction paper, origami paper, puzzle pieces and tickets. Finally on Deck 10 in the Crow’s Nest Lounge was Team 8’s tree using cut-up one litre plastic bottles, silver Diet Coke cans, green Heineken beer cans and Sprite cans, red Coca-Cola cans and a few blue Bud Light cans. Even the tree top star was made from cans. We had loaded 5,163 steps before the next announcement.

Just before 10 a.m., Captain Pieter Bant announced the sea and wind conditions did not support a safe tender boat operation. Today’s excursion fee and the related taxes, fees & port expenses have been credited to our onboard account. We have more credits to use for fancy coffees!

Some information about Phillips Island - The Aboriginal tribe, Bunuonng, had settled the area before the first Europeans arrived in the 1600s. There is plenty of wildlife on the island including the small fairy penguins, who return to land at dusk, as well as seals, Pacific gulls, kangaroos and wallabies. The island has sandy beaches and good areas for surfing. This morning, we had planned to take a tour which was a short drive around the island then walk around the town of Cowes. The All Aboard time was to be 10:30 p.m.

The Entertainment Department dug out their “Plan B” activities and had distributed a secondary schedule by 11 a.m. We chose Line Dancing in the Rolling Stone Lounge lead by Cruise Director Robbie Conley at 11 a.m. Robbie led about 60 guests through four lines dances which were at a Beginner Plus level. He gave a brief three or four minute teach before switching on the music. There were a lot of seasoned line dancers! The last one was Boot Scooting Boogey. There was an audience of over 40. By the end of the half hour, everyone was grinning and the dancers were sweating.

Usually on port days the main dining room is not open for lunch, but lunch in the Dining Room was included on the additional list of activities. We had lively conversations with two Australian couples who made up our table of six. One of the couples had taken the Via train from Toronto to Vancouver in the winter. Jim and Mary live in the state of Queensland near Brisbane. The other couple were Jeff and Anna. As another guest was passing our table she stopped to tell Larry and I that she enjoyed our dancing last evening. We just happened to hear the DJ playing music in the Rolling Stone Lounge, about 15 minutes before the band started its first set of the evening. It was a good cha-cha tune and no one was on the dance floor - we walked onto the dimly lit floor and danced to the tune, then waited for the band to arrive for their set. The few songs were to borderline dancing swing beats. We only danced to the one tune. The woman said that she even recorded our dancing. It was a nice compliment.

At 2 p.m., another additional activity was in the World Stage where the Vivace Duo, from Ukraine, Daria on piano and Inna on violin, played classical tunes with video on the background screen for some of the pieces.

Burnie, Tasmania, is tomorrow’s destination. It is just across the Bass Strait. The original noon docking has been rescheduled to 9 a.m. tomorrow. Shortly after the captain’s 10 a.m. announcement the ship headed out to sea for Burnie. We have no scheduled tour tomorrow. The ship is to be docked and in port until 9 p.m.

We relaxed and read until Happy Hour in the Ocean Bar then we had dinner with Barry and Donna. It appears that there are no other people to join our table for eight. Donna mentioned that she and Barry might leave at Adelaide since Barry is a Palliative Care patient and the ship’s bed is quite uncomfortable. They live in the Adelaide area.

Tonight in the World Stage the singers and dancers performed an energetic musical production called Timeless. We had seats beside Barry and Donna.

Total steps 11,444