December 31, 2025 New Year’s Eve Sea Day # 6

December 31, 2025

This morning at 8 a.m., the sky was overcast, temperature 13°C, wind SSE 47 kph and humidity 70%. The ship was travelling at 12 knots.

At the 9 a.m. Coffee with Robbie (the cruise director) in the Rolling Stone Lounge, the guest was Environmental Officer, Albert-Jan Kleinhof from the Netherlands. He explained his duties onboard, checking all the departments for compliance to international environmental regulations and how garbage and recycling is done on the ship. He mentioned that for any ship entering New Zealand waters, the underwater portion of her hull must be free of barnacles and other clinging sea creatures. The condition of the hull has to certified at the last port before entering New Zealand by a diver inspecting the underwater parts of the hull. Coffee and danish pastry or cookies were provided as an enticement to draw passengers.

After the talk we headed to the Library Cafe for coffee followed by a 35 minute walk on Deck 3’s Promenade Deck. The wind was not too strong, but we wore our windbreakers. We logged 4,827 steps.

At 11 a.m., we were back in the Rolling Stone Lounge with about 60 other passengers for a half hour of Line Dancing led by Robbie and two of the show dancers.

News today - Denmark has discontinued its letter postal service. The red post boxes have been removed. Letters and post cards will be delivered by a private company.

The racing yacht Min River, a female team of two, is the overall winner of the Sydney to Hobart race after a sail breach protest succeeded. The initial handicap adjusted first place winner, BNC, who used a pole to hold a sail in place on the last leg of the race which was against the rules. The penalty was to add 70 minutes time, which made Min River the winner. 91 of the initial 128 yachts have made it to Hobart with just one yacht left to arrive by midnight tonight to Hobart.

There was a $52 million bank vault heist in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. More than 3,000 safe deposit boxes were broken open. Police surmise that the robbers spent much of the weekend inside the vault.

We had lunch in the dining room with four Australians. A couple from Brisbane who are on board until February 15th, then are changing ships for another long cruise. This morning they had received medals to recognize their 500 cruising days on Holland America ships. The two women were from Townsville and were leaving the ship on January 4th.

This morning, as we walked our two miles on Deck 3, the ship was leaving the Tasman Sea and rounding the northeast coast, at Cape Portland, heading northwest into the Banks Strait between mainland Tasmania and Clarke Island of the Furneaux Group islands. Then proceeded into the Bass Strait toward Melbourne this afternoon.

The Tasman Sea lies between Australia and New Zealand measuring about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) across and about 2,800 km (1,700 mi) from north to south. It is named after the Dutch explorer, Abel Janszoon Tasman who planted the flag of the United Provinces in 1642 but never returned as the Dutch saw no commercial significance to the discovery. It was 130 years later that British explorer Lieutenant James Cook mapped Tasmania and New Zealand during his three voyages of exploration.

This afternoon in the World Stage the first presentation was Oceania Up Close: Divergent Oceania, about the different animals and sports “Down Under”.

It was followed by Berny Barona, the travel guide, giving a port talk about things to see and do in Melbourne.

The DAM Band played ballroom music at 5 p.m. which we danced to for 20 minutes before meeting Elizabeth and Colin in the dinning room for a special New Year’s Eve menu.

There was just one show in the World Stage this evening - the return of comedian/magician Nick Nickolas.

At 9 p.m. many passengers went to the Lido pool deck on deck 9 for the New Year’s Eve Party featuring the Rolling Stone Lounge Band. The retractable pool roof was partially open. There was a circle of ice, by the hot tub, which had champagne bottles arranged like spokes of a wheel. The ship’s carpenters had built a stage over the hot tubs near midship. It was from here that the band played. Cardboard Happy New Year “top” hats were given to the men while the women received head bands with a white feather and Happy New Year on semicircular cardboard. We sat with Chris and Fred from North Carolina and enjoyed a glass of Prosecco, before escaping the noise and dancing to the quieter DAM band in the ocean View Bar on Deck 3.

At midnight, we watched the fireworks in Sydney on television. At 11 p.m., also on television, the Sydney Harbour bridge was lit in white light and a menorah was projected onto the bridge for a one minute of silence to remember the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting on December 14th. There was a greater security presence this year, for the Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations. There had been a 9 p.m. fireworks display on the bridge. Over a million people gathered around the shores of Sydney Harbour.

Melbourne is presenting a $6 million fireworks display the the Central Business District, where we will be visiting on New Year’s Day.

Total steps today 13,055