February 12 – Hobart, Tasmania and Sailing the Tasman Sea

We had planned to do some walking around the central city area this morning but it was too cold and rainy.  And since it was a day in port the ship didn’t have a lot of morning activities.  So we enjoyed a casual morning sitting around reading. 

After lunch we went up to the Palm Court at the front of the ship, top deck to watch as we pulled away from the docks.  Fortunately, by that time the clouds had started breaking up and we were beginning to get patches of blue.  So we got some reasonably good views of Hobart.

The docks were loaded with lumber awaiting to be loaded onto ships for export.

We stayed out long enough to get some good views of the surrounding headlands as we headed out to sea.

In the afternoon we went to a lecture by an archaeologist.  The lecture title was quite clever…”My Life in Ruins”.  Mr. Ford has worked archaeological sites in Australia and in Europe and his talk was very interesting.  Mary also enjoyed a seminar on pearls.

The evening show was a great concert by Chelsea Gibb, an Australian singer.  Later Mary went to the Stardust lounge to see the show put on by the two professional dancers on board.  They were great.  Beverly seemed to be thrown everywhere by her partner Curtis.  It was a rousing performance.