Isn't There a Book Called "Shipwrecked"??

Good Sign ... heading to brisbane!

Silver lining! Another good sign
...right? Heading to Brisbane.

You may have been wondering where we have been for the past few days.  To be honest, we kinda wondered that too.  Yes, we are on a big ship with 700 other souls.  And, yes, we are technically supposed to be visiting Brisbane...but I'll get back to that.

We DID get to Brisbane.  In the rain.  With the winds.  And we were half a day late, which caused quite a ruckus for the "destination ladies".  So we all did what we could, rescheduling tours of the city, planning dinners, cutting out non-essential things.  And the Captain helped, as he announced, in his stentorious voice, that we would leave at 6 a.m. the next morning rather than that night.  We thought that should be the end of that.  So, off we went to visit Brisbane.  What we learned was that Brisbane was the place Sydney shipped off their WORST criminals to.  "We'll keep the goodies," they said.  "We'll just give you guys up there in Queensland the troublemakers, the murderers, the really bad ones."

And about the floods.  Really.  They have floods, apparently, all the time.  And three of them were so bad they are permanently marked on the downtown buildings.  Wherever we went, the guide would tell us how much of each place was underwater.  But, overall, there were a ton of beautiful parks.  And, of course, they have free health care (single payer system, no less) and, oh yes, they were not in the least affected in the recent recession.  They just continued to prosper all along. Damn! (Bos says it is because they are constantly supplying China and environs with coal and goods!)

Brisbane in the rain .... again!

The black bars
are high water
marks downtown.

Shoals of jellyfish greeted us at
 docking! Bad sign!

Typical Queensland raised house
seen all over Brisbane

Brisbane overlook pergola in rain
.... could not see Brisbane

But on to that book: Shipwrecked.  We got up at 6 a.m., as the Captain had told us we would be shipping out of Brisbane for the Great Barrier Reef.  Only we weren't.  They have changed the schedule and we were going to have 2 sea days instead and then, somehow, come back to Whitsunday Island and the reef later on.  Only we didn't.  You see, by 6 a.m., when Brisbane said we had to be off and out, the seas had become so bad, we can't get out of the shelter of Moreton Bay.  Sounds convoluted, I know.  But this is the thing.  Our berth in the harbour of Brisbane was supposed to be for some other ship.  So, scram, they said.  BUT, in the meantime, Cyclone (they don't call them Hurricanes on this part of the world) was swooping in and, with seas upwards of 18 feet waves and 75 knots (that's a boat term and no, I don't know what it means!) outside the Bay, it was not safe to leave here.  So we are 6 miles out in the ocean from Brisbane, anchored so we don't float aimlessly around, and we are suffering through "Cyclone Oscar," I think his name is.  The Captain calls him a slow one.  So who knows where we are -- or where we will be.  Remember the old series "The Twilight Zone" from years ago?  Maybe WE are in "The Twilight Zone" right now.  Didn't they always come out okay after an hour???

So, if you do not hear from us after this, remember that my big diamond is for Iris's college.  And I would like my ashes to be spread over Bermuda.  NOT the Tasman or Coral Seas!!! In fact--- HELP!!!