Feb 17&18

FEB 17and 18, 2012

Got a danish from the bakery and got coffee in the place next to the hotel where they were very nice
and let us eat the danish there and even gave us plates and knives. The hotel called a taxi for us and off
to the port we went. Got there at 10:50 and as you well traveled cruisers know that is very early. We
walked into the terminal and without exageration there were a minimum of 1000 people that were already
there. It took us a while to get on and of course we sneaked into or cabin to drop our carry on stuff.
Went to the buffet for lunch and then went to medical because my doctor in the states wanted an x-ray
after 1 week and wanted my splint to be changed into a cast. The doctor said they had a portable x-ray
machine and it might miss a fracture so he said they wouldn't charge me for the visit and they'd arrange
for someone to pick me up at the port (Geraldton) and take me to a hospital where they are much better
prepared to treat me. He said they would let me know the particulars once it was set up. We had to cancel
our tour but he gave me a note so we'd get our money back. As we're getting ready to go for breakfast
the phone rings and it was a nurse saying they had gotten in touch with port agent and we were to take the
first tender in and someone would meet us. Enid said that they should have contacted us sooner so we could
have been ready and we would catch a tender around 8:30. Five minutes later they call back to tell us
even though we were anchored, the port agent said the winds were going to pick up early afternoon and it
would be too dangerous for tenders do they were going to make an announcement shortly that all tours were
going to be cancelled, so we went for breakfast. While having breakfast they made an announcement that
the winds were going to strong so we were shortening the visit to the port and we would leave at 3 PM.
That meant I was going to get off and go to another hospital. Aren't vacations fun? NOT YET.
We went down to the tender and they were expecting me so we were handled with kid gloves. When
we got off there was an officer from the ship waiting and he escorted us to the driver that was taking us
to the hospital. She was a lovely lady named Jean. She went into the hospital with us and explained I
was on the cruise ship and that we were in a hurry to get back as the ship was gong to leave early.
They took off the splint and I got a look at my arm which is black, blue and yellow from the palm of my
hand almost to the elbow. They put a fiberglass cast on which is below my elbow and I have much more
movement than I had before with the splint. You cannot imagine how Aussies go to hositals; they go in
pajamas, diapers and nothing else and most importantly no one wears shoes. A family came in with 3
young kids (who all looked under nourished) and none of them were wearing shoes and 1 was
just in a diaper. When we were leaving the hospital the kids were walking around outside still (at least
one hour later) with shoes or more clothing and now they were with grandma. When we got into
Jean's car she said she was going to take us to the most important thing to see in Geraldton. We went to
the Sydney Memorial which is a beautiful memorial dedicated to 645 men who were killed when the
Germans blew up their ship on Nov. 9, 1941. They have volunteers that tak you on a tour but
Jean made sure they started one early so we could see it. As we were there Jean noticed that our ship
had moved from it's anchor and was heading closer to the shore and had actually berthed at a dock where
it was protected from the waves. We were very happy about that as it was tricky gettng into the tender.
As we were tendering back to the ship we got word because it was docked they were going to leave port
now at 6 PM. Since we were already on the back we decided we would just stay on the ship after lunch.
Tonight we are meeting a couple from cruise critic for drinks before dinner. More later.