January 4, 2026
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE - Hoping 2026 is a great year for you all! PLEASE COME VISIT - I have no plans to return to the USA.
We had a great New Years Eve celebration in Papeete, French Polynesia. A nice dinner with friends then dancing and fun with the New year's Baby, Paulie and capped off with fireworks over the Harbor!
( clockwise above) Me, Jimbo & Anna, Sarah & Bob, Marty ( visiting for a month), Sherrie, Daryl, Scott and Bosco.
Easter turned out to be a travel day for Bosco and I as we were extremely limited in when we could be seen by the Australian Border Control to disembark from the Ship, for a scuba diving adventure in Raja Ampat that I have had reserved, for over 18 months! We flew from Perth to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on Easter afternoon.
I have been really excited to get to Fremantle / Perth for my first time. I have had a few friends live here over the years and I have a second cousin, James Murphy, who I have only ever spoken too briefly, over the last 35 years and that I would love to meet in person. Jim is the older brother of Paul who I met up with in Melbourne a few weeks ago.
Greetings from FREMANTLE or FREO as the locals call it! Getting here took a long week at Sea, as we hid out and dodged wave surges from two cyclone systems. Our departure from Adelaide was timed to carefully avoid the path of Cyclone Narelle and we hugged the southern coastline of Australia, in the shallow waters of the Great Australian Bight . Later in the week we sheltered near Point Culver, before taking the turn and heading North along the western coastline.