Last weeks in Australia and being in a life-size washing machine!

We only had a few weeks left cruising Oz before transited over a few months around Asia and this meant some new ports of call and first up was the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands, a collection of 74 mostly inhabited islands on the Northeast coast of Queensland and a good jumping of point for tourists who want to visit the Great Barrier Reef which unfortunately we would not be doing that cruise. I couldn’t complain however as I spent the morning at the amazing Day Dream Island resort, its days like that when you realise the despite running around with a camera in your hand you are getting paid to have the same experience that the guests you are with are paying hundred some times thousands of dollars to have.

The two pictures above show how truly stunning the Whitsundays are, usually the official website pictures look nothing like the pictures you take on the day but bar the photog boosting the saturation in the image they looked the same, I wish my video of the day was better (at the top of the article) but looking back I was in full 'get as many people waving as possible' mode and it really doesn't do the place justice.

Next week headed to Townsville for more awesome wildlife filming at the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary, though before we got there we had to take an 'interesting, tender ride. I sometimes forgot that not every reader is up to speed with all the cruise lingo so a tender is one of the ships smaller crafts this is used to ferry the guests ashore in the smaller ports of call where the Sun is too big to dock or there are other cruise ships in port before us.

As mentioned we were nearing the end of the season in Australia and the weather was starting to turn, of course being English it was still hot, warm and beautfiul everyday but the waves had been getting bigger the last few weeks and the seas had definitely been feeling getting a bit more turbulent which heralded the end of our Aussie season.

Anyway this particular morning it was little choppy and if the waves are too big that come over the pontoon on deck 4 at the water level then we have to abandon the port and there is no way of safely getting the guests ashore. Fortunately we were not there...yet, though I knew it was going to be a bumpy ride as they were not letting us on the top deck of the tender which was always my go to place to get great shots of the ship as we pull away from it but bar a few people looking a little green around the gills we safely made it ashore as you can see in the below video.

We headed for the Billabong Wildlife Sanctaury and once again I got to interact with and film almost every Aussie animal you could name from feeding Kangaroos and Turtles and seeing baby crocodiles and the obligatory holding a snake. The Koala's were definitely less active on this day but we did get some jumping crocs feeding action as well! Another great tour down but I remember some of the guests being a little apprehensive about the tender ride back as the wind had steadily been picking up throughout the day.

The tender rides back are usually fairly short 10-20 minute journeys, I'm sure it was at least double that to get back, the boat bobbing up & down like a demented spinning top as we were battered by the waves. I was always sat close to the exit so I could be first off and out of the way with all my equipment when we got back, this also meant in bad weather the waves would come right in one side of the tender and out the other. I learned this valauble lesson lunging for my tripod which was about to be washed to the depths if I hadn't reached it in time and there was also an open roof on the tender which meant whenever a wave hit us straight on we'd get a salty shower from above as well.

On a different contract this could have been a terrifying experience with screaming passengers and storm waters smashing into us (and indeed I'll mention the 'Mexico incident' in a later chapter!) but this was fun and that was largely down the to mainly Aussie guests. Everytime a wave would hit and drench us they'd put their hands in the air and shout with glee like they were on a rollercoaster. This helped keep the mood positive with most people cheering and laughing rather than vomiting and screaming, they even joked as they got back onboard with the excurions department 'you didn't tell us we were going on a water roller coaster as well!'

Later in that cruise I was extremely excited as we were going to be in Exmouth where they had one of the most amazing tours you could partake in which would be swimming with whale sharks!!! But as a junior I figured Travis the senior would be on ther tour, as thems the rules as senior you get first and best pick and I was used to that from the Coral, except Travis was a great boss and had managed to wrangle an extra ticket for me to come along as well! My underwater filming from the Coral had been pretty poor and I hadn't really recevied any training on how to shoot underwater and edit / colur correct the material afterwards.

The weather had deteriotated through the night and though you think of bad weather with storms, lighting and lashing rain, the wind we had was just enough to make it unsafe to get the passeengers ashore as Exmouth would be yet another tender port. When we are going to miss a port word usually gets round from the bridge to all the various departments so that they can all plan their contingency for a sea day, for most departments a sea day is not a good thing. You lose your time off ashore and have to work a regular minimum 13 hour day onboard again, managers like it as from a revenue point of view over 2500 people onboard for another unexpected day means they are going to spend more money.

For a videographer a cancelled port sucks because you obviously miss whatver you were planning to shoot that day, and because the rest of the photo department have to work all day now it was usually a good idea to make yourself scarce as you would now have most of the day off!

Naturally the passengers (even the chilled Aussies) are pissed off when they miss a port as they feel like they are getting short changed on their cruise and I can fully understand their annoyance but thankfully the safety of the ship and its crew is always the main concern. I was helping relay information from shore ex to the guests in the lounge I was in 'but its only a little bit choppy, look the weathers great outside!'

Indeed the weather did look great outside, blue sky, sunny but with a wind that had whipped up a dangerous swell, I relayed the info that the swell made it too dangerous for us to get them ashore but the PAX were not having it. 'Alright guys, follow me outside' I took the guests on my tour the short walk onto the open deck where they could see the one lone tender that the crew were testing 'ah well, it looks alright' one replied.

As he said that a wave sideswiped the tender and almost spun it sideways, 'guys, look thats where you need to get off the ship' as I pointed down to the deck 4 pontoon deck, and just to prove my point a wave crashed over the pontoon drenching all the crew that were there. 'ah yeah, see what ya mean' and they trundled back into the lounge.

Thats one of the main reasons ships have seasons in one location and then change itinaries as when the weather changes its time to move on, still I'd loved my time in Australia and it would be one of my favourite destinations over later contracts.

On the next cruise diaries - Crossing the Equator!