February 21, 2016 – Hamilton Island, Australia

When we left Brisbane Friday night, a special pilot came on board the ship to help with navigating and crossing through the Great Barrier Reef. It’s now Sunday, and we are anchored off the coast of Hamilton Island inside the reef. Hamilton Island is one of 74 tropical islands that make up the Whitsunday chain between the Queensland Coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Hamilton is the largest inhabited island of the 74 and is the only one connected to the outside world by domestic airline flights. If you’re looking for us on a map, we’re located at 20°21′S 148°57′E (approximately 550 mi north of Brisbane and 320 mi south of Cairns). Interestingly, this is close to the same latitude in the Southern Hemisphere as Honolulu is in the northern hemisphere.

The ship anchored before sunrise this morning, so that about 300 passengers could catch excursions to the Great Barrier Reef. Some went by catamaran, some by helicopter, and others by seaplane; but they all departed between 6:00 and 7:00 this morning. It was a beautiful morning, so we hope they all had a good time. We chose instead to go by tender boat onto Hamilton Island and look around.

The island is actually owned by the government and is a national park. A family-owned corporation holds a long term lease to run a resort complex on about ⅓ of the island. The remainder of the island remains in its natural state. This single Australian family owns and operates the majority of accommodations and businesses on the island. There is a large marina where our ship’s tender delivered us. We were very impressed with the number of very large yachts docked both here and at the yacht club.

Motor vehicles are prohibited on the island with the exception of those for tradespeople and public transport (small buses). There’s a fleet of golf carts available for tourists to rent and are apparently included as part of some accommodation packages. Accommodations range from hotels to single family homes. There are some “permanent” residences for employees of the various businesses on the island.

We spent a few hours exploring the resort complex. At first we walked along Front Street, admiring the yachts and visiting some of the businesses – bars, restaurants, a grocery store, clothing store, a few art galleries, ice cream parlor, and plenty of water activities being offered. A free public shuttle bus serves major points of interest and accommodation sites. We hopped on the Yellow Line bus which was running today primarily for day visitors from our ship. This was about a 20-minute island tour, with stops at One Tree Hill (scenic overlook) and at Cat’s Eye Beach (the main hotel complex). Along the way, we listened to some commentary from the driver (who must be paid by the marketing department) and saw some of the nice holiday homes, which could be leased short term or purchased.

This is a true remote-island resort where you can “get away from it all,” and the owners have poured a lot of money into making it an upper end facility. The natural blue/green color of the water inside the reef is especially beautiful. We’re happy we were able to visit here, but can’t imagine returning – it’s a long way from home.

The ship departs Hamilton Island this afternoon at 3:00 pm; Captain Vorland and the Australian pilot will pick the best way out through the Great Barrier Reef again on the way to Thursday Island.

On board Crystal Serenity, the entertainment department staged another great World Cruise Special Event last evening in the Galaxy Lounge, a 45-minute show titled, “Jazz – A Crazy Rhythm.” There were 25 extraordinarily talented performers – primarily the Galaxy Orchestra, the Crystal Ensemble of Singers & Dancers, Curtis & Beverly (dancers), Jonathan Hawkins & Sara Hayes (soloists), and four featured performers – Arthur Duncan, Kenny Martyn, Jimmy Travis, and Bernard Walz. They played, sang, and danced to nearly every possible form of Jazz and wowed all of us. We can’t imagine how they put this show together in the short time they’ve to organize it since we left Sydney. Everything was outstanding.

Another group of enrichment lecturers are on board since Sydney, and we’ve attended a few of the lectures. One person we enjoy is Ken Rees – the destination lecturer, a veteran traveler as a foreign correspondent in television journalism in the UK. We love his sense of humor.

We’ve also both signed up for piano lessons which started yesterday and will continue for 45 minutes every sea day for the remainder of the World Cruise. These lessons are on Yamaha keyboard synthesizers. There are about 10 people in the class and the lessons are intended for complete beginners, which definitely describes us.

Jim & Ginny