Itinerary Chg #5: Kangaroo Island Canc’d

I must have had a premonition last night when I crossed my fingers for today’s tender port — Kangaroo Island — as it was canceled at some point overnight.

In the wee hours of this morning I woke up to see ocean spray flying by our window. The ship seemed to be traveling at speed. A speed that I felt was much higher than necessary to reach Kangaroo Island … a mere 60 NM or so from Adelaide. The thought that we must be bypassing KI passed through my mind. But I dismissed it and snuggled back under the comforter. Perhaps if I had turned on the light, I would have seen the letter that was slipped in under the door … confirming my thinking.

The letter stated the reason for the cancelation as being weather-related. Captain Giulio expanded on that in an announcement around 8:30a. The culprit is a cyclonic system bearing down on the region. We’re attempting to outrun the storm by canceling KI so that we have a better chance of keeping the rest of the itinerary intact 🤞🏻. If the current conditions are anything to go by, we may well be succeeding.

That said, the captain did say that things will more than likely change later today. He expects the winds to grow stronger, the sea state to increase from the current 8-foot swells we’re experiencing, and the temps to drop. No surprise — especially with the latter — as there is nothing to stop the cold winds coming up from Antarctica to our south.

Thus, we have a day at sea today and will arrive in Portland, Victoria tonight around 7:00p for an overnight stay and then pick up our regular schedule 🤞🏻

The good news is that because we are going to return to KI for an extended stay during our overland, we had no plans to get up at o’dark thirty for what was to have been a scheduled 7:00a arrival today. In fact, having gotten to bed after midnight, we woke up later than usual to start our day.

By the way, since we skipped KI, the 30-minute time change we would have made tonight happened automatically this morning, catching everyone unawares. No matter. Easier on the body to lose time during the day instead of overnight.Read more