A Sea Day and our Last Port Stop: Broome

March 14

Once we left Darwin, there was a sea day to Broome, after which we would have our last two sea days to Geraldton, and then reach the disembarkation port of Fremantle for Perth. There were lots of events that needed to be crammed into a few days, so the entertainment staff turned up the activities.

First up, Executive Pastry Chef Harald Neufang demonstrated the proper way to make the quintessential Australian dessert: Pavlova.

There are a few tricks to making pavlova, which is not
quite the same as regular meringue.

It looked delicious; of course, we have the recipe and Harald’s helpful hints so it may be something we try once we can invite guests over again.

Right after this demo, the annual World Cruiser event ‘Waffles on the Bridge’ took place. The waffle irons, strawberry sauce and whipped cream were all set up on the navigation bridge, so we had a bridge tour, a chance to chat with the officers on their turf, and a delicious ‘brunch’.

Waffles with strawberry sauce and whipped cream,
with a view!

Who said we could go paperless????

Larry with Cruise Director Gary Hunter and Hotel Director
Scott Peterson

And later in the day, some of the barkeeps did a cocktail demonstration in the Avenue Saloon. Henrique and Denis showed us how to make a few of the really popular cocktails, and gave a few people the chance to help out. Here, Kathy mixed one of them:

And in the evening, another impressive sunset.

March 15

Had we but known it, Broome was our last port stop. We didn’t find out until March 17, but our scheduled stop at Geraldton on March 18 was cancelled – by the residents who decided it wasn’t safe to have a ship in town. Understandable in the circumstances, but we were still a bit upset at the assumption that we might bring the virus into their community after all the precautions we had been taking. Oh, well; one more day to get the packing done!

Broome is a very interesting town, partly because it has some of the highest tidal swings in the world; we heard that it was second only to the Bay of Fundy, which puts it slightly ahead of Skagway, Alaska, if you’ve been there. The ship had to approach during a half-hour window at high tide, which meant that we also had to leave during a similar window in the evening.

Our tour in Broome was Pearls, Crocs and Dinosaurs – an interesting combination, so, once a gangway could be installed for the authorities to board and the ship was cleared, our tour set out.

The tide was so low by this time that they couldn't use a regular
gangway. They jury-rigged this one to the Promenade Deck
railing so the port authorities could board.

The first stop on our tour was in the town itself. Now, given that Broome is also in a very isolated part of Australia, it is quite popular in the winter season when the temperatures are a little more moderate than in the south. Lots of activities and caravan, or trailer, parks dot the area. But as we visited at almost the beginning of autumn, there weren’t many of these visitors in the area yet.

Broome is also the closest point for supplying the oil drilling rigs in the Indian Ocean with both materials and crew. There are regular helicopter services as well as cargo and specialized ships traveling between them, and town is the place for crew members to go on their time off.

But Broome’s real history came from the pearling industry, which was established in the 1860s, not to harvest pearls themselves, but mother-of-pearl, the iridescent inside of the oyster shell. At Willie Creek Pearls, we were given a very interesting talk about the helmet divers who did all of the very dangerous work for over 100 years until improvements in diving technology and safety changed the method for good. The last helmet dives were made as late as 1975.

The original divers were mainly aboriginal women, but in the early 1870s, legislation prohibited women from diving. After that, it was mainly Japanese and Pacific islanders who donned the heavy woolen garments, diving suits, helmets and weights, and, with their thin rope lifelines as the only communication with the surface, traveled along the seabed picking oysters, getting air through an air hose as they signaled for it. This was an exceptionally dangerous occupation; there is a cemetery in Broome where 919 Japanese divers who lost their lives while working were laid to rest.

Nowadays, as there is not as much demand for mother-of-pearl, except for things like caviar spoons, Broome has become a central point in the world for cultured pearls. The seas here have the perfect conditions for oysters to grow very good quality pearls, and this has been a big part of Broome’s economy for the past 50 years or so.

A diver mannequin suited up for a dive, beside
the pump that would supply fresh air to him.

A stamped-out shell. Mother-of-pearl was
the material of choice for buttons between
1870 and 1930, before plastic became prevalent.

Two large, and heavy, shells. The divers would have
to carry between 20 and 30 back to their boat
every dive.

One of the boats. Not very big, not sitting very deep in the water,
they were subject to all kinds of weather conditions. In really
bad storms they would also lose divers when air hoses and
lifelines broke.

We did, of course, have an opportunity to check out Willie Creek’s showroom. The fifth largest saltwater cultured pearl in the world was harvested by Willie Creek, and the manager showed it to us:

This was an extremely interesting and eye-opening introduction to Broome. We looked forward to our next stop - the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile and Wildlife Park.

At the park, they specialize in taking in ‘difficult’ animals, those that can’t stay in the wild or in other zoos.  Our guide, who has been with the park for many years, introduced us to a number of these guys – and we certainly wouldn’t want to be anywhere near one without a fence between us!

These little guys were only hatched on
the previous day.

This ugly looking pond contains 70 male saltwater crocodiles.
Normally, they would fight over territory, but these have
all been together since they were hatched. The green algae
works as a sort of sunscreen for the crocs.

American alligators - some of the few in Australia

Isn't this everyone's worst nightmare?

Our guide had been around a long time, and had made
friends with some of these guys

Better him than any of us....those jaws are
much to close to that hand for comfort.

Along with all sorts of other animals, the park also has a couple of cassowaries. The cassowary is believed to be one of the oldest species, with direct ties to dinosaurs. It managed to hang on as long as it has because Australia has been isolated from other land masses for so long. In fact, there are some indigenous plants that will only germinate once the seeds have passed through the digestive system of a cassowary!

Our last stops were at the oceanside. The first was Cable Beach, a 22 km long stretch of white sandy beach – complete with the signs telling swimmers to be careful of: tides, currents, jellyfish, and crocodiles. Why would anybody want to risk it???

Cable Beach is so named because it is the Australian terminus of the telecommunications cable that runs between Australia and Java.

After spending a little time at the beach, we rode around to Gentheaume Point, for the ‘dinosaur’ aspect of our tour…not that the crocodiles and cassowary weren’t dinosaurs in their own way. There are actual dinosaur footprints in the rocks at the point, that are only visible during low tide. As there were not many people there, we weren’t sure if we were seeing some of the prints, or if we were a little too late as the tide had started to rise.

We thought this indentation might be a dinosaur print, but
couldn't be sure.

The area from Gentheaume Point to Cable Beach, in the background

The tide was rising – we could see that from how the ship sat at the pier.

On our way back from the tour, compared to:

In the morning when we left. The lifeboats were
much higher above the pier in the afternoon.

Expecting to leave around 5:30, we prepared for dinner and headed up to the Sunset Bar for sailaway….but there was none. We watched an amazing sunset, and the captain announced that we weren’t moving because one of the azipod propellors had been fouled by some rope.

There was a diver down trying to free the prop, and we’d just have to wait and see how he did. Of course, with the tide situation, we only had a specific window to leave, otherwise we’d be sitting there overnight. Larry also hoped that there was somebody keeping an eye on things underwater, as those big saltwater crocodiles come out at night.....At this point, we didn’t yet know about Geraldton.

The pilot boat on standby for when we could finally leave.
Having seen some of the wildlife here, we wouldn't
have ventured into the water in the dark!!

Finally, most probably just at the edge of our window of opportunity, the captain announced that the diver had been successful, and that we would be leaving shortly. Never a dull moment on Crystal Serenity.

The schedule called for one more sea day, then Geraldton and finally Fremantle. Everyone was already talking about packing, arranging to ship suitcases home, and the COVID-19 crisis at home. But there were still a few activities planned as well.