Not all plain sailing!

On Thursday just gone, we reported on the Wild, Wooly, Wet Welcome Freo turned on for the Coral Princess after her 15 day voyage from Auckland around the Top End of Australia and onwards down the West Coast to Freo.

Coral Princess, in all her glory, departing Fremantle yesterday, 6 September 2024, after an eventful arrival the day before. Credit Jean Hudson

In our report we said the lucky guests had made port calls at Sydney, Brisbane, Willis Is, Cairns, Darwin, Kimberley Coast, Broome and Geraldton on their way to Freo. Turns out that bad weather struck the voyage well before Fremantle, indeed from near Exmouth, and as a result the Princess wasn’t able to call at Geraldton as planned. Which is a pity because Gero has become something of a place to visit these days.

Sharon, one of the guests who has sailed on the Coral Princess before, has been in touch with the Shipping News to explain that as soon as the ship hit the point in Exmouth the weather changed, but became worse once they passed Geraldton, and was a real challenge as they approached Fremantle Wednesday morning.

Sharon said when the Captain first tried to come into Fremantle around 6am on Wednesday, the winds were so strong she couldn’t open the sliding door to her balcony cabin. ‘The wind was howling extremely loudly in the room and the rain soaked our balcony’, Sharon said, adding, ‘I’ve never seen this happen before and I was on her last year.’

It seems the ship’s indoor pool was closed early in the morning on the Tuesday, and after lunch the outdoor pool was closed as well. The rocking was so pronounced, most folk kept to their cabins.

Before Coral Princess made her dash into Freo’s inner harbour, through the heads, on Thursday morning (as this great gallery by Jean Hudson from her secure landbase show), she had lingered out in Gage Roads with the cargo ships in the rain and hail awaiting her chance to make the dash into Port. After all, there was a load of passengers to disembark.

Sharon says, ‘The captain did a great job to keep us safe even though quite a few of the guests were ready to get on land; it was a waiting game as time was not on our side.’

Here is a great video Sharon took of the overflowing outdoor swimming pool.