MO0309 Broome

MO0309 - day 14 - Broome
We were originally scheduled into Broome at 8am but were advised when we boarded that wewould not arrive until 10:30 and apparently all tours were resecheduled. My 8:30 tour would now be leaving at 11:15.
It turned out that we were even later than the revised schedule. This was due to both the tide and the wind. It didn't seem terribly windy, but the port is not sheltered and the wind plus the rapidly changing tide made the approarch less than desirable. In 58 prior cruises, I do not remember a delay due to winds for a pier-port - for a tender port, of course, but never when docking.
Despite the delay, my tour, Broome Explorer, left at 11:30. Capt Stein was already on the pier, making sure the early tours got off ok.
Shortly before the tour, I went to my cabin (on deck 2) and we were at pier-level, but, by the time I got back to the ship around 3pm, we were well below the pier. The tide certainly was changing rapidly.
The tour was as described, but we travelled in circles quite alot in order to see everything listed. In contrast, we had heard about PNG tours which seemed to be going in circles to stretch those tours to the allotted number of hours.
It was a good tour and both Toni and I enjoyed it. I guess her major disappointment previously was the wasted time in getting from the ship to the first point of interest. This time we stopped quite often because Broome is fairly small and compact.
During the tour we ran into our table mates who had taken the shuttle into town in order to meet a local friend for lunch. They did not get off the ship until well after 12 because they had to wait until all the tour participants left. They will be taking a private tour this evening - a sunset camel ride on Cable Beach - so they will not be at dinner. I'll report on their experiences, but I don't know when I'll see them next.
We were scheduled to leave Broome at 8:30pm, per the revised schedule, but I have heard that we may be even later than that due to our late arrival this morning.
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PS: Hi, Steve. Are all my buddies from work followint along with you?