Fremantle; searching for authenticity and fuel

April 17, 2026

Two kayaks on a calm lake, with mountains and cloudy sky in the background.

Sea days pass differently than land days. At sea the ocean and the ship's passengers are the changing features. Land life has extra distractions, vehicles, shops, museums, temples, churches, gardens, bird song, dogs barking, taxi drivers, venders, airplanes, the full extent of human activity.

During sea days I prefer to observe the ocean. I am aware of the passengers; like being part of an extended family or small village where you know most of the people a little and a few well. But the opportunity to be on the water for long periods is special. Sometimes, when the ocean is calm, a criss-crossing pattern may be seen on the surface, a delicate weave of vibration. I wonder if marine life is creating it, communicating. Other times the water heaves and agitates like an angry crowd is running here and there under a silk sheet. We sail six days from Adelaide to Fremantle, for the most part we encounter easy swells on this trip. The ocean lets us pass with tranquil, breathing heaves up and down.

When we arrive there is an art festival in progress downtown. Crowds of people have traveled by train from the suburbs. We walk in. Some streets are blocked, making way for displays of crafts, performers, food venders and pedestrians. People are all around, eating, talking, buying stuff and watching the performers. Clowns, singers and acrobats compete for attention and overhead huge soap bubbles float, generated by the children nearby. It is a perfect day and everyone is out to have a good time.

Two people paddle a wooden boat on a body of water.

On our second day in Fremantle we decided we wanted to see the unique animals and birds of Australia. This is our last chance. We leave Australia in the morning. We joined three other passengers to go to the zoo. Our research revealed a zoo that has collected them all in one place and many of them can be petted and fed! Perfect, personal interaction and convenience. No hiking for miles to spot a bird or a fleeing kangaroo. We rented an Uber. The trip took us a little more than an hour and became a tour of Fremantle past and present, which, like Hobart, got its start as a penal colony.

As we leave the port area we pass the structures the prisoners built from tan stone blocks. They have mostly been repurposed. One, which looks like a castle, is now a performing arts building. Part of the original prison is a tourist attraction. Other buildings, all identified by the stone work, may have been housing for the wardens, guards and government officials. Some of these look privately owned. Driving on we are soon into new construction; neighborhoods with their support structures of stores. Many are recognizable names; Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Hungry Jacks, McDonalds, Aldi's and Seven Eleven. Everywhere nature is pushed aside, left as clumps of trees here and there or a strip along the sidewalks and roads, squeezed. A lone koala has climbed a eucalyptus that grows on one of the “tree islands.”

Children playing near a boat, next to a wooden building. One child jumps, others sit or stand.

We proceed past new suburban developments for miles and miles and into and through the city of Cockburn, beyond which the housing slowly gets sparser, developments farther apart, by still there are a few new suburbs being built, many with solar panels on their roofs, looking alike and pressing into the rural land, trees burned down in advance, new roads being laid. We pass small ranches with a few horses each. This looks like Central Florida in the US, along the Caloosahatchee River.

One of our company wants to hug a koala and this influenced our choice of zoo. As we approach our destination things are building up again. In the middle of a new suburb, a dirt parking lot and a small sign on the chain link fence announce our arrival at the Cohuna Koala Park, aka, the Cuddle-a-Koala Park. A life’s work of one Australian couple.

We learn that they have, over 50 years, developed housing and collected animals for this park designed for children and their parents to enjoy and learn about the bazaar animals of their homeland. And as if that was not enough, they have strategically placed life-sized dinosaur sculptures throughout. You can ride a narrow gauge railroad to tour the park. It includes two tunnels!

And there is a partially finished observatory at the center. This is a magical place. The inventors are both very elderly and we met them as they were coming home and we were leaving. Their house is inside the park enclosure, 30 acres of chain linked sanctuary for a select group of kangaroos, koalas, parrots, ducks, geese, emus, dingos, wallabies, echidna and weird two ended lizards, that is keeping back the press of suburban development, for now. Colonel Sanders, Michael Jackson and John Denver all hugged koalas here as photos of them proudly announce. Unfortunately there are signs of deterioration. The zoo may not outlast its creators, but their son is ‘thinking’ about continuing it and not selling out to the crush of commercialism.

Fremantle is our last stop in Australia. Our itinerary has changed because of the economic shift the war in Iran has caused. Several ports have been cancelled because fuel is unavailable.

The equation that neo liberal economics (capitalism) follows, (let the markets control all the outcome), the war has now made its defects glare, and its inability to fix what it has broken. Extreme damage is occurring. People are getting less food, fertilizer and fuel. This is affecting every country. Prices are going up. Businesses closing or laying off workers. Fuel is being rationed in some countries and already in the ones we are in and will be visiting; Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia. Fuel is the blood of the economy, and money is essential for each person's survival. Money is perceived value. Emphasis on profit over sustainability = the destruction of life on our planet. The shift that this war has accelerated is taking us even deeper into a cavity of airless indifference and the care takers of that realm are even more obvious.

How do we get out of this? Can we influence the trajectory of the economy, influence history? Yes, if we insist on basic human needs being provided by every government world wide as its primary responsibility. This is not simplistic, it is absolutely necessary. A path that includes a designated, infrastructure for providing basic needs worldwide to every person from birth to death is the direction that is now unavoidable. For about 15 years Renew the Earth has been advocating a Parallel Currency structure that provides humanity, sustainably and efficiently, with their basic needs; food, shelter, education and healthcare. These things are the most obvious and cheapest things a government can do for its population. Many countries already do this for their military. Once humanity is stabilized, tensions lessen, migrations lessen, people can recover, think, create and innovate. More than half the World population that struggles with basic survival is lost to society. Without basic needs they cannot realize their potential and contribute. When they begin to have free time, new intellectual and work related skills will unfold. Ambitions that had been set aside proceed. The stabilization of Nature that has begun with renewable energies and electric vehicles can continue. Like the instructions in an airplane when the oxygen masks drop down, ”secure your own mask first before assisting others.”

We took a tour of our ship's engine room. The chief engineer assured us that our travels have been redesigned to make sure we can get enough fuel to continue. Even Biodiesel is being purchased. Its price is lower now than regular diesel and all the countries we will visit make it. The owners appeared to us on a video link to answer questions and reassure us. But they have no idea when the war will end and when its effects will end. Nobody knows. There appears to be a stalemate. We are told that Singapore will be our most reliable fuel hub, so we will return there several times. They can hold out longer because of their wealth. But that is referring to the wealthy and their activities. The rest of the population, which is the majority, is already suffering. Poor and elderly citizens are at risk. They cannot hold out for any long period. There is food scarcity and people are sleeping rough.

Maybe there is something positive that can emerge from this war, an opportunity opening for a surge of renewable energies and electric cars, (using fossil fuels as a condiment to build these industries), less willingness to allow governments to wage war and an understanding that every person has the right to access basic needs, and that this will bring about the best outcomes for society. If we remember how vulnerable we are now, (how dependent on fossil fuels, their sale and manipulation), and work towards these possibilities in our countries, we can influence history's course. We won't doom another generation to the horrors of war.

Humanity has survived many “slings and arrows” of misfortune over many thousands of years but at this point we cannot understand how we will get out of this mess. Nobody knows how it will end.

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Tasmania, Hobart

April 7, 2026

Our stop in Melbourne was only for a day. There are plans to return after we visit Tasmania, which is just south of Melbourne. When you look at a map you can see where the island broke from Australia, a ragged triangle torn from the continent. England brought their convicts here to establish a penal colony in 1803, (convict transport ended in 1851, 50 years later) the colony eventually became Hobart, the capital city. Convicts were brought by sail. All the way from England around the southernmost tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas. A cape historically known to clipper ship sailors as a significant hazard, notorious for mammoth rogue waves of up to 30 meters (100 feet). What could these unlucky people have done to be banished on such a dangerous trip and so far away to an “uncivilized” island? Turns out prostitution and unwed pregnancy was enough to get sent there if you were a woman. And being an orphan, if you were a child.

Australia

March 25, 2026

The yellow pilot boat is approaching. A pilot will be brought onboard to guide our ship through the harbor. As we progress, a stretch of islands pass us on the left then, the coastline, on both sides. Sailboats, white triangles against the dark blue water, shine in the distance. Cliffs drop sheer from the pastureland to the tan beaches. Dark green groves fill the crevasses. We cruise along under the dome of the sky. Soon we will be docked at Port Melbourne, Hobson's Bay, Australia. Living life onboard, traveling around the world, I feel like a spirit watching the living as they go about their activities. I am a temporary exhalation, undetected then gone. But their doings remain in my mind. Humans are so very busy, especially the young adults. It takes significant aging to bring on stillness and reflection. My obscurity can make me sentimental. I feel a general affection for anyone who passes. I saw a baby watching sea gulls eat the French fries that someone had tossed to them. I imagined her forming her own impressions of everything around and not yet named. I wished her well and hoped that the war would end soon.

Sydney Australia to New Zealand

March 12, 2026

The most important thing we have to do, now that we have re boarded our ship in downtown Sydney, is to increase the number of pages in our passports. Most countries will stamp a whole page and sometimes two. Our passports, though new, only had twenty eight pages. This will not be enough to get us around the world! So we made an appointment with the US Embassy, along with 50 other passengers, to address this issue by purchasing larger passport books which have 52 pages. The Embassy was new and modern, the employees good natured and efficient, considering that we descended on them all at once. We conducted our business in an orderly manner under the watchful eyes of the US President, Vice President and Secretary of State, whose framed photographs dominated the far wall.

Hospital, Sydney, Australia

February 23, 2026

After all our planning for Jeff's next operation and waiting out the days till we arrived in Cairns, Australia, we finally flew to the Sydney airport. It was evening when we got there and both of us were exhausted. We both thought why call an Uber, there are a bunch of taxis hanging around, just take one of them to the motel. That was a mistake. We ended up paying $100 for a 20 minute trip in no traffic. Uber would have been half, I found out later. Since then we have taken several Uber rides in electric cars. And they have been excellent experiences. Australia has been importing Chinese made electric cars. We got to ride in a BYD and Uber drivers like to talk. We conversed with a Japanese driver and an Indian driver, both men. Both had been in Australia about 15 years. They seemed to like being in the big city. Both agreed it is generally too expensive. The driver from Japan, his wife works in the hospital and they have children, he likes the flexibility of the job so he can be involved with school and activities. The Indian driver has a son and would like to return to India so his son can experience his homeland. We are resting at our motel and I am outside watching the wild cockatiels.

Sea days

February 11, 2026

We have several sea days before we arrive again in Cairns, Australia. This means we will not see land for a while. The rhythm of sea days is very different from shore days. There are a variety of activities you can participate in. Almost anything you can imagine is being invented as a result of the variety of people onboard, some of whom want to duplicate the entertainments they enjoyed where they used to live. This is a residential cruise ship so a lot of the passengers are onboard long-term, meaning many months or years or the rest of their lives. The longest stay, if you “buy” your cabin, is 15 years. When Jeff and I bought our cabin that was all that was offered. Now you can buy a cabin for 5 years. Each circumnavigation takes about three and one half years. We are going to try to stay onboard for at least one circumnavigation. Before the sea days began, we visited two of the islands of Tonga. At the first stop, people scuba dived over a reef right next to our ship

French Polynesia, the islands

January 27, 2026

The float of cloud drifts and encircles a mountain leaving just the very top, a pointed witches cap poking through. These islands have the most magnificent mountains. They brood around the harbors, snagging the clouds that pass. No doubt they have inspired fantastic stories. The cloud shadows create chameleon-like changes on mountain surfaces, making them even more expressive than oceans that amuse themselves by hiding what they contain; mountains are hysterical by contrast. Always looking for attention. “Look. Look again!, what about this?” They may hold a pose for a while seeming docile, then you look up and they have disappeared. White mist covers just a grey suggestion, then suddenly black silhouettes like broken giant teeth rise defiantly. So much animation, millions of years after volcanic upheavals shook these mountains from the sea depths.

Notes from Fiji hospital, Oceana Hospital system and Denareau private hospital

January 13, 2026

Medical emergencies all have a similar feeling. Intensity, urgency, a changed perception of time; only events and human encounters progress, time seems warped, unimportant. After several sleepless nights because Jeff was having difficulty peeing and he was beginning to have pain, he went to the onboard clinic to get catheterized. There were three attempts with successively larger catheters. This was painful and distressing for him, though he kept joking about it, “this is not good sex!” The attempts were unsuccessful. He was given pain killers and an ambulance met us at the dock for a 10 minute ambulance ride to the hospital. Jeff is an 80 year old man with an enlarged prostate so he normally has trouble peeing. But this time it stopped altogether and there was blood. We are waiting at the hospital for the urologist. Nurses and a general practitioner have spoken to us in English. Very kind, polite, casual and patient. The urologist arrives and talks with Jeff. He is going to get the operating room ready and put Jeff out. Then he can do the operation. We wait in our curtained off cubicle Jeff is lying on a bed. A woman who came with her husband, who has high blood pressure, is behind the curtain to the left of us. He had collapsed. She is reciting the Lord's Prayer and Hail Marys over and over in an emotional whisper. She is crying. A young man is in the cubicle to our right. He seems to have broken his arm. It is all wrapped up in white gauze. Earlier a man had been stung by something and ointment was applied. A pregnant woman has come in. This is a modest hospital, very basic, two floors. They have what they need. A few flies buzz lazily around, but most are killed by the electric device on the wall. A very slight smell of urine is in the air. We arrived here about 8:30. It is now 2:00. Jeff has had an ultrasound, blood pressure checks and an EKG. Now he is in a wheelchair waiting for the nurse to take him to an operating room. The waiting room has about 10 people waiting. About 50 chairs in all. Not terribly busy for a Saturday. Light and darker coffee colored skin, attractive, rounded features and large expressive eyes set apart the native population. They are only a little curious about us. There is no rushing here.