Sunday February 24th 2013

Latitude: 24,15,30S
Longitude: 160,12,30E
Course: 252 degrees
Speed: 20.3 knots
Status: Day 50 – at sea
Notes: As we are approaching Australia, we are required to fill in forms for their Customs and Immigration checks. In other countries, these checks have been done for us by designated staff from the ship, but here we already had immigration staff from Australia on board today and we had to present ourselves, along with our passports, entry & exit cards all filled in, to the immigration staff. We were given designated times to attend these checks, starting from 9.00am, but we were also advised we could attend early, from 7.30am, if we wished to do so. I decided to go early, and discovered that a great many others had had the same idea! It didn’t take too long to be seen though. They checked the details to ensure I was who I said I was, including the passport photograph. My passport was then returned to the ship’s staff for safekeeping. Job done!