Australian Adventure 2010 (continued)

Diary date: Monday 11th October 2010

Today I met Pete about 9.45 and we went to the 'Cafe on High', where Nena and I lunched the other day. After a delicious latte each we decided to visit the maritime museum. Pete had only had a quick look round last time he was here and I wanted to do the submarine tour, so we duly made our way there. We started off in the museum looking at the history of Fremantle harbour, then went on our sub tour. This was most interesting, even if the space was a little confined. HMS Ovens, the sub we looked around, was commissioned in 1968 and decommissioned in 1997 The chap in charge gave a very detailed commentary of everything we saw and we now know why the lights are always dim around the periscope area. It's so the sailors there don't lose night sight, as they use the periscope at night as well as during the day.

All bed space was miniscule to say the least, but the captain's cabin was almost worse. He had a to have a 'box' poked through into the control area to make his bunk long enough for him! There were also only 4 toilets for 70 souls!! And one shower. Each person (including officers and captain) was allowed to have one shower a week, lasting 90 seconds. The cook and the steward were allowed a shower every day for food hygiene reasons. This, of course, was luxury compared to early days of submarining and each sailor had his own bunk. Hot bunking which had happened in the early days was now a thing of the past. Apparently in the English navy when offered the luxury of a shower they opted for two buckets of water a week so they could have a good stand up wash!

After the sub tour we went for some lunch on the quayside and booked a lunch cruise for later in our holiday. We then went back to the museum and saw the rest of the exhibits, including the Australian Yacht that won the Americas cup a few years ago and the gold medal that one of the Oz team won in the Sydney olympics. It's the closest I shall ever get to Olympic Gold! All in all it was a good day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Tomorrow we are going whale watching and Weds we are having lunch with Aunty. Thursday at present is free so I may get some sunbathing in. Friday we are going over to Rottnest Island for Swimming and cycling. At the w/e there are two family BBQs.

I had a lovely surprise tonight when I got back. One of the girls has left our dorm so there was a bottom bunk free and I promptly snaffled it, so i no longer have to do mountaineering to get into bed!