Cruising is certainly an indulgence and it can be so relaxing. Further, as mentioned on several previous occasions, it affords us the opportunity to observe not just amazing sun rises and sets, but to appreciate the wonder of this twice daily occurrence, at least at our usual latitudes. Perhaps this will be the last time I will bang on about this although it will not be the last time to post images when they are captured.

In any case, this morning was a wonderful sunrise which I managed to capture on video, except the first blink as the sun emerged over the ocean. This was a subtle educational moment for me as while I could see the glow of the sun escalating, I was not quite ready as, almost like a switch, there was the very edge of the sun’s disc, catching me unprepared. Shrouded behind some cloud, it was almost possible to observe directly with the naked eye as that disc revealed its circularity and its rays slowly gathered in intensity.

I was pleased to capture almost all of this experience, except that first emergent light some seconds prior, so my hunt for that opportunity to again capture this process just prior to the sun’s disc popping continues tomorrow. Nevertheless, what was unique for me was how the sun was apparent as a clear disc in my visual field and video camera, rather than as more diffuse sphere in the clear sky unencumbered by the filtering of clouds in-between. Simple explanations for course but I was chuffed to get these images shown below.

Now that was an indulgence but one I was pleased to have observed. My travelling partner suggests I must have been an Aztec in a past life, given my sun worshipping. Sun, the moon, and ships. Soon we will be on land, so my indulgences will hopefully be a little more grounded, but still somewhat esoteric.

As at 14:00 local time, we are passing Dirk Hartog Island to our east, in the region of Shark Bay, WA. Our first sighting of land this day. Late last night we did pass a number of sea-based oil rigs and infrastructure in the North West Cape region near Exmouth. These were very apparent in the dark night even though I guess we may have been 20+ km away.

The rather vague image also attached below is the southern end of Dirk Hartog island, which looks rather rugged from this vantage point. I assume typical of the terrain along this coast, not being conducive to landing from the sea. Now at 16:30 local time, I believe we are now in sight of mainland Australia, being Steep Point, the western side of several peninsulas jutting into the Indian Ocean in the Shark Bay region.  It is pleasing after extended periods of endless ocean views to observe land and perhaps, we shall track down this Australian coast in sight of the mainland till Fremantle on Sunday. Anyway, we shall see.

	Sunrise on the Indian Ocean, about 5 seconds after the sun appeared.
	Soon after per image above. I have this on video so it was pretty cool watching this awesome star of ours rise on the horizon.
	This was Kimberley Coast (Prince Frederick Harbour) as a simple contrast per my notes above. I guess while cruising one can become a bit ‘out there’ with lots of time to reflect and contemplate. I am grateful to be having this time, as I do know many people of this world may never.
	A pretty dim image of Dirk Hartog Island (I think) from a large distance away. Will remove if it is a bit too fuzzy for this blog.