Summer holidays are over. I've spent the last few days in Fremantle
working on the ship systems, getting ready to sail. The scientific gear
is stowed and working (at last), the people are assembling tomorrow and
we're outa here at 1700.

I have found time to drink at a few pubs, go through the Maritime
Museum, which has a great example of a pearling lugger and a lot of
other interesting exhibits. Checked out the talent on Cottesloe Beach,
since there'll be a dearth of new women to look at for a while. I'm
pleased to say that the WA women wear as little as the Sydney ones, and
are equally well proportioned. Pity I don't have longer here, but I'll
be back.

Last drinks at Cottesloe tomorrow afternoon, more eye candy, then it's
back to work. Oceanography stations across the Southern Ocean, down to
the continent to retrieve summer expeditions and home to Hobart.

See you all in March, provided we don't get stuck somewhere. Try to
spend at least a little time actually sailing, or failing that talking
about sailing rather than expensive toys like cameras and telescopes. I
haven't bothered reading the last thousand or so posts, life's too full
ATM.

I can be reached at my usual shipboard email addy, the hotmail one
won't work. A handful of pix at

http://community.webshots.com/user/peter_d_wiley

Merry Christmas to all of you, and a happy new year. Let's hope 2005 is
a good one, because I'd like to forget about 2004.

Tomasso, catch up with you next time round; hopefully I won't spend a
week building a new computer system for the hospital and we can have
lunch. Say hi to Marky for me. Dropped my Mac laptop yesterday and the
case is somewhat 'modified' but your tax dollars work hard, I bought a
replacement yesterday too, on my Govt credit card :-) By the time HO
finds out, I'll be a long way away. Nice toy........ a unix operating
system with a pretty GUI and an auto-clone function from an existing
machine. Nice technology that works.

Ciao.

Peter Wiley