En route to Darwin, Australia. Arrive on 12-Feb.

There is only a single salt-water pool on the ship (on deck 8) – remember the maximum number of guests is 388. There are two small hot tubs at the far end and two showers for those entering/exiting the pool. The deep end is closest to the camera and is two meters deep. There is a hand rail along the side of the actual pool within the water. You may notice a shallow ring between the deeper pool and raised border – more about that below.

There is also a strange sculpture at the far end that I don’t understand at all.

When we play water volleyball (sea days at 3:00pm) the hand-rail stairs at the far end are removed and a net is attached to the near side of the showers. On the shallow end the game area is the pool, on the deep end the far game area is the ladders. Depending on the number playing either the near or far side of the deep end ladders are out.

So, the shallow ring. I didn’t understand the necessity of that shallow area until the ship was in some rough water. There were four-foot waves – In. The. Pool. The shallow area is a buffer between the deep pool and the border that reduces the height of the pool waves and keeps water in the pool.