Closer to home each day

Monday 28th
As we sail eastwards across the top of Australia the wind & sea have picked up and while the stabilisers are doing a great job of smoothing out the bumps, the spray is sometimes reaching deck 5 a bit. Not at all unpleasant but apparently the walking track on deck 10 has been closed because of the wind.  Now there is a great excuse to avoid the exercise!  As we travelled along we saw a flock of about 40 birds flying in "V" formation.  We passed them!  After a while they gave up and flew back to wherever, presumably at great speed, given the tailwind. The sea abated a bit later in the afternoon and we did our 13 laps (1 mile) around the top deck before dinner. Vivian appeased the sea gods by donating her white cap, so we sure to have fine smooth sailing for the rest of the trip.

Tuesday 29th
Yes, it is 2 months since we left on our adventure and every day we have to pinch ourselves as so much has happened. I look back at the 2,500 photos in amazement. Probably because Australia is so familiar, it doesn't feel quite the same as many of the exotic places we've been in.  The sea is much calmer and once again the clocks went forward last night, so at least we are now on Queensland time. We are just about to enter the Torres Strait, which is the closest point between Cape York & Papua New Guinea. From here we enter the Great Barrier Reef area and take a slightly more southerly course, down the east coast towards our next stop at Airline Beach on Thursday.  We rounded Cape York at 11.15 and are now moving closely down the coast. It is nice to see the coast and various little islands so close. 

Wednesday 30th
We are back to normal with our waking at 6.30 and we still see the coast of Australia out our cabin window (so sorry for those "POSH" passengers who have the sunrise but not the view).  We don't recall seeing so much coastline when we sailed up here on the Sun Princess last year, but I think that as we are a smaller ship, we are much, much closer to the shore, inside the reef.  We are making good progress and I estimate that we'll be off Cairns sometime later this morning. When we get out on the deck I'll get a good GPS reading on our exact location. 

Anyway, as usual on waking I phone Room Service for our cup of tea.  Each morning the phone is answered by Sandy, a very cheery and short Mexican girl. She is so cheerful and now I only have to day "Good morning Sandy" and she replies "ah yes, your tea' see you soon" and there she is within 2 or 3 minutes.  The early morning cuppa allows me to check the news and emails.  I have the NZ Herald app. which downloads the top 25 stories, so I can read them offline, which saves a lot of time & money. Not that the internet is costing anything as we got 1,000 free minutes when we boarded in Rome and I have been carefully allocating them. It is surprising how much you can do in a very short time:-)

Sure enough, we reached Cairns just before lunch and shortly after that we changed direction to a more easterly one and are now well out of sight of land. Tomorrow however we will be at Airlie Beach and the weather is looking great.  We have nothing planned, but will go ashore after the mad rush (it is a tender port - our last thankfully).

Thursday 31st
Well, Airline Beach has put on s great day for us - brilliant sun, a bit of breeze & calm seas. It is about 4.00 & we are on the deck watching all the boats coming back to the ship. We were lucky today that they have predominantly using the big cats, rather than the ship's tenders. Certainly leather seats and air-conditioning beat squashed metal seats, diesel fumes and bouncing through the water.  We were awake pretty early and once again the tender outside our cabin was lowered before 7.00, so we had a "respectable" breakfast before heading down for the boat to shore. We were very lucky that the held the boat for us, so we went straight on (& off we went).

A great reception on shore as they had over 20 volunteers to welcome & help passengers - a nice touch. Once again we elected to walk around the hill into town, which was still pleasant even though the day was starting to hear up. Walked the whole of town, including the market which they set up specially when cruise ships come to port (& undoubtedly ship prices too!). Vivian bought a couple of things for herself and we had a lovely flat white overlooking the harbour. There really wasn't much else to do, so we walked back to the dock and got back onboard about 1.30 in time for lunch and a rest on the deck.

Tonight is a Halloween theme and of course bring American based, they have gone all out. I can only guess that there'll be pumpkin soup for the rest of the cruise given the number decorated around the ship.  We are due to sail at 6.00 tonight and have yet another sea day tomorrow in advance of our arrival in Brisbane on Saturday.  We are meeting Alastair at the dock and will have lunch etc.  We haven't seen him since his wedding as his schedules never seem to coincide.  We were originally excited when we booked this cruise last year as it included Oman, where he was based, but that didn't last long!  Looking forward to it. 

There are quite a few passengers disembarking in Brisbane and I am not surprised, given that it is only really 1 more day to Sydney and then they'd have to fly back again. We are surprised however how many apparently got off on Darwin (& they'd only come from Singapore). However I suppose it shows how cheap the cruise was for them - enough said about that.