It’s Valentine’s Day and by 7 a.m. the ship was offshore at Yorky’s Knob,
which is about half an hour drive from Cairns, a gateway to the Great Barrier
Reef. The passengers were to be tendered to the mainland, which was predicted
to take 30 minutes. The ship could not get too close due to the underwater
reefs lining the coastal waters. After
breakfast in the Windjammer buffet, an announcement stated that tendering was
delayed due to high winds. It was a
sunny day with temperature about 27 C at 8 a.m.
The winds were stronger than yesterday morning. Larry was a slight bit queasy this morning. After
an hour wait in the Aurora Theatre, the captain broadcast that it was not safe
to deploy the floating tender pontoon dock.
He indicated that they could not set the anchor as the wind (94 km/hr)
was moving the ship and the anchor was being dragged along the bottom unable to
keep the ship stationary. This decision
resulted in all excursions being cancelled and the cost was credited to
people’s shipboard accounts.
High winds cancelled another day’s land
tour from the tendered port of Punta del Este, Uruguay, back in February 2012
when we were scheduled for a land tour to explore the area.
The tour that we had chosen would have taken
us to the village of Kuranda for some free time where we might have visited the
Butterfly Sanctuary and Birdworld. Also included would have been a trip on the
historic Kuranda Scenic Railway, travelling on high wooden trestle bridges to
view the Daintree Rainforest surrounding the route. Scientists speculate that
it is the oldest surviving tropical rainforest on earth. There was also a ride on
the Skyrail Gondola to enjoy the tropical landscape below us.
People going to the Great Barrier Reef and
Green Island would have taken a 90 minute catamaran voyage out to the world's
largest coral reef system. With four
hours there, passengers not diving, snorkeling or swimming would enjoy ten
minutes aboard a semi-submersible structure to gaze at the coral and sea life
for less than 15 minutes, or a short time in a glass bottom boat, so we did not
choose that option to see the Great Barrier Reef and did not even consider the
helicopter option, when planning our activity in the Cairns area. The Great
Barrier Reef is considered one the Seven Wonders of the World.
Like some of the Australian cities, Cairns
had a cathedral, famed for its themed stained glass windows, and a botanic
garden filled with lush tropical plants that we only see at home as small house
plants. There would be an opportunity to
browse an opal store, since opals are mined in Australia.
Cairns is located in the northern part of
the state of Queensland in the north eastern part of Australia. It became a town
when gold was discovered in the area in the 1870s. It is propone to Cyclones and the reefs in
the area have caused many shipwrecks.
The area had, for thousands of years, been home to Aborigines. This part
of the South Pacific Ocean is known as the Coral Sea.
During the afternoon, the pilot addressed
the ship when we passed the atoll where Captain James Cook’s ship struck a reef
in 1770, damaging the bottom of the ship and needed to find a place on the
mainland, with its trees, to repair the damage.
The
afternoon was spent reading on Deck 5, on the shady side. The wind was still
strong the humidity seemed high and the temperature was over 30. We took periodic walks around Deck 5 to get
our daily step count over 11,000 steps. We are both on our second book from the ship’s
library. The cinema plays a different
movie each day beginning at 7 a.m. with the final showing at 10 p.m. There is also a nightly movie played at 9:30
p.m. up on the big screen secured to Decks 11 & 12.
Dinner tonight we sat with Bob and Maureen and watched the daylight
fade. Because of clouds along the
horizon there was no colourful sunset.
The appetizers chosen were Cream of Asparagus soup, Calamari Fritte and
Seafood Salad including octopus, shrimp, red onion, bell pepper & kalamata
olives. Saltinbocca di Maiale was the popular main course choice. It was pork
tenderloin scaloppini, prosciutto, mushroom and polenta cake. Dessert choices
were Baklava, Caramal Flan and baked chocolate cake with passion fruit crème
brulée.
After dinner Traffle Duo were playing dance
music in the Deck 4 Centrum so we danced for about 30 minutes before the
Strings Alive duo show in the Aurora Theatre.
There are two more Sea Days before we
arrive in Darwin where we will be docked.
Final step
count 13078 = 13.63 miles
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