Blue Book of Boats

We enjoyed a lovely sail into Cairns harbor, with many boats, both sail and power around us. Large power cats are popular but I think most are not yacht,but tour boats.

As we come in to dock we pass many yachts at anchor, then still more on moorings and finally what looks like a marina with no floats,boats just tied to pilings bow and stern. I went to the starboard side of the ship and was surprised to see we are right alongside our dock, which is in the center of town.

Cairns is a lovely resort city,fairly small. There is a big convention center that looks like a flattened and curved concertina. One lady asked if it was the opera house. Sorry lady, wrong city!

The ship has a big “Aussie Barbie” going with suckling pigs, whole chickens on beer cans, and shrimp the size of lobster. The line up is long and the smoke thick. I have one beer with our “group” but I don’t eat. I head off the ship to see that town at about 6 PM. It is still light.

Coming off the ship, I turn right and start to walk along a wide sea wall which I can see extends a long way, curving off to the left. I can hear jumbled music in the distance, as if coming from several places.

“Excuse me.” I hear a voice from behind me. Two Australian women, are strolling behind me. “Are you off the ship?”

They question me about where the ship is from and I describe the voyage briefly.

I ask them where I can find a seedy bar for a drink and a snack, and they hold a brief discussion about which is the seediest place. The description sound I bit rough.

“Maybe not too seedy. I don’t want to get killed!”

They laugh and one says “Oh, that never happens. Well, no more than once a week or so.”

They walked with me to the Esplanade area where the restaurants, night market,and bars are. Along the way we passed one tree that is absolutely crammed with cheeping birds, green parrots. There are lots of trees, but it seems every parrot in Cairns lives in this one. It is dusk now and I spot a few bats flitting around. Big ones!

The Cairns waterfront is lively, and we come to a nice looking beach. I remark that it is lovely to have a swimming beach right in the middle of town.

“I don’t think you should swim there! Crocs!” and sure enough I spot what could be the snout of a crocodile just protruding out of the water. Behind the beach is a large salt water swimming pool. No crocs allowed.

I offer to buy them a drink. They exchange wary glances then agree. We sit in an open bar/pizza joint and have a drink, then share a pizza. We chat for an hour while we eat. Very good thin crust Pizza. One of the women is a sailing enthusiast, and she is excited to find that I have met Peter Blake, who is her hero. She’s a nurse from New Zealand. I can’t tell her much about him since I met him in San Diego at one of Bill Koch’s huge parties, and it was no more than a handshake and a brief chat.

When I try to get the bill, I find out one of the women has already paid it! I try and reimburse her, but she is having none of it. Aussie hospitality is amazing. They walked me most of the way back to the ship, taking me through the huge Night Market on the way. Most of the merchants are Chinese, and they sell everything from stuffed crocodiles to didgeridoos to boomerangs, as well as the usual junk. There are many massage booth, $15 for 40 minutes the signs say. They are busy. Tables are right in plain view, they have a sort of flimsy half curtain on a few of them. The masseurs are very young Asian men, and they don’t look to expert to me. What do you expect for $15?

I thank the ladies for their hospitality and we break off. I haven’t spent a single penny of my Aussie money. I’m back on board in time for the “Australian Cultural Show” which is five painted aborigines. The first five minutes is didgeridoo music, which starts out sounding like a badly tuned short wave radio (remember those? Anyone?). Then it expands into an amazing and haunting array of sounds.I liked that part but the rest is the standard “embarrass the tourist” stuff as they drag a couple of hapless men up on stage and try to get them to play the didgeridoo. They can only make farting sounds.

More later, I’m off to the Great Barrier Reef.