Cairns

We chose to stay at the Marlin Marina in Cairns, as it was central to everything and, once again, we needed to get a stack of work done. Cairns is our last stop in a large town until we get to Darwin, so we needed to do our final chores to become self-sufficient, i.e. get the water-maker installed.

Previous – Cape Gloucester to Cairns

We stayed for nine nights, and our first job was to find someone to patch the dinghy and fix the outboard motor. We found accommodating people at NQEA. Bill and Rob were fantastic. Bill came and picked up the dinghy from the marina in the morning (so we didn’t have to hire a car). We then found Matt, the marine mechanic, who picked up our outboards (the spare also wasn’t working), fixed them and dropped them back to us.

We spent the majority of our stay working on Thorfinn. While Dwayne installed the water-maker, fixed the diesel leak in the generator, repaired the engine mounts of our main engine and did general maintenance and clean up of other things. I did a spring clean, pulled everything out of the shelves, and dusted, cleaned, rearranged, and repacked.

The Esplanade

However, it wasn’t all work. We went for walks along The Esplanade, a vibrant ‘happening’ place. Early morning and in the evening, you can participate in group exercise with “Free Fitness on the Esplanade” or checkout the “Esplanart”. There was music, buskers and markets. People were barbecuing, playing, sleeping or swimming at the lagoon.

We saw the bats in the trees near the library on one of our walks and got some cute photos.

Catching up with friends

We were glad to have the opportunity to catch up with old friends Ian and Noe. It was a great pleasure seeing them again, their daughter Mia and new addition Ella. Generous, as always, they lent us Ian’s car for a day to fill up our jerry cans, buy a new battery and pick up our dinghy. We also took that opportunity to visit the Cairns Cruising Yacht Club for a quick drink.

The last night in Cairns, we caught up with Sarah again, as she and her daughter Tara were flying out to Japan the next day from Cairns. We also met up with Nat, an old friend from Uni that was up from Adelaide on holiday. We met them all at the ‘Salt House’ and had a drink, then Nat came to the boat with us and stayed too long drinking red wine!

The morning we departed, we did an early run to Rusty’s market to stock up on fruit and vegetables. We took time picking out produce that looked the freshest and would last the longest, as we will have little chance of purchasing fresh fruit and veg for the next four weeks.

There was a final ‘shipshape’ of the boat, and we were on our way north once again with thoughts of islands, cays, and reefs to snorkel.

Next up – Sailing – The Great Barrier Reef (Cairns to the Tip of Cape York).

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