Anchored at Port Douglas
16°28′10″ S 145°29′31″ E

The passage from Cairns to Port Douglas was actually only a few hours so we arrived at our destination around 8:00pm last night & dropped anchor out in front of the village. This is the farthest north we will go on our trip.

The ship spent today anchored at Port Douglas but Cath & I decided to stay on board. We were tired, we are not used to the heat & humidity & there were a lot of people lined up for the water shuttles because this was the ship’s last stop before heading back to Sydney.

This lifeboat is not much bigger than Santosha. However, it can carry a lot more people – rated for 220 passengers as a shuttle & 240 passengers as a lifeboat! During our ride to shore the other day we were truly packed in there like sardines!

Photo above: the lifeboat getting ready to be hoisted back on board. This is 3 decks below our balcony cabin. An interesting process to watch launching & recovery.

It was nice being on board a mostly empty ship – easy to find cool, quiet places to sit & relax. Fewer people on board also gives the ship’s staff a little bit more time to take care of the passengers.

We have a favourite cafe in our neighbourhood back home in London where we often get tasty cappuccinos but we have never seen anything like this!

I think I’ll ask Master Barista, Namchok, who is from Thailand if he wants to come home with us!

Cath is torn between cappuccinos or bringing our cabin steward home with us. No matter which way we look we are being spoiled.

After enjoying our cappuccinos we found a comfortable spot by the adults only pool to sit & read & snooze for a few hours.

Thankfully the 24 hour buffet was only a few steps away.

Later in the afternoon we took in a live music performance in the Princess Theatre & then went back up to the Lido deck to catch an Elton John concert on the outdoor theatre screen.

Before we knew it, it was time to eat – again! Then back to the Lido deck for a Latin Dance Party featuring the ship’s singers & dancers.

The pace is (almost) getting to be too much for us to keep up with! Not sure what we will do for excitement when we get home? It’ll be extremely hard to match this!

Tonight the ship is headed to a very small & remote island about 450 kilometers off the east coast of Australia. More about that tomorrow!

Cheers!

Cairns – A Special Reunion
16°46′30″ S 145°44′37″ E

Today our ship moored in the bay facing Cairns. We were very much looking forward to this port as we were going to catch up with two women we met last year when we were on our trip to Nepal.

November 2018 – Homestay Reception Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Louise & Judi – Nepal November 2018

Louise & Judi are from Australia & are lucky enough to live in Cairns. What a spectacular place to be! They have both been to Canada before & Louise actually lived & worked as a school teacher in Barrie, Ontario for a couple of years.

We had a really nice time with them when we were in Nepal. Last August when we initially decided to take this cruise it was a great coincidence that one of the scheduled stops was Cairns. Once we booked the cruise we sent Louise & Judi an email with the details of our itinerary & made tentative arrangements for a brief get together 4 months later!

We took a late morning tender to shore & waited for Louise & Judi at the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club adjacent to the water shuttle dock.

We enjoyed looking at all the boats in the marina and spotted a large ocean capable trawler called “Last Mango” from Wilmington, Delaware, USA. (with tan-coloured sun screens below)

Cath warned me that if sailing Santosha across the oceans is on my bucket list, she will fly to Cairns to meet me! I think Santosha is a great little boat but if I was going to try to cross an ocean I would much prefer to do it aboard Ananda.

Louise and Judi found us and took us for a brief driving tour of the immediate area & then we went to their condo for refreshments & a visit.

They pointed out many of the flowering trees and showed us some wallabies in a public park. What a pleasant reunion!

They got us back to the shuttle in good time as they like to be early like us! However, I would have not been at all disappointed if we missed catching the last tender back to the cruise ship & had to spend 2-3 weeks (or months?) here sorting things out.

Now it’s their turn to come & visit us in Canada!

We would have liked to have visited in Cairns longer but the ship would be leaving soon & the tenders would get very busy for the last hour or so.

We were glad to be back on the ship and in the air conditioning as it was 30+C with high humidity in Cairns (pronounced “cans”).

We enjoyed a nice drink on our balcony while watching the sunset over Cairns & Yorkeys Knob.

After that we had a delicious meal in the dining room and a good chat with our dining mates from Canberra, Peter and Vicky who are patiently answering our questions, sharing stories about kangaroos hopping down their street and people finding snakes in their baby’s cots and giving us recipes for Australian dishes (no kangaroo – yet).

We completed the evening by going to a live show in the Princess Theatre – a song & dance review of the music of Motown. It was really well done – one of the best we have seen on any cruise we’ve been on.

Tomorrow we are moored at Port Douglas – our last port of call before returning to Sydney.

Cheers!

December 1 – Glass Bottom Boat
20°18′6″ S 148°47′49″ E

Today was the first stop on the cruise where passengers had the opportunity to take a 6-hour excursion trip out to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. We considered doing that but the price tag was $350.00 per person & the majority of the time on the excursion is spent on the tour boat getting out to the reef & back again, so we decided to take a much more modest excursion ($40.00 pp) to a “local” reef just a few miles from Airlie Beach. I’m sure we can find another opportunity to spend the $620.00 we “saved” by not taking the big reef excursion.

Airlie Beach has no Pier facilities for cruise ships so everyone has to take a tender to shore. Getting about 2,000 people off a ship like this using tenders is quite a time consuming operation. The cruise ship launched several of its lifeboats & they were supplemented by 3 or 4 local tour boats. One of the local boats was a power trimaran that from a distance looked like something out of a James Bond movie.

Once we were on shore we took a short bus ride to another nearby Shute Harbour which was spectacular.

Most of the area was wiped put by a cyclone in 2017, with winds in excess of 250 kms an hour – boats tossed on the shore and sunk in the harbour, trees stripped of their leaves and wave action broke off huge chunks of solid coral from the reefs causing much damage.

We boarded a small glass bottomed boat that carried only about 15 people & headed towards a nearby uninhabited island that has a small reef facing the mainland.

It was a fun trip with an entertaining young fellow from the UK as our captain & tour guide & we saw lots of coral & numerous small fish. But the fish were pretty shy.

Look like a salad bar?

Cool brain coral!

Our tour guide explained that most of the coral is brown in colour and you have to have the right light and camera to capture some of the blues and reds. It was really interesting to see the coral moving and waving to its own rhythm. We had hoped to see some turtles as the tour guide had seen three that morning and seventeen on another trip but they were likely resting as it was almost noon.

At the conclusion of the hour-long reef tour we opted not to go into the town’s commercial area as it was very hot & humid. Instead we headed back to the ship to cruise the buffet on the Lido Deck. After all, it had been about 4 hours since we last ate!

On our way back to the ship we passed by a Nauticat motorsailer moored in the bay.

She looked very similar to Ananda. I imagine it would be fantastic sailing in these waters! (Big Sigh Here!) …. guess I’ll just have to find some comfort at the buffet!

Tomorrow we head to Cairns where we will see Yorkeys Knob 🙀

Cheers!

November 30 – Noon Sighting At Sea
23°29′34″ S 152°37′42″ E

We left Brisbane last night and sailed all day and night today on our way to Airlie Beach for arrival on December 1st. Our passage is taking us (relatively) near some very famous & exotic places in this part of the world.

Photo below & in the map inset above: the sun on the sea as we head towards Airlie Beach – no land in sight in any direction.

It was a pretty laid back day, with lots beautiful warm sunshine on calm water. During breakfast some people spotted dolphins swimming alongside the starboard side of the ship. We got a glimpse of them but we were not able to get any photos as we were too high up & inside at the time.

We have found a quiet place to eat outside on the back deck of the ship on deck 16, where it is shaded and there is just enough breeze to feel comfortable. Most people prefer to eat inside in the air conditioning & close to the buffet lines but we are soaking up this nice weather knowing that we will be back to freezing cold reality in a week.

There are dozens of things to do at sea! We get The Princess Patter daily newsletter delivered to our cabin each night. It provides times and locations of all the ship’s activities and events – bingo, trivia quiz shows, talent shows, card tournaments, arts and crafts, AA meetings, movies, live entertainment – plus offers from The Lotus Spa to have teeth whitened, fillers and Botox treatments guaranteed to make us look 10 years younger! You will hardly recognize us when we get home!

Cath opted for a Zumba class and I went to a presentation on the next three ports of call. We also found some quiet places to read and took in a Sting concert!

Unfortunately, he wasn’t on board but was up on the big outdoor screen on the Lido deck.

After dinner, the fountain on the Lido deck was synchronized to music playing on the deck’s massive entertainment sound system! Who needs Las Vegas?!?

Airlie Beach beckons …

Docked in Brisbane
27°22′57″ S 153°9′42″ E

We arrived in Brisbane around 7:00am & tied up at the industrial docks as there is no pier closer to downtown Brisbane that can handle a ship this size.

Photo below: mini panorama of the grain terminal where our ship was docked.

Cath & I decided to forgo the bus trip into the city & spend the day on board instead. It was a pretty quiet day.

Photo below: Downtown Brisbane off in the distance

With a lot of passengers off the ship for the day we enjoyed some of the comfortable lounging spots around the ship. Shortly before lunch I went to a GoPro 7 camera information seminar while Catherine went for a swim. Maybe Santa will read this blog entry….. 😉

We took in an afternoon high tea at 3:00pm in one of the ship’s main dining rooms. That was a fun way to spoil our appetite for dinner! But we managed to squeeze in a nice drink on our balcony & watch some other boats go by.

Not sure where this cruise ship was headed but it passed by very close to us.

A few hours later it was time for our ship to say goodbye to Brisbane. Maybe we will get to see the city another time.

After dinner we were pretty tired from doing next to nothing all day so we took a brief stroll around the upper deck & then turned in early for bed.

Another day at sea tomorrow. We need to be well rested so we can take in some of the relaxing activities on board.

Cheers!