We’re on our way north from Sydney for what turned out to be three sea days since it was too rough for us to get ashore at Mooloolaba which is near Brisbane. So here are a few pics en route.

And a nice dinner party with Marty’s bridge playing buddies and their spouses as well as our bridge instructor team, George and Anne.

We finally arrive at the town of Airlie Beach which is the access town for the Whitsunday Islands. Here’s what the town looks like from our anchorage.

We did not visit Airlie Beach as our activity was to cruise around the Whitsunday Islands. The Whitsundays reminded us of the San Juan’s except they did not have houses, villages, and wooded hills. They do have charter sailing programs here but that now is relatively low on my list compared to other options in the world due to limited diversity for cruising.

The next morning we arrive at Cairns which is our jumping off point for snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.

Here’s the dock with a number of catamarans for the snorkel trips to the reef.

And now we’re n our way out to the reef which was about 35 miles out and 1.5 hours in the catamaran each way. There were about 200 of us snorkelers on the boat and it was an impressive operation – very well managed.

Marty and her bridge partner, Debbie, enjoyed the view from the bow where we sited a group of dolphins at one point.

The snorkeling was great! Warm water, lots of fish and diverse, healthy corals. Here’s a pic or two that one of our guides took. Marty and I did not bother with underwater cameras.

Back to our ship on the Cairns waterfront walkway.

Next stop, after one sea day, was Thursday Island which is up in the Torres Strait at the northern tip of Australia, just south or Papua New Guinea. These folks are more dark-skinned due to their Melanesian heritage and not so much the Australian aborigine line. Very friendly and entertaining folks with the program they had for us.

The Torres Strait flag. The big white horseshow shape is based on a native traditional headdress made with white feathers.

This well-spoken elder told of her role in Torres Strait affairs including big efforts to keep out invasive species as well as make efforts in the climate crisis challenge.

A small group of high-schoolers put on an entertaining show for us.

We had to take cover during a rain squall on our walk back to the tender dock and return to the ship. These are our last few steps in Australia!

Now we’re en route to Indonesia and we were informed this morning that they have given up on getting into the Red Sea and that we’re going to go south around Africa! So revised program has us head south after one stop in India, then Mauritius, Reunion, three stops in South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Tenerife, three stops in Morocco, and then connect up with a somewhat revised program in Portugal, Spain, and France. I’ll tell you more as we know it!

Cheers,

Charlie and Marty