Three Hour, Three Shower Tour

True to my intention, I was up at 5:30 am for breakfast club. Two of the three of us showed up. Hit the machine - one blast of regular coffee followed by a decaf espresso in the same cup. As soon as I saw sun peeking through the horizon, I was soon on deck 12 for the morning walk.

frank and wendy graciously briefed us it was 105 and humid in Cairns; likely to be the same in Cooktown. In fact, a sea day might be in order. That was welcome advice, .. except we've had 5 sea days already and if we skip land, it's two more days to Darwin (Ricky's home and so we're hoping to have a big turnout for his aunt & uncle ... but I digress). They were absolutely correct - 90 minutes in to the morning walk and I was seriously dripping wet. shower #1 for the day was in order before breakfast. Huevos Rancheros special item up at La Verandah.

What to do? Only answer is the three hour self directed tour. We missed out on scheduled excursions, so boarded the tender at 9 am for shore. 20 minutes later, we were on Mother Earth. Thank goodness! The shuttle bus could carry about 15 people, and dropped us at the Cook Museum. We had picked up maps and the general route of the shuttle bus when we stepped off the tender. It was really hot by 10 am. I worked out a quick stop at the Museum to be followed by a walk through their heritage site botanical garden. There's a foot path that takes you from Finch Bay along the Coral Sea up towards the lighthouse where Capt Cook surveyed the harbor, then across to the tender launch site. All the while, I heard a sustained and frequent exchange by the wild birds. Clearly, the rest of Cooktown had the common sense to stay out of the heat. We were wildly out of order.

We stepped off for our loop tour of Cooktown, only to be advised by our Canadian compatriots that where there are birds .. there are insects. It was bug infestation on the walkway this time of year to the sea. Not up for massive bug bites as a remembrance of our visit to Cooktown. We doubled back to the main street in town. along the way, we learned a lot about Cooktown in WWII (forced evacuation of everyone; much harder on the aboriginal people than the settlers); the convent established schools in the area; the rise of the gold rush in this area; and a near crash of everything in the area by the 1990s. I don't know the population, but I did take note of GPS coordinates around noontime: 15 degrees 28 minutes south latitude; 145 degrees 50 minutes east longitude. In any event, there were locals with cars parked eating picnics near the tender dock, enjoying the opportunity to watch the passengers debark, start to sweat, and then look for extra chairs the merchants helpfully placed along the shaded sections of sidewalk.

We are in a pretty remote area of Australia. Common haircut is a la Bob Marley. found a picture we liked of a cassawary done by an aboriginal contemporary artist. She wanted a picture of where her painting was going to live; we wanted a picture of the artist with the painting. everyone was happy.

On the tender back, a compatriot of the Nikon tribe decided to shoot the ship as we approached for debarkation. Only problem was large spray of water coming in open window @ front. Switching between Iphone and Nikon, I wondered if she could manage to get them both seriously wet with sea water. Hope she was able to save them .. but it was a rhythmic belching of water into the tender from that window.

Back on board we enjoyed a leisurely lunch. It is stinking hot today. For the second time in my RSSC sailing career, I jumped into the pool (the first being the memorable synchronized swimming performance by Michele, Susan, Pam and myself on Explorer 2 in the Antarctic). Bath warm ocean water pumped in from the great barrier reef shipping channel. .. decided this was going to count for our return trip to the barrier reef.

I am wondering how the afternoon hill climb will work out for our fellow passengers. I'm off to another shower to get the salt out of my swimsuit and body; there's no doubt I'll need another shower before dinner.

Laundry capacity is likely to be taxed to the max today. Captain just announced we've taken up the anchor and are headed over to Darwin. Torres Straight is expected around 5 tomorrow (did not catch whether it is AM or PM). As I look out the window .. thunder portends another shower for our sail away.

Cheers, Anne