Cairns

We arrived in Cairns to berth  at Marlin Marina , having motored the last 38 miles , from Low Islet due to a complete lack of wind.

There was much to do.
Some 10 miles out,  I had been granted permission by Border Force to complete my importation in Cairns.It had become obvious we were never going to make it to Bundaberg (the stipulated port for clearance, in the document granted in Darwin), within the time frame.
Peter was going home and my next anticipated crew had advised me ,when we were  in Cooktown, that he was very likely  going to have to withdraw for family reasons, so I was going to be in Cairns for a couple of weeks.

The completion of the importation took eight days,and then I was no longer under Border Force control- free to go, just awaiting the arrival of Jo, who was now available to the leg south, as Chris would finish school on the 17th November, meaning she could come with me. Chris didn't want to.

In the meantime, although  Cairns had been home for me for 12 years , I was now seeing it from a totally different perspective. The marina is great , minutes easy,(flat) walk from the town, restaurants,cafes, ranging from takeaway to fivestar. Supermarkets within walking distance, one of which will deliver right to the marina. A little further afield, when on shanks' pony, there are all sorts of wonderful purveyors of useful marine things.Several chandleries, rubber matting stores, hardware emporia, and the very wonderful guys at McLeod Engineering- whoops, more deservedly free advertising!

I needed to do  some more regular maintenance tasks, but was a tad hesitant, so I contacted them and they obligingly sent the very helpful and patient Zane down to show me how to do the tasks that I needed to complete, on one engine, and then in my own time I took care of the same  basic tasks on the other engine, knowing that I could call them for assistance if I got it wrong or had any more questions. So some  more knowledge stowed away in the memory bank- I hope! Zane also inspected and took away the mixer elbows from both engines to clean/ or replace.A couple of days later two new elbows were back in position, the engines were run up and tested. That just leaves the sail drive oil and anodes to be done when out of the water, which I'm anticipating now will be Mackay.

Minor other maintenance was left to fiddle about with, but nothing urgent, so that left time to enjoy being just  minutes walk from the Esplanade, which in Cairns, comes complete with free pool, beautiful surrounds, free bbq facilities, free wifi in the vicinity of the pool, no wonder tourists and backpackers young and old, love Cairns.For the Europeans, the weather itself would be glorious, let alone the wonderful facilities.

Towards the Esplanade

path to town

Also there was time to catch up with three of the four people I still knew of living  in Cairns, which was lovely.The fourth unfortunately being in Brisbane at the time. One of the things that I have been definitely blessed with in this life, is that those I count as friends, are the people with whom I need not see for years and yet, when we catch up, it is as though not much has intervened, despite the passage of more than a decade in time.
Part of the social whirl of being on a yacht in a marina , is meeting  new and  catching up randomly, with old  friends on boats. Cairns was no exception. In the two and a bit years I have been playing on K'Gari in SE Asia ,I can't imagine how many people I have met. Here in Cairns it turns out, were two of them. One I had met in Langkawi- another Seawind owner,now berthed two pens away and the other couple, in Phuket, whilst I was out of the water doing my slipping.Jeff and Marin where finishing off a major refit of their catamaran in the same yard, and now they had arrived Cairns on their way to the South Pacific.