Whitsunday Cruise, Day Four....Sailing home

Day Four, Whitsunday Cruise - back at sea

 

Another lovely day in paradise.

 

The wind picked up for the sail home

John has adapted well to the sun and sea

John and I were up very early as usual, and hobbit-like went up to the buffet to partake of first breakfast. Well I do have to have food with my pills. We met up later for second breakfast in the Waterfront with Julie and Lynden. Mmmn …. Eggs Benedict!

A day of essentially just lolling about ensued. We appear to be very good at this having by now settled into our groove of boat life. One could get used to it.

 

Aaaah....relax

The bar on the aft deck

John and I commandeered our spot on the back deck to curl up and read. We kept being interrupted by people pointing out whales which were breaching and cavorting near our boat. Not near enough to get good photos sadly, but it was an added bonus to watch them. Even at lunch several people rushed to a window as whales were spotted nearby.

We just loved being able to rest and relax so much, reading books and doing cryptic crosswords or even having siestas. It seemed really decadent to do nothing, but as they say “Someone’s gotta do it”.

 

Markets in the Atrium

Reception

Art for sale

The final show in the Marquee featured a medley of all the guest performers on the boat. We were very glad we hadn’t bothered to stay up late for the late night R rated comedy shows. The two comedians weren’t the least bit funny. On the other hand David Byrne, our Irish Neil Diamond tributist, was very funny and comedy wasn’t his main act. As we emerged from the Marquee it looked like all the passengers had been drinking heavily as we staggered drunkenly up the hallway. In fact it was just the boat pitching about in the waves. The water was splashing onto the decks as high as deck eight. I presumed they’d closed deck seven’s outside areas for safety.

 

Barb outside the Waterfront Restaurant

Lynden, Julie, Barb and John in the Waterfront Restaurant

Despite the tossing about, neither John nor I felt seasick, although I did feel like the room was moving around me when I got home.

 

We were on a lower deck this time when we sailed under the Gateway Bridge on the way back in to port. It was still impressive and John looked down smugly at the City Cats berthed at Rivergate Marina. He had to go to work later in the day and saw the Pacific Jewel from the decks of a City Cat later in the afternoon before it sailed away to Sydney.

 

The city cats moored at Rivergate Marina

Home! Coming back under the Gateway bridge

           

 

 

 

 

 

Day Three Whitsunday Cruise...Airlie Beach

Day Three Whitsunday Cruise - at Airlie Beach

 

It was magical waking up to see the sunrise in the Whitsunday Islands, they really are beautiful. It was perfect weather and the sun glistened on the water and made the incredible view sparkle and shimmer. Our ship Pacific Jewel, was anchored some way off Airlie Beach and passengers had to be taken ashore by a number of tenders and catamarans to take up their various day trips.

Arriving at the Whitsundays

Airlie Beach

the Islands

 

Because our bus trip to the coffee plantation and Proserpine museum didn’t start until midday, we had a leisurely breakfast and went ashore mid-morning to do some shopping before the bus picked us up. It was fascinating to view the procedure of getting so many passengers off the ship quickly and efficiently, they really do have this down pat. When it came to our turn our passenger cards, which have photo ID, were swiped so they could keep check of who had left and returned.

 

Julie, Lynden, Barb and John in the Whitsundays

Loading the tenders

The catamaran we sailed on to shore

We were lucky enough to get on one of the large catamarans, and sat on the top deck to enjoy the view. It wasn’t sailing, but it was perhaps the next best thing. By the time we arrived at the harbour we reckoned we would be too rushed to get into Airlie beach and back before our bus trip, so Julie and I had a browse around a lovely shop in the harbour precinct and both bought outfits for ourselves. John parked himself with a red wine at a nearby café bar (oh yes!), and we joined him and sat having coffees and looking out over the activities in the harbour.

 

On board the cat

Julie and Barb

The water was so blue....
 

Julie and Barb shop at the harbour

Coffee before we go on tour

Our coach arrived and the very cheery driver helped us aboard. John commented that this was the geriatric tour, and indeed we were amongst the youngest on the trip. Given that my arthritis is playing up at the moment causing mobility issues, I fitted right in with the demographic!

 

Airlie Beach

beautiful harbour

Main street of Airlie Beach

At first we thought we’d made a terrible mistake with choosing this tour when the coach pulled over a few hundred metres after starting, just near the beach where there is a man-made lagoon, and our driver launched into a long spiel about the history of Airlie beach. He went on and on, so now it’s your turn for the abbreviated version! Its origins were a privately owned cane plantation which allowed a few fishermen to build shacks, and these shacks eventually grew like topsy into a town. Today it is very expensive real estate with waterfront views commanding millions, and it is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and all the tourism that entails. It’s certainly very pretty, and large resort developments cling to the sides of the hills to get the best views.

 



Our ship anchored

We eventually got underway and the spiel continued. Our driver was very enthusiastic and proud of his new home town, pointing out his own property on the way to Proserpine. We eventually turned onto the Bruce Highway, and could see the billowing smoke stack of the Proserpine Sugar Mill in the distance. Not far along we pulled into the Whitsunday Coffee Plantation. Our group had pre-ordered drinks and they were waiting to receive us. We sat in the shade of a long verandah while the owner’s wife gave a presentation explaining the workings of their operation, from growing to harvesting to eventually roasting the coffee beans. We had the opportunity to taste and buy their product. Julie got chatting with the lady and was highly amused to discover that they had originally come from the Sunshine Coast. A few years ago they knew nothing about coffee growing but wanted to move here for a better lifestyle for the kids, so they Googled “coffee growing” it and hey presto! They became coffee entrepreneurs!

Coffee plantation with sugar mill behind

Coffee making process explained

The end product

Hello Cocky!

At the Coffee plantation

Coffee beans

 

We drove from there through Proserpine to the local museum. It was surprisingly good for a little museum in the middle of nowhere. Some of the stuff in there took me right back to my childhood in Yeppoon. The 50s kitchen looked very familiar, as did the movie theatre complete with canvas deck chairs. It made me want to roll jaffas down the aisle.  The glass fronted shell cabinet looked just like the one Pop had in our house, complete with its display of reef shells. The whole thing was very quaint and twee but kinda lovable. John meanwhile sat on the verandah chatting to our driver, and it turns out he too had grown up in Yeppoon. Small world.

 

Proserpine Museum opposite cane fields

50s kitchen

Just like Pop's shell cabinet

The canvas chairs in the local cinema in Yeppoon weren't this new looking

Julie chats to a volunteer in the museum

There was just enough time on the way to squeeze in a final photo opportunity before getting back to the ship. When we were on the catamaran again John recognised one of the crew as being Skye, a girl he used to work with on the City Cats. Barb had worked with Skye’s sister Coral. As I said - small world.

 

Back to our floating home

A good day out after all

Loading up again

On return we all retired to our cabins for a brief siesta before meeting on the upper deck for drinks, while we watched the sun set as we sailed away from the Whitsundays. Our booking for dinner was quite late so we filled in time in the Orient bar for pre-dinner drinks. A pianist started tinkling in the background and it was quite pleasant. But then more people arrived and were encouraging him by clapping loudly. His performance got louder and louder until it was impossible to chat over the sound of it.

 

Tadius left us a gift

Sundowners in the Plantation restaurant

Buffet dinner

Help yourself

We moved on to dinner in the Waterfront and were seated with a mother and her twenty year old daughter. At most meals in this restaurant we shared with at least one or two other couples. Most were pleasant and chatted away with us, as did mum and daughter. It was a good way to get people mingling and meeting.

Bye bye Whitsundays

 

 

Sailing to the Whitsundays.....Day two at sea

All at sea

 

We woke up early to the sun rising over a calm and tranquil sea. A whole day of rest stretched ahead. It’s very nice to have the freedom to do absolutely nothing!

 

this is the life

oh yeah.......

John and I got washed and polished and mooched up to the buffet breakfast for some toast and coffee. Lots of people with young families were out and about at this early hour, dressed ready for swimming and sunning themselves on deck. It was still a bit windy and cool for us, but at least the sun was out and it was a brilliant day.

 

Charlies Coffee Bar has become our meeting place to catch up with Julie and Lynden for drinks (or at a pinch, coffee). After discussing our plans for the day we all went our separate ways and agreed where and when to meet up for lunch. Barb found John plugged into his earphones lazing in a sun lounger with his e-book in the Oasis – a child free zone on the aft deck. It was in the sun but largely out of the wind.  Wonderful!  We sat out there for some time both reading our books and then re-located to the casino once it got too cool, and also too noisy with the advent of a happy hen’s party group. At this time of day the casino was a peaceful haven and we could curl into comfy chairs and continue reading. Bliss!

 

even John can't contain his delight

Barb just lovin, it

We all lunched at the Waterfront restaurant - a la carte but still part of the deal. Seemingly there are other options but they have to be paid for. Ugh.  The meal was pretty good and we booked in again for dinner tonight at 8pm.

 

in the Oasis

Barb at the Casino reading not gambling

Drinks in the Casino bar

Our planned sailing trip for tomorrow at Airlie Beach has been cancelled due to lack of support, which made us all rather sad. When we went down to re-book for an alternative all the good ones were fully booked and we settled for a bus tour around Airlie Beach and some shopping.

 

Julie and Lynden at lunch in the Waterfront Restaurant

Charlies is on the lowest of three levels (oops - decks) making up a fairly large and very high atrium, an area named, curiously, The Atrium. In the early evening, and before dinner, this is where we were seated, drinks in hand, to watch one of the several shows. It was the Pacific Cirque crew again from last night but with a different act. They were terrific. One girl wound herself in and out of the legs of a chair, all the while dressed in a tutu and pointe shoes, performing a very graceful ballet routine. Another slid from a rope dangling from the ceiling and a couple performed daring routines on a single trapeze. Add to that juggling and balancing on tall unicycles and you pretty much have a Cirque de Solei in microcosm.

 

the Atrium art auction

stairs to pose on

Cocktails at Charlies Bar

Dinner at the Waterfront was lovely. Ask me about the crème brulee and I will probably be in paroxysms of remembered delight (she still is …).  We went straight from dinner on to another evening performance in the Marquee, a Neil Diamond tribute by an Irishman David Byrne. He was really good and did a great Johnny Cash impersonation too. The party of drunken yahoos in the row behind didn’t add quite as much to the show as they imagined, and Peter Byrne really shone through.