Saturday 7^th March 2015 – Day at Sea.

We are half way round our world voyage sometime today. (It is hard to work out exactly when, due to the time differences). We went to two lectures this morning – one on the Barrier Reef - and the other by Capt. Chris Rigby (a BOAC trained airline pilot) on “how do planes fly”. He is a really good speaker and specialises in getting people with a fear of flying back into the air. We will see if he manages to persuade Nesta! (Ian is suggesting we all club together and buy her some time in a flight simulator, as she may be ok if she was controlling the thing!)

At 2pm it was our final choir practise before our performance on 9^th March (mmm!) and then for the rest of the afternoon we watched the barrier reef and islands go past from our balcony. As we didn’t feel like going to the restaurant, Nesta phoned room service for a toasted Panini. It was a bit disconcerting when they recognised her voice and said “certainly Mrs Ashworth”!

 

Sunday 8^th March – Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Queensland.

Airlie Beach is known as the “drinking town with a fishing problem”. We anchored and travelled ashore on MV 2001 (yet again, evidence of laziness when it comes to naming things!). Usually it takes tourists out to the reef so we did the three miles to shore in about ten minutes (twice as quickly as the ship’s tenders were taking).

There was a woman standing on the jetty with her hands on her hips watching passengers as they came ashore and Nesta recognised the stance even before we left the boat. It was Dee!! Hugs and kisses all round and then she drove us through the town to a backpackers' hostel where she had booked in for the night, in case we were going to be drinking!!? – As if!

We looked at the local market and then decided to find the Whitsunday Sailing Club as this was where the ship’s shuttle went from. After a coffee here we decided that it was time for a “proper” drink so we went to “Capers” which was advertising Bulmer’s Cider (it was 10-30am after all) The cider was ice cold and very refreshing unlike the weather which was very hot and humid. There was a nice breeze however (if you could find it). After our first pint (and sandwich to mop up the alcohol) we looked around the town. It is a bit like Woolacombe, in that most of the shops are surf, beach or souvenir shops. Nesta found herself another pair of shoes, so Ian bought them as (part of) her birthday present!

We decided it was time to keep our fluids up so found “Cactus Jacks” and shared a bottle of wine and a nachos sharing plate – very nice. We then went to the bottle shop (Australian for off licence) and stocked up on wine boxes again. Ian hasn’t started his last wine box of red wine so we just got the one that Dee recommended for Nesta.

It was still too hot for walking so we went back to Capers for another pint and to watch some of the Australia v Sri Lanka game on the big screen TV. All too soon it was time to say goodbye and we made our way – sadly – back to the ship. It was really great seeing Dee and we had a lovely day ashore. It made us feel less like tourists and more like visitors to a friend’s home.

None of the evening entertainments inspired us to make the effort – so we snacked in Kings Court and had an early night.