Tuesday, March 20, 2012: Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia

March 20, 2012

It was a very rainy, gray and glum day as the ship out its anchor in the safety of Shute Harbour of Airie Beach. The harbour is surrounded by the Whitsunday Islands which would be a beautiful sight if the sun was shining. All the highly anticipated excursions were canceled but the most important to Joe and I was the trip out to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). We would have boarded a high speed motor craft that would take about 30 minutes to get to wither Black or Hook Island. It is amazing the Reef can be seen from outer space and there are 2900 individual reefs and 300 coral key and is over 1200 miles long the North Queensland coast. The Reef is half the size of the great state of Texas! We would have been able to snorkel on a spectacular reef. Oh, it was not meant to be.

We were able to tender to Shute Harbour where we were greeted by a bus to take us back and forth to the little tourist town of Airlie Beach. There are not many shops but I was able to buy a t-shirt at the cheapest price of $25. I could not find a tasteful magnet that said Airlie Beach. The town had a Hog’s Breath Saloon did Sydney and Hobart as well as several other casual taverns. There were plenty of tour excursions storefronts what were empty due to the pouring rain.

The town sits on the Pacific Ocean and between the Shute Harbour Road and the Whitsunday passage was a very pretty lagoon where people were enjoying swimming which I understand is to avoid the horrible small millions of jellyfish with their nasty legendary stings. Even though it was raining the temperature was a very sticky 80 degrees. So after trekking up and down the main street we were drenched from sweat as well as rain even though we had umbrellas. In the little supermarket with super prices I was able to buy a 24 pack of Diet Coke for $30.00. On the ship they are $2.00 a can.

We were back on the ship at 1PM where Joe and I went to the cabin to dry off and rest a bit before going to lunch at the Panorama Buffet located on deck 9 aft. The buffet has had excellent selections and delicious. The rare roast beef was tasty and tender. The lightly breaded calamari was tender and good. The veal cutlets with mushroom gravy were very tasty.

The rest of the day we napped since nothing much was going on the ship. In a few moments we are headed to the Cabaret Lounge to see a comedian, Tim Walkoe. I will check in later after the show and dinner.

We were in time for the comedy of Tim Walkoe. Some jokes were the same we hear from cruise to cruise but some of his jokes were original. A good laugh is always good for the soul. We sat with our usual dinner mates: couples from South Dakota, England and Vancouver. It is amazing how well we mesh together. The London couple was quiet at first but have warmed up and joined in the lively conversation covering a wide variety of subjects. Margaret from South Dakota has a cousin whom we are all familiar with: Annette Benning. We are at our dinner table for two hours which is way beyond us finishing dinner and 90% of the dinner guests are gone so it is a delightful table though Joe is very quiet. There is no open seating since the Ocean Princess is a small cruise ship. You either have the early seating at 6PM or the late seating at 8:15pm. Once can also have dinner at two specialty restaurants with the Sterling Steakhouse for prime aged steaks or Sabatini’s for Italian fare. The specialty restaurants switch the days they are open and it costs $20.00 a person to eat there. There is always room service 24 hours a day if one does not get enough to eat. The Panorama Buffet is also open for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. If there is no buffet for dinner, the ship makes it into table service bistro. One can also eat pizza up to 11PM.

Tonight the good news is that we have not received any news of the excursions cancelled for Cairns so Joe and I still have one more chance to visit the Great Barrier Reef. We will meet our tour group at the Casino Bar at 9:15 AM and we will return about 5:30PM. The tour has been sold out for months since one can reserve tours on the Princess website. The popular excursions get sold out before one ever boards the ship.

Tonight the seas are very rough with high winds and one must be very careful on the decks and balconies. We took a peak on a balcony which is near the back of the ship. Looking forward we could see the waves crashing the bow and there was lots of ocean spray coming towards the back. If one were to go overboard, one would never stand a chance of being saved on these high seas. The boat is really moving a bunch so those who get seasick must be having a rough time. Walking down a hallway in a straight line is hopeless and looks like everyone is drunk. I stayed off the staircases because it is that bouncy.

It is time to sign off for the night. Hopefully, I will be more interesting tomorrow night. The sea days are hard to write about unless something unusual happens so you might not hear from me since I think this has got to be boring.

The Valtrex I gave Joe for his start of shingle seemed to bring it under control. Joe says he is doing good but he is very quiet and not being social so I must keep an eye on him to make sure he is really okay since he has a history of holding back on how he is really feeling.

Thank you to my number one son, Keith, who let me know that he is ready my blogs. Joe and I hope you and your brother, Michael, have a great time in Miami at the music festival with good weather. Watch the sunburn. Love you both very much!!

Ciao!