Cairns

After a pleasant sail to Magnetic Island we anchored overnight in Horseshoe Bay for a decent nights sleep before our next sail up to Cairns which was another overnight one. The winds were a lot stronger for this sail and as I came up on deck at 11pm to relieve Peter he was struggling to control the boat as we had too much sail up for the wind which was gusting up to 34 knots. I was able to take the helm while he dropped the main sail and we just sailed on the genoa which was a lot better although the boat does roll more when you have no main sail up. We were still doing decent speeds of up to 7 knots without the engine. The highlight of our trip was seeing humpback whales as we are in the middle of their breeding season which is May to September. I actually heard the whales inside the boat and it sounded really eerie like a child moaning. We had planned to anchor just before Cairns in either Turtle Bay or Mission Bay but both were not attractive due to the strong winds. We did go into Mission Bay and I got the anchor off the bow ready to drop but Peter decided he did not want to stay there overnight so anchor went back in it's holder and we called up the Marina to ask if we could go in a day early. Our reservation was for 3 nights from Sunday 12th August. Anyway no problem and we are now secured in our berth in Marlin Marina which is adjacent to the lively city of Cairns. There are a lot of World ARC boats here as it is the last place to provision before Thursday Island which is our next rendezvous on 22 August. When we arrived here yesterday morning we met up with Marie (Dreamcatcher) and she asked us to go for dinner with them to a Brazillian carvery meal which was an 'all you can eat' for a fixed price dinner. It was excellent. The waitress brought some sweet potato chips and salads and vegetables then waiters kept appearing with long skewers of meat which they carved at the table and you simply took hold of the meat slices with a pair of tongs. There was scrummy beef, pork, lamb, chicken, chorizo sausages and seafood. The food was not cheap as the bill for two of us with a bottle of wind was A$140 (£100) but comparable to a good English restaurant. Caroline (Peat Smoke) has her 53rd birthday on Tuesday so no doubt we will have a night celebrating with her and her family who are all on board now. Two daughters and a son from Scotland who are not sailors!! So now we are in a Marina again so Peter is tackling a few jobs like servicing the engine and resealing the front hatch which has started to leak - again! I have done more laundry and cleaned the oven top. Tomorrow I will do the oven and fridge. Peter is going to visit the chandleries as there is a big store called Whitworths here which is Australia's largest on line chandlery and can source just about anything.