Week Forty Two

Friday 7th December crept up on us in a flash, must be a real oldie now because I find that I can spend a week without achieving much at all –save enjoying myself – and I look back saying, where did the time go. Well there we were all packed up and rearing to go on our mini cruise Kev volunteered to give us a lift into Brisbane, first of all we had to stop at the tip to drop off loads of cardboard – Old Kevie loves a trip to the tip, we left as usual with more in the back than we arrived with. Kev has a habit, much to Karen’s chagrin, of collecting broken Air Conditioning units and breaking them up for scrap. A keen skill has been acquired and he collected $350 last time he took in his collection of scrap, but it drives Karen absolutely mad but Kev is not deterred and continues regardless. Anyway having collected an old unit we were soon back on our way to the Cruise terminal. As kev dropped us off a few clouds had appeared. By the time that he had left the car park it had started to rain, and this was to be a common

feature of this cruise. It barely stopped raining for the next four days, rainfall of biblical proportions fell upon us. The tail end of tropical cyclone Owen had stirred the sky and oceans so much that all outside decks were closed for the first four days. 170mm of rain fell on our first day in Cairns (Monday) force 10 winds ensured that the ship could not even call at Hamilton Island - part of the Whitsundays – there was a 7m swell that was deemed too dangerous for a tender to take us ashore as there is no port of any size on the Whitsundays. The first night aboard was so rough it was all we could do to actually stay in the bed, never mind sleep. Thankfully the captain managed to steer a course after that that minimised the effects of the weather thus ensuring that Wendy actually agreed to remain aboard – not that she could get off, but she sure wanted to.
You could be forgiven for thinking that this would make for a terrible time, oh no! Not with a ship full of Aussies and 2 weeks before Christmas. Most aboard seemed to be on an all inclusive package (an extra $100 per day) which allowed free access to drinks, well did they tear the arse out of that deal. There were characters, such as a man identifying himself as Sir Duck, who could barely stand or speak but still retained the skill of holding a glass of beer (or piss as the

Aussies affectionately call it) in each hand. We saw drinking of epic proportions displayed. People slurring was a new norm, people only paid attention when, as often happened, a person would volunteer to go on stage to play a game or help with a trick etc. only for the entertainer to discover the volunteer had actually lost the power of speech entirely. This would be simply met with a cheer “Good on Ya mate” and another would be chosen. We have never laughed so much as well as meeting some real characters.
Our arrival in Cairns on Monday was welcomed as we could get ashore but the rain was biblical. Trying to turn this flooding to our advantage we decided it would be a good idea to take the Kuranda scenic railway go to the local waterfall in the Daintree rainforest believing the rain would make the falls more spectacular than ever. Trouble was in true British fashion the train taking us there was cancelled due to flooding!
Ironically upon leaving Cairns on the Tuesday evening the weather perked up and we saw some blue sky again. The sea was much calmer and we started our journey to a tine outpost in the Coral Sea called Willis Island. We arrived there 7am Wednesday morning and the sea was flat calm and sun beaming down. Willis island is a tiny

atoll poking out from the general area on the barrier reef, no one actually lived on the island it appears to serve two purposes. 1) It is a weather station which has been gathering and disseminating metrological data for almost 100 years now it is particularly important to shipping for the avoidance of the tropical cyclones that form in this region. It is a tiny but beautiful island with a workforce of four meteorologists working in 2-week shifts there, and no actual population, it has only one building on it and that is the weather station. 2) This seems the real priority – Willis Island is part of Australia but is deemed to be in international waters at 200 miles off Cairns. This seems to permit the purchase of duty free drink. So despite the fact we don’t actually stop on the island, just sail past, this is enough for the booze crazy Aussies on board to swamp the duty free shop on board and thousands of dollars are spent in minutes. P&O pulling out all the stops to make sure there are enough staff available to take advantage of the spending frenzy – another great spectator sport for us!
Like you wouldn’t believe we were on the rear deck when we overheard a British voice. We engaged the guy in conversation – quite unremarkable in its content – until we were asked where we came from in UK, the response lead our new friend to say he went to school at St Columba’s the same as me would you believe, to make

it more increadable, he was older than me being 69 and when we quizzed him further it turns out he went to school with Wendy’s uncle Frank Irish!! How incredible. His name Jeremy Bashier so I will be sure to mention him to Frank next time I see Frank out on his mountain bike in Jersy Lane.
The cruise finished in a flourish with a finale ball. We met up with Mina and Simone who had just won a bottle of red so they very kindly shared it with us. We spent the rest of the evening listening to the band and then went to the Karaoke bar. Here we were attempting to persuade Mina and Simone to sing - i think we would have been successful but for the fact the karaoke was cancelled as no compare turned up! Just to elaborate on Mina - she is a 17 year old student from Norway on an exchange study year. She is being hosted by Simone a 26 year old lawyer from Brisbane. Simone was on the cruise with her son and mother and they were really good company and a real laugh. We often bumped into each other aboard and used to chat about all sorts of things. When we first met them and Simone's mother we assumed they were sisters but soon discovered Mina was Norwegian. It was nice to see Simone hosting an overseas student and hopefully it will establish a lifelong friendship. Good luck Mina with your ambition of becoming an animal welfare lawyer - my daughter Charlotte would be so proud of you.

After a really early start 05:30 we were turfed out of our lovely bed and disembarked, thankfully Karen was there to pick us up in the pimped up X5!
What a life we are struggling through.