sv evi

We sailed from Airlie Beach, a lovely town where we re-provisioned, to Whitehaven Beach. We ended up motoring in a narrow channel right through a race for Hamilton Island race week. I was steering while Riki told me where to go. So many boats in a small space! It was stressful!

We spent 2 days at Whitehaven Beach — a looong beach with fine white sand. The sign said it was frequently voted the best beach in Australia, which is saying something for this continent of beaches!

We sailed overnight to Magnetic Island, famous for its population of koalas. We spotted two, and hiked up to WWII forts for some great views.

We did another overnight hop to Fitzroy Island, near Cairns. Then we spent 5 nights in the marina in Cairns. We were lucky to be in Cairns for the Festival of Lights with different light installations at night.

We met Gisela and her kids Chloe & Finley from SV Salty Finch at the Cairns Aquarium. It was so awesome! There were lots of seahorses, many sharks including leopard sharks and epaulette sharks, and a juvenile saltwater crocodile.

We went to the public library, and the librarian was nice enough to give us a library card, even though we didn’t have proof of an address. The kids were thrilled, and they each checked out 3 books.

We also spent several afternoons at the Cairns Lagoon, which is a fantastic public pool right on the water.

There were lots of Asians and Asian food in Cairns. We enjoyed bubble tea, banh mi, pho and bun. Yum!

During our 5 days in Cairns I managed to make an appointment with a doctor, because I had a pain in my left breast a few days prior to arriving. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t cancer because it seems to strike so many people. We arrived on a Friday, I saw the doctor on Monday, had an ECG and full blood panel drawn on Monday, and had a bilateral chest ultrasound on Tuesday. All of that cost $600 USD to pay out of pocket, with no health insurance. All of the receptionists were almost apologetic that I had to pay, since I didn’t have an Australian Medicare card; meanwhile I was thinking, that’s nothing compared to what it would be in the US without health insurance. I think our for profit health care system in the US is really broken. I then had a follow-up TeleHealth appointment two days ago. Everything was good and within normal range. No pre-diabetes. I have multiple small cysts in both breasts, but nothing to worry about.

We did some big shops and stocked up on our favorite crackers, granola, and snack seaweed, since Cairns was the last big city we would visit in Australia before heading to Indonesia. We also were given some advice and cruising guides to SE Asia from the Aussie boat next door to us in the marina. We stocked up on mold remover — ready for the tropics!

We left Cairns in a forecast of 20-25 knots, gusting to 30. Not ideal, but we didn’t want to wait around for the whole week it was predicted to blow the same strength of winds. It was a little unnerving talking to folks who just came into the marina to avoid “the blow”, meanwhile we were setting out for an overnight sail!