Back with the pack

The sail from the Whitsunday islands to cairns was a welcome break after the race week. This part of Australia is really where you can see a change in the coast beginning to happen and ports becoming more few and far between. The other change was in the weather and the first time for a while that the waterproofs and boots came out for warmth and dryness as the wind built and with it the seas which occasionally landed in the cockpit of the boat, under headsail alone we made some serious progress putting us in Cairns in no time at all. Always a welcoming sight are our friends from the Oyster World Rally fleet and some of the boats remained in port when we arrived, others had already left for Darwin. Not much seemed to have changed in Cairns since my last visit although it was nice to sit still for a few days in civilisation whilst we worked on Proteus giving her some tlc including a new screen at the starboard cockpit pedestal. We did pick up a Holden Commodore as a hire car not just because of its big engine and rear wheel drive but to go up the mountains and into the Table lands. In one day I saw platypus, ostrich, kangaroos, a tortoise, a tank, v2 flying bomb and a Morris Minor (a rare sight in oz). Time again to make a move we traditionally were the last to leave port.