Sailing tro Cairns, Kuranda - Photos
Eowyn
Mon 9 Aug 2010 22:20
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Éowyn is about to depart
Cairns Marina in position 16:55.201S
145:46.861E
After the brash commercialism
of Hamilton Island we returned to peace and quiet only 5 miles away at Cid
Island where we anchored for a quiet night. The next day we moved a little
further North to Hook Island where we rode our strong winds on a public mooring.
The sail to Bowen the following day was lively with tail winds up to 35 knots
but these only lasted a couple of hours and we had a pleasant 40 mile passage,
staying in the small Bowen Marina. Bowen itself is uncommercialised and very
quiet. We had a pleasant and inexpensive dinner in the yacht club before leaving
early the next morning for Cape Upstart and then onward to Magnetic Island, both
delightful anchorages. Finally we arrived in Cairns but not before realising
that Mike had refitted Thor VI's tricolour on back to front so Rui was
displaying rather confusing lights!!
Cairns Marina was completely
full so we were pleased we had reserved a place for 3 nights. Docking in the 30
knot winds was a little tricky but went well!
Cairns itself is a tourist
town, but is rather pleasant with a good mixture of old and new buildings.
Regulations prevent building over 10 storeys high. Shopping is first class with
everything needed right to hand near the marina. It is a town of restaurants so
we made the best of that too.
The highlight of our visit was
a full day tour to Kuranda, travelling there by mountain railway for 90 minutes.
The rail track had been a major engineering feet in the 1870's opening up
Kuranda for gold and tin mining.
 Eventually we returned by
Skyrail gondola, the longest cable car ride in the world. 45 minutes of the most
breathtaking scenery. There were 2 stops with viewing platforms to take in the
mountains, waterfalls and rainforest.
 In Kuranda itself we visited
the 3 wildlife parks of birds, butterflies and koala bears. Shopping in Kuranda
is quite classy so the ladies, particularly Chris, could not resist some of the
temptations such as kangaroo hats, Ugg boots etc.
On the 9th we waved goodbye to
Val & Chris at Cairns airport. They flew to Sydney for a few days before
returning home via a stopover in Singapore.
Today we head North. We will
take 6 days to travel the 520 miles to Thursday Island. after that we traverse
the Torres Strait on our way to Darwin.
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