Day 33 - 11/04/22 - Airlie Beach, Australia

 After an overnight sail, we arrived in the bay outside of Airlie Beach around 10am which is later than we typically arrive at ports. There was a stiff breeze and today we anchored in the bay and were transported to the dock by 3 large local catamarans.  Before we could be tendered off, one of the guests was medically evacuated using one of the tenders which delayed the process.  As for us, we waited in the 5 star lounge and around 11:15am we were released to board a tender.  Because of its size, it was much more stable than the ship's tenders and there was a gangway to walk aboard instead of stepping over the open ocean to a bobbing ship's tender.

Once ashore, we obtained a map and also purchased hop on hop us bus tickets and rode a full loop to get the lay of the land.  The town is readying for a major music festival this coming weekend and there were several bars with very loud music.  On the second lap around the town, we hopped off at the first stop and wandered down the Main Street which is filled with all sorts of boutique and tourist type shops and a McDonalds!  There was also a local market set up at the local park and we shopped and purchased a few items.  We also purchased some Airlie meat Pies and found a shady picnic table to eat them at.

While we were eating, we were joined by another couple from the ship that I had remembered cruising with previously.  We finally figured out that it was on the 2019 Maasdam cruise from Seattle to Sydney that they were on until Japan.  Soon Marilyn and Erik came walking across the grass and spotted us and they also joined us.  Marilyn and Erik were also on that same cruise and soon we learned that those two couples used to live very close to one another in the Sunnyvale, CA area and the two men worked in the same industry.  At that point the two of them started chatting about common work interests and I stayed out of the conversation.  Later in the day, Erik mentioned how serendipitous it was to have that meeting and how much he enjoyed it.  We said our goodbyes and continued shopping including walking once again to the end of town with a stop at a Woolworth's grocery store where we purchased some low sugar water additive that is very tasty and refreshing in the heat. We ran into Abby & Rick and learned that she had been in a 48 hour cabin quarantine due to an infection, but she was doing fine now and released to explore.  No Covid was involved.  She alerted us about some really pretty lorikeet birds near the bookstore.

At the top end of the main part of town there is a big blue and white heart sign that we took a selfie at before heading down to the beach area and discovered a very nice public swimming pool adjoining the salt water bay.  One can't swim in the ocean water because of the poisonous stinger jellyfish.  There is, however, the pool and and cordoned off area on the ocean that can be swam in.  We found the lorikeet birds feeding on some red berries high in a tree near the bookstore and I spent some time photographing them.  We also checked out the bookstore and Angela found a very pretty Aboriginal patterned tablecloth that she purchased. 

We continued our wandering and eventually made it back to the market area where we shopped and purchased some more things.  Rather than take the shuttle back to the ship, we wandered back there by some nice walkways around the harbor area.  We got on the tender that departed around 4:45pm and tendered back to the ship.

Dinner was in our customary spot in the Lido pool area with Erik & Marilyn.  We all went to the 7pm comedy show on the Main Stage featuring Jim Short, a very funny Australian comedian and this was his first show in 2.5 years.  He was the best of the 4 comedians we have had on this cruise.  Afterwards, Angela and I attended the Lincoln Center Stage 8pm set of music from female composers.  We've listened to this set on previous cruises, but it had been a while since we had done so, so it was still refreshing.

We have a sea day tomorrow and we're looking forward to perhaps a quieter day and a chance to relax a bit.  In his departure announcement, the Captain noted that our Covid numbers have dropped by two more people to 41.  We currently have 38 passengers and 3 crew with detected Covid.  This is far less than rates being reported on other cruise ships now sailing in Australia.  Once again, I appreciate the real numbers being shared and not vague expressions like "They are below our threshold" or "We have minimal cases onboard".  We're still encouraged to mask up and there are personnel at every entrance to the Lido Marketplace (buffet) encouraging hand sanitizer use.