Cairns & Sudbury Cay

Today was the end of the 4-night portion of this trip and the start of the 3-night portion. We sailed to Cairns overnight and said farewell to most of the passengers we’d been traveling with on the Great Barrier Reef.

Those of us who were staying on had a couple of hours off the ship before sailing on with a new group of travelers doing a 3-night voyage. We were met at the wharf by a volunteer for the Cairns Museum, who walked us to the museum and showed us around for about 45-minutes. They opened the museum just for us at 8:30 am—so nice! It was an excellent museum with displays on the early days of Cairns (aboriginal times), to its gold rush days, to its early days as a tourist destination.

Soon it was time to embark on our next sea adventures. We arrived at Sudbury Cay after lunch, where we 3 dive buddies joined a new couple. A cay is a floating sand island, meaning it can move around. The sand accumulates in one spot due to winds and currents.

The two newcomers were having a lot of trouble with the dive, so we three waited in the sand on the bottom and tried to distract ourselves with watching the fish activity at a nearby coral formation. Not the best dive experience, but we did see a tiny sea urchin that floats upside down, and a fish standing up on its front fins on the sandy bottom, like it was doing push-ups. we also saw a pair of clownfish (Nemos, but with different markings).

After the dive ended, we took off for the reef with our snorkel gear to watch more fish. In the evening, Chef Patty served a delicious seafood buffet. All the food has been tasty, but not decadent.Read more