Steve and Cathy's Blog

The title for this post is misleading because, well, we never did make it into Cooktown.  We arrived on time around 11:00am and the ship was stopped outside the harbor.  This was a tender port, and the ship was to anchor out and we would take tenders into the town.

We were up in Waves Grill having a quick lunch before our excursion, Historic Cooktown, which was to begin at 12:30pm.  All of a sudden, Cathy noticed that the ship had turned around, and then soon thereafter, at 11:45, Cruise Director Ray came on the PA system.

He announced that our reef pilot, who had been on board advising the bridge officers about navigating the coastal waters of Australia since Darwin, had determined that the tides were such that it would be dangerous for the ship’s tenders to attempt to navigate in the local waters.  The moon was full and the tides were low. We would not call on Cooktown at all, but move on to Cairns (a picture of which taken when we arrive heads up this post) in order to arrive there at approximately 8pm tonight.

This is a big disappointment for everyone on the ship, but no one second-guesses the decision. These tenders aren’t all that easy to maneuver, and it would be stupid to risk running aground in one of them. We soon find out (from the ship rumor mill) that the same thing happened on last year’s call.

Cooktown would have been interesting.  It has a long and interesting aborigine history, and got its name when Captain James Cook (whose name we are beginning to hear everywhere we go in this area of the world) had to beach his ship Endeavour after it struck the Great Barrier Reef on June 17, 1770.  He was the first European to (inadvertently) land in the area, and he and his crew spent 48 days repairing the ship.  There is a James Cook Museum that was to be a stop on our tour, as well as a botanical garden unlike any other in Australia.  And then there is the appeal of an isolated town of only 2,600 people, the charms which we had hoped to discover by stopping at a local pub.  Oh well, the first of dozens and dozens of reasons we have since come up with to come back to Australia.

The ship makes very good time to Cairns.  We are sailing in the area west of the Great Barrier Reef and are therefore protected from any significant ocean swells that might slow us up.  There is an opportunity to go ashore in Cairns when we arrive around 8pm.  As tempting as that first appears, our habit of crashing early will probably talk us out of it.

We go to dinner at 6:30pm in the Grand Dining Room.  At 6:45, we hear the announcement “Code Mike. Code Mike at Toscana!”  Code Mike is the alarm to certain members of the crew that are medically trained that they need to attend to an emergency, in this case at the Toscana Restaurant.

After dinner, we return to our room as we dock in Cairns exactly as expected at 8:00pm.  Our stateroom is facing the cruise terminal, and we have a bird’s eye view of how Oceania is dealing with the medical emergency. An ambulance and paramedic staff are standing by.  In about fifteen minutes, a man is wheeled out on a stretcher and off he goes to a hospital.  The almost casual pace of this procedure is a good sign.  Turns out that our fellow guest has had a stroke, and the medical attention he received on board had stabilized his condition and prevented more serious complications.  Kudos to Oceania and its staff.

We also see Peter Croyle leading a group off the ship for an evening tour of the area.  Our friends Pat and Paula are in the lead.  Hope they have some fun.