{"id":36161,"date":"2025-02-18T17:44:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=36161"},"modified":"2025-02-18T17:44:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:44:47","slug":"cruising-the-north-east-coast-2025-%f0%9f%87%a6%f0%9f%87%ba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=36161","title":{"rendered":"Cruising the North-East Coast, 2025 \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date : 11-18th February 2025 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled : 1100 NM from Sydney to Cairns. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited : Morton Island, Airlie Beach and Cairns, Queensland.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed : Holland America\u2019s Zuiderdam <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our neighbour Dave offers us a drive to the White Bay Terminal which we jump at as the public transport is very limited. Via the new M8 less than 20 minutes. There are no queues and our bags are whisked away our tickets checked and we\u2019re on board. All very smooth taking less than 10 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our cabin is already available and we toss our carry on bags and go exploring. Even better we are advised the Zuiderdam will relocate to Circular Quay tonight making our second day in the city much more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The welcome aboard deck party in full swing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Views across White Bay to the City of Sydney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Next morning we awake with a view of the Quay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Captain announces free wine for the departing Sydney farewell until the Zuiderdam clears the heads. The party is in full swing when the Captain announces the departure is delayed because of some technical issue, but the wine continues to flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally on our way the swell lifts as we pass through the heads turning north. It slowly settles overnight much to Pam\u2019s pleasure. Settling in to life on board we find the coffee shop in the Crows Nest Cafe, has a good double shot and the Ocean View Bar has half price drinks from 6-7 every evening. Three laps around the promenade to the mile, the gym is excellent and there\u2019s always live music playing somewhere in the evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arriving at Morton Island (just north of Brisbane) it\u2019s bucketing rain. We had no real plans other than to do some snorkelling around a wreck in shallow water on the north of the island but the rain continues till lunchtime. As it\u2019s 40 minutes in the tender each way we decide Morton Island will be another time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Morton Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Time to reseal the windows in the Crows Nest Cafe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Once again we continue north, the sailing very smooth. Valentine\u2019s Day is celebrated with a concoction of towels made up by our steward and some very fancy deserts for dinner that evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another evening sailing finds us in the Whitsundays, we anchor in the bay with views of Airlie Beach. We have a coffee and go down to the deck 3 promenade to do our required laps to find the heat and humidity absolutely oppressive at 8 am. Soaking in our own juices after a couple of kilometres, we call it quits and go for breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seems no point waiting for the cool change which is expected in April. We take the ferry which is being used to supplement the tender process to the marina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sailing through the Whitsundays<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fast ferry into Airlie Marina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The beachfront pool in Airlie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We previously visited Airlie Beach<\/a> in our motorhome in June 2024 finding it very touristy and full of Swedish and German backpackers. Airlie is very quiet today except for the beachfront public pool. We have a swim but the water is tepid and not refreshing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two hours later having walked the shop fronts we find our way back to the tender and the Zuiderdam\u2019s airconditioning and a comfortable afternoon by the pool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another two nights of very slow sailing up through that barrier reef to Cairns. The Captain informs us a speed of 8 knots will have us there on Tuesday morning at daybreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also visited Cairns back in May 2021<\/a> on a previous motorhome adventure, so our aim today is just to walk the main shopping streets of which there are several and the waterfront. So once again it\u2019s coffee then 4 laps of the promenade, breakfast before walking into the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a population of 150,000 Cairns is the regional capital of North Queensland. We wander the shops lingering at whatever catches Pam\u2019s eye, luckily nothing sticks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We are back on the Zuiderdam in time for a swim before lunch and a couple of games of table tennis by the pool. As I post this blog the Zuiderdam is easing away from the dock to continue north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have 4 days cruising Ribbon Reef, Cape York and the Gulf before Darwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date : 11-18th February 2025 Travelled : 1100 NM from Sydney to Cairns. Visited : Morton Island, Airlie Beach and Cairns, Queensland. Stayed : Holland America\u2019s Zuiderdam Our neighbour Dave offers us a drive to the White Bay Terminal which we jump at as the public transport is very limited. Via the new M8 less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":36164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,123],"tags":[67],"class_list":{"0":"post-36161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-queensland","9":"tag-cruising","10":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36161"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36193,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36161\/revisions\/36193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}