Day 23, Year 3: All Work and No Play
Date: Sunday, June 1, 2008
Weather: Sunny Day; Daytime Temps Low 70’s F, Nighttime Temps in the 60’s F
Location: Marlin Marina, Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Eating is just way over-rated. That’s my declaration of the day. I spent my entire day shopping for food for the next six weeks and then finding a way to store that amount of food aboard Windbird. This is an exhausting task. Of course, one of the problems is that I have to cart everything back to the boat in a little pull cart with a milk crate attached to it and it only holds so much. So I have to walk, shop, walk, put food away; and then walk, shop, walk, put food away; and then walk, shop,
walk, and put food away. It took three trips today and we still aren’t done. Another problem is that I am storing food and drink for an entire six-weeks into a refrigerator that is about one-tenth the size of most modern day refrigerators and into miniature cabinets. And lastly, the store closest to the marina is not the best store, so of course, I had to walk further to buy some things at a bigger market. So getting food is a hassle, but that is just the beginning. Once you have the food, you
have to spend half your life cooking the food and cleaning up the dishes. When I was a little girl, I was convinced that by the time I was an adult there would be a pill you could take that would replace real food. That would certainly eliminate washing dishes! I don’t think I would miss washing dishes (actually Mark washes the dishes), but I do think I would really miss sitting down to a really fine meal. So I’ll stop complaining. At least I don’t have to shop again until we get to Darwin in
five or six weeks. And that’s a good thing.

Mark spent his day working in a different way. He changed the oil and various filters, did the laundry, uploaded photos to our website, and made one shopping excursion with me. On that excursion, we walked about two miles out to a gas station to buy engine oil for future oil changes and then went on to Bunnings Hardware to pick up miscellaneous supplies-the kind you cannot eat. On our way back into town we stopped at the City Centre to check out a local bookstore and to do some shopping in the
larger grocery stores there. It was almost six o’clock when I returned from my last shopping trip of the day. I just let everything sit while we had Patrick and Margaret over for sundowners. After they left I then spent the evening getting everything put away.

Last night we talked to that grand baby of ours via Skype. We took our computer to the laundry room where we had a better wireless signal. We could have taken our laptop anywhere, but we needed a power supply, so the laundry room was it. When we called last night, it was early morning for our grandson, so we got to watch him as he wound up for another day. Sam is as busy as a little beaver. By the time we ended the conversation, we were exhausted just watching him. Toddlers do have an enormous
energy level and it is a wonder any parents survive that stage of development. This morning we went back to the laundry room to multitask. This time we did the laundry while talking to other family. Our son Justin and his wife Jo weren’t home when we called, so I didn’t get to talk to them. While I went shopping, Mark stayed and finished the laundry and did finally get in touch with Justin. We won’t have another chance to do Skype calls until Darwin, so email communication will be it until then.

We have one more major task to do here before we leave and that is to fill up the fuel tanks on Windbird. We weren’t able to get an appointment at the fuel dock until 9:30 am, so we have had to adjust our travel for the day. We will go to a close island, actually Double Island, and then on to the Low Isles on Tuesday. So on we move up the coast of Australia.

080601 Day 23 Second Day in Cairns