Oh, the Possibilities…

                Into each life a little rain must fall.

                             Or… a lot of rain!        

                             But, we have zero complaints.                                  

                             This is really the first “rainout” that we have experienced and where we probably would have chosen a different day, say like a “Museum” day, we were not given that opportunity.

                             Oh well  😊

                   We did make the best of it however. The Water Shuttle ride into the delightful, but sopping wet, little town of Airlie Beach was much better than usual because they hired some nifty high-speed catamaran motorboats to bring us back and forth. This did make a huge difference as the distance was about three miles one way and that takes a long time in one of our little plodding lifeboats turned shuttlecraft.

The insides were air conditioned and had nicely padded individual seats (think motorcoach) instead of the fiberglass bench seats in the water shuttle, which obviously if they needed to be used in an emergency would compare to a Strato-lounger in your TV room, but thankfully we haven’t tested them under those circumstances yet!

                   We were scheduled to have an excursion called Airlie Beach Ocean Rafting Safari. Thankfully we were able to cancel this event and receive a full refund even though we canceled within the “Sorry, too late to Cancel” window. Princess had sent out a message to us that the conditions were not going to be good, complete with some rough seas, so they and the tour operator understood if anyone wanted to back out. We’ve come to realize that none of these tour operators, nor Princess, want anyone to experience bad conditions. There isn’t any amount of “current” business that can outweigh a bunch of negative comments or reviews.

                             Instead, we made a trip to the local grocery store and procured seven packages of a cookie that is only available ‘down under’ and in Kiwi-land.  They are called Tim-Tams and come in several varieties, all of which work nicely for a cookie, or biscuit as they are known down here and abroad. Think awesome British shortbreads covered and filled with some tasty chocolate. Add in the varieties, dark, mint, caramel, etc. and you get a real treat! They are a favorite of our afternoon “Cards Playing Group” that meets on Sea Days. I have learned several games.

I’m becoming my Grandparents.

More on that later.

                   We got soaking wet even though we had ponchos and raincoats. We even bought an umbrella at the Port Terminal when we arrived there. Oh well, no issues, as everything that we were wearing was “sport wear” and perfectly able to get soaked without any ill effects.

                   As I write this (it’s 4:45 am here) it is raining. The Captain announced last evening that our weather for today in Cairns (our next Port) was going to be similar to our day in Airlie Beach.  ☹

                                      At least it’s not snow!