We choose Cairns as a base for its tropical climate (as we now have trouble to adapt to colder weather!), the availability of good shipyards and the possibility to leave the boat in a secure place during our visit to Europe.
The complex and awkward clearing procedures and the cost which often deter yachts to enter Australia were smoothen by a friendly and professional team of officials. Once the clearing finalised we take the boys to the McDonald as they have been craving for hamburger and fries for a long time! We are overwhelmed by the number of shops and restaurants. The general waste of a typical consumer life is shocking after spending 15 months in some of the most remote places in the world.
We are thrilled to meet the crews of Chaotic Harmony (met in Port Vila) and Wiikiri (met in Ghizo) with whom we can share our impressions as well as good memories.
Although we plan to stay in Cairns from mid September to the end of the cyclone season the schedule is relatively tight and we will not have much time to visit this massive country. Once safely installed on the dock we plan our trip to Europe to visit family and friends in November to return on time for the beginning of the cyclone season (During our stay, we will have two cyclone alerts and one evacuation into the mangroves.) We enrol the boys for a term at school in the new year. Our opportunities to leave Cairns after that will be limited although we are invited on numerous occasions to visit "fellow yachties" in Brisbane, Melbourne, Darwin and Sydney.
Our activities are pretty much focussed on the boat and the pirates. Marc spends his days on maintenance, sourcing parts, meeting specialists and organising the time on the yard and I focus on the everyday life business, food, school, cleaning and helping Marc when I can. We are back to a little routine which proves comfortable only for a while.
The boys love it in Cairns, the school is the highlight of our stay and although challenging for a few months, they enjoy it tremendously. This is Nicolas's first experience at proper school and we have to persuade him that pinching his girlfriends is surely not the best way to communicated with them! Alexis has more trouble to follow instructions and work by himself. This is the main difference with homeschooling with the teacher on his back at all times. They will not show any enthusiasm when we return to homeschooling with Mum.
Cairns will also be a time of new experiences for them, visits to the local zoo, the waterslides, the circus and going to the movies. For the parents and especially for the Captain the last three months of our stay will be very tough physically as he entirely focuses on the maintenance and improvements of the boat and spends his days working on Chasse Spleen preparing the boat for our new journey. Maxime (a French fellow) joins as a crew in April and provides some precious help for Marc (especially on the hard) as well as beeing a big brother for the boys.
The perspective of the Melanesian islands is boosting our spirits as the moral is at the time fairly low.
We will meet many people in Cairns but we find that most of our "local" friends are not originally from North Queensland but from other parts of Australia (NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, NT) or long term expats (especially from NZ). Among these new relations we were very lucky to find and locate the first two owners of Chasse Spleen (Monsoon II) who were both living in the region. We effectively completed the last leg of the round the world journey from Florida to Australia. Two years ago in Auckland we had met the Salthouse family, the boat builders and these meetings all proved very emotional for everyone. We collect some of the old photographs of Chasse Spleen showing that very little has changed since she was originally built 23 years ago.
Although we are leaving many good friends behind, we cannot wait to go back at sea. We are keen to get some distance from an overly regulated society and a routine life which we both dislike.