Yorkeys Knob

Yorker's Knob is mostly a port gateway for Cairns and sights from there. For us it was the access to the Great Barrier Reef. Ever since our first experience snorkeling, I've wanted to see the Reef. It's not all that easy to get to, and our trip was 1 1/2 hours of choppy water just to get out there. We had a good experience seeing quite a lot of different colors and types of coral and lots of fish varieties. It was a large group on the ship's excursion (really the only viable option for us), but it was well managed, with a company that does these tours all the time. We didn't do the glass bottom boat or semi-submersible options, but chose to spend our time snorkeling, going out three different times - venturing to the far edge of this particular part of the reef. We did hear that these platforms are moved regularly to avoid over-use by tourists, and while there's always evidence of dead coral, there was plenty of live, beautiful coral and the many, many reef fish varieties. Stan saw some quite large fish, but I saw more medium sizes down to the tiny, minnow size.

While we had a good trip, the decision by Cunard to go all the way back to the marina rather than directly back to the ship was not in anyone's best interest. It meant we spent an extra 1 1/2 hours in the very rough seas just bobbing around the outer harbour to get to the marina, get off the catamaran, stand in line (adding a large group of 200-300 into the queue) just to get on the tender to go back out to the ship in such rough waters that the anchor wouldn't hold and ship had to continually maneuver to maintain safe transfers from the tenders. There seemed to be no reason to book the catamaran to pick up on the ship, but not return to the ship. The Reef excursion group seemed to be generally unhappy with that decision, which have a negative last impression of the excursion.We got back so late that there wasn't time to shower and change for dinner, so we missed the evening's entertainment (which we've heard was excellent)

Now we are into two sea days until our port of Rabaul.Today has been very grey and windy - high seas due to a cyclone somewhere out in the coral sea. Lots of rocking back and forth all day, with a definite list due to the high winds off the port side. While it's a bit tricky walking, we aren't having issues with motion sickness, so that is a good thing.

We currently have several good insight speakers, so generally have 3 or 4 lectures to choose from each sea day, in addition to other available activities. Our reef pilot has done several talks about being a ship pilot, the reef and the areas around this part of the world. It's been good to have someone currently actively working in the area. He has also done live commentary in particularly scenic areas and narrow passages.