Airlie is a big tourist/back-packer destination, as well as the jumping-off point for the Whitsunday Islands. As such, it is packed with tour boats zipping this way and that and the mooring field goes on as far as you can see.
We threaded our way through it and picked a spot near the breakwall to drop anchor. I was hoping to get within rowing distance to various landing areas, but while still recovering from my back pain, we decided we were just a bit too far for that opted for the electric outboard.
We found ourselves anchored next to a catamaran called Footprint - which made us happy (since this was the name of our previous boat and brought back a flood of wonderful memories).
We had a couple of interesting neighbors. One cruisy-looking boat near us actually turned out to be Party Boat. When night fell, several booze cruises went by. When the boom, boom, boom of the music from one seemed to take a long time to fade, I went outside to find that it was actually Party Boat. It sounded like they were hosting some sort of bachelorette party. Well, it was Saturday night. Closer inspection revealed it to be just three couples and they were having karaoke night. I tell you, nothing accompanies professional musicians better than amateur vocalists.
All of us swung at our anchors overnight. By morning, Party Boat was now astern of us and quiet as a mouse. As I was making coffee, I noticed the stern of the catamaran ahead and could just make out the name. No, it can't be! I grabbed some binoculars for a better look. Yep, that boat is called Footprint, singular, like our's used to be. The name graphic was even similar. It wasn't the same boat, of course, but a much racier design. We never did see the owners, but it was weird to look out the window and see “Footprint” stenciled on another boat.
We went ashore to have a look around the town. Based on people's descriptions, I had been expecting something more like Trellis Bay in the BVI, with loads of hostels and a main street made of sand. Instead, it looks like a lot of resort towns, with plenty of high-end hotels and a Main Street with pubs all thumping out different soundtracks. We found one nice one on the beach where they had live music and a two-for-one pizza deal. It was good, but we were two of the last to put in our order before the deal ended, so we ended up way down the queue. We spent an hour watching (and smelling) all of these delicious pizzas passing by, getting hungrier and hungrier, before ours were finally laid on the table before us. Hunger really is the best sauce. Also, Tabasco. That goes on everything.
The following morning, it was cold and rainy. It was perfect weather for an indoor day, but we had to go ashore. The reason we had come to Airlie in the first place was that it was the only place within two hundred miles where we could get our second COVID jab in the same month in which it was due.
So, off we went into the rain to our appointments. While we were there, we also picked up a load of shopping. That made us look like the craziest boaties out there, bringing home wet groceries while all of the rest stayed cozy in their cabins.
Exploring Airlie was easy to do, and it is a lovely town
(especially when the sun is shining)
Maryanne would have loved to spend a day in one of the hotel pools
(but the weather didn't cooperate)
We had planned to move on soon, but instead spent the next couple of nice days mostly cozy in our cabin. This was because I had one of those vaccine reactions that flattened me for a day and a half. Maryanne was fine. We'd heard the second one can be bad, and boy it sure was for me. If I hadn't known it was a side effect, I would have been a lot more worried about my sudden rapid decline in health. Luckily, the improvement is almost as fast, so now I'm back to more mundane things like shaking my fists at jet skiers and the like.
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