Australian winter weather seems to be hit-or-miss. It’s definitely not all blue skies and sun like we envision it to be. Most mornings have looked like this, and the ten day forecast is pretty gray as well. Every afternoon seems to give us at least some sun, though.

All along the waterfront here (and apparently all across Australia) are these gas grills for people to use, for free. This immediately became our group’s favorite evening routine. During the day we’d all gather up our family’s meal for the night. At four we’d meet at the grill (we tried multiple, as they’re spaced all along the esplanade for miles). Kids would arrive after spending the afternoon wandering around town together. They’d play soccer or handball, or whatever, while we’d get the food cooking. Eat, hang out, watch the sun go down, wander back to the dinghy, then repeat the next day.

I’m not exaggerating about our routine here. Boat kids, boat parents, and grilling Australian meats without the boat mess. It’s a pretty nice setup. It’s funny how normal these lovely grilling buildings are to Australians, and how unique and interesting they are to literally everybody else. We have tourists coming up to us every night inquiring about them and taking pictures of our food. Australia knows what they are doing. The waterfront parks are filled with people each evening, and the grills are usually in pretty heavy rotation.

Worth mentioning is that the grills are more of a flat griddle, slightly sloped to a small hole in the middle. We cook up our food on some parchment paper, and when we’re done if there is any mess we just dump some water on it and give it a quick scrape. Nine out of ten times when you show up to a grill it is spotless. I think it’s a pretty serious faux pas to leave a dirty grill behind.

Cairns waterfront is a funny place. At high tide it looks normal enough, but at low tide it’s a vast mudflat. It doesn’t really matter, though. There’s saltwater crocs around here, so you wouldn’t be swimming or lying on the beach with your eyes closed anyway.

Starting to think maybe Australia doesn’t get Carnival’s newest ships.

Cleaning and lubing up the winches has been on the to-do list for a long time. I got this far, looked at it, quietly slid the winch back over the gears, and left the project on the list.

I did tackle a few minor projects while we were in Cairns. I replaced a whole bunch of lines (topping lift, traveler, mainsail foot (?)). Spent about $500 on those. Running rigging expenses don’t get enough press when people think about boat maintenance costs. We tend to spend a few hundred dollars a year, easily, just replacing dried up worn lines. I also replaced my steering cable repair with some slightly thicker dyneema and replaced the adjustable eye bolt so I could return our friend’s gear to them. I’m feeling totally confident in that repair now, and am questioning why they use cable with pressed fittings at all. I now have plenty of dyneema onboard to repair any future cable failure. I made some bilge pump repairs, and also replaced an alternator. I did a few other odds and ends around the boat, but basically the bare minimum required to not be considered a neglectful boat owner. I should point out that Ali is always busy doing one thing or another around the inside of the boat. Outside tends to be my domain. Her half looks to be in top nick. My half? Not so much.