We’d booked an excursion privately and we knew we had to be at the dock in Cairns by 8am. We knew that was a big ask as it meant that we would have to get the first tender off at 6.45am then a shuttle bus ride into Cairns.
It was a very early start and we met up with fellow cruisers, Claire and her Mum, Brenda, from Scotland. We had had conflicting information about tenders but. to cut a long story short, the 0645 tender didn't leave until 0715.
We managed to get the first shuttle bus and arrived at the dock at 0815. Luckily it didn't seem to matter and we were on the catamaran for the 50-minute trip to Green Island. Today is Graeme's longest ever birthday as we're 10 hours ahead of the UK.
Coincidentally a Californian lady sitting behind us on the shuttle also had a birthday today. Green Island is a tropical rain forest island on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. There was hard sell on the catamaran - diving, sea walking, underwater cameras, paragliding etc. Our trip included either snorkelling or a glass bottomed boat trip. Neither of us fancied snorkelling in view of stories we had heard of stingray and salt water crocodile attacks so we opted for the glass bottomed boat.
We saw a couple of turtles and a wide array of fishes (can't remember their names!) as well as coral and clams. The trip was only 30 minutes, but the boat bobbed about a lot and we were happy to return to shore.
We had an
interesting talk from a Scottish Kiwi marine biologist followed by a short
walk. Claire did the seawalk which she really enjoyed. We killed a bit of time
having a drink before catching the catamaran, shuttle bus and tender back to
the ship which took over 2 hours 
.
When we got
back to our cabin G got a lovely surprise - a Happy Birthday banner on the door
and a bottle of wine in the cabin. From then on various members of the crew
wished him a happy birthday culminating in the waiters singing to him and
presenting him with a small cake.
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