An unexpected extra day at Airlie

Monday 3^rd July 2017

It is an unexpected extra day in Airlie, as we planned to head out this morning, Carole has had a lingering possible infection on one of he thumbs just near the edge of the nail, and despite dredging it with Hydrogen Peroxide she has had trouble sleeping the last few nights due to throbbing pain.

Seeing a doctor is the only sensible thing to do, before heading out into the islands for many days, so we called the local medical clinics to make an appointment. The first number we had said the clinic was closed indefinitely due to Cyclone Debbie. The next could only offer an appointment at 3pm this afternoon.

Not much choice really, we booked another night at the marina.

A boat near us had this innovative anchor winch which I had to capture on camera

The Tasmanian’s, Ian and Margaret (we had met at Thomas Island)  on “Tiara”, berthed just further down the marina leg from us are heading out today, as are our friends from Kite Runner, however the couple on “Strega” a CCCA member is also staying overnight, so we may see them on the water tomorrow.

We tried to fill in time walking to Shingely Beach, I went and filled the jerry cans, and we walked back into town early. It was low tide and because the artificial lagoon is closed for repair, the holidaymakers had to try to swim in the quite unattractive coastline here, especially at low tide.

Low tide at Airlie is not a great look

Once at the medical centre for our 3 pm appointment, we saw a fair cross section of society come in for treatment, and I would have fitted in better in the waiting room if I had a skateboard. Nevertheless, at 3.45 pm Carole eventually got to see the doctor that we had the 3pm appointment with.

The consultation took about 10 minutes and she walked away with a prescription for the antibiotics that we knew would be prescribed and had we lived in USA we could have bought over the counter at a chemist.

After a visit to the pharmacy in town to fill the prescription, we headed back to the marina.

We walked back past Hemmingways Restaurant where we had dinner last night

By the time we got back to our boat it was 4.30pm, so we settled back in, planning to have  dinner on board, chased the cormorants off our mast (they have been liberally crapping on the boat over the past few days), and has a relaxing dinner, with a plan to head out tomorrow on what looks like great weather.