Port Douglas was founded in 1877 as the port town for the Hodgkins River gold fields. In the 1880’s Cairns was chosen as the terminal for the new rail line from Kuranda and another mountain town called Mareeba. With the rail traffic going to Cairns, Port Douglas never grew bigger than a sleepy village. In the 1980’s a developer built a luxury resort that attracted tourists. More money was invested into making the town a nice tourist destination, and tourism is now Port Douglas’s primary income source.

We had decided yesterday that Christi should go under the boat. We thought the problem may have come from lanolin grease blocking the area where the shaft is supposed to leak, so she was going to go down and try to wipe any grease away from that area. When we checked in, the dock master told us they get small crocs in the marina from time to time, so her enthusiasm for going down suddenly drained away.

Fortunately, it turned out that she didn’t need to get in the water. We managed to get hold of Jeff Merrill at Nordhavn, who explained to Eric that it wasn’t necessary to tighten any of the bolts on the box. That is why the cooling water wasn’t getting in. Ironically enough, Jeff happened to be literally a couple blocks from our house and thus thinking of us right when we called.

Since the fix was simple, we relaxed and decided to go into town to check out the Sunday market. The town is surrounded by water on three sides, making for stunning views from just about everywhere. The park that the market is held in is right next to the marina along the west side of town, just below the river outlet. It is a fairly large swap meet, with lots of vendors selling clothes, food, produce, handicrafts, books, and so on. The assortment of unique handicrafts reminded us of Kuranda. Two booths in particular stood out in our minds: one where they carve faces into coconuts where the artistry is just amazing and one where they flatten out booze bottles with the labels intact and turn them into clocks.

Near the park with the swap meet is a tiny church and a brick building with a restaurant the dock master had said was good. We had breakfast there and it was good. And big. One of the things Christi loves about Australia is the hearty breakfasts they serve. She loves breakfast food.

From there we walked around town. It is quite small. It looks a lot like Kuranda. It is about the same size, with mostly low buildings housing shop after shop, set in the rain forest with lots of trees. The downtown area is flat, but just outside of downtown it is hilly and lush foliage hides the houses surrounding town.

Also like Kuranda, Port Douglas is very close to several popular national parks. The feel is different, though. Kuranda is artsy and casual, kind of geared at the nature seeking tourist. Port Douglas is upscale, but mellow. It feels kind of like Palm Springs, but tropical. Port Douglas is a big contrast to Cairns. Cairns is all flat land with carefully planted ornamental landscape. You can see the mountains in the nearby background, but they are not part of the city. Cairns is bustling and busy, offering something for everyone. There are hotels, shops and restaurants geared at the lowest budget traveler, the highest budget traveler, and everything in between, all smooshed in together side by side. Port Douglas is geared at the high end traveler.

We walked down the main drag from one end of the ocean to the other. There is a really nice beach on the east side, one of the few in this general area that is safe to swim in. Being inside the reef, there are no real waves breaking on the shore. It is picturesque to see the beach and mountains with the water.

We walked back down a residential street, admiring the very nice homes on small plots that were, amazingly, barely visible behind the dense forest of trees. Eric is standing in between two driveways in this shot.

We turned off the residential road and took another commercial street back to the marina. Back at the boat, Eric went back to work on the stuffing box. He unpacked the whole thing, loosened all the bolts, cleaned it, put anti-corrosion coating on the shaft and collar, and repacked it. It was properly leaking so we were happy.

We went out to dinner at an excellent restaurant named Bistro 3.