Caleb can’t sleep, so he decides to make sure I’m up at least an hour before the last time we will hear Kerrin going through the halls with his sing-song, “good morning, wakey, wakey.” We are encouraged to have breakfast or relax outside our rooms while the crew collects our bags on deck for debarking and delivering to the airport or a hotel in between. They are also stripping the sheets and collecting towels in preparation for the boat’s departure in ten hours with another group of divers. The moon is still full and bright as we make our way into port at 630am.

Guests also use this time to share WhatsApp numbers, Instagram usernames, and personal websites, such as divingmore.com. We find out the kid on board won the Hasselblad Masters 2026 Project // 21 with his submission Dwellers of the Night. Once off the boat, we take a group photo, then load onto a bus or van, depending on our destination. We repack our bags at the hotel and are told we can leave them until early check-in. We were roughly 3km away, so we walked to the Cairns Botanic Gardens, where sadly we had to see a dead eel on the sidewalk. Perhaps a bird grabbed more than it could carry.

There’s a spot for kids to play in water, dig for treasures in sand, and climb wooden steps — all the hazards that the US is removing from their play areas and replacing with hot plastic. There’s a boardwalk and lots of shade, but brunch is more enticing. We each get a fresh juice blend in a mason jar, then a mango-orange Schweppes to try while they make my mocha with whipped cream, eggs Benedict, and salmon-avocado toast for Caleb. We also order a slice of hummingbird cake and a chocolate muffin. This might not replenish our energy, but it also doesn’t consume it.

There are some large steps behind the gift shop and café that deliver a place to repose until it’s time to return to the hotel. We pass a Sikh Cremation Ground that was active between 1953 and 1980. The grounds were relocated until 1985, when a crematorium opened, along with two other locations that allow the construction of a pyre for the traditional funeral rites. Many immigrants from the Punjab region were self-funded when they came to work in the sugar industry in the 1880s and began buying farms and bringing their families, but some of their practices took longer for locals to accept.

Caleb tried getting us a ride back to the room, which would only take 4 minutes, but no driver would accept, so we continued on. We dragged our bags up in the lift, and I was getting off the bed an hour later. We took a bus to the grocery store, located in a mall, to get some dinner and breakfast items, and I grabbed a pistachio-coconut milk to try (good combo). The pay system is down for the return ride. We showered, ate spicy ramen while Caleb sweats with the A/C at 18°C (64°F), the lowest it will go, and got cozy for a full night’s rest at 630pm.