March 10, 2026
Yorkeys Knob, near Cairns, got its name from George Lawson, a Yorkshire-born, Cairns-based fisherman, who was nicknamed Yorkey, and “knob” meaning a rounded hill.
We actually didn’t go ashore at all. We got off the QM2 directly onto a large catamaran that carried about 250 passengers for about an hour to what they called a pontoon. This was a large pontoon raft anchored over a part of the Great Barrier Reef. There we snorkeled and ate lunch, and Mal rode a “semi-submersible” boat with below-surface viewing windows.
To snorkel we wore “sting suits’ to protect us from jellyfish. These were full body wet suits that were about a quarter to an eighth of an inch thick and included mittens and hoods. As a favor to our readers, we have not included a photo of 250 geriatrics putting on sting suits. Dottie did do a cartoon. By the way, while the sting suits made the passengers look a lot better, we didn’t notice any jellyfish. So, we guess the suits must have worked.
Here are Dottie and some other snorkelers on the diving platform that’s fastened to the pontoon. Dottie took a guided snorkeling tour, and got to see a large clam, baby Nemos (clown fish) sticking their little noses up out of the coral, and then of course a number of the adults, beautiful parrot fish, and huge lumps of brain coral.
Here’s a photo of the inside of the semi-submersible Mal rode, and a photo he took of the reef from that boat.
Thinking about our day, the water was a little cloudy and the colors and variety of coral and fish weren’t up to what we’ve seen in the Virgin Islands.
On the other hand, we had a great time, and we can now say we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef.
On to Darwin!
Dottie and Mal
