Category Archives: Cruising Guide

Information for other cruising boats. Our experiences finding places to anchor, dealing with officials, provisions, etc.

Thursday Island, Australia to Kupang, Indonesia — Day 1

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Yesterday, our first stop was fuel for Kosmos. We had an appointment at 09:00 and we filled up with duty free fuel at only AUS$1.11 per liter (~ $4/gal USD). Ouch. At least it was cheaper than filling up in Cairns by about 35 cents per liter. The fuel dock is made for taller boats and getting off of it was tricky. After we were done pumping, they told us to go and re-anchor and come back later to pay. We suppose that with 8 zillion customs boats and planes patrolling the area, they figured we couldn’t get too far away if we decided not to pay.

We re-anchored, paid, and then hopped the ferry to TI. Debbie and Jim were kind enough to let us use their internet again. The other day we had run off so fast after looking at the forecast that we hadn’t checked email, posted blogs, or done any of the other stuff we need to do on-line. While doing a little research on Indonesia, we realized that our intended first stop, Saumlaki, isn’t normally Continue reading →

Welcome to Thursday Island, Torres Straits, Australia

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The pain in Christi’s nose had continued to get worse throughout the evening. Before going to bed she saw the interior of her nose was swollen. By the next morning the swelling has spread into her upper lip and right cheek, making it painful to smile and eat.

Shortly after getting up, we caught the ferry from Horn Island to Thursday Island. We could have taken the dinghy, but Continue reading →

Welcome to Horn Island, Torres Straits, Australia

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10′ 35S by 142′ 14E – Yes, we know. We said we were going to Thursday Island. Thursday Island is a small island in the middle of a group of islands. Horn Island is the next island over and has a better anchorage than Thursday Island, so we are anchoring at Horn. Kind of like when we went to Luganville but were anchored across the channel at Aore Island.

Yesterday, almost as soon as we finished writing the blog post saying the ride was good, it got worse. We are getting close to Continue reading →

Exploring Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia

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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 Continue reading →

Back in the Water and New Fruits

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At 0800 the travel lift rolled over to us and the crew worked on getting the straps around Kosmos. The straps can be unhooked in the middle, so they rolled the machine on top of Kosmos with the straps undone and hooked them together around the blocks we were resting on. With us inside Kosmos, the lift picked us up and drove us back to the slip. Once we were centered over the water, we were slowly lowered down. And we floated. Phew. A good thing indeed.

We had an appointment at the fuel dock in the marina at 09:30 for fuel. We did circles in the river to kill time. The freshly repacked shaft was getting hot. Too hot. Not good.

We had already decided Continue reading →