We headed over to the beach a little before 13:00 (1:00 pm). Everyone was gathered around a small picnic table under a tree on the beach. There were about 16 people there, all Australian retirees. We listened to the horse race on the radio, then hung out and chatted with everyone for a couple more hours. Everyone was really nice. Politics was at the forefront of everyone’s mind since Continue reading
We only had 18 hours left to go to Lizard Island, so we didn’t need to leave yesterday until the afternoon. We realized that in the small slip we could easily reach the rub rail and miscellaneous external metal pieces that can’t be reached in a full size spot, so Christi spent a couple of hours polishing the metal on the starboard side of the boat. We have to admit that we have been incredibly lazy about the metal and, until today, haven’t polished it ourselves once since we left home. In Fiji the people who waxed the boat also did the metal, but it was looking pretty bad again already. The areas that Christi did are sparkling and shiny, which makes the rest of the dull and partially rusted metal look that much worse.
We pulled out at about 13:30 (1:30 pm). The ride to Lizard Island was wonderful. The views were pretty, with mountains similar to Port Douglas along the coast most of the way up. There were lots of Continue reading
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
On Friday morning we said goodbye to Jaime at 05:00. It was time for him to Continue reading
Cairns (pronounced Cans) is located in the state of Queensland on the northeastern coast of Australia, inside the Great Barrier Reef. When the English first began settling Australia, a penal colony was established in the south of the state. From there, graziers, miners and small farmers pushed farther west and north into what is now the state of Queensland. Mining that continues today includes coal, copper, zinc and lead. Farming includes meat, wheat, and sugar. Cairns was originally established as a port town to export goods produced in the general region, being ideally situated where the mouth of a river meets the bay, with a wide channel through the reef out to the ocean. Products could be sent to Cairns via rail or boat, and then loaded onto cargo ships for export. Today, Cairns has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Australia. Queensland has a population of approximately 3.86 million people. The city of Cairns only accounts for about 100,000 of those people.
Customs and quarantine were at the boat within a few minutes of our arrival to clear us in. All of them were very nice, offering all kinds of helpful information. All were professional and proficient at their jobs. The quarantine officer asked to see the food stores, then began systematically going through all the food. We had been clever and cooked up everything that we knew would get confiscated. We found out Continue reading