Off to Lizard Island — But We Wound Up in Port Douglas, Instead

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It will take us about 24-hours to get to Lizard Island, so we headed out a little before noon, figuring noon was the ideal time of day to arrive at Lizard Island. The seas were incredibly calm and it was a nice ride.

Eric was constantly checking the shaft. The collar of the shaft was still running too hot. He started running water from the hose on it to cool it off and pulled out some of the stuffing material. It was still running too hot, so he kept the water on it. After a while, the water pump overheated and shut off. We slowed down, hoping that would help. It didn’t. The shaft seemed to be OK temperature wise, but it was making friction on the collar and the collar was just too hot. After being underway about 2 ½ hours, we decided 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 →

Visit to Kuranda, Queensland, Australia

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Last night the boys had fallen asleep in the car and managed to stay asleep while they were carried them up to Kosmos. In the morning, Pim looked out the windows and was shocked to see the water was gone. It was really cute. We figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to hang around breathing paint fumes all day, so we decided to head into the mountains. There are numerous national parks within a day’s driving distance, and we chose to go to the closest one, Kuranda, only a half hour away. Near the entrance of the park is a small town also called Kuranda. A visit to Kuranda town and some hikes in the Kuranda national park is a popular tourist day trip from Cairns.

The drive up the mountain was really pretty. Here is a view of Cairns and the surrounding area from the side of the road close to Kuranda.

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Being that we are in a rainforest, it is Continue reading →

Cairns Haul Out Day

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Today was the big day. We were having Kosmos hauled out of the water so her bottom could be painted. We were somewhat nervous since we had just read an article in Passagemaker magazine about another Nordhavn that had been dropped during haul out and completely destroyed.

The Norship boatyard is located just two miles up the river. The marina is right where the river meets the ocean. On the right hand side as you go up the river is an industrial area. There is a cruise ship terminal, a small navy base, and several boatyards. On the left side of the river is an endless expanse of mangrove trees with moorings lining the banks. There is a boat on almost every mooring all the way up to the yard.

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We found the correct yard and pulled into the only slip. A couple Continue reading →