Blue Book of Boats
Juicy tidbits and blogbits about boats
-
1 Comment
A stern shower is becoming an important charter boat feature not just for the tropical destinations but also for the Pacific Northwest. In the summer time, water temperature especially around the Desolation Sound area can go up to as high as 28 degrees celsius which makes for very comfortable swimming.Desolation Sound has the advantage of warm waters in the summer, and being able to wash off the salt water off your body before going inside the boat has its plusses.
If you have guests on the boat, the stern shower avoids line ups to the shower room.
The above photo can make a good advertisement for having a stern shower on your boat. Look carefully, because the man and lady featured on the photo are the future King and Queen of England. Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
The next time Prince William visits Vancouver, he ought to try out Desolation Sound, because Vancouverites are so polite, they will definitely give the couple some privacy.
-
No Comments
We have a lovely trip down the inside of the Barrier Reef, passing many islands. Apparently there are 1500 island in the Reef, an only 11 are inhabited. At one point we passed an area with a lot of sailing boats, and many islands were visible. As we moved along I spotted a few anchorages, and one town with a couple of biggish hotels. I’m guessing these were the Whitsunday Islands. It looked like great sailing, good breezes with rather small waves. All the sailboats I saw were sailing, none motoring. There were motor boats too, but sail predominates. -
No Comments
Last night at dinner it was “Pirate Night” with the crew and some passengers all dressed up with eye patches, hooks, peg legs and other pirate gear. Dinner took a long time as they kept stopping to have their photos taken.
In the middle of dinner the ship hit something. There was a thump and a shudder went through the ship, then a minute of so later the starboard prop made a large vibration. The dining room is right aft directly above the drive pods, so I could easily identify the sound and vibration. The engines were idled and I suppose the props were stopped, as the ship went very smooth and silent. Then a few minutes later the engines started up again, but all night there was a noticeable vibration from one prop. I think it must have been a whale, as the thump was muffled and whatever hit the prop did not make any clanging noises as you would expect it it was something metal such as another boat or floating container. No announcements were made so it remains a mystery.
We arrived in Suva as scheduled so it didn’t slow us much. Still, I’m pretty sure the prop is damaged.
Suva is the largest city in the Pacific Islands with over 200,000 people. It isn’t very pretty on approach as the port is industrial and there are a lot of rusty old ships at anchor.
As we docked a large Police Band appeared and played a large selection of music, starting with marching tunes but then there were Beatles and at one point they were dancing the Macarena on the dock. The side of the ship was lined with people as they applauded this performance. It certainly made us feel welcome.
-
1 Comment
Spend the day at sea. We lost Sunday because of the International Dateline. It is now Monday Oct. 19. We went directly from Saturday to Monday. There is no Sunday.
