Boat Tour

July 25,  2013

I know Omar has already shown you our spacious new bedroom... let's take a virtual tour of the rest of our new home.  Try not to get lost!

Here's Tropicbird in all her glory.

I'm standing at the bow of the ship looking at Omar and cockpit.  Water jugs on the left, diesel on the right in the photo.  And that wooden box in the front of the photo is a private stair entrance down to our room below.  

Now I'm standing on the side of the cockpit looking towards the bow.  Notice the mermaid figure head on the front of the boat.

And here we are at the aft of the boat looking into the cockpit, where we eat some of our meals and watch movies at night under the stars.

So if you leave our bedroom in the bow and look to the left you will find the head aka the restroom which is what you are looking at with cabinets behind. You can the shower and the edge of the countertop.

And in this photo you can see the edge of the shower, the sink and the pump-flush toilet.  The average flush for a #2 takes 66 hand pumps says our captain.  And here lies the problem for Omar and his famed double flusher at home . . . what's that now? - 132 pumps!!!  

If you continue down the hall from our bedroom in the bow you can see the dining table (there's a bed off to the side above it) and that's the kitchen behind it.  Those stairs take us up into the cockpit.  

I haven't moved position from the last photo - I am just now looking to the right where there's another bench seat and another bed.  That's the nav station behind the bed - with all the books.

Here's a blurry kitchen photo thanks to 25 knot winds.  You can see our chopping counter, the sink and the stove/oven.  We make our own bread.

The nav station (navigation)  ....oohhh

If you keep walking down the boat towards the aft pass the nav station, here is bunk bed room.

And if you walk through the kitchen down the hallway (that runs parallel to the one above) you can see the food storage area and another bedroom at the end of that hallway (just like the one O and I are in).  There's also another head if you walked a few steps down this hallway and looked to your right.

Welcome to our new home - Tropicbird

After exploring Kakadu and Darwin we moved to what is going to be our new home: Tropicbird, our 50 foot yatch.  We will post details of boat life bit by bit. Today you get a tour of our room. It will be a short tour.

We are at the head of the ship. We have the luxury of our own room, even if it's tiny it's nice to have privacy.

 Over our beds is our own storage area. It doesn't look like much, but when everything you have fits in your backpack a shelf and a cabinet is pretty much all you need.

Looking back we have access to the rest of the ship and you can see the ladder to our own hatch.

 We have our own hatch. Its like a sunroof of sorts as well as our room AC.

 There is a lot of work to be done around the boat. Our Captain, Julian is showing us the ropes, literally. We hoisted him up to make some repairs. That's him at the very top!  No ES&H (Environment, Safety and Health for you non-labbies) needed here.

The winds were strong and he bounced all over the place but we brought him safely back.

This was the Captains view from 50 ft p in the air. On our next post Ali will show you another room. The term double flusher has a whole new meaning here!

Northern Territory Adventures

Australia's Northern Territory is a vast state where the town of Darwin and Kakadu National Park are located. We arrived at Darwin and quickly got on a Kakadu tour the next day. It was a great trip!

This is our 4WD transportation. We would spend the next three days moving around in our truck.

 First we went on a river cruise on the Mary River. We saw many birds and a few crocs there.

 No towels for this bird, so he must dry up in the sun after going fishing.

A Jabiru Stork taking a break from delivering Aussie babies.

 Aboriginal paintings. The old school classroom that taught them everything from fishing to society rules.

 Our guide lecturing on the Aboriginal rock art.

 The view while climbing Ubirr rock.

 Ali making her way to the top.

 A breathtaking view awaited us at the top of Ubirr.

 The great explorers from California.

 The ancient dollar menu.

 Moving around on the 4WD.

 Hiking up to Twin Falls.

Water holes at the top of the falls. Are they free of crocs? Who knows!

 The top of twin falls.

 Making our way to Jim Jim falls. As long as the croc doesn't bite your tires who needs a bridge.  Keep your arms in the vehicle at all times!

The beautiful approach to the falls.

 We went for a swim at the falls. The water was cold and refreshing and we swam under the waterfall. It was great! All that Tenaya Lake training paid off.

Some of our friends at the falls.

We ended the day by a beautiful sunset at the yellow river.

 My random artsy picture of the day.

 Termite mound in Kakadu.

 Our approach to  Mardugal Falls.

 Another glorious swimming hole. The water is so clear we could see the fish. Loved it.

Heading off to the boat. Goodbye.

Wrapping up Melbourne

Here are some pictures of the great time we had in our last few days in Melbourne.

Kangaroos look cute, but as you get closer their big claws are very scary!

We headed out to Hanging Rock Park where we got to pet the Kangaroos.

Chilling at hanging rock.

Then we were off to the Melbourne Museum. This is their "Specimen" collection.

The great shield of Australia.

Some impressive Aussie dinosaurs.

The Melbourne Museum is so big that we actually spent a couple days in there. This was a Pygmy Blue Whale at one point.

I promised Ali I would take her to the moon and back. Done!

Afterwards we came home to the great mushroom feast of 2013. Thanks Nick and Irma for foraging the non-poisonous mushrooms from the forest. From here we head off to Darwin.