Cruising Active Transport
We circumnavigated between 2008 and 2014. After sailing to Alaska we ended up in Seattle for four years.
19 September 2018
08 August 2018 | Marina del Rey
23 July 2018 | Marina del Rey
22 July 2018 | 25 miles west of Cambria
21 July 2018 | Crossing Monterey Bay
21 July 2018 | South of the Golden Gate
16 July 2018
14 July 2018 | Grand Marina
14 July 2018 | San Francisco Bay
13 July 2018 | Point Arena
12 July 2018 | Thirty Miles NW of Humbolt Bay, CA
11 July 2018 | Crescent City
10 July 2018 | Neah Bay
09 July 2018 | Thirty five miles WNW of Reedsport, Oregon
08 July 2018 | Forty Miles West of Columbia River Entrance
07 July 2018 | Neah Bay
06 July 2018 | Neah Bay Marina
05 July 2018 | Neah Bay Marina
04 July 2018
03 July 2018 | Port Angeles City Floats
Brain Droppings
29 July 2012 | Ashmore Reef
John
I just finished Geroge Carlin's book "Brain Droppings". Since most of my good ideas are stolen from somewhere so I figured why not steal his title since it seemed entirely appropriate for what I was thinking about including in this blog post. I miss George.
We both slept for about 10 hours last night but sill want to take it easy today. The passage really tired us out. Its been a long time since we did an open ocean passage this long and need to get conditioned to it again.
The Ashmore Guardian
We are on a mooring right behind the Ashmore Guardian. This Australian Customs vessel spends 300 days a year on station, according to Tim, the guy who came aboard and checked us in.
As we were sitting here looking at the Ashmore Guardian one thought came to mind. What do they do will all the poo?
The visitors guidelines and rules are very specific about us using our holding tank while we are here and somewhat ambiguous about that we should do with the galley sink water and shower sump tank. We are the only boat here right now but they have moorings to accommodate around 20 boats. Most Australian sailboats don't have holding tanks but I dont suppose too many Aussies visit here unless they are headed west. The sail back to the mainland would not be easy, at least this time of year.
Ashmore Guardian has three large streams of water coming out of the port side of the ship at all times. We cant see the starboard side from our mooring.
I would imagine that they have a diesel generator running 24/7 to power their surveillance equipment, living accommodations, watermaker and refrigeration. Its not hard to imagine a supply ship coming in here to pump more diesel fuel on board as they need it but does the same ship offload sewage?
If we get another chance to chat with someone from Ashmore Guardian I will ask these questions.
Phil, VK3PG
During our travels we have used a variety of land based HAM radio stations to send and receive email and to get our weather data when we are away from internet access.
It is interesting that some stations are extremely useful to us and others not as easy to contact. When we were on our way from Easter Island to Peru I was able to use a station is Gisborne New Zealand every morning even though the propagation software said it was out of range on the frequencies that worked so well. The operator must have had is antenna pointed right at us, maybe to service the traffic from the folks on the Marquesas to Tahiti run.
When we got to NZ his station almost never worked for us.
In the year we have been in Australia one station has really stood out as being the most reliable source of contact. The station is VK3PG in Melbourne. The operation is a guy named Phil. I know this because when we were in Tasmania Phil exchanged several emails with me and gave me some very helpful tips on how to get stronger connections with shoreside stations. We also discussed Tasmania and the price of diesel in various places in Australia. I learned that Phil operates an earthmoving business and even got a URL that took me to his web site that has a nice picture of one of his bulldozers.
Phil owns and operates his station on a volunteer basis and now that we are starting to pull away from the range of his station I thought we should acknowledge his contribution to our communications while in Oz and to let other cruisers know about his reliable station.
Phil's station is so good that here in Ashmore reef it is as reliable as another station that is in Indonesia. The Indonesian station is 1000 miles away. Phil's is 2000 miles away. Phil obviously understands the science and magic of radio propagation.
Thank you, Phil.
Indonesian Fishermen
Australia has what is known as a memo of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia on the matter of traditional Indonesian fishermen having access to the fishing grounds in the vicinity of Ashmore reef and other Australian possessions in this part of the Ocean.
"Traditional" has a very specific meaning in this case. It means that the fishermen must work from sail propelled boats. No engines or refrigeration are allowed. They fish almost exclusively for sharks and sea cucumbers (aka trepang).
When we approached the reef from the NE we saw a lot of sailboats rocking in the swell and were not looking forward to our stay at Ashmore reef. It turned out that the boats were Indonesian fishing boats that were anchored outside the reef seeking protection from the swell in the lee of the reef.
As we passed into the lagoon to the inner mooring area we could see that the Indonesian boats were truly "traditional" Their masts all looked different as each reflected the shape of the tree they were made from. The boats had very low freeboard and a lot of waterline length as a percentage of their length overall. You could see fishermen sitting on the deck just waiting for the weather to abate so they could get back to business. We were told that the 70 mile passage from Indonesia to here takes them a couple of days and that they find the reef by the green color that is reflected on the underside of the clouds over the reef.
I have assumed that the reason the Indonesian fishing boats are not inside the reef is because without an engine they would have a hard time negotiating the upwind route back out to open ocean. Getting into the mooring area would be easy enough in the trade winds but getting out would be really difficult without an engine. Active Transport can certainly sail a lot closer to the wind than the Indonesian fishing boats but I would not even consider trying to sail out of here.
It's also possible that the Australians don't let them come inside the reef.
The customs officer who checked us in said that the Indonesian fishermen had decimated the reef in the years before there was an Australian Customs presence here to protect it. He said that in the 6 years that Australia has been policing the area the reef has rebounded amazingly. The Customs boats still patrol the edges of the reef to keep the fishermen from taking forbidden species like octopus.
The officer said that he had recently boarded one of the Indonesian fishing boats and they showed him that they had a GPS on board. I think they are probably required to have a GPS so they can stay outside the areas where fishing is forbidden. Although they had the GPS they did not have any batteries for it.
In addition to the fishing rights the Indonesian fishermen have, under the MOU, the right to come in to west Island to get fresh water from the well on the island and to visit the graves of Indonesian fishermen who are buried here. The customs officer said that the water from the well was suspect because some of the graves of Typhoid victims were too close to the well. We were not planing on getting water from the well so it was no big deal for us.
We took some pictures of the Indonesian fishing boats when we came in and will try to get a little closer when we leave and get some more.
More Observations about Ashmore Guardian
The Customs Officer who checked us in said that they served a month at a time out here on the reef. That seems like a long time to me and it does not look like the crew is overburdened with things to do. Im sure they have spurts of activity when the fishermen are naughty or when a boat load of refugees shows up but most of the time I would not expect they have a lot to do.
If I was on that vessel for a month I would probably wear out my kindle.
One of the guys was exercising on deck this morning and then started practicing his boxing while another guy held up those hand pads that boxers use to practice. other guys seem to spend a lot of time on the back porch (or whatever you all it on a power vessel) just staring out to see. Maybe that is part of their watch but they can only see about half the reef.
Australia's Commitment to Preserving Their Marine Environment.
Australia is both blessed and cursed by having one of the most unique marine environments on the planet. The entire country is surrounded by beautiful reefs and cruising areas. Tourists from all over the world come to Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef .
The total distance around all of the coastal areas worthy of special protection exceeds 8000 miles. By comparison the length of the coastal areas of the 48 states is about 3500 miles and does not contain nearly as high a percentage of sensitive areas as the coast of Australia.
Australia is also much closer to developing countries that put pressure on the Australian environment.
To fund the effort to protect Australian marine resources they depend taxes from a population of only about 25 million people. That's fewer people that live in California.
So as a percentage of GDP Australia has to be spending way more on protection of this one part of their environment that any other country I can think of.
Lest the pope read this and jump on a plane to fly here to cannonize all these Australian ecosaints I should point out that Australia still has few things that are not perfect.
There is mounting evidence that industrial waste from places like Gladstone are poisoning the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has a lot of coal deposits and must be burning a lot of coal to make electrical power. They also export a lot of coal to Asia and, of course, all the pollution from that coal ends up in the same atmosphere as if it were burned in Australia. Regulating these industries will have costs that probably rival the cost of the environmental monitoring and enforcement.
These subjects are constantly in the Australian press and, like the US, Australia has conservatives that think the planet can take care of itself and they should not be constrained from making as much money as possible. But all Australians are required by law to vote and there are significant constraints on private money being used in political campaigns so participation by a wider variety of stake holders usually results in more rational government involvement in these critical issues.
On balance, I have the impression that Australia does a very good job of dealing with these issues. Its almost good enough to forgive them from sending us Rupert Murdoch.
We both slept for about 10 hours last night but sill want to take it easy today. The passage really tired us out. Its been a long time since we did an open ocean passage this long and need to get conditioned to it again.
The Ashmore Guardian
We are on a mooring right behind the Ashmore Guardian. This Australian Customs vessel spends 300 days a year on station, according to Tim, the guy who came aboard and checked us in.
As we were sitting here looking at the Ashmore Guardian one thought came to mind. What do they do will all the poo?
The visitors guidelines and rules are very specific about us using our holding tank while we are here and somewhat ambiguous about that we should do with the galley sink water and shower sump tank. We are the only boat here right now but they have moorings to accommodate around 20 boats. Most Australian sailboats don't have holding tanks but I dont suppose too many Aussies visit here unless they are headed west. The sail back to the mainland would not be easy, at least this time of year.
Ashmore Guardian has three large streams of water coming out of the port side of the ship at all times. We cant see the starboard side from our mooring.
I would imagine that they have a diesel generator running 24/7 to power their surveillance equipment, living accommodations, watermaker and refrigeration. Its not hard to imagine a supply ship coming in here to pump more diesel fuel on board as they need it but does the same ship offload sewage?
If we get another chance to chat with someone from Ashmore Guardian I will ask these questions.
Phil, VK3PG
During our travels we have used a variety of land based HAM radio stations to send and receive email and to get our weather data when we are away from internet access.
It is interesting that some stations are extremely useful to us and others not as easy to contact. When we were on our way from Easter Island to Peru I was able to use a station is Gisborne New Zealand every morning even though the propagation software said it was out of range on the frequencies that worked so well. The operator must have had is antenna pointed right at us, maybe to service the traffic from the folks on the Marquesas to Tahiti run.
When we got to NZ his station almost never worked for us.
In the year we have been in Australia one station has really stood out as being the most reliable source of contact. The station is VK3PG in Melbourne. The operation is a guy named Phil. I know this because when we were in Tasmania Phil exchanged several emails with me and gave me some very helpful tips on how to get stronger connections with shoreside stations. We also discussed Tasmania and the price of diesel in various places in Australia. I learned that Phil operates an earthmoving business and even got a URL that took me to his web site that has a nice picture of one of his bulldozers.
Phil owns and operates his station on a volunteer basis and now that we are starting to pull away from the range of his station I thought we should acknowledge his contribution to our communications while in Oz and to let other cruisers know about his reliable station.
Phil's station is so good that here in Ashmore reef it is as reliable as another station that is in Indonesia. The Indonesian station is 1000 miles away. Phil's is 2000 miles away. Phil obviously understands the science and magic of radio propagation.
Thank you, Phil.
Indonesian Fishermen
Australia has what is known as a memo of understanding (MOU) with Indonesia on the matter of traditional Indonesian fishermen having access to the fishing grounds in the vicinity of Ashmore reef and other Australian possessions in this part of the Ocean.
"Traditional" has a very specific meaning in this case. It means that the fishermen must work from sail propelled boats. No engines or refrigeration are allowed. They fish almost exclusively for sharks and sea cucumbers (aka trepang).
When we approached the reef from the NE we saw a lot of sailboats rocking in the swell and were not looking forward to our stay at Ashmore reef. It turned out that the boats were Indonesian fishing boats that were anchored outside the reef seeking protection from the swell in the lee of the reef.
As we passed into the lagoon to the inner mooring area we could see that the Indonesian boats were truly "traditional" Their masts all looked different as each reflected the shape of the tree they were made from. The boats had very low freeboard and a lot of waterline length as a percentage of their length overall. You could see fishermen sitting on the deck just waiting for the weather to abate so they could get back to business. We were told that the 70 mile passage from Indonesia to here takes them a couple of days and that they find the reef by the green color that is reflected on the underside of the clouds over the reef.
I have assumed that the reason the Indonesian fishing boats are not inside the reef is because without an engine they would have a hard time negotiating the upwind route back out to open ocean. Getting into the mooring area would be easy enough in the trade winds but getting out would be really difficult without an engine. Active Transport can certainly sail a lot closer to the wind than the Indonesian fishing boats but I would not even consider trying to sail out of here.
It's also possible that the Australians don't let them come inside the reef.
The customs officer who checked us in said that the Indonesian fishermen had decimated the reef in the years before there was an Australian Customs presence here to protect it. He said that in the 6 years that Australia has been policing the area the reef has rebounded amazingly. The Customs boats still patrol the edges of the reef to keep the fishermen from taking forbidden species like octopus.
The officer said that he had recently boarded one of the Indonesian fishing boats and they showed him that they had a GPS on board. I think they are probably required to have a GPS so they can stay outside the areas where fishing is forbidden. Although they had the GPS they did not have any batteries for it.
In addition to the fishing rights the Indonesian fishermen have, under the MOU, the right to come in to west Island to get fresh water from the well on the island and to visit the graves of Indonesian fishermen who are buried here. The customs officer said that the water from the well was suspect because some of the graves of Typhoid victims were too close to the well. We were not planing on getting water from the well so it was no big deal for us.
We took some pictures of the Indonesian fishing boats when we came in and will try to get a little closer when we leave and get some more.
More Observations about Ashmore Guardian
The Customs Officer who checked us in said that they served a month at a time out here on the reef. That seems like a long time to me and it does not look like the crew is overburdened with things to do. Im sure they have spurts of activity when the fishermen are naughty or when a boat load of refugees shows up but most of the time I would not expect they have a lot to do.
If I was on that vessel for a month I would probably wear out my kindle.
One of the guys was exercising on deck this morning and then started practicing his boxing while another guy held up those hand pads that boxers use to practice. other guys seem to spend a lot of time on the back porch (or whatever you all it on a power vessel) just staring out to see. Maybe that is part of their watch but they can only see about half the reef.
Australia's Commitment to Preserving Their Marine Environment.
Australia is both blessed and cursed by having one of the most unique marine environments on the planet. The entire country is surrounded by beautiful reefs and cruising areas. Tourists from all over the world come to Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef .
The total distance around all of the coastal areas worthy of special protection exceeds 8000 miles. By comparison the length of the coastal areas of the 48 states is about 3500 miles and does not contain nearly as high a percentage of sensitive areas as the coast of Australia.
Australia is also much closer to developing countries that put pressure on the Australian environment.
To fund the effort to protect Australian marine resources they depend taxes from a population of only about 25 million people. That's fewer people that live in California.
So as a percentage of GDP Australia has to be spending way more on protection of this one part of their environment that any other country I can think of.
Lest the pope read this and jump on a plane to fly here to cannonize all these Australian ecosaints I should point out that Australia still has few things that are not perfect.
There is mounting evidence that industrial waste from places like Gladstone are poisoning the Great Barrier Reef. Australia has a lot of coal deposits and must be burning a lot of coal to make electrical power. They also export a lot of coal to Asia and, of course, all the pollution from that coal ends up in the same atmosphere as if it were burned in Australia. Regulating these industries will have costs that probably rival the cost of the environmental monitoring and enforcement.
These subjects are constantly in the Australian press and, like the US, Australia has conservatives that think the planet can take care of itself and they should not be constrained from making as much money as possible. But all Australians are required by law to vote and there are significant constraints on private money being used in political campaigns so participation by a wider variety of stake holders usually results in more rational government involvement in these critical issues.
On balance, I have the impression that Australia does a very good job of dealing with these issues. Its almost good enough to forgive them from sending us Rupert Murdoch.
Comments
| Vessel Name: | Active Transport |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Tayana 37 PH |
| Hailing Port: | Seattle, Washington |
| Crew: | John and Shawn |
| About: | |
| Extra: |
Active Transport's Photos - Cruising Active Transport (Main)
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Over the past couple of years we have been slowly adapting to life tied up in a marina full time and doing a lot of boat maintenance that we deferred during the last couple of years our our cruising adventure.
We wore a lot of stuff out.
One piece of gear that had served us well but was overdue for retirement was our Force 10 three burner stove.
This galley has some photos that show the process of getting the old stove out of the boat and getting the new one in.
4 Photos
Created 9 July 2017
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As part of our research before buying Kayaks we decided to take a guided kayak tour up through the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (AKA, the Ballard Locks) that allow boats to pass between salty Puget Sound and the freshwater canal and lakes that are 20 feet higher, at mid tide.
There is a company that rents kayaks and conducts a variety of tours out our our marina. The company is called Ballark Kayaks (http://www.ballardkayak.com/). We were very pleased with the condition of equipment and the competence of our guide.
11 Photos
Created 6 June 2015
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These are a few pics we took during the weekend we spent at Blake Island.
8 Photos
Created 6 June 2015
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Whittier Alaska is probably the strangest place we have ever visited. It only exists because the army set it up as a deep water port during WWII. Population is only 273 and everyone in town lives in the same building.
12 Photos
Created 2 August 2014
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After more than 6000 hours on our engine our raw water pump gave up the ghost. This album contains photos that show what happened to our pump and what had to be done to fix the problem.
11 Photos
Created 12 July 2014
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Our old raymarine radar died in the Indian Ocean and we got this far without replacing it. But Alaska and the inside passage to Seattle have a reputation for foggy weather so we thought it would be a good idea to replace the old radar before we headed north. The choices were greater than we had the last time we bought radar and one of the choices was a new technology called broadband radar. That is what we went for and we are pleased with the decision.
The broad band radar puts out less energy than a cell phone and consumes a lot less power than older type radars. It also requires no warm up whereas our old radar took 90 seconds to warm up before it could be used.
3 Photos
Created 15 June 2014
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We spent a few days anchored i Hanalei Bay while we got the boat and our attitudes prepared for the sail to Alaska
4 Photos
Created 15 June 2014
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Captain James Cook, the famous British explorer, was killed here when an attempt to kidnap the local king did not work out as planned. A monument now marks the spot.
7 Photos
Created 5 May 2014
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Radio Bay is a small harbor adjacent to the larger ship terminal here in Hilo. It is a secure harbor where the coast guard keeps its local boat and where visiting yachts are allowed to tie up while clearing customs and resting up from the passage that brought them here.
5 Photos
Created 2 May 2014
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This album contains photos that were taken on our passage from La Paz to Hilo. We were unable to upload any of them while at sea
19 Photos
Created 27 April 2014
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In the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks we rafted up to a tourist boat named Pacific Queen. One of the passengers on the Pacific Queen took the photos in this album and she sent them to us when she saw Brian's video show up on youtube.
31 Photos
Created 19 March 2014
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We got a lot of photos during our whale watching adventure in Bahia Magdalena. The ones in this album were taken by John. I uploaded the photos that Brian took into another album.
18 Photos
Created 14 March 2014
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Our friends Brian and Claudia are much more experienced, skilled, and well equipped photographers than we are and they took a total of 460 still photos during the course of our day on the water in Bahia Magdalena. I selected the photos in this album from the collection.
39 Photos
Created 14 March 2014
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La Paz has a carnival celebration every year and we were fortunate enough to be here for it this year. It starts about a week before Ash Wednesday and ends with a parade on Fat Tuesday.
27 Photos
Created 3 March 2014
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We took a two day side trip to Guadalajara. It took us a day to get there and a day to get back so it was a total of 4 days.
The photos in this gallery are not in any particular order. They are just intended to provide a flavor of the place and give me a place to make a few comments that were not easy to fit into the blog entries about Guadalajara.
15 Photos
Created 28 February 2014
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We pulled the inspection plate off the fuel tank this morning so the guys from Active Yacht Maintenance could clean the tank. It had not been cleaned since we left the states five and a half years ago
7 Photos
Created 10 February 2014
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We Installed an Aqualarm Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensor on our diesel exhaust hose to try to prevent repeats of muffler damage we had suffered when cooling water flow was interrupted and hot exhaust gas melted part of our muffler. Malfunction, of this device when it was re installed following our recent engine service , caused me to look into the way it was manufactured in detail. I was not impressed.
5 Photos
Created 29 January 2014
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One of the wear parts on a diesel engine is the rubber impeller used in the pump that pulls sea water in and pushing it through the engine for cooling. Impellers wear out and sometimes (on our engine for example) are difficult to replace.
The speed seal is a replacement cover for the water pump that makes access easier and also extends impeller life by eliminating a major cause of wear.
7 Photos
Created 19 January 2014
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Our engine was overdue for a lot of maintenance so we had it pulled out of the boat. this album will hold the photos of the process.
44 Photos
Created 11 January 2014
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Molas are the most well known of the Kuna people's hand crafts. They were originally made as part of a woman's clothing and had abstract designs. With the tourist pressure the molas are now available with representations of various sea and land animals. The are also available as ready to stuff throw pillows, beer can coolers and purses. The more work intensive reverse applique designs are not used to on the tourist oriented products. That is probably because the mola makers realized early on that the quality of the work did not impact the price and the more eleborate techniques require a lot more work.
I noticed that there are some shadows across some of the photos. I was in a hurry when I was taking them as there was a squall approaching. I think that until they start passing our Nobel prizes for mola photography I'm gonna cut myself some slack on this issue.
9 Photos
Created 3 October 2013
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Nargana Town is a modern Guna village that has abandoned traditional ways and has electricity, televisions, beer and rum.
4 Photos
Created 25 September 2013
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We went through the canal as line handlers on another yacht when we visited Panama almost 5 years ago. We decided to do it again since the north to south transit is a bit different than the one from the pacific to the caribbean because you have to spend the night in the lake after going through the Gatun locks
31 Photos
Created 28 July 2013
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The people on St Helena say "we may live on a rock but on Ascension they live on a cinder". That seems like a pretty good description of the Island of Ascension but the green turtle nesting site made it a very special place to visit.
27 Photos
Created 2 June 2013
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St. Helena is an Island in the South Atlantic that is a convenient stopping point on the way from South Africa to the West Indies. It was discovered by the Portuguese, and, because it was a valuable re-provisioning stop, was kept a secret for a couple of hundred years. It is so remote that the British decided to use it to imprison Napoleon so he could not pull off as escape, like he did at Elba, and return to Europe and start some more wars.
19 Photos
Created 2 June 2013
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Etosha is a game reserve and national park in Namibia. It is located about 200 km from the coast. The park includes a large salt plain and the terrain around the salt plain is dry and the vegetation sparse. This makes it a lot easier to see the animals than the lush jungles near Richard's Bay in South Africa.
20 Photos
Created 18 May 2013
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The Emdoneni Lodge is an upscale wilderness hotel that also operates a rehabilitation center for animals that need help. They specialize in the smaller African cats like Cheetahs, Caracals, African wildcats and Servals.
23 Photos
Created 19 January 2013
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The iMfolozi Game Reserve was established in the mid nineties. It is 24,000 hectares in size (about 60,000 acres) .
The Reserve is less than a 2 hour drive from Richards Bay and is accessed via a few paved and unpaved roads.
The number of vehicles allowed access to the park is limited to 120 per day.
Our friend Anne de Robillard hthe drive north.as been to the Reserve many times and carefully evaluated the weather for the day of our visit before having us turn out at 4 AM for the start of the drive north.
As it turns out we were the second vehicle in line at the gate. She did not say anything but I think Anne was a bit miffed about being second. Some of the visitors blow through the park so fast that they scare all the game and the vehicles that follow them dont get to see as much if you follow them. As it turned out the vehicle that was first in line was a professionaly run tour operation that was careful about speed and noise. At one of the stops the drive shared spotting tips with us.
30 Photos
Created 12 January 2013
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We were due to haul the boat and paint the bottom. Since we had some time to kill here, while we want for our batteries to arrive, we decided to go ahead and get the haul out taken care of.
There are two ways to get hauled here. The preferable one is on the club owned dolly that is less scary for the owner and cheaper but we could not get scheduled to get hauled that way so we used the travel lift that is operated by the yard.
5 Photos
Created 5 December 2012
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We got to do a day trip with the deRobert family to the iSimanglasiso game park that is less than a two hour drive from the Zululand Yacht Club. We got to see Cape Buffalo, Rebok, Kudu, Guinea fowl, hippos, a rino, dung beetles, and lots of of iconic vistas of the African grasslands.
23 Photos
Created 5 December 2012
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There is a tree at the Zululand Yacht Club that has been selected by a flock of Southern Masked Weaver Birds for nesting. This album contains photos of the birds and their nests.
21 Photos
Created 29 November 2012
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The photos in this album are from our tour of Mauritius on the holiday known as Ganesh Chaturthi. We visited one of the major temples on the island and also witnessed a traditional ceremony where statues of Ganesh are submerged in the ocean and left of dissovle
24 Photos
Created 23 September 2012
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Hobart is the capital of Tasmania and the largest city. Large is a strong word to use for Hobart. It was originally called "Hobart Town" and that seems to fit.
7 Photos
Created 26 March 2012
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Sarah Island has had several names. The one that seems to have stuck is Sarah Island which was named in honor of Sarah Birch who was the wife of the man who financed James Kelly's expedition to explore Macquarie Harbour. Sara was the daughter of convicts who met in Australia and was born on Norfolk Island. The family later moved to Tasmania where they became wealthy.
I have not found any mention of any response that Sarah might have had to the island, that had been named in her honor, being turned into one of the most horrific prisons in Australian history.
7 Photos
Created 9 March 2012
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The Gordon River empties into the south end of Macquarie Harbour and is navigable by keel sailboats for about 20 miles upstream.
There are no nautical charts of the river but a local yachtman has generated a set of "mud maps" that show where the problematic places are. It was a bit creepy to be motoring along at 4 kts over what looked like dry land on the chart but there was plenty of water all the way up to Warne's landing where we spent the night.
9 Photos
Created 9 March 2012
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Deal Island is located in the middle of the Bass Straight and is the northern most of Tasmania's parks. It is a pristine environment with lots of wild life, an historic lighthouse (highest in the southern hemisphere) and comfortable anchorages.
We enjoyed the gracious hospitality of David and Mary Nicholson who are the current volunteer caretakers on the island.
31 Photos
Created 27 February 2012
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This album contains a variety of pictures we took while visiting Eden, a delightful little town on the south east corner of Australia.
6 Photos
Created 10 February 2012
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This album contains photos of various stages in the brewing process for making beer on board.
2 Photos
Created 17 January 2012
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We are anchored in Camden Haven waiting for weather to move south. This beautiful little estuary is made up of many little villages that are mostly retirement communities.
7 Photos
Created 14 December 2011
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The Gallery of Modern Art is on of the important buildings that sits on the South Bank of the Brisbane river in the city's cultural center. It is a beautiful building with a superbly displayed collection.
11 Photos
Created 25 November 2011
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We have the loan of a mooring in the Brisbane river right across from the Central Business District and are enjoying this very nice city by using it extensive ferry service (high speed catamarans) and bicycle rental service.
12 Photos
Created 18 November 2011
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Most of Magnetic Island is a National Park so there are lots of hiking trails. We decided to take the hike that goes out to some WWII fortifications.
19 Photos
Created 4 October 2011
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Magnetic Island is a few miles off the Queensland Coast of Australia in the vicinity of Townsville. It is a suburb of Townsville with excellent ferry service, beautiful beaches, and a friendly beach community atmosphere.
20 Photos
Created 3 October 2011
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One of the things you can do as a tourist in Puno is take a tour where you spend the night with a native family on Amantani Island in the Lake. It was an interesting experience.
23 Photos
Created 8 January 2010
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We had to take a "ferry" across to San Cristobol island to start our tour on the motor yacht Galaxy. Timing required that we go over to the island a day ahead of when we joined the boat. The ferry ride was quite an experience. The ferry consisted of a 25 foot power boat with three 200 hp outboards on back. They packed about 30 people on it and west as fast as the prevailing swell would allow. It was a rough trip with lots of passengers getting a little green around the gills. Before we boarded the ferry we had to submit out bags for agricultural quarantine inspection. Despite the restrictions on taking fruits and vegitables between the islands one local resident spent the whole trip across eating fruit he had in his backpack. I guess only gringo fruits and vegetables are a problem.
15 Photos
Created 8 January 2010
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Many of the environments in the Galapagos are protected and require you to be in the presence of a licensed guide when you visit them. The hiking trail to Turtle Bay is an exception. This trail runs from Puerto Ayora to a beach location a mile or so from town. Along the way we saw a lot of Darwin's finches, lizards, and native plant life. At the beach at the end of the train we saw the marine Iguanas in their native habitat.
21 Photos
Created 8 January 2010
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This island is also called Barrington Island and is the only island with the specific species of land iguana that is shown in our photos.
7 Photos
Created 8 January 2010
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We decided to break up our trip from Panama to the Galapagos by stopping over a Cocos Island which is about 300 miles off shore and is part of Costa Rica.
This is the island that was the model for the movie Jurassic Park and I think a lot of the aerial scenes were shot here.
As you will see from our photos, this is a really beautiful spot.
The Island and it surrounding waters are a Coasta Rican national park. There are rangers stationed on the island along with a contingent of the Costa Rican Coast Guard.
14 Photos
Created 7 January 2010
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The first time we crossed the equator seemed like a big deal so we celebrated as best we could. This album contails some pics of our bleary eyed early morning celebrations. As it turned out our tour of the Galapagos (on a power yacht) took us back and forth across the equator a couple of more times in the next couple of weeks. The northern most islands of the Galapagos are in the northern hemisphere.
5 Photos
Created 7 January 2010
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One of the natural wonders of Peru is Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is in the Andes. It is deeper than the Grand Canyon but a lot more narrow. It is a stunningly beautiful place and the sides of the canyon are almost completely covered with terraces that were build by pre Inca civilizations and are still farmed today.
We took an overnight tour to the Canyon that Cost us all of $20 each for bus transportation, hotel and breakfast. We had perfect weather for the trip.
61 Photos
Created 22 October 2009
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this is a place holder for our pics of La Punta Callao. Pics will be added soon
No Photos
Created 22 October 2009
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this is a place holder for our easter island pics...will add them soon
28 Photos
Created 22 October 2009
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Our northern most Island on our Tour was Genovesa which is above the equator. It was about a 7 hour motor trip and they did it at nigh. Genovesa is interesting because its climate is quite a bit different that the more southern islands. The marina Iguanas are small, the vegetation has a hard life and there seemed to be more predator birds that other places
34 Photos
Created 13 July 2009
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At the suggestion of Antonio, our Galapagos agent, we took a pass on the organized tours of the highlands and got a cab driver to take us up there instead. We visited a farm that has areas where you can see the giant tortoises in the wild and we got quite a few good pictures. We also walked through a quarter mile long lava tube.
14 Photos
Created 10 July 2009
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There is a nice visitor center at the Miraflores locks with museums, a theater, some restaurants, and observation decks from which you can watch the ships pass through the locks. But we were lucky and got a very special VIP tour thanks to our friend Captain Jim Guy from the yacht Ocean Dance. Jim arranged for his friend Paul Reid to give us essentially the same VIP tour that Hilary Clinton got when she visited the locks as first lady. We got to walk across the closed gates and tour the control room and under the locks where all the machinery is located. This album contains pictures from that exceptional experience.
30 Photos
Created 6 June 2009
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While we were in Panama waiting for equipment to arrive from the US we volunteered to be line handlers for another sailboat that was transiting the Canal. We got to ride through the canal and return to Active Transport in the same day. We got a lot of pictures of the adventure. We also uploaded an album of pictures from a special tour of the Miraflores locks that we got thanks to our friend Captain Jim Guy.
22 Photos
Created 6 June 2009
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Chichenitza is the Mayan ruin that most people get so see. It's close to Cancun and receives between 10,000 and 15,000 visitors a day. That is not too surprising when you think that one cruise ship can dump 2000 people on the shore. One of the consequences of the popularity of the site is that it is plagued with the largest assortment of junk vendors of any place we have been in Mexico. They offer the same crap all over the site with the sides of the walkways lined with displays of the same carvings, chess sets, masks, blankets, etc. It is easy to get the idea that all of vendors are owned by the same outfit and buys in bulk in China.
14 Photos
Created 3 May 2009
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Uxmal was our second Mayan site. It was significantly different from Palenque in that it is not located in a jungle and did not suffer the same level of breakup that was caused by plant growth at Palanque. Uxmal is off the beaten path and that has two effects. One is that the number of visitors they get each day is around 450 (compared with 10 to 15 thousand per day at Chichenitza). The second impact of the remote location is that the tee shirts are cheaper than at most of the sites. John got so caught up in a tee shirt buying frenzy that he ended up with a tee shirt that says Uxmal but had a picture of the top of Pakal's tomb at Palenque.
10 Photos
Created 3 May 2009
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Several years ago Pemex (mexico's national oil company) starting drilling in a swamp near the Gulf of Mexico. They discovered some very significant sculptures attributed to the Olmec culture which is considered the mother culture of all the mesoamerican civilizations. Since the site where they discovered these relics was very remote (and probably because they wanted to keep drilling) the moved them to Venta park in Villahermosa.
8 Photos
Created 3 May 2009
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Palenque was the first of the Mayan sites that we visited. Like many of the sites its current name is not Mayan but Spanish.
We had been prepared for our visit here by our visit to the Anthropology museum in Mexico city where they have many of the artifacts from the tomb of Palak which was discovered here in Palenque. But nothing could adequately prepare you for the stunning impact of turning a corner in the jungle and seeing this city rising out of the overgrowth.
21 Photos
Created 3 May 2009
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Teotihuacan is a short bus ride outside of Mexico City. Nobody knows who built the pyramids and other buildings found here but it was long abandoned by the builders when it was taken over the the Aztecs.
7 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 22 April 2009
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The vast majority of the equipment we have installed on the boat has worked out fine but there have been a handful of products that were shoddily made or poorly designed so that they either did not perform as expected or hold up for very long. We will add the most egregious examples to this gallery.
1 Photo
Created 25 March 2009
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Isla Isabela is a Mexican National Park that is set aside because of the rookeries for Frigate birds and Boobys. The timing for our visit was very good since it was the breeding season for both kinds of birds.
21 Photos
Created 25 March 2009
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Several of the students at our spanish school (Se Habla La Paz) got together to attend las luchas libres or mexican wrestling matches at club deportivo Corona.
The photos and video clips in this gallery give a pretty good idea of what it was like.
1 Photo
Created 17 January 2009
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We picked up some junk on our prop while motoring from Puerto Escondido to San Evaristo. The pics in this album provide a few details
3 Photos
Created 9 January 2009
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Mulege located about 40 miles south of Santa Rosalia on Highway 1. The town dates back to the beginning of the 18th century where its fresh water river was an obvious attractant to explorers and exploiters alike (conquistadors and missionaries). Since there is no safe anchorage within walking distance of Mulege we decided to take a bus down while we were this close.
17 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 22 December 2008
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Santa Rosalia is as far north as we are going in the Sea of Cortes. It is a little over halfway up the sea.
Santa Rosalia was built as part of the deal that the French mining company, called Boleo, made with the Mexican Government in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The copper smelting plant is now closed but takes up as much space as the downtown area. There are still some well preserved buildings from the French time here and a lot of train relics around town.
17 Photos
Created 21 December 2008
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Photos taken during our trip ashore in the remote coastal town of Bahia Tortugas.
6 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 26 November 2008
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Photos from this leg of our trip
12 Photos
Created 25 November 2008
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While we were in southern California and had access to a mooring at the marine lab we were able to have several friend visit us for short cruises to the island. This album contains pics of some of those cruises
11 Photos
Created 26 October 2008
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The photos in this album show details of our visit to the USC marine lab on Catalina Island.
3 Photos
Created 17 October 2008
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This album contains pictures of anchorages, coastline details and people. These photos were taken during our sail down the coast toward Southern California
19 Photos
Created 17 October 2008
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This album contains photos from the party we had prior to our departure.
12 Photos
Created 15 September 2008
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Pictures from our first few days at sea.
6 Photos
Created 15 September 2008
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We wanted to characterize the performance of our refrigerator/freezer so we would spot any problems early. We found this clever device on line that allows us to get a detailed record of the temperature inside the freezer and graph it conveniently.
3 Photos
Created 21 July 2008
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We decided to replace our running backstays. The ones the builder provided were too short. This meant another trip up the mast for Shawn. This time he took the camera with him.
2 Photos
Created 11 July 2008
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Well, it does not really "make" water. What it does is turn sea water into fresh water.
9 Photos
Created 11 July 2008
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Someone on board needs to be willing and able to climb the mast when the need arises . Since we had a couple of tasks that needed to be taken care of before we shove off, Shawn volunteered to
3 Photos
Created 21 April 2008
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This album contains a collection of photos of some of the small details that we think have worked out well for us. Many of the ideas are not original with us. As a matter of fact, some of the better ones were stolen (borrowed) from what we have seen on other boats or read about.
13 Photos
Created 2 April 2008
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This album will be used to accumulate pictures of the various solutions we are using to reduce power consumption by converting old fashioned incandescent lights to more efficient technologies
3 Photos
Created 31 March 2008
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The photos in this album show the boat shortly after it was commissioned. I will post another album after we have finished our modifications and are ready to shove off.
8 Photos
Created 26 March 2008
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The yard provided pictures of the boat at various stages of construction and I have assembled a few of them here to show the process.
7 Photos
Created 26 March 2008
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This album contains some pics of the modifications we made to the lockers that run along each side of the pilot house.
4 Photos
Created 5 March 2008
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These pics show what we did to bring our 30 year old dingy back to life and a couple of enhancements we made that make this a serviceable tender for Active Transport
6 Photos
Created 20 February 2008
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These photos show various stages of the construction of the refrigerator box on Active Transport.
9 Photos
Created 1 February 2008
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On the hook in Tomales Bay
Who: John and Shawn
Port: Seattle, Washington
Gallery
