Thread: The end of cruise ships, as we know them?

Originally Posted by cjc_td5

How could you carry enough fuel on anything less than a 6m boat? It'd be a moving fuel tank! I'd love to do it though.

I did it using a 5.4m Trailcraft Sportscab boat easily.
The main tank held 120l and I carried 2x 60l drums and 3x 20l jerrycans which gave me a range of about 300 miles.
I stowed the 60l drums at the stern of the boat and had the 3 jerrycans lashed to the transom.
I also carried 60l of water, plenty of food and at least 6 blocks of beer, Oh and a .243 just in case the lizards became too friendly
I only had a 40l engle fridge that ran from a solar panel on the roof so I was limited on how much fresh meat I could carry But as I enjoy a good feed of fish/mud crabs I had plenty to eat.
I carried plenty of canned food and pasta/rice so IF things did turn nasty I had enough food for several weeks if I needed it.

If you are travelling at sea in this area it pays to wait until the tide is flowing the way you want to travel which will save you quite a lot of fuel, travelling against the tide will chew up heaps of fuel.
Be Very weary of the crocks especially when you are anchored up at night, I had led deck lights aimed over the side which lit up pretty well and they didn't illuminate the deck so the lizards couldn't see me (hopefully) which seemed to work OK.
I did awake pre dawn when I was anchored up for the night in a creek near Rosie Creek with 3 big crocks lurking around the boat But they kept their distance thankfully.

Originally Posted by trout1105

I did it using a 5.4m Trailcraft Sportscab boat easily.
The main tank held 120l and I carried 2x 60l drums and 3x 20l jerrycans which gave me a range of about 300 miles.
I stowed the 60l drums at the stern of the boat and had the 3 jerrycans lashed to the transom.
I also carried 60l of water, plenty of food and at least 6 blocks of beer, Oh and a .243 just in case the lizards became too friendly
I only had a 40l engle fridge that ran from a solar panel on the roof so I was limited on how much fresh meat I could carry But as I enjoy a good feed of fish/mud crabs I had plenty to eat.
I carried plenty of canned food and pasta/rice so IF things did turn nasty I had enough food for several weeks if I needed it.

If you are travelling at sea in this area it pays to wait until the tide is flowing the way you want to travel which will save you quite a lot of fuel, travelling against the tide will chew up heaps of fuel.
Be Very weary of the crocks especially when you are anchored up at night, I had led deck lights aimed over the side which lit up pretty well and they didn't illuminate the deck so the lizards couldn't see me (hopefully) which seemed to work OK.
I did awake pre dawn when I was anchored up for the night in a creek near Rosie Creek with 3 big crocks lurking around the boat But they kept their distance thankfully.

Sounds like Hans Tholstrup. Growing up I was fascinated by his adventures


Hans Tholstrup - Wikipedia

Could not think of a worse situation..on board a cattle/cruise ship owned by dodgy tax avoiders😣

Maybe it's my former life in public health having to deal with mass outbreaks on visiting cruise ships..mainly noro..and seeing the pathetic facilities on board for treating passengers..and at their (outlandish) cost which meant many did not seek treatment for fear of bankruptcy...the ship having hold of their c cards!!

And ...the staff on board are badly treated too.

Hope they all get scrapped...IMHO!

Originally Posted by W&KO

I did a 2 week trip across the Kimberly on a boat with 10 guests sleeping in swags in the beach every night. Wyndem to Derby

Best trip ever...glad my day paid for it.

Not much change out of $20k for two of us, brisbane to Brisbane.

Buccaneers Sea Safaris, I don’t think he operate anymore. Darryl was the Owners name from memory.

I'm sure you took more precautions than just sleeping on the beach!

There are countless holiday opportunities to be had without leaving Australia or boarding one of those plague ships.
I am willing to bet that the majority of people that go on those cruises havent seen all of their home State let alone what the rest of Australia has to offer.
NO imagination some people

Agree a huge opportunity for all that holiday money spent on foreign cruise ships, ski resorts etc all to be spent in Australia for a few years ahead.

I have never been on a cruise ship but I have spent a number of years at sea in other ships, both large and small. While crew may have had colds and flues from time to time, they never ended up infecting others onboard.

However of the 10 or so people I know who have been on cruise ships, almost all have come back home with a cold or flu from their trip.

There is clearly something about the cruise ship environment that encourages the spread of these infections.

Garry

Originally Posted by bob10

I love the place, nothing like it any where else in OZ, any way. We went to Derby for the Baoab festival , back in 80/81 from memory. Had to anchor in a deep hole away from the wharf because of the tidal drop, on the Saturday I was O.O.D. on board, and long story short, the Skipper brought back some ' dignitaries' for drinks after the official dinner ashore. When I arose about 5AM and did a set of rounds to check this & that, I poked my head in to the cubby hole that was the Wardroom , and here was a matriarch from Derby, sitting up finishing off a bottle of something or other, with all the boat's officers flaked out around her at the table. I declined her offer of a drink, noting that yes indeed, these Navy boys were pikers, and organised a boat ashore for her, with her departing words being something like "come up and visit me sometime" ringing in my ears. But that wasn't the best part of our visit. We took some 44 drums of fuel north to a little campsite the local fishing club used, up a long inlet. Great campsite, with fresh water from a creek plenty of shade, nice sandy beach. On the local advice we took the smally boat [ tinnie] fishing. Had hand lines, with spoon lures. The fish followed the lure , and when we caught one, we tied the line off, and the school just followed the boat. Then it was a matter of ' which one do you want?'. From memory, Trevally. Or Queenfish. Never seen any thing like it, except for one time coming back from Gove, transiting a bay north of Darwin, with schools of fish boiling the surface of the water , the only clear water was around the hull of the patrol boat as it moved through. One of the troops had a hand line, and having no lure, attached an toothbrush to a hook, and caught fish. [ Memo to self- buy a roof top tinnie to go with the new 4x4 after the lotto win] I wish.

In a past life I used to skipper commercial fishing boats across the top of Australia from Cape York to Broome , and would spend sometimes up to 3 or 4 months in the kimberley's
Some of the small islands we would visit or the river systems we would explore were stuff I will never forget. I been to places were we could back the stern of the trawler under a waterfall to fill our fresh water supplies. I seen pods Dolphins swimming chasing schools of fish , that seemed to go as far as you could see , must have been several hundred dolphins easily in some of those pods. Seen whales breeching and also had them come close enough to the hull that we could have jumped onto them

We used to get the white boats come visit us if we were anchored to see if they could buy or swap Alcohol for seafood. I remember having several beach days with the original true north , must have been the early 90's I reckon , from memory 2 brothers owned it . We used to trade stories of places to visit between Derby and Wyndham. In about 2008 or there about was anchored in a nice little cove in Admiralty gulf and a real flash white boat dropped anchor near us , I remember seeing the half court basketball set up on the bottom deck , soon enough the speed boat comes over to see if they can swap some seafood for the usual couple cartons of beer , and asked who the boat belonged to and the bloke in the speed boat says Paul Allen . Name didn't ring a bell, and our request to come over for a squizz was denied but that was common. Wasn't till I got back to Darwin a month or so later I find out the owner was Bill Gates offsider.. From memory the boat was named Octopus.

I don't miss the job , but I do miss the places I went, and the things I seen.

Bulletman