Wow. Awesome teamwork saw our newly reshined sparkling Nautilus Explorer back in the water and ready for another season of diving. Annual refit is always a lot of hard work and long days in the heat of Mexico. It’s the time of year that new staff join the ship and really show us what they are made of. We can’t think of a better team building exercise. Big kudos and thanks to our project manager, captains, crew and all support staff. We certainly had our moments from critical parts getting hung up in customs at the border to last minute surprises at customs. But it all got done (with minutes to spare!) and the Explorer looks beautiful.
Pictured below is the launching of the ship using the syncrolift at Gran Peninsula shipyard at Ensenada. The lift itself is essentially a giant elevator that in some applications can lift ships up to 100,000 tons! A combination of boat cradles and railway system are used to block ships in the lift and then raise them out of the water and move them by railroad around the shipyard. This is a far cry from our original building launch of the Nautilus Explorer at Sylte Shipyard in which we built a system of house-moving bogies around the Explorer and then eased her into the water using a fleet of massive 18 wheel tow trucks!!
Safe diving
Captain Mike
Nautilus Explorer back in the water and ready for her first charter of our white shark season!
