Archive for the ‘Failure’ Category

Replacing the Starter Battery

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Time seems to pass by in a quick sort of way these days. Here is a story from a little while ago…

Sunday, September 13 – We had been procrastinating on putting in a new main engine starter battery largely because we were undecided about whether to replace it with the same size or a smaller one. On our last bay cruise, we noticed that the secondary alternator that charges the battery seemed to have inconsistent voltage drops. Hmmm… was it the battery or the alternator causing the issue? We realized we couldn’t put off replacing the battery anymore. It was time to make a decision.

Our starter battery is a size (more…)

Adjusting to the Routine

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Sunday, June 14 – As hard as it is on Eric to work the long days, he is actually enjoying work. He is enjoying being intellectually challenged and stimulated. He is enjoying being needed and recognized. Even though he misses cruising life and free time, he is getting a lot of fulfillment out of working.

The opposite is true for Christi. She finds (more…)

Following the Red Line to San Diego

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

May 31, 2009 – We were up early and ready to pull out of port by 0645. Even though we were going through the usual motions, it felt different. For the first time in over two years, we were going back. We always moved forward. The fact that we were going back hit us hard. It’s over. It is really over.

We were joined by a journalist from Circumnavigator for the trip down. We pulled out as soon as she arrived. We actually had to fight the instinct to go north or west, and instead turned south. We used the never used in 2 years “reverse route” feature of the plotter to set a reciprocal course back to San Diego. Going back on our previous course seems wrong. Our plotter draws a red line where we have been. By definition of our circumnavigation the red line has always been behind us. Now we were following the red line.

Right away, we realized (more…)

Last Couple Days Before Going Back to San Diego

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

There is still no reported case of H1N1 Flu in Baja, but yesterday all the schools were closed in the state.

Yesterday morning Gone Native left again, headed for San Diego. After they left, we went for a ride down south to the end of the main drag. That is yet another place we hadn’t gone before and it kind of surprised us. For the first few blocks it is commercial and looks like the rest of the city. Then there is a military area that is blocked off. Beyond the military area, the road parallels a beautiful beach that is lined with single family houses. In the US, the homes along the waterfront would be zillion dollar mansions. There were a couple nice homes, but most weren’t very nice, maybe so-so at best. A lot of the houses were actually trailers, and several of them were scary looking. There were even a few vacant lots, and one lot in particular looks like there was once a home on it that was destroyed. After several more blocks the road comes to an end and opens out into a public beach. The first picture is looking south and the second is looking north, towards downtown.

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While it was sunny and gorgeous out, it was still cold, so we didn’t walk on the beach. We enjoyed the view and headed back to Kosmos. What is so odd is that (more…)

Passage from Huatulco to Ixtapa, Mexico

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Day 2

At around midnight, the moon moved to be in front of boat and really lit up the sky, seriously improving visibility. At around 0100, we turned a corner and started pitching some more, but it was still a nice ride overall. The wind did come back in the early morning hours, but it was very light at 4 – 5 knots real on the nose.

The excellent conditions lasted all day. This passage has been (more…)