Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

• Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
• Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

• In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
•  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky, the wind picked up to 18 – 20 knots and the wind waves became slightly bigger at 2 – 4 feet, but noticeably sharper and at more rapid intervals. The pointier waves caused Kosmos to hobbyhorse and sent some sea spray over the bow, but it still was not a bad ride considering it was head seas.

The rougher conditions only lasted a little over an hour, then we got into the shadow of Catalina Island, where the seas slowly but steadily improved. By midnight the ride was relatively pleasant again (for head seas) and speeds had picked up to 7 knots. There was no moon and it was pitch black out, so there was no visibility all night.

We expected conditions to worsen once we passed Catalina, but they didn’t. In fact, they continued to slowly and steadily improve the whole rest of the trip. By 1000, the wind chop was completely gone, leaving only the gentle swell, making for a lovely ride.

Shortly after leaving San Diego, we had a small SNAFU arise. The entire downstairs reeked like the blackwater tank. Christi guessed the duck valve in the forward toilet did not have a good seal and was letting the tank odor up. Our forward stateroom has two dorade vents, and while we were in Tahiti, Eric cleverly installed a fan in front of one of the vents to push fresh air into the not as well ventilated master stateroom. The reason the smell was so strong in the entire downstairs was because the smelly air was being blown around down there.

To ease the underlying problem, we emptied the tank as soon as we were far enough out to sea. We then partially filled the blackwater tank with fresh, hot water (from the shower) and emptied. We put in another round of fresh water and added a product called Kills Odors that claims to neutralize the blackwater smell. We are letting the water and chemical slosh around in the blackwater tank in the hopes that the smell of all the residual stuff in there is neutralized. To stop the smell altogether, we simply switched the toilet to go overboard, so if any air got in, it would be fresh air, not stinky tank air.

Eric was not as convinced as Christi that the duck valve was the problem. He was worried the smell may have been from something stuck in the lines, so we also flushed into the lines a cleaning product called Clean Potty that claims to dissolve solids and crossed our fingers it would dissolve anything hiding in there. He also said it was possible the smell was coming from the gray water tank and covered the forward shower drain to block any smell from coming up. After a couple hours, the smell went away.

It is ironic that we have a toilet problem again so soon after the last one. Only three weeks ago, the master stateroom toilet started periodically flush itself. Over the phone, a marine plumbing company deduced the control panel went bad. The control panel had to be special ordered, which took a week. Then the repair guy was swamped and couldn’t come out for another week. But the repair guy was worth the wait. Changing the panel out was easy and took no time at all. Eric probably could have done it himself, but he didn’t want to.

We say the repair guy was worth the wait because he was honest, straight forward and on time. Over the last year or so, we have had some headaches with different repair people, so we especially appreciated this gentleman. With Eric so busy working, he has had to rely on other people to work on the boat.

About three months ago we anchored out overnight and noticed the windlass wasn’t working quite right. Three weeks ago, we noticed it was dead. The repair guy we called made an appointment for a week later, then called last minute to reschedule. He stood us up altogether for the second appointment. To make it up to us for standing us up, he came out on a Sunday. We thought he was coming to do the work. Upon arrival, he said he was only doing an estimate. He asked Eric a lot of questions to gauge just how well Eric understood the systems onboard and how much money Eric made, which made us uncomfortable. The repair man diagnosed the problem as the motor and told Eric it would take eight hours to swap out. And he’d have to charge us a rush fee to squeeze us in before we left for San Francisco.

After he left, Eric pulled out the spare motor we had onboard and thought it looked easy enough to change, so he changed it himself in ½ hour. The windlass was still dead. He emailed the man to let him know it wasn’t the motor. The repair man got angry, and emailed back that he didn’t want to do the job because he couldn’t get away with padding the bill (we are paraphrasing. His actual words weren’t nearly as professional, including phrases like “cheap rich bastard”). Eric diagnosed the problem as the solenoid. Fortunately, the part was readily available and Eric installed it in an hour. And the windlass now works like a charm!

In March we took the boat into a local boatyard to rebuild the alternator (it was working fine but at the end of its expected life) and change the motor mounts out (the engine was vibrating a little because the mounts, which are essentially shock absorbers, were starting to go). When the alternator was put back on, Eric looked at it and said “That isn’t our alternator.” A fight ensued where they adamantly insisted it was indeed our alternator. The fact that it was a different color, had a different brand name, was made in a different country, and had a different amp rating than ours didn’t matter. They swore up and down it was ours. We got management involved, who said, “Well, no it isn’t yours. Yours wasn’t worth fixing so we put in a brand new one. What do you care?” and insisted all alternators were the same and we should be grateful to have a new one. After much fighting, we got them to agree to install a new Leece-Neville (the same brand as the original alternator).

Christi was onboard the entire time the boat was in the yard, working quietly on book 2 in the pilot house while the mechanics worked in the engine room, entering via the hatch in the salon. She kept track of the hours. Total hours for all people was 11.5 hours, including removing and re-installing the alternator. They billed for 24.5 hours of labor (at $80 an hour!). They insisted we had no idea how many labor hours were worked since we weren’t onboard. After much arguing, we compromised at 16, but we still feel like we were ripped off on labor.

Another major repair we had done was to the stabilizers. A few months after we returned from our circumnavigation, we wrote a post about changing our starter battery. The starting battery was dead and Eric was paralleling the house bank to start the engine. Our stabilizers coincidentally went dead about the same time. We were dreading the stabilizer repair. But much to our surprise, when we changed the starter battery, the stabilizers magically worked again. They had been running off the starter battery the whole time, not the house bank as we had assumed!

Anyway, since then, we noticed the stabilizers were making an unusual tapping noise. Eric thought it was the pump. We took Kosmos to Dana Point and had PAE work on it. They said it wasn’t the pump and changed out some other parts, but it didn’t stop the tapping. We had a local San Diego mechanic who was TRAC certified come out to work on it multiple times over a six month period. At first they argued with us that there was no unusual noise and it was our imagination, which did not make Eric happy. That stabilizer is next to our bed, inches from Eric’s head, and the noise kept him from sleeping when the stabilizers were on.

They also insisted it couldn’t possibly be the pump, but were never able to diagnose the problem. They changed out just about everything while playing the process of elimination game–except the pump, which they still maintained could not be the problem. We finally complained to ABT, who flew out their top guy from Seattle to diagnose the problem. It was the pump. Over the six months the local guys worked on the stabilizers, they rescheduled us at the last minute twice and stood us up altogether three times.

Even though we weren’t thrilled with the local certified ABT guys, we still love ABT overall. They didn’t charge a penny for the Seattle guru to come out (though we did pay an arm and a leg to the local guys for all the work). They gave us a free upgrade on our control panel display, which is easier to read than the old one. And, on the bright side, our stabilizers are now essentially brand new.

While we are complaining, we want to add one more. Last November we had a certified Lugger mechanic change the oils, filters and so forth. The transmission filter recommended by ZF costs $150, so instead of asking, he assumed we wanted a $27 filter that was the same size. We never noticed the difference.

A few weeks later, “Lugger” Bob Senter (the renowned expert on Luggers/Northern Lights) came to visit us. Bob immediately noticed the wrong filter and explained it wasn’t rated at a high enough pressure for our transmission. Bob told us it was possible that our transmission filter would blow and recommended getting the right one installed ASAP. We called the man who did the work and told him we wanted him to install the correct filter. He told us the filters were identical. When Christi insisted they weren’t, the man said “What dumb yahoo told you such nonsense?” When Christi said “Bob Senter,” the man simply said “Oh.”

We’ve done more work, too, but since this post has gotten long, we’ll stop here.

This is part 1 of an 11 part series on our time in San Francisco. Read part 2 here.

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 4D of type Acid Glass Mat (AGM) by Lifeline. Nordhavn is now using a smaller size 31 battery on 43’s. There were only two real pros for going with the same size battery. One, the installation would be a perfect fit. Eric would have to fabricate some pieces to make the smaller battery fit securely. Two, it is comforting to have a larger battery; you never know when you might need it. The pros of a lighter weight battery were certainly appealing. The 4D battery weighs 135 pounds, and smaller size 31 Lifeline battery weighs 69 pounds, which is a more manageable weight to work with for transporting and installing. And, the size 31 one costs $600 less.

We decided to go with the size 31 battery. Last weekend, Eric went to the store and picked it up. Then he got to work. Our lazarette is jam packed with assorted stuff, so clearing everything out of the way was a project in and of itself. We had installed a shelf over the batteries, which serves two purposes. One, it helps protect the batteries and two, it provides extra storage room. Getting the shelf off required unscrewing a bunch of screws, and it was a pain. The batteries are on the floor of the lazarette behind the rudder post and steering gear. Each battery is recessed into the floor by about 2 inches. Also there is a bracket that goes over the each battery that further keeps them from moving around. The boat could actually roll over and the batteries would be in place. There is not much vertical space, so it is difficult to get enough leverage to lift the battery out. Eric was able to tip the battery and get a bar under the battery which allowed him to shift it out of its recessed space. Then he could slide it over to the laz hatch. And, despite Christi’s big hulking muscles, she wasn’t much help to get the battery out.

To finish the project Eric constructed pieces made to make the battery fit snuggly. Also the battery posts were in a different spot, but thankfully the wires were long enough. But he did have to change the position of the bracket mounting points to make the top part fit over the new battery.

Before he put the shelf back in and repacked the lazarette, he started the engine with the new battery to make sure it was working. As he turned on everything, he noticed the stabilizers were working. What? The stabilizers have been dead for weeks! How come they are suddenly magically working? Today we found out something new about our boat: the active fin stabilizers are wired to the starter battery and secondary alternator, not the house bank of batteries. We can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled we are to know the stabilizers are working fine and do not need to be repaired.

Once the lazarette was cleaned up and the battery project officially complete, Eric went through Kosmos’ normal weekly exercise routine. He runs the engine, wing engine, bow thrusters, water maker, and everything else that needs to be regularly exercised. After running the engine for a while, it was clear that our secondary alternator is not working. He also changed the carbon filter on the water makers’ fresh water flush system and noticed the filter seal has a small leak. He turned the value for it off. That will be a project for another day. But, being that we were still elated over the stabilizers, these two issues didn’t bother us in the least. Neither was a big deal when compared to the stabilizers.

And, a blog question:

Q: What website(s) do you copy your history posts from?
A: Christi writes them all herself. She is a history buff and would read several history sources about each country. She would write a compilation of the things she thinks are most interesting. One of the beauties of having the blog behind real time was that we could gather info while in each country and then she could compile it after the fact, tailoring the histories to flow with the rest of the information in the posts.

More stories on the way…

• Prologue: How we formed the dream and the early planning stages.
• The entire 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva has been re-written. At that point, the blog was in real time and we didn’t want people to worry about us. But the truth was that it was tough!
• Many new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, and the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

The opposite is true for Christi. She finds being a housewife emotionally unfulfilling. She likes to cook and has been making nice meals, but she hates to clean, and after every meal, sighs warily at the pile of dishes. The highlight of the day for her is when Eric says dinner was good. She keeps telling people that she went from having the most interesting life of anyone she knows to the most boring in the blink of an eye. She misses the sense of fulfillment she got from work, the being needed and recognized for a job well done. She plans to look for a job after she finishes the book and is eager to get the book done ASAP.

On Thursday, we noticed the water pressure was low and the water pump was running louder than usual. Eric figured the pump was clogged and was too tired to fix it right then. Since the pump was still running, albeit a bit erratically, it could wait a little longer.

On Friday evening, Eric went to a party with “the guys” and Christi went to an arts and crafts group with “the girls”. Christi was the center of attention, with the women mostly asking about how horrible it was to be trapped with her husband all the time. In the last post, written a week ago, we commented about how one of the things we treasure most about the trip was so much time together, so this blew Christi’s mind. It sounds like this group of women has never been blessed with so much time with their spouse and don’t really how wonderful it can be.

On Sunday, Eric took a look at the water pump. The pump was leaking at the seams! Argh. It was tough getting that pump and it only lasted for 6 months! It has a 3 year warranty, so we’ll have to follow up with Shur-Flo. Eric changed the pump out. Fortunately, we had the spare on board that we got in Bonaire, so we didn’t have to run around looking for one. The new pump is working great and we have good water pressure again.

Eric took a look at the stabilizers and cannot figure out what is wrong with them. He thinks it might be electrical. Sigh. Eric also took another look at the coolant. He is now sure it being the transmission cooler o-ring leak. Right now the leak is tiny, but will likely worsen over time. The problem is that we need to haul the boat out in order to completely drain the coolant, and with Eric working so much, hauling out the boat is not happening any time soon. Sigh.

And, a blog question:

Q: Do you feel the stabilizers have fallen short of being considered reliable?

A: The reason we opted for paravanes is because we were aware that, generally speaking, automatic stabilizers are the first major systems that fail. In doing our research, we found the percentage of stabilizer failures to be a bit discouraging. We picked the brand with the lowest failure rate, American Bow Thruster. At first, we had a hard time with paying so much money for something that was possible not reliable. But now that we know how hard the stabilizers work, we now feel they are worth every penny of both initial cost and repair costs. We ran the system 99% of the time around the world, although briefly we were only running one fin. ABT has been fantastic to work with and we have no complaints about them at all. For more details on our stabilizer problems and repairs, see here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Coming up: More summary, more Q & A, repairs to Kosmos, a trip to Yosemite.

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 the automatic stabilizer system wasn’t working. Oh no! Had the Nordhavn repair guys broken something while they were doing the work to the boat? It was odd because the entire system that was offline, not just an individual fin.

Anyway, the seas were calm and following, so there was no need to put the paravanes down, and we made the ride without stabilization. The ride was pleasant and we made excellent speeds, doing over 7 the entire time and at one point getting to 8.1 knots. It is so nice to go with following seas! Also were particularly light in weight, with less than 175 gallons of fuel. We never would take off from a port that low on fuel.

While we were riding along, a passing boat hailed us. It turns out the guy was interested in buying a Nordhavn and has read our site. Wow. Kind of crazy! This is the third time we have randomly bumped into a blog reader. We met one in Panama and one in Huatulco. It is really weird to have a total stranger say “Hey! I know you!”, but weird in a good way.

After we arrived back, Eric was doing some standard checking in the engine room. He noticed a little bit of oil in the main engine’s coolant. Uh oh. Right away, he knew what the problem was. Some of the transmission cooler o-rings have gone bad and are not keeping the oil and coolant separated. It seems to be a problem on all this engine when they get to about the 3 year old mark, so he actually has been watching for it.

It seriously feels like Kosmos knew. She knew she had to get us home, and she held off on serious problems until we were home. She knows it is ok to break now because we are done traveling and it is easy to fix all the problems here in San Diego.

On Thursday, Eric finally started work for real. He has gone back to his same job, and there was an enormous pile of work waiting for him, including an important project with a looming deadline. There will be no easing into work life for him. He literally has to hit the ground running. He put in long days on both Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, Eric woke up feeling like he was coming down with a cold. Wow. His immune system must be down from the last cold he got while we were in Greece. Eric tried to go to a conference on Saturday and a boat show today, but, since he wasn’t feeling well, didn’t spend much time at either.

Christi has been trying to get caught up on blogs. She is several weeks behind in writing. She also has been working on wrapping up all the loose ends in life that we couldn’t really deal with while we were gone, things like sending the defective camera back to Olympus, disputing overcharges on bills from months ago, and dealing with residual paperwork regarding her business that is still haunting her.

Look forward to more Q&A, stay tuned!

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.

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 just a few blocks inland from the public beach is the neighborhood of expensive mansions. We just find it funny that the really high dollar houses aren’t on the water.

Yesterday we also hired someone to clean the bottom. We couldn’t believe it already needed to be done again! He scrubbed really hard on some of the more stubborn areas and completely removed all the bottom paint in those places. Sigh. We were hoping to put off the bottom paint a little while longer, but now we can’t. We’ll have to make that a priority when we get home.

Eric ran wing engine and generator for a while to keep them exercised. And we socialized like crazy. Eric went out to dinner with a group of cruisers last night. Christi’s allergies were bothering her so she stayed home. She knew that everyone in the restaurant would freak out at her sneezing and assume she had the flu.

Yesterday, the Mexican federal government announced a nationwide quarantine that starts tomorrow. We were planning to leave tomorrow night for a Saturday morning arrival, but since all the government offices are going to be closed tomorrow, we realized we needed to check out today and leave tonight, which will get us in a day early. Bummer. We have decided not to tell anyone. We don’t want to spoil our planned homecoming with this inconvenient little wrinkle.

It may be a blessing in disguise for a couple of reasons. With all the H1N1 flu hysteria, it is possible that we may have issues at customs in San Diego, so now we have all the time in the world to clear customs without worrying about being late for our own party. The other is that after doing an all night run we will likely be tired and out of it, so we will probably have a more enjoyable time with friends and family after a full night of sleep.

First thing this morning, we headed over to the Port Captain’s office to check out of the country. Then we checked out with the marina. Then we dug out the dress flags and got them all ready to be hung, which is a fairly big project. There is a particular order they go in. We attached to a rope and spaced them out just right to display all the flags.

Then we worked on getting the boat ready to go to sea. The longer you stay in port, the harder it is to get ready for sea. The longer we are in port, the more things we pull out of various lockers, disturbing the careful packing system. Repacking each locker so things don’t shift in motion takes a long time.

Eric noticed a bit coolant in the bilge water. He searched for the leak and found the culprit was a loose hose clamp. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. Eric washed out the bilge afterwards. Eric also rinsed the boat and put the bikes away.

Christi cooked most of the day. California confiscates just about everything fresh, so she cooked up food everything we had around that was likely to be taken, and froze all the meals.

By the evening, we had everything pretty well ready to go, except for the things that can only be done at the last minute. We went out for a farewell to Ensenada dinner and at 2200 took a two hour nap. We got up at midnight….

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 almost perfect so far. The pitching is quite light. The temperatures are pleasant. We forgot to mention that in Huatulco, the temperature was idyllic every day, which was wonderful. Thanks to the light head wind, ventilation is good downstairs, so downstairs it is not hot and there is no smell. So, the combination of light seas and good air quality means we are all sleeping well.

As for interesting events… in the morning, Eric saw a turtle and some dolphins. We were making excellent time – too good, so he slowed us down from 1750 to 1650 to ensure we’d come in during daylight hours. In bad news, we broke the automatic blackwater pump. Eric accidentally ran it with the valve closed. Sigh. Until it is fixed, we have to pump the tank by hand. Not disastrous, but definitely not fun.

Day 3

Conditions were the same as yesterday – actually, maybe even a little better. The sun was out, the sky was mostly clear, the temperature perfect. We even saw several more turtles.

That is, it was good until about 1700. Then the wind changed. Darn it! It picked up to 13 – 15 knots real on the nose, and of course, the seas followed suit. The waves were coming at rapid intervals, and we were pitching like crazy. The front windows were being consistently smacked with sea spray. It really wasn’t that bad, but it certainly was no longer the peaceful and smooth ride that it was. The good news is that we only have to be in this for less than 24 hours.

The sunset was blindingly bright, making it hard to be in the pilot house. After dark, the visibility was OK, and we knew that just like the previous two nights, visibility would get better after midnight. And, as the night wore on, it got progressively rougher. It was too rough for Bruce to sleep downstairs, so he moved over to the couch.

And a random observation… when at sea, the hot water used to be dangerously hot. We had to be very careful in the shower to never turn the knob more than halfway, because the water temperature above halfway was literally scaldingly hot. But now that we are in such cold water, the water is no longer dangerous. You have to crank it all the way to the hottest setting to possibly burn yourself.

And blog questions:

Q: What kind of bottom paint did you use and would you recommend it?
A: Our bottom paint brand is ABC3 and it is excellent. We would highly recommend it. Nothing grew on the bottom at all for the first year. Unfortunately, we overcleaned our bottom and cut the paint’s life span short. For more details see:
http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2008/04/28/chores-food-and-elephants/ and

http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2008/09/23/kosmos-haul-out-and-more-turkish-food/

Q: Is it true that you haven’t had a fight this whole time?
A: We like each other, enjoy each other’s company, and get along well. We don’t argue often, but we do occasionally argue. Generally speaking, the fights are usually when one of us takes our own stress out on the other person. The person who is out of line will usually apologize quickly. There were a couple issues that came up along the journey that we had a few arguments about, but we figured out solutions that made us both happy.

Q: Did you have any problems getting insurance?
A: Yes, getting insurance was not easy. Only one company would insure us at all. We were required to have a licensed captain test us to make sure we were competent seamen before we could take the helm ourselves. Fortunately, we passed with flying colors. And the insurance premium was ungodly expensive.

Q: Isn’t gold considered a soft metal? I’m not so sure that gold armor would be so great to have on in the field of battle for the indigenous Panamanians.
A: We thought the same thing when we were at the museum in Panama City. No wonder the Spaniards could kill them so easily!

Q: What do you do with your trash on long passages?
A: First of all, we are conscientious about how much trash we make and go out of our way not to make needless trash, particularly paper trash. For example, we use Tupperware in the fridge instead of a bowl with plastic wrap on top. On both long and short passages, as long as we are at least three miles from land, we throw food overboard. So, we generally never have stinky trash. On both long and short passages, as long as we are far from land, we’ll throw paper and cardboard overboard, too, since they biodegrade quickly. On very long passages where we are days and days from land and in deep seas, we will also throw glass and metal overboard. Both biodegrade slowly over time, and it is probably better for the environment to biodegrade in the ocean than to be burned on small islands with no room for landfills. Plastics never, ever, ever get thrown overboard. What really helps keep the trash situation under the control is having a trash compactor. We find that it can hold a tremendous amount of trash. It just keeps packing it down and it seems like you can always cram a little more into it.

Then we walked around town a little more, checking out a few shops. Unfortunately, Mike hadn’t completed his paper, so we had to cut sightseeing short. It was OK though, downtown is small, and we were pretty sure we had seen most of it when we turned around and headed back to the hotel. Something that we found particularly amusing was an ox drawn cart was parallel parked in front of a small store between two cars.

At the hotel, Mike went to work on his paper and Eric got on our website to load blogs. Grrr… we’d been hacked again. We hate it when that happens. So, Eric worked on unhacking us instead. He was unsuccessful.

Mike left for the airport at noon, taking a taxi all the way to Managua. We saw him off, then walked down to the waterfront for lunch. Unfortunately, we picked seats a tad too close to the beach. The wind was again super strong and consistently blew a thin layer of sand onto our table (and food and drinks) throughout the meal.

After lunch, we treated ourselves to a visit to the local spa. The spa is located on the grounds of a hotel at the very top of the big hill. It was definitely quite the climb to get up there, and again we were huffing and puffing when we arrived at the hotel. We were taken aback when we saw three monkeys in a large cage, two of the three being a mama and baby. We stopped to watch the monkeys and read the sign. It looks like there is an animal sanctuary and free veterinary clinic on the hotel grounds somewhere. Locals bring in sick, abused and/or abandoned animals. The sign said that most of the wild animals are returned to the wild, but that these could not be for some reason. The monkeys are adorable and so fun to watch. They climbed and swung all over the walls, ceiling and toys in the cage, entertaining themselves and us. Their tails are pretty incredible. The monkeys use their tails almost like a third hand, grabbing on to things with it and pulling it to them, or hanging off a ledge solely holding on with their tail. At one point the baby nursed, which was really cute to watch.

At the spa, Eric got a massage and Christi got a facial. We met some cruisers there and wound up talking with them for a couple hours. They were going south and we were going north, so we gave one another the low down on what to see/do/expect at the various stops along the way. They also told us that the wind speed has been “mild” in only the 30’s. A couple weeks before, winds were over 100 knots. They themselves had been unable to measure it because their wind meter broke when the wind got to the high 80’s! Oy vey! We had so much fun talking with them that we lost track of time. When we looked at the clock, we were aghast. Oh no, the sun was setting! The twilight was beautiful, but sadly, we couldn’t enjoy it.

We more or less ran all the way down the mountain and over to the water taxi stand, praying that the water taxi driver hadn’t left for the day. We were so relieved when we saw him. He said he had stuck around longer than normal to wait for us, knowing we needed a ride back. He is such a nice guy. Everyone we have met has been so nice.

When we got back to Kosmos, we checked the weather and saw the forecast was phenomenally good. We wanted to stay in San Juan del Sur for several more days, but we knew we needed to move with the weather. If we didn’t leave with this weather window, we could very well get stuck for a couple of weeks waiting on another one. The ideal window is expected to last for 5 days, which would get us past the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec and into southern Mexico. We were sad about missing El Salvador and Guatemala, but the weather was just too good to not keep going. We keep telling ourselves that it is OK to zoom through this part of the world because it is so easy for us to come back here again in the future.

Today we headed into shore at 0800. When we climbed into the water taxi, we saw that there was a small cruise ship anchored in the bay. We had all our check out paperwork with us, intending to visit the Immigration Officer this evening. We went by the Port Captain’s office, who told us we needed to go to Immigration first. He told us that today she hadn’t gone to the border because she needed to be here to check the cruise ship passengers in and out. All the cruise ship passengers had been checked in, and she was at her house until it was time to check the passengers back out. Eric walked over to her house while Christi visited with the Port Captain.

Check out was more or less the same as check in. Eric waited in her living room as she called her office and they processed the paperwork together over the phone. It again took a long time. Christi had a lovely visit with the Port Captain, chatting about our respective families and travels. The Port Captain is trying to learn English, so now and again he would say a phrase in English and be incredibly proud of himself. And sometimes Christi would not be able to finish what she was trying to say because she didn’t know the necessary words, but he seemed to be able to understand her over all.

We met at the American cafe for breakfast. We absolutely needed to order that awesome French toast dish for ourselves! Then we went back to Ralph’s hotel to use the internet. Today Eric managed to find the problem and fix the hack. Yay! Ralph had also arranged for a reporter from the local weekly newspaper to meet us at the hotel for an interview. There is a big enough ex-pat community in San Juan del Sur that the paper is printed in both English and Spanish. It was exciting to be interviewed. We felt important.

We went to lunch with Ralph and Renda at yet another restaurant on the beach. Today we got fresh fish with jalapeno sauce. We were wondering if it would be a lightly spicy sauce, like Costa Rica, or a fiery sauce, like in Mexico. It was something in the middle. It was similar to the Costa Rican sauce in that it was a cream sauce with jalapenos, but they used much hotter peppers than in Costa Rica. They also had a lot of onions cooked into the sauce here, whereas the sauce in Costa Rica had no onion at all. We loved it. We’d say on the whole, the local Nicaraguan food is very similar to the Costa Rican food.

After lunch, we tried to book an ATV tour for the afternoon. They weren’t running a tour today, but we could go tomorrow morning. We looked at each other. We really should leave first thing in the morning… but the tour sounded really fun… so we booked it. The tour was supposed to end at 1300, and we could pull out by 1330 as long as we got everything ready to go tonight. We headed back to Kosmos, intending to get her completely ready for sea. Of course, we didn’t. We are such procrastinators.

Our downstairs air conditioner appears to have a clog in the sea water intake and it stopped working. Oh, and while we’re talking about how the boat is performing, we’ll mention something we find interesting. Since we have gotten into the cold water of the Pacific, we have noticed there is often condensation on the sea strainers, generator and water maker.

From where we sat, we could see four of the islands. They all seem to be itty bitty. We are directly behind the biggest of the islands at the end of the causeway, called Flamingo. This island looks to be mostly undeveloped with a lone guard tower at the top, at least from what we can see. The next island over has a shopping center with a Bennigan’s featured prominently. We know there is a marina behind the Bennigan’s shopping center that isn’t visible from here. The island next to that one also has a shopping center. The island farthest from us, called Culebra, also looks to be undeveloped, but it must be because we know the dinghy dock and a boat chandlery are there.

Today the wind was light and the bay seemed to be pretty calm, though, because the anchorage is so close to the shipping lane, it will never totally flat in here. We figured it was safe to go out, but waited to leave until after the local radio net. It is a good thing we stuck around and listened, because we picked up some important information. We found out that it costs $5.25 per day to leave your dinghy at the dinghy dock, which really surprised us. The anchorage is totally free, though. Unfortunately, this bay is really not suitable for water making. You can do it, but it is advised that you change your filter after each and every time you run the water maker. We also found out that the company that maintains the dinghy dock charges a tire disposal fee of $1.00 per tire, but usually you can find a cruiser heading to the Atlantic that is thrilled to take them off your hands. We offered our tires up, but had no takers. And, we found out a cab ride to town should only be $5.00. Many cab drivers will quote higher in hopes you don’t know better, but once they realize you know the going rate, will happily drop their fee down to $5.00.

Shortly after the net ended, we headed out. Our normal routine is that Eric gets in the dinghy and starts the motor. Once the motor is on, Christi and anyone else who may be with us jumps in, and then we cast off. Eric started the motor, Christi and Jeff piled in, and Eric put the engine in gear. The engine revved up, but the propeller didn’t spin. Uh oh. We all piled back out. We took the motor off the dinghy and brought it aboard for further inspection. Eric had assumed the propeller pin was damaged, so he checked that first. The pin was fine. Hmmm…. This probably means a transmission problem. Not something we wanted to deal with at that exact moment.

Eric retrieved the 6 hp outboard engine that we have on board for our inflatable dinghy. We keep it on the aft upper deck, locked to the railing. The super duper weather proof marine lock that we paid a lot of money for had totally rusted out and seized up. Eric tried all kinds of lubricants to loosen it up, but no luck. He finally had to cut the lock off using a Dremmel tool. He mounted the 6 hp engine to our little dinghy for the first time ever. It is a bit too big for the little boat.

Eric was worried it wouldn’t start because it has been a long, long time since he has run that engine. Much to his surprise, it started right up. He put it in reverse. It worked. He put it in forward. No dice. Eric opened the cover and wriggled the transmission wires around until transmission clicked in and presto! We had a working motor. Once again, we all piled in and headed to shore. Eric was like a kid with a new toy, all excited about how much power we have and how fast we can go with this bigger motor. And excited that we have reverse, which our little 2 hp motor doesn’t have.

We headed over to the dinghy dock, which is on the far side of Culebra in the most sheltered waters of all. There were lots of dinghies tied up there already, so getting in and tying up was a little tricky. Getting off the dinghy required climbing over all the other dinghies in our way.

On shore, we found ourselves in yet another small shopping center. We went to the office to pay dinghy dock fee. We were kind of surprised that the door was locked and we had to be buzzed in. This seems to be an upscale part of town, not the kind of area you’d expect to see such security measures. We asked them about calling a taxi and were told to simply wait and one would come. They were right. Within about ten minutes one showed up and we were on our way.

The first stop was to the Port Captain’s office to do our check in paperwork. The taxi took us across the bridge and into an area that we are 99% sure this was formerly an American military base. The blocky, functional, no frills architectural style and the layout of the streets screamed American military. After a few blocks we came to an industrial container area and a guard waved us through.

The guy behind the wheel was a pretty bad driver. Nowadays, we are pretty thick skinned to bad driving, but at one point he did manage to terrify us when he blatantly ran a red light with oncoming traffic approaching. We were relieved when he made a turn and came to a stop in what looked like a back alley, then pointed to a door and said “there”. The alley looked like it was straight out of the port scenes in the “Usual Suspects” where the criminals unloaded contraband off boats in the cover of darkness. We’re sure it is perfectly fine by day, but probably a little scary at night. Since taxis don’t normally come around here, the driver waited for us.

The Port Captain staff is amazingly nice and helpful. The clerk asked to see all our paperwork that we have gotten while in Panama, then filled out all our forms for us. All Eric had to do was sign. Of course, with such good service, the line moved slowly, so it was a long wait before we were served.

Once we were done, the taxi driver took us into town. His driving continued to terrify us. If the line of cars waiting at a light was too long, he’d just go around them by driving on the wrong side of the road. He also cut people off like crazy, tailgated incessantly, and ran more red lights. We tried to not to let it bother us, reminding ourselves we have been with worse drivers. The areas that comprise the former military base looks to be well maintained overall. There is a clear line where the base ends and regular Panama City begins. Beyond this line, it suddenly became very third world and poor. But the farther we drove, the more first world and upscale looking the city became.

When our water proof/shock proof camera that we got in Gibraltar broke, we emailed Olympus about it. They replied with a list of service centers in the entire world that we could take the camera to for repair. We had been pleased to see that Panama City was on the list, and getting our camera fixed was priority number one. Even though he had the address in hand, our cab driver had no idea where this place was. We had been warned by our friends on the Grand Banks that in Panama City they don’t use addresses, nor do they use maps, just major markers. Along the way, the cab driver stopped twice and asked people where to go. He tried to drop us off at a Panasonic facility, then again at a Samsung facility. The people at the Samsung place gave him directions to where we needed to go, which was a tiny shop in an office park literally around the corner.

Christi and Jeff took the camera in while Eric waited in the cab. Again, the door was locked and they had to be buzzed in. We suppose the door locking is standard operating procedure here in Panama City. Christi and Jeff were told that this service center doesn’t repair underwater cameras, but offered to send it to the US for repair. It would take 3 – 4 months to get it back. That wasn’t going to work for us. The lady was nice and confided that this particular model is defective and since the model’s release, they have gotten a flood of them back for repair.

Next, we asked the taxi driver to take us to a restaurant that Lonely Planet recommended in Bella Vista, the nicest part of Panama City. We are not sure where the part of town the camera repair place is in, but it has a lot of factories and looks like an average blue collar area in the US, with middle of the road quality construction that is well maintained. Bella Vista wasn’t far away. Bella Vista definitely looks newer and nicer. It is a mix of swanky, new looking hi-rises, low commercial buildings, and pristinely kept, charming single family houses. There is a lot of construction going on here, too. The streets are lined with trendy restaurants.

Eric showed the driver where the restaurant is on the map and gave him directions. But the driver clearly isn’t comfortable with maps, and after driving around a particular block a few times, dropped us off at a Chinese food restaurant, instead. The Chinese place happened to also be recommended by Lonely Planet, so we didn’t balk and ate there, instead. The food was pretty good. Our meal included lychees for dessert. Lychees are a fruit indigenous to China. They are grown in Australia, too, but we never had any there because it was out of season while we were in Aus. Lychees on the tree look something like a strawberry. They have an inedible rind and the fruit inside looks like a white raspberry. They taste pretty good.

After lunch, we caught a different cab and went to an airline office to get Jeff a ticket back home for tomorrow. Then we went to a grocery store our friends on the Grand Banks recommended called Riva Smith. Once again, it was mostly American products on the shelves, but they had a good selection of all-natural and organic foods, including a couple of our favorites from back home. We stocked up with as much as we could carry, then went back to the boat for the night. Because this anchorage is so rolly, we will probably never stay out after dark on purpose. Getting back on the boat in the roll is tricky, and in the dark it would even harder. Oh, and as an FYI, none of the other cab drivers were scary. It looks like our first driver was an anomaly, not the norm.

Once again, we were all in bed early.