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.

We forgot to mention that a few weeks ago, Eric and his dad went to see an IMAX movie called “Under the Sea”. Eric was astounded at the underwater scenery – many of the scenes looked exactly like some of the places we have been diving. When the credits rolled, he figured out why. The movie was shot in five places, 2 spots in Papua New Guinea, 2 spots in Australia, and one in Indonesia. We went diving in two of the same places — the Great Barrier Reef and around Komodo National Park, so that explains why the settings were so familiar. Seeing the credits was a moment where Eric counted his blessings. This company had chosen the most spectacular dive spots in the world and we were at two of them. Wow.

Anyway, since then, we have been thinking we should go to the local aquarium. It is called the Stephen Birch Aquarium and is tied to the Scripps Institute of Oceanography Research at the University of San Diego. Eric hasn’t been there for many years and Christi has never been. We wanted to see how it compares to some of the other impressive aquariums we have been to, such as the ones in Atlanta, Monaco and Crete. But really, more than anything, we wanted to re-live our much missed underwater lifestyle. The water in San Diego is way too cold and generally too murky for us to consider diving in.

So, today we went to the aquarium with Eric’s parents. We were there right when they opened. Here is the whale sculpture out front:

Surprisingly enough, the Birch aquarium was first built in 1903, back in the day when the study of the ocean was a relatively new field of science. However, unlike Monaco, which still uses their original building built in 1910, the Birch Aquarium has relocated to a modern facility built in 1992. The aquarium is divided into two halves. One half has quite a few tanks with ecosystems of sea life. The other half has a lot of informational displays and a few species of individual fish on display. The tank portion of the facility is smaller than all three aforementioned aquariums, but the informational section is bigger than in both Crete and Atlanta. There is also an outdoor area with touch pools.

We started with the tank section. There are over 60 tanks, but most are fairly small. Most of the displays feature ecosystems indigenous to the Pacific Coast of North America, with displays ranging from the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest to somewhat warmer waters of Southern Mexico. They also threw in a few tropical exhibits from the Caribbean. The largest tank of all features a kelp forest, which is indigenous to San Diego’s local ecosystem. The tank holds 70,000 gallons (266,000 liters) and is fed by natural seawater flowing in and out from the ocean right behind the building.

As we walked through the exhibits, Eric and Christi excitedly pointed out to Eric’s parents all the fish and coral we have seen on our assorted dives, such as butterfly fish, surgeon fish, trigger fish, lion fish, reef sharks, and many of the tropical corals. Here is a tropical exhibit:

We also spent a fair amount of time looking at the sea life in the colder water tanks, since we will likely never see them for ourselves in the water. There are some cool cold water creatures. Here is Eric’s dad watching jelly fish.

When we finished in the tank area, we went over to the informational displays. Most of the displays are oriented towards kids, and are fun. There was a series of displays on camouflaged sea creatures that was super cool. We saw familiar creatures, like flounder and frogfish, as well as new creatures, like a leafy sea dragon, which looks just like kelp. If we saw these little dragons while diving, we would have assumed they were small piece of stray kelp.

A big percentage of the displays focused on the effects of global climate change and too much carbon dioxide in the air. Exhibits include tanks featuring healthy coral reefs and bleached out coral reefs side by side, so the damage to the coral was evident, as was the capacity for fish to live within each of these reefs. One fun display was where you record yourself giving a weather report. Seeing these displays made Christi think of a retired scientist we had met in the marina in Panama. For most of his career, he was a researcher here at Scripps. Back in his early days as a scientist, they were noticing oddities in normal oceanic patterns and it took quite a while to figure out that these oddities were tied to global climate change. He hadn’t intended to do research on climate change, it just kind of happened upon him as he was studying the ocean. How cool to think of the small part he played in the exhibits here today.

We didn’t get to spend very long in the display area before the feeding show began. We headed back over to the large tank to watch the show. An emcee narrated, talking about kelp forests, San Diego’s ocean ecosystem, and the different creature in the tank. Kelp is a particularly large seaweed that lives in water 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) and below. It grows unbelievably fast – more than a foot (1/2 meter) a day, and can grow to be 240 feet (80 meters) tall. It is extremely nutrient rich and is used in dozens of commercial applications, ranging from food to cosmetics to fertilizers, and everything in between. Until 2 years ago, some of the local kelp forests were regularly mowed, with the kelp sold commercially, but apparently, that has stopped. Needless to say, kelp is an important food source and habitat for local marine life. The kelp forests sustain a huge variety of species.

Meanwhile, two divers got into the tank with several buckets of food. They would alternate passing out food to the animals and cleaning the inside of the glass, filters, etc.
When we had passed by the tank earlier in the day, we could see a nice variety of sea life in and amongst the kelp, including a bright orange garibaldi, a barracuda, a shark, and a giant sea bass. But when the food came out, wow! Suddenly, there was sea life galore swarming the divers, including a couple more shark species. Even species that like to hide, like Moray Eels, came out for food. It is kind of interesting to see how many different species can all live together harmoniously in such a relatively small space. Check out the sea bass that is almost as big as the diver!

When the show was over, we decided to skip the rest of the museum and get lunch instead. The aquarium had gotten crowded and we were all starting to get hungry. So, we never finished looking at the informational displays, nor did we make it to the touch pools outside. But we did enjoy what we saw, and found the aquarium interesting enough that we would be happy to go back again soon.

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!

Christi’s attitude about going back to a traditional job has softened considerably. She has realized that being home has been good for our marriage. In retrospect, we see now that in our old life we had little quality time together. In between work and activities, our little bit of alone time was spent taking care of life responsibilities like errands and chores. Now, Christi takes care of that stuff while Eric is at work, so our time together is quality time doing fun activities. We do things like going for leisurely walks in the park or kayak rides around the bay, and we are both usually relaxed and in good moods. She knows that if she goes back to a traditional job, Sundays would be spent cleaning house and paying bills, instead. And, in the little time we would spend alone doing fun stuff, we’d both be stressed out.

Christi has picked up a small part time job writing a weekly column for a website called Parentella . The website is designed to connect educators, parents and the community and her weekly articles focus on educational topics. She is enjoying it and hoping to pick up more freelance writing work in lieu of a traditional job. Meanwhile, she is still working on writing the book, and has been looking into publishing options, as well. She is realizing that the publishing process is quite frustrating. She has not “sped up” at all yet and still living the slow life of our boating days.

We do have a funny story to share. A yacht that looks exactly like a giant Kosmos pulled into our marina. Christi saw one of the crew in the laundry room and asked if the boat was a Nordhavn. The guy was offended and said “No, we aren’t a crappy Nordhavn. Those boats are worthless. Ours is a Dutch builder with a superior design to a Nordhavn”. He then went on a tirade about how great and wonderful his (owner’s) boat is and how terrible Nordhavns are. She sat quietly and listened until he was done. After he explained to her how Nordhavns have no range and can’t go anywhere, are poorly built and can’t withstand big seas, etc. she said. “Oh. Well, my husband and I own a Nordhavn. We just finished a world circumnavigation on it”. He clearly didn’t believe her. After a third degree questioning where he tried to figure out if she was lying or not, he gave her a long lecture about how stupid and irresponsible we were for transiting the Red Sea.

With Eric working so much, he hasn’t had much time or energy for the boat. But, we are proud to report that he finally fixed the transmission cooler o-ring problem. Since he worked on it piece-meal, it took a couple weekend, but he finished it today. Eric devised a way to drain the majority of the coolant without hauling the boat out. He loosened the clamps and started a slow leak which he captured with a plastic bag to make a tiny coolant river into holding containers. He actually had it going for several hours at a time over several days before it was as empty as he could physically get it. Once it was drained, he changed out the rings, which was a fairly simple task. He filled the coolant back up and we think we are good to go now!

Oh, and several weeks ago Eric did do another task, which was change out the timer in the master shower. The timer switch for the fan stopped counting minutes. Normally, you set it to automatically turn off after a certain number of minutes, and leaving it on continually is not an option. But, ours was no longer counting time, so after you turned it on, it stayed on until you manually turned it off. We believe some salt water had corroded the insides of it from water was coming in from the porthole located next to the switch.

We are happy to report that both Olympus and Shurflo replaced our defective products with no questions asked. So, now we have a new camera and a new spare water pump. We love good customer service!

Coming up: More work to Kosmos, Q & A, a trip to Yosemite, the San Diego Maritime Museum, and the Nordhavn Southwest Rendezvous.

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.

Sunday was another day of ridiculous jet lag for Christi, with her again getting up at 0200, her body thinking it was time to rise and shine. We spent the day doing chores. Christi put in a load of laundry and the washer broke. Sigh. We suspect it may be a belt. We are so thankful that it broke now, after we are done with the trip. Our marina has a nice laundry room, so not having the washer right now is no hardship. But, it would have been awful if the washer broke while we were on our journey. Do it yourself washing facilities can be hard to come by in many countries, and we have heard cruisers complain like crazy about laundry services ruining their clothes. Remember that the washing machine manufacturer refuses to ship parts overseas, so getting a replacement belt would have been difficult.

On Monday, we got up at 0530 to get Kosmos ready to go to sea. Remember, we still feel like we are in “trip” mode, so leaving again felt natural to us. In many ways, San Diego felt to us like a stop no different than any other and it was time to move on, just as we always moved on. During the 10 hour ride up to Dana Point, the seas weren’t flat, but were calm overall, making for a fairly smooth ride. However, we noticed there was some soot in the engine room and realized we had an exhaust leak in the smokestack. Oh no! We suspect it is related to when the smokestack fell over. It is actually a very small leak outside the engine room where long external pipe couples from the base pipe out of the engine room. When the stack fell over it bent the base ever so slightly. It is interesting how it showed up now.

When we arrived, we were struck by the fact that we have returned to our exact starting point. Our journey really began in February 2006 when the boat arrived here on a freighter from Taiwan. The PAE crew had finished her up and we took delivery in May 2006. This was our starting place, and in several allegorical ways, it is our ending place. The physical circle is now 100% complete. This will be the last of several welcome home celebrations. Eric will go back to work in a couple days. Our sabbatical from “the rat race” will be officially over after this party ends.

Emotionally, we are torn. Part of us is ready to settle down to regular life. But, the bigger part of us wishes this was just another stop on the way and from here we would keep going north, up to Alaska. We really do wish we didn’t have to stop. And, quite frankly, the fact that we really are done has not sunk in yet.

Nordhavn had told us that before the party started, they would do some warranty work for us, and first thing this morning a crew member was at our door to get the to-do list. The biggest job turned out to be the horn. The horn is apparently a pain to work on in general, and had two problems: the membrane needed to be cleaned and one of the lines was pinched. Nordhavn also changed the blower out, too, as a precautionary measure. Now our horn makes everyone jump when we honk it.

They also fixed the broken black water pump, which made Eric happy. He wasn’t enjoying hand pumping the tank. Another thing we mentioned a long, long time ago is that the breaker for our sea water pump for the spigot at the front of the boat meant for washing the anchor chain was too small. Nordhavn put in the correct 20 amp breaker, so we no longer have to use fresh water to clean the chain and anchor. Yay. They checked the propane sensor and determined it was bad, too. They installed a new shaft brush on main shaft (part of the anti-corrosion system on board).

They also secured the smokestack properly for us, which made us happy, by putting something at the top to keep it from ever falling over again. While they were up at the top of the mast anyway, they changed out the anchor and spreader lights for us, too. And, finally, they sealed up the small exhaust leak using a hard epoxy. All the work was covered under warranty. Nice.

We were most surprised when another crew showed up in the morning to wash Kosmos’ exterior. They had been hired by Nordhavn. We guess PAE wanted her to look pretty for the photos. Nice.

The party was great. About 40 people came, including a few blog readers. It is always fun for us to meet blog readers. Ron, our crew member in Thailand, also came, and it was good to see him. You can read all about it and see lots of photos on the Nordhavn site.

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….

Eric also noticed the gauges didn’t seem to be working properly again. He went into the engine room and saw the connector was loose. He cleaned it and made sure it was firmly reconnected and all was good with the gauges again.

Well before Colon was visible, we could see some AIS targets on the edge of the radar screen that we knew were probably anchored around Colon. We could barely see the outlines of the ships up ahead. As we got closer, more and more targets appeared until the entire the screen was full of them. The ships went from distant outlines to intimidating masses anchored quite a way outside the bay. Eric has said at least 10 dozen times that he loves AIS. Thanks to AIS, we can tell which ships are anchored and which are moving, and if they are moving, what direction and speed they are moving at so we can stay out of their way. Fortunately, most of the ships here are anchored, and getting in looks to be fairly easy and straightforward. But not knowing if the ships were coming at us or not would have stressed us out to no end.

As the ships came into clear focus, we could vaguely see the outline of a huge industrial complex and a few skyscrapers on the shore. At 1100, Eric called port control on the radio and asked permission to enter Bahia Limon (Lemon Bay). We were told to proceed. We lined ourselves up behind a tanker on its way in and followed him through the opening in the breakwater wall at 1110. As soon as the tanker started through the opening, a pilot boat appeared from behind the breakwater wall and approached the tanker ahead of us. The tanker slowed down and dropped a rope ladder and the pilot climbed up the rickety ladder a good 20 feet to the deck. The pilot boat pulled away. We wonder if they are about to transit the canal right now.

We were gaining on them as the pilot boarded, so we veered southwest towards the marina. The breakwater wall for Bahia Limon is quite a long ways away from land and the harbor is really big, so there was plenty of room to maneuver. We watched as the pilot got himself situated and the vessel started moving again. On shore, we noticed another big industrial complex in addition to the towers and complex we had seen before. From here, it looks like a gritty kind of city, but maybe our judgment is clouded by what we have read about it. The day was hazy, so visibility wasn’t all that great, but we could clearly see we were moving away from the city.

The area where we were going is about 10 miles west of the city, at the far west end of the bay. It looked like beyond the city the land is completely undeveloped except for the marina area at the end of the bay. The marina complex looked to be a group of 6 four story blocky buildings with big red roofs with a bunch of sailboat masts sticking up behind the buildings. The buildings must be high end condos or a big hotel. There were a couple more low buildings along the shore and a lighthouse, and that is all. The undeveloped land is green and lush and hilly. Because the bay is so big, we didn’t actually get to the marina until noon.

We rounded the little peninsula the red roof buildings are on and entered Shelter Bay Marina. We were directed to a spot close to the entrance and told to back in. The wind was blowing at 18 knots. Eric tried four times but could not get properly lined up to back in with the wind blowing so hard. They told us to pull in forward instead, but it was clear that we couldn’t get into the double berth without crashing into the sailboat next to us. We were told to go to the back row of slips, deeper inside the marina. As we neared the slip, we passed a Nordhavn 57 and two Nordhavn 40’s, and one is from San Diego! It is a Nordhavn convention here!

The two sets of 40 owners came out to greet us as we pulled in, along with the couple on the boat next to us and another couple on a Grand Banks also berthed on this dock. We felt special having so many people waiting to welcome us. We all made introductions. It turns out that we have a mutual friend with the couple on the Grand Banks. Talk about a small world! Everyone was really nice and helpful. They told us that the spot we were originally assigned to is rolly and that back here it is flat as a pancake. Thank God. Christi might have had a breakdown if we were in a rolly slip. We were thrilled to find out that it is 120 volt 60hz power, so we can plug in and be energy hogs, with long hot showers and air conditioning whenever we want. And, there is wifi, it is a decent connection and it is free! Ahhhhh! We are in heaven right now. Here are a couple shots of the marina. The first is the slips with the red roofed buildings on the peninsula in the background and the second is the marina building and a storage shed.

We got lunch in the marina restaurant. The 20 step walk was killing Eric. His toe is totally swollen and black and every step was painful. The restaurant’s menu is similar to a Denny’s or a Coco’s, with similar prices. We have read that in Panama food is incredibly cheap, so this is actually an expensive restaurant by Panamanian standards.

After lunch, Eric took care of all the check in paperwork at the marina office, right next door to the restaurant. Panama is one of those countries where you have to check in and out at every port. The paperwork was simple and straightforward, but their copier was broken, so Eric had to go back and forth from the marina office to the boat twice to print copies of assorted things, which was painful for his toe. In Panama there is a fee for every port you take your boat into, and the port fee for here in Colon is $20.

Eric asked the clerk at the marina office who she recommended that we use as an agent to set up our canal transit. There are two bonded agents in the area, both of whom are supposed to be very good and can get the transit paperwork completed in no time, like as fast as 12 hours if need be. The rest of the agents are not bonded and can’t get the paperwork done as fast, but have significantly lower fees. She said that she had someone who she would send over to our boat at 1600.

While in the office, Eric met one of the crew members on the Nordhavn 57, Ralph. They were having problems with starting their wing engine and asked Eric to come and see if he could help. Eric went over to their boat to take a look, but unfortunately, Eric wasn’t able to help them out. They already tried the trick of hotwiring the starter motor. Anyway, they invited us to come back to visit later in the evening.

When the agent arrived, Eric was surprised to find that he is the marina’s bus driver. His name is Victor and he is just starting to do business as an agent. He has already gotten a few boats through and gave Eric two references. Eric was still a little dubious about using someone who wasn’t bonded and told Victor he’d think about it and get back to him. After Victor left, Eric tried calling one of the bonded agents, who said he couldn’t answer any questions regarding fees until we filled out a form and emailed or faxed it in. We knew the other bonded agent only accepted wire transfers, no cash or credit cards, which was a pain we didn’t want to deal with.

And for those of you wondering if an agent is required, it is not. You can do the paperwork yourself, and we are told it is simple and straightforward. If we were going the other way, from Panama City, we might have done the paperwork ourselves. There are two problems on this side, though. One, it is difficult to get transportation out of the marina. Two, Colon is a notoriously dangerous city and it is unsafe for us to be wandering the streets in search of the multiple offices that have to be visited. We wanted safe, simple, fast and hassle free, which is why we are opting for an agent.

The evening was quite social. We visited with the 57 and chatted with many other yachties around the marina. We asked everyone what they thought of using Victor as opposed to another unbonded agent. No one seemed to think it was a bad idea. The only real con is he is new, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do a good job. And there were some big pros to using him. Pro one is that he works here so we can talk to him face to face. Most everyone else deals with their agent over the phone, which can be hard with the language barrier. We are required to have extra long ropes and tires (to use as extra fenders) for the transit, and Victor will rent them and deliver them right to the boat. The other agents have you go somewhere to pick them up, and the idea of not having to move Kosmos again was enticing. And, he was the cheapest of all the agents, another bonus. The marina is not supposed to know about his moonlighting endeavors, so hopefully no one at the marina will ever read this post! After some debating, we decided Victor was probably our best bet.