February 2013 Update on Us

The latest version of Voyaging Under Power, updated by Denis Umstot, came out in late December. We are excited to report that we (Christi, Eric and/or Kosmos) were referenced seven times with two photos. Voyaging Under Power is the bible of Passagemaking, so being included in the book is an honor. Denis did a great job with the new book.

Life continues to roll along for us. Eric has been putting in long days at the office and is traveling a lot for work. Christi is busy being a mom, which takes all of her time and energy. Keith is now 10.5 months old. Keith is getting easier and more fun every day, and Christi and Eric are enjoying parenting life more and more each day, too.

Three days after we published the November 2012 Update, Keith started crawling. He still demands the undivided attention of the person watching him. If the person watching him walks out of view, he’ll chase after them. If Keith crawls out of view of said person, he’ll stop and turn around and wait for about 45 seconds to make sure he is being followed. If he is not followed, he’ll crawl right back and complain about not being followed.

Even though he likes to crawl, he still prefers to be held. He is affectionate and loving, and likes to initiate hugs and cuddles. He’s recently become ticklish and loves to be tickled. A couple days ago, he started to “high-five.” He likes to clap and will do so every time we say the word “clap.” 

When he hears his name, he turns to look at the person who said it. When we ask if he wants milk, he invariably giggles in delight. If he’s hungry, he’ll respond to the word food with screams of joy. Though he doesn’t react as excitedly to any other words, we’re sure he understands quite a few words now.

Another kind of weird thing he likes to do is  Continue reading

November 2012 Update on Us

Shelf Unbound Magazine featured our books in their October/November 2012 issue, which we were excited about. There is even an excerpt from Part 1.

We are also pleased to report that The Unexpected Circumnavigation Part 2 is now available at Amazon UK, Amazon FranceAmazon Germany/AustriaAmazon Italy, and Amazon Spain, in addition to Amazon USA. Hopefully, Part 1 will be listed in the international stores soon, as well. (See the Buy Our Books page for a complete listing of where both books can be purchased). We’ll try to upload the books to Kindle soon.  

The new updated version of Voyaging Under Power by Denis Umstot has been delayed until late-December. Denis had asked us for some information that we believe he put into the book. We are very excited to be quoted in the “bible” of long range power boating!

On to personal news…Keith is now 8.5 months old, and developmentally speaking, he is doing great. He is either right on target or a little bit ahead of the curve in all areas. He seems to be able to do more and also understand more each day. It has been fun watching his range of skills and abilities grow. He is so proud of himself every time he accomplishes something new.

Right after we posted Keith’s six month update, he started making motions to indicate that he was getting ready to crawl. He still isn’t crawling yet, but he is on the verge. He gets on his hands and knees and tries to move forward, but just hasn’t quite figured out how yet.

He has been able to Continue reading

September 2012 Update On Us

Sorry it has been so long since we posted an update. Life has been really busy. Keith takes just about every bit of Christi’s time and energy. Keith is thriving in every way: healthy and developmentally ahead in many areas. We’ll post more information and lots of photos of him soon, but for now, here is a photo taken last week.

Both The Unexpected Circumnavigation Parts 1 and 2 continue to sell well, which is
surprising to us since we have done virtually no marketing at all in almost a year now. The e-pub version of Part 2 is now (finally) available the iTunes store and on Barnes and Noble.com. A paper version is also listed on Amazon. (See the Buy Our Books page for a complete listing of where both books can be purchased). We’ll try to upload the book to Kindle soon. We’re hoping it won’t have the same bug that Part 1 has in the HTML (Part 1 looks all messed up on Kindle. Hand fixing the HTML so it looks okay has been on the to-do list for over 2 years now.) 

Christi has made no progress on the Recipe for Success: What Cruising Aboard My Own Yacht Will Cost Me workbook since Keith was born, but she will get it done as soon as Keith is less needy. Once the workbook is done, we can start on Part 3.

The new updated version of Voyaging Under Power by Denis Umstot will be out on November 1. Denis had asked us for some information that we believe he put into the book. We are very excited to be quoted in the “bible” of long range power boating!

May 2012 Update

We have just lowered the price of the epub books from $7.95 to $6.95! Woo hoo!

Part 1 of The Unexpected Circumnavigation is available in e-pub at Lulu, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble.com. It is also available in paper format from Lulu and Amazon. Currently, Part 2 is available in both paper and e-book formats at Lulu. Part 2 should be available at the other retailers within 10 weeks. We’ll let you know when the other sites have the books listed.

If you’ve read either book and liked it, please write a review on any of the retail sites above, or on GoodReads.com. We’d appreciate it!

Our upcoming workbook, Recipe for Success: What Cruising Aboard My Own Boat Will Cost Me was about 95% done when Keith was born. We haven’t worked on it since, but we plan to finish it as soon as Keith is a little less needy.

Christi will start working on The Unexpected Circumnavigation Part 3: Oman to Gibraltar as soon as Recipe for Success is done. We estimate it will take her about 10 months to write it once she gets started.

In personal news,  Continue reading

Outfitting Kosmos For a Baby — Feeding, Diapering and Bathing

Our new little crew member is due in only 5 days! Given the limitations onboard, we can’t go crazy with lots of baby products. We’ve carefully chosen a few key items that we think will meet the baby’s needs, yet work well with Kosmos’s space limitations. We’ve already covered the sleeping arrangements in another post. The other basic needs are feeding, diapering and bathing. Here is what we have done:

All the baby books claim that a glider chair and/or rocker are must haves for every nursery, both for feeding and for soothing a fussy child. So when one of our friends offered to give us her used glider and ottoman, we jumped at the opportunity. Most Nordhavn 43s don’t have room for such a large piece of furniture, but when we ordered Kosmos we decided to remove the port side settee and replace it with cabinets. Yes, we lost some seating, but it made some of the juiciest storage space on the boat even more accessible and gave us more floor space. We’ve always been glad we made the choice to eliminate the settee. But when the glider came into the picture, we were more happy than ever about it!

Much to our amazement, Continue reading