Kosmos Travel Log

Jeff Merrill did the most extensive review to date of The Unexpected Circumnavigation. Full disclosure: Jeff is our friend and our Nordhavn salesperson. But above all, Jeff has incredible integrity, and we believe his review is objective and complete. All of the feedback we have gotten on the book so far has been positive. We are still the number 1 selling travel book on Lulu!

Tuesday April 27, 2010 – Day 4, Albuquerque, New Mexico to Elk City, Oklahoma
Via: I40
Miles: 446

We have gone 1355 miles. We have averaged 55 miles per hour, and 40.1 miles per gallon. We expect those numbers to improve as we keep moving east. We are getting lighter, and we are expecting to drop thousands of feet in elevation on mostly straight roads. Are we going to make it without getting more fuel? It is going to be close…

Fuel added, 2 containers:

Albuquerque, New Mexico (this church was built in 1793):

Tucumcari, New Mexico (for you Dennis): (more…)

April 26, 2010 – Day 3, Globe, Arizona to Albuquerque, New Mexico
Via: 60 to 117 to I40
Miles: 374

Fuel added, 1 container:

Historic Downtown Globe, Arizona:

Besh-Ba-Gowah Native American Archeological Park (Globe, Arizona):

Scenic drive from Globe to Show Low, Arizona on 60: (more…)

As we wrapped up our circumnavigation in May 2009, we made two plans. One was simple — buy a car. Since diesel had served us so well on our journey and there was some great new diesel technology available for cars, we decided to get a brand new 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Second, we decided to plan another travel adventure for exactly one year later. These two plans have connected in an interesting way.

Remember our first big passage? It was the longest passage we ever did aboard Kosmos, and tested the limits of her range. It was 2832 nm (3256 statute miles), and it took three weeks.

Doing range calculations became an everyday part of cruising life for us. So somewhat on a lark, Eric decided to calculate the range of our new Jetta. According to the car specifications, it can do an impressive 600 statue miles on a tank of fuel (14.5 gallons/42 mpg highway). However, what if the car had two people, luggage, and so much fuel in containers that we hit the car’s maximum weight limit? After he ran the numbers, he was astonished to find it was almost the exact same range as Kosmos.

So what did we do with this information? We planned a “land passage” of 2832 nm across the USA on one load of fuel. We are going from San Diego, California (the southwest corner of the country) to Kennebunk, Maine (northeast corner of the country). That’s right—we are going to fuel up on San Diego, and not need to get fuel until we reach the state of Maine, literally traveling corner to corner. We are (more…)

The Unexpected Circumnavigation was the #1 selling book in the “Travel” category this week on Lulu.

In March, we were the 3rd top selling book in all categories combined.

Check what other people are saying about the book:

Review on Lulu.

I would recommend this book to people interested in circumnavigating under power, and also those who wonder “what it would be like” to kick off from dry land without decades of ocean-going experience to draw upon.

Our Facebook book page.

The book is illuminating and so descriptive you feel like you can taste the food, smell the ocean and meet the people.

Article in April 16th Edition of “The Log”.

Starting from the beginning, the author describes how a dream to travel around the world by plane progressed to cruising around the world by boat…

Have you got your copy of The Unexpected Circumnavigation yet?