Our marina was feeling a bit ominous. The docks were deserted. The days are short and were very gray. While it was warm and dry inside Kosmos, on the walk to and from the boat, the moist, damp air seemed to permeate our clothes. The especially strong winds made a perpetual “woooo” sound through the sailboat masts that sounds like ghosts howling. It was the perfect setting for a horror flick.

So, we were quite pleased when we woke up early this morning to blue skies, bright sunshine and no wind. And the forecast said no more rain for the next few days. Yay! Weeks ago we had scheduled Komos to be hauled out today for new bottom paint, and we had been worried that the adverse weather would affect the bottom painting.

We pulled out of our slip shortly after dawn broke. The water was flat as a pancake and looked like a mirror beneath us as we headed over to the boat yard. Unfortunately, we were heading east, so the incredibly bright early morning sun was blinding us. But we were so happy to see the sun that we didn’t mind the glare.

Like the haul outs in both Australia and Turkey, we pulled Kosmos into a special finger slip and secured her. A huge machine called a travel lift rolled up to the edge of the dock. The travel lift has straps, and the straps were lowered into the water and secured underneath Kosmos.

The machine slowly brought Kosmos up out of the water. We watched with baited breath. After hearing multiple stories of boats being dropped from the travel lift during haul outs, we always are a tad nervous about the process.

When she was high enough off the ground, the travel lift backed up until Kosmos was completely over terra firma. We walked all the way around her, inspecting the bottom. Since the bottom paint was completely worn out, we had expected to see a full botanical garden in bloom under the waterline, and were pleased to see there wasn’t nearly as much growth as we had anticipated. We credit moderate growth to the cold winter water temperature. One of the yard workers thoroughly washed the bottom with a power washer.

When her bottom was cleaned, the travel lift wheeled Kosmos over to a parking spot, where the yard workers secured her on the hard using bricks and locking stands.

When she was fully secured, the crew un-strapped Kosmos from the travel lift and it drove away. Kosmos rested peacefully on the stands. Yay! We were relived the haul out was successful with no issues.

The painter immediately got to work sanding her bottom and smoothing out the surface. We watched for a little bit, but we couldn’t really linger. We needed to hit the road. Eric was going to Tempe, AZ (suburb of Phoenix) for a business trip, and Christi was tagging along.

It is a six hour drive from San Diego to Phoenix. The first hour and a half is through San Diego, which is hilly. Just a few weeks ago, the hills had been brown, with little vegetation. We were surprised to see that the hills were already becoming green with new plant life. It is amazing how much the rain affects the landscape. Once we got far enough east, the landscape changed to stark desert. Since the days are short, we didn’t get to enjoy the desert scenery much before the sun went down, but it was a lovely sunset. There are a handful of small towns along the way, but they are few and far between.

We knew we had arrived in Phoenix when we saw major city lights. From what we could tell in the dark, Phoenix is an urban sprawl—a seemingly endless expanse of low buildings. We did notice a handful of tall towers congregated together in one small area, and we assumed that was downtown. We arrived at our hotel in downtown Tempe about 15 minutes after passing downtown Phoenix. The entire six hour ride was uneventful, just like it had been an uneventful haul out. And, uneventful means good, so we can say today was a really good day.

And, a blog questions:

Q: Does Christi still clean the bottom of the boat? How often does it need to be done?

A: Christi has an aversion to cold water, so she stopped cleaning the bottom of the boat when we got to the colder waters in the Pacific Ocean. Now we hire someone to do it. How often it needs to be done depends on how good the paint is and how cold the water is (things grow more slowly in cold water). When we were in 85 degree water and the paint was worn out, the bottom really needed to be done weekly. When we were in 85 degree water and the bottom paint was good, it needed to be done about every three to four weeks. Right now the water is only 55 degrees, but because our bottom paint was so bad, it still needed to be done every month or so. Once the new paint is applied the bottom will only need to be cleaned about every six weeks (until the water warms up in the summer).

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…

On that first outing, we went out to sea so we could dump the holding tanks. We also tried to wash all the tanks out, as well, particularly the gray water tank. We may be wrong, but we are assuming that since the boat hasn’t been in big waves for a while, more stuff than normal has settled in the bottom of the tanks and needed to be flushed out. Eric had commented that we really need to get a new starter battery (http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2009/06/02/settling-in-san-blas/).

Embarrassingly enough, the wind and currents were acting oddly, so Eric had a hard time with docking. It took three tries to get in properly. It seemed like the entire marina was out watching us. They are probably wondering how we made it around the world when we can’t even do basic docking.

The next time we took her out we went out for a leisurely day cruise in the bay, just wanting to give her general exercise. This time, Eric did an absolutely perfect parking job on the first try – and no one was around to see it!

After the cruise, Eric took a peek at the coolant and almost had a heart attack when he saw a small amount of oil in there, as if the transmission cooler was still leaking. He got in touch with Bob Senter from Lugger/Northern Lights. Bob is sure that the engine is fine. He explained that since we hadn’t flushed out all the coolant, there was probably still some residual oil lurking around in there. Bob told us the oil would eventually all rise, and to keep skimming the top of the fluid periodically until it was clear. What a relief.

Now for some Q & A:

Q: What nationality are most cruisers?
A: We have met cruisers of many different races from literally all over the world, but generally speaking, most cruisers are white and from first world western countries. The biggest percentage of cruisers are European, especially Brits, French and Swedes. You will also meet a lot of Canadians, Americans, Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans. The cruising world is definitely multi-cultural.

Q: In the blog post where you talk about being tested on sea skills (http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2006/05/20/being-tested-and-moving-stuff-in/) upon taking delivery of Kosmos, what kind of maneuvers did the captain test you on in the open sea?
A: The maneuvering skills were focused mostly on docking and avoiding hazards in the water. In the open ocean, he was concerned with proficiency with knowing how to use all the equipment on board, ie, did we know how to use the radar to spot dangers? Did we know how to use the chart plotter to map out a safe course? And so forth.

Q: Regarding that same post, did your insurance company choose the captain?
A: No, we could choose any certified captain. We picked someone who had been recommended to us.

Q: What would you have done differently on your journey?
A: There isn’t a lot we’d do different given our circumstances. We could give you a long list of things we would do differently if we had unlimited time and money, but usually, our choices were limited by those two factors, and we think, generally speaking, we made the best choices possible overall.

We figured out we need at least a week in between houseguests. As much as we enjoyed the company of every person who visited us, we learned that having back to back guests and overlapping guests was hard on us. We address why in our upcoming book.

We learned is to not go to sea when you have a cold, which is also addressed in the upcoming book. Unfortunately, though, going to sea with a cold can’t always be avoided.

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

Q: What is the exact cost of cruising, and why will no one will tell me?

A: We briefly addressed this in FAQ #26 and on this post, but since the question keeps coming up, we’ll try to be more explicit. When we were trying to budget, we were also frustrated at the lack of hard numbers for costs. But, now we understand why. There are many factors that can affect/change the costs.

First, nothing will dominate more than the cost of the boat. Not just the purchase price, but the maintenance and repair costs. We think the rule of thumb estimate that it costs 10% of the boat value for maintenance and repair is a very rough number. If you buy a 60 year old, 60 foot wooden hull for $15,000, you will for sure spend more than $1,500 a year in maintenance and repairs. On the flip side, we have a three year old, solidly built boat, and we spend nowhere close to 10% of our purchase price on maintenance and repair.

The older the boat, the more likely you will need to spend on maintenance & repairs. That means you need to increase your boat cost budget for each and every year you plan to be out. We can attest that Kosmos does cost money to keep, but once again, at three years old we still haven’t hit the 10% mark.

What tends to go wrong on boats is fairly predictable, as are the maintenance needs. You should be able to realistically figure out what your boat will need over time and plan accordingly. Also remember that outside the US, boat parts are generally VERY expensive, so if you will be cruising outside the US, quadruple the estimated cost of each part.

The cost of insurance is directly tied to your boat, as well (see FAQ #26).

Likewise, the amount of fuel you will use is directly tied to your boat. The more fuel your boat burns, the more the fuel cost. We used about 11,800 gallons of fuel. On a 47, we probably would have used more like 17,000 gallons of fuel. Your route and generator use also impact fuel costs. How many miles is your route? Do you have a lot of goodies on board that use power, and will thus need to run the generator often?

While amount of fuel can be predictably gauged, fuel cost is more of a wild card. Fuel prices are volatile. We saw fuel increase in price by about 100%. And, fuel prices also vary from country to country, so today fuel prices will be X in the US today but Y in Oman today. So, once again, the route you choose will affect what you pay for fuel.

Another wild card is the exchange rates. Sometimes it can work in your favor, sometimes not. For example, we saw the Euro go from 1:1 to 1:1.6 while we were out. We were unlucky in that regard world wide.

Costs vary drastically based on where you choose to cruise, which once again goes back to route planning. Some countries are cheap. Some are very expensive. We can only tell you which countries are cheap or expensive, you have to decide how much time you want to spend at each spot.

Likewise, how you choose to travel makes all the difference. If you choose to stay in anchorages, cook food aboard, stick with inexpensive locally produced foods, and don’t partake in a lot of activities that cost money, your budget will go a lllooonnnggg way. But, if you want to stay in a marina, rent a car to go to a cool tourist spot, pay for the tourist activity, and then eat out three meals because you were away from the boat all day and couldn’t cook, you could easily rack up $300 per day.

The best advice we can offer is to do research. Research the boat you want and the realistic problems you can expect. Research where you want to go and what realistic costs are. Remember your lifestyle isn’t going to change. If you like to eat out now, you’ll still like to eat out while traveling. If you like nicer things now, you’ll like nicer things traveling. If you drink heavily now, you will drink twice as much while traveling (maybe more) and booze is usually disproportionately expensive in most countries. If you think you are going to live a much more meager life while traveling than you do at home, think again. Chances are you will be unhappy if you try to drastically cut your lifestyle down too much.

Always estimate high on costs, and then pad your budget by 25%. We used every penny we had budgeted, pad and all, and then some. But, we also had the attitude that we only had two years of a “break from life” before we would go back to work and make more money, so we made the most of the time we had, including springing for tours, eating out, and other activities many cruisers choose to skip. Had we been more frugal, we probably would have had some money left. It is all about personal choices.

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.

Eric has been putting in long days at work, usually working 12+ hours. A couple days he came home after Christi had already gone to bed! Each night he comes home physically exhausted. Though, he finds it interesting that before his sabbatical, he came home feeling work each night feeling more mentally tired than physically tired, and now it is the other way around.

Christi is still working on blogs and life chores and has been laying low. She is still living in the slow lane and is emotionally torn about it. She likes the slow pace of life and doesn’t want to speed up. However, in the slow lane, little gets done in terms of productivity. In America, one feels obligated to be highly productive with one’s time. That is just the way many Americans are. The only way to be productive is to live in the fast lane. Does she want to be productive and fit in with American culture, or continue the slow paced but unproductive life?

The hardest part of the adjustment, by far, is being apart. Neither of us are “needy” people. We don’t feel like we “need” to be together. But for the trip we were side by side every minute of every day. Now all of the sudden a question we had not asked each other in two years came back, “What did you do today?” Reflecting on the trip, we can say one of the greatest gifts was the amount of time we got to spend with each other.

And now for some Q & A:

Q: Have you considered chartering Kosmos now that you are back?
A: The insurance costs for chartering makes part time chartering unfeasible. You either need to charter her constantly or not at all. And, since so many things can go wrong with chartering, we choose not at all. After all, it only takes one woman to forget one time not to flush a tampon down the toilet and you have to take apart the toliet. And that is only one example of potential hazards to the boat.

Q: Did you look into Krogens or any other brand of trawler before you bought your Nordhavn?
A: We looked at Kadey Krogens and Selene’s. At the time, Kadey Krogen only had a 40ish version and a 50ish version, they didn’t have the right size for us. Selene had the right size, but we decided the Nordhavn was more sea worthy and an overall better brand for long passages.

Q: Do you wish you got a smaller or bigger boat?
A: We feel we made the right choice of boat for the type of cruising we did. Most of the time we were in following seas. Had we picked a route with more time in head seas, we may have wanted a longer length boat for reduced pitching motion. We felt the interior was big enough to suit our needs and the exterior was small enough to easily handle and maintain by ourselves.
The Nordhavn 40 would have worked ok for us, but we are glad we had the extra fuel capacity, the mid-stateroom, and a second bathroom so that guests have more privacy.
For a discussion on the pros and cons of the 43, 52 and 55 models, see: here and here.

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

We went back out to the edge of the bay and Trevor snapped photos all the way up to the dock on Coronado. Our welcoming party was small, just some family and close friends, which was good. We think we would have been overwhelmed by too many people. Here is a shot of Trevor and Katie taking pictures of us.

And then us with Kosmos at the dock on Coronado, and then Kosmos with downtown San Diego in the background.

And few of the people who came out to see us.

Monday, May 4 – A few friends had gatherings to welcome us over the weekend. We saw quite a few people, some close friends, some casual acquaintances, over the weekend. Since the thing that we missed most was our friends and family, seeing all these people has been wonderful. However, we have been overwhelmed at how many people were around, and interacting with them has been a little weird for us.

Just like we experienced on our world travels, almost everyone asks us the same questions in the same order. Virtually everyone, even people who know better, first question is “how does it feel to be on dry land after 2 years of the ocean?” When we reply that we spent 75% of our time on land during the journey, they seem surprised – even the ones who know better.

Next, people ask us “what is your favorite place”. Most are unhappy that we haven’t picked one definitive spot and don’t seem to want to listen to a list of our favorite places and why. They all seem to want to know the one best place of all. Then comes “did you get hit by pirates?” and “did you get caught in any really big storms?”, hoping to hear dramatic tales. They seem to be let down when we say it was 95% good with few bad times. And, that is about all they want to hear about the trip, just the very best and very worst in short, concise answers.

The next question is invariably “where are you living”. When we say we are going to continue to live on the boat, most everyone is shocked. They think we are somehow compromising our quality of life by not being in a house and that living on the boat is a bad thing. When we try to justify our decision, a lot of people say they hope we sell the boat soon so we can escape from having to live on it, as if living aboard is some heinous kind of torture. One person said “shoot, I thought you would be ready to burn that thing down by now”. Before we left, we got a lot of criticism for making choices that go against the grain of society. We suppose that we are realizing that any choice that we make that is “unusual” in our culture will get that kind of reaction.

From there, the next statement is invariably “So much has changed! Everything is totally different now than it was when you left!” They start by mentioning the collapsed economy, then go on to tell us about all that we have “missed out” on by being gone. iPhones. Facebook. Twitter. Movies and TV shows. We then get a list of new products that we absolutely “need” to buy.

From our perspective, everything is exactly the same as when we left. There are a few new buildings here and there, but San Diego looks more or less the same. Our friends are the same people they were before. The only thing that is different is that the kids are bigger, and a few new kids have arrived. As much as we like technology and entertainment, we don’t feel like we have missed out on anything by being gone. And, after living without lots of those thing for the last two years, we are floored when people seem to confuse need with want, confuse owning stuff with happiness, and confuse quantity with quality.

Usually, at some point in time, we mention that we are going to Greece for 12 days for Christi’s brother’s wedding. Invariably, people say “Oh, your taking the boat back to Greece for a few days? How nice”. We want to say “It took us 9 months to get from here to Greece. You don’t really think we are going to make a quick jaunt there and back in 12 days, do you?” They simply don’t get how different slow boat travel is from jet plane travel. Actually, few of our friends understand the scope and magnitude of what we have done. To them, it was a 2 year vacation much the same as their week long trips to Hawaii, just longer. They just can’t wrap their head around the concept of how incredibly different of a life it is compared to life in middle class America, nor do they understand what a rare achievement a circumnavigation by boat is. They think everyone does it all the time.

Eric is enjoying the social interaction more than Christi. He is a social butterfly by nature, and isn’t as overwhelmed by so many people wanting his attention as Christi is. He also has an easier time brushing aside the odd comments than Christi does. Christi is a little bit in shock by the whole re-integration process and thinks she would have done better if it had been smaller groups. But, we both feel loved that so many people have turned out to see us.

In between the gatherings, and all day today, we have been trying to get “settled”. We have been doing stuff like getting Christi a new phone, ordering things like glasses and Internet, sorting through mail, and going to places like the bank and grocery store.

Q: Are you going to start doing presentations/seminars about the trip?
A: We are working on a presentation now that we will be giving at a Nordhavn event in October. We are open to giving the presentation to other groups and/or participating in seminars, so if anyone is interested in having us speak, please let us know.

Q: Are you writing a book?
A: Yes, and we hope to have it published before Christmas. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Q: Are you planning any more interesting adventures?
A: We are planning something in the spring that we think will be interesting. Details will not be announced until the then, and we are sure you’ll be entertained when we do it.
As far as long range cruising goes, we do hope to go again, but at this point in time we can’t say when. It is a matter of money. So, make sure to buy a book for everyone on your holiday shopping list because the more books we sell, the sooner you can start living through us vicariously again!

Trip Duration
Overall Time: 2 years, 2 days (733 days, 2008 was leap year).
Days at sea/days on land: 199/534 = 27% time at sea

Boat Numbers
Average speed entire trip: 6 knots
Engine Hours: 4,774
Generator hours: 1,902
Nautical Miles: 28,940 (33,821 statute miles, 53,539 kilometers)
Diesel consumed: ~11,800 US gallons, 44,600 liters
Main engine failures: None

Passages
Number of passages 7 days or longer: 8 (3 alone, 5 with crew)
Guests that did passages with us: 14 (counting the overnight guests on the Panama Canal transit)
Longest non-stop passage just the two of us: 10.33 days from Oman to Egypt
Longest passage with crew: 21 Days, San Diego to Nuka Hiva (second place was 20 days from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe)
Largest waves encountered: ~18 feet (South Pacific)
% time at gale winds (34-40 knot): ~0.5%
% time at calm winds (0-4 knots): ~5%
% time active fin stabilizers run: 99%
% time paravanes deployed (in addition to active fin): 10%

Stops Along the Way
Total Countries/Overseas Territories visited on Kosmos: 33
Total Countries/Overseas Territories visited including land travel: 34
Total stops made with Kosmos: 77
Total places visited including land travel: 111
Average amount of time stayed in a place without moving Kosmos: one week
Longest time without moving Kosmos: 59 days, the first time we went to Aghios Nickolaos, Crete, Greece. Made a 3 week trip to the US and did some extensive land travel in Greece in that time.
Trips back to CA: 2 trips, each lasting 3 weeks, one to help out with family and one to do some work.

New Activities We Experienced
Active Volcanoes
Being an Emergency Medic (Eric)
Elephant Riding
Hawngs
Hitch hiking (Christi)
Land Sailing
Navigating through heavy traffic in busy ports
Parking in a slip not as wide as or boat
Really bad seas
Repairing boat systems
SCUBA diving in deep water, caves and shipwrecks
Segways
Swimming with sharks, dolphins and whales
Touching Komodo Dragons
Transiting Canals
White water rafting (Christi)
Wind Surfing
Zip Lines

Crime & Corruption
Bribes given: One, to transit the Suez Canal in one day. (It is possible some of the agents we used to check in/out of countries paid bribes, but only the one official ever asked us directly for a bribe)
Robberies/Break-In’s: Zero
Pick pocketing: one, when Eric’s phone was lifted in the Cairo Airport
Pirate attacks: Zero

How Many…
Bones did we break?: Eric broke a little toe, none for Christi
Cameras did we destroy?: 5
Cars/scooters did we rent?: 21
SCUBA Dives did Christi do?: 55
SCUBA Dives did Eric do? : 57
People were guests aboard Kosmos: 27
Times did we get sea sick?: mild sickness, lots and lots. Serious sickness, Eric once and Christi none.
Times did we have an ailment bad enough to go to the doctor?: Zero for Eric, two for Christi (though the second time she e-mailed a friend for a diagnosis instead of going in).

To The Best Of Our Knowledge…
We are the fourth smallest power boat to make it around the world, but we think the second smallest boat shouldn’t count because they didn’t have continuous crew.
We are the youngest couple to circumnavigate on a power boat

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.