Christi and Keith have also been traveling a lot. They have tagged along with Eric on a couple business trips (Christi was tempted to go to Siberia until she found out it would take 40 hours of travel time each way and the weather forecast was -10.) They have also made five trips to Las Vegas to see Christi’s dad.

We are pleased to report that Kosmos’ new muffler is working. Getting it installed is a long story and we hope to find time to write about it soon. We’ve also got more boat updates to write about, including the toilets, wing engine, new canvas, baby gear and a boat trip up to Oceanside Harbor. And we have some travel posts we want to write, as well.

Keith is now 13 months old and has really turned into a little person! It seems like every day he hits a new milestone. He is developing so quickly that it is amazing.

Eating is still his favorite activity. He has gotten four more teeth on top, for a total of six. He can now bite into soft foods, like strawberries, and prefers to biting into food over pre-cut up food. He also chews his food surprisingly well for so few teeth. He has gotten to be fairly good with utensils, getting the food into his mouth more often than not. He’s been good at drinking out of a straw for about three months now, and a couple days ago he started drinking from a regular cup without any help — though, like the utensils, the liquid doesn’t always make it into his mouth.

Right after our last update he started singing “Row, row, row your boat.” One evening, Keith said “woah.” Eric thought it sounded like “row” and started singing “row, row, row your boat.” And Keith sang it back: “woah, woah, woah, ba ba.” Since then, he sings that song all the time, along with some others that are clear to him, but not to us. We doubt he comprehends what “row” means, but he certainly understands what boat means. When he sees toy boats or boats in the marina, more often than not, he’ll start singing ”woah, woah, woah, ba ba.”

At about the same time that he picked up the “row row” song, he started saying other words. One of his first words was “mom,” which meant food. “Mama,” which meant Christi, came soon after. Of course, “dada” meant daddy, but it may mean other things, too, since he says it often and not always in context to Eric. One of his most commonly used words is “ba” which apparently means happy. Another early word was “buh,” which he would say every time he saw a book, so “buh” clearly meant book. What was interesting was that he had absolutely no interest in books (other than trying to tear them up) until he was about 10 months old. When he started saying “buh,” he was 11 months and just beginning to peruse books. Another oddity was that just last week he started saying “bye” and waving. Normally, babies start waving much earlier, and we found it interesting that he didn’t start waving until he could say the word.

Keith’s comprehension is also good. While he doesn’t understand everything we say to him, we are confident he understands the majority of it.

Towards the end of February, Keith realized that if he pulled himself up on dressers, he could open more drawers. He then realized that if he pulled himself up on nightstands and coffee tables, he could get at everything on top of them. He was so proud of himself for these discoveries! He has been constantly into everything ever since. But we don’t mind. We love his curiosity.

A week after his one year birthday, Keith started cruising around furniture. He can walk a relativlely long way holding on and easily transitions from one piece of furniture to another. We’ve also seen him let go of the furniture a few times since then, but he always grabs back on or falls on his butt within two seconds.  We expect him to start walking any day now. Last weekend, much to Christi’s chagrin, Eric taught Keith how to climb stairs.

Keith is still “Mr. Entropy,” but now, he’ll actually put things back into place, but then he’ll immediately tear it apart again. In the last week or so, he’s begun sharing, giving us various things that he was holding or playing with. When he’s full, he’ll feed us the rest of the food on his tray. Also in the last week or so, he’s started pointing out things he wants to eat or play with.

He has become more independent. He used to insist on being supervised all the time, but now, he sometimes doesn’t want to be watched and will try to sneak off. The good news is he still wants to be watched more often than not. Unfortunately, “no” can be something of a game to him. When he’s in a playful mood, he thinks it is funny to do things like steal glasses, eat small rocks, touch electrical outlets, and other things that he knows are not allowed. But, once again, more often than not, he listens to “no” and behaves.

He gets more affectionate and loving every day. He frequently crawls over to us and initiate cuddles, hugs, eskimo kisses and regular kisses (but he doesn’t understand the concept of puckering lips so he just plants an open mouthed wet one on us).

Keith was never particularly interested in peek-a-boo when we played it with him. Recently, he has fallen in love with playing peek-a-boo with us — meaning he covers his face with a cloth of some sort, then pulls it off and giggles. He giggles even harder when we say “peek-a-boo” when he pulls the cloth. His giggle is adorable.

Unfortunately, Keith is still a terrible sleeper, waking up several times a night and not napping much. We’ve given up on getting him to sleep better. Pretty much every expert agrees that a child cannot overcome sleep problems without a strict schedule (meaning wake up at exactly the same time every day, meals and naps at exactly the same time every day, bedtime exactly the same time every day), and the reality is that with our lifestyle, we can’t put him on a strict enough schedule to fix the sleep issues. Plus, Keith doesn’t fit the normal profiles for sleep problems, so we’re not even sure the sleep issues can be fixed given their unusual nature. While Christi gets plenty of hours of sleep, the broken sleep leaves her perpetually tired and she thinks a lot slower than she used to.

Here are a few random pictures from the last couple of months:

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 beat his heels against the floor, which looks painful to us, but doesn’t seem to bother him.

He also keeps trying to stand without support, but this as close to standing as he’s managed to get so far (without leverage. He can stand up no problem with a little leverage).

His favorite toys are things that rotate: toys with wheels, rattles that spin, balls, etc.

But to be honest, he isn’t particularly interested in toys. We call him “Mr. Entropy” because his favorite thing to do is tear apart things that are neatly arranged. So, we spend a lot of the day putting together train tracks so he can tear them apart, putting hangers on the hanger holder so he can take them off the holder, putting together mega blocks (giant legos) for him to tear apart, etc. We also give him piles of paper to scatter, crinkle and tear.

Since Keith really enjoys tearing paper, we thought he’d love opening Christmas gifts. We were surprised to see that he had no interest in the gifts what-so-ever. He kept crawling away! 

You might get the mistaken impression from the “Mr. Entropy” name that Keith is destructive. He isn’t. He is pretty good about stopping when told no.

He also is fascinated by doors. He’ll spend a lot of time swinging an open door, pushing it one way and then the other. If he manages to close it, you can see he is baffled as to why it won’t open again.

He has warmed up to other kids and sort of plays with them, meaning he’ll babble to them and try to touch them. He usually screams in delight when he sees an animal, but he is usually too afraid to touch them.

Keith is very passionate about eating and tries to assert his independence at meal times. He doesn’t want baby food – he wants to eat off our plates. He wants to feed himself and he wants to eat big pieces of food–he will try to shove pieces into his mouth that are bigger than his mouth! Needless to say, meal times are messy. 

He also wants to drink from big people cups.

He’s always been eager to eat like adults to a certain extent, he’s just getting more forceful about it now. Ever since he started crawling, he’s been eating a shocking amount for such a small person! He’s also starting to become a pickier eater. When we first started giving him solids, he’d eat anything we gave him. Nowadays, there are a few foods he won’t eat (though not many). His digestive issues seem to be gone now, though we often wonder if the reason he wakes up so much at night is heart burn.

Keith has always been a talker, babbling on and on and on. His babble is starting to sound a little more like words, with bah-bah-bah, beh-beh-beh, meh-meh-meh and abu-abu being his most common words. While he is eating a food he likes, he’ll say num-num-num. And if he loves the food, his voice will get deep and throaty and he’ll say nummmyyyyyyyyy, nummmyyyyyyyyy, nummmyyyyyyyyy. He also sings and spends a big part of the day making silly noises with his mouth.

He’s back in sign language classes, but still isn’t signing yet. He’s still going to swimming regularly, and we are committed to taking him to swim classes permanently. As we alluded to earlier, Keith still wakes up 3 to 6 times a night (and sometimes more). We bought the Ferber (renowned sleep guru) book, and are half way through it. We’ve implemented all applicable suggestions that we’ve read so far. As a result, his day time napping has improved considerably, but he still sleeps just as poorly at night. Hopefully, his sleep problems will be fixed by the time we finish the Ferber book.

Separation anxiety is in full swing, but it has taken an interesting shape. Keith is generally happy to be babysat (as long as the sitter showers him with attention) and doesn’t seem to miss Christi at all. But the minute Christi returns, Keith becomes super clingy and literally won’t let go of her for hours.

We are pretty sure his rash issues are caused by polyester. We keep him in 100% cotton clothing now, but he seems to always have a couple bumps here or there as it is hard to avoid polyester altogether (blankets, swim suit, etc).

The pix above were taken between early December and late January and are not in chronological order. Here are a few more fun photos. The first two were taken at the end of November, all the rest were taken in December, and this set is in chronological order.

Eric wanted to replace the old muffler with a stainless steel one. He contacted Nordhavn to see if the same muffler was made in stainless steel. It was, however, it was $1,400 vs $400 for the carbon steel version. But the bad news was that, while it wouldn’t rust as quickly as the carbon steel one, the stainless steel one was still prone to rusting, too. Hmmm… that didn’t sound good.

Eric talked to a few people and found out that there were a variety of coatings available that will deter/prevent rust. He was told one coating in particular, called a thermal barrier coating (AKA Header Coating/Exhaust Coating) was supposed to be the most corrosion resistant coating on the market. It combined the high temperature characteristics of ceramics with metallic frits to withstand metal temperatures in excess of 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, with a chrome-like appearance that will not rust. And it was only $200 to apply it.

Eric decided that the carbon steel muffler with the thermal barrier coating was the best plan and went ahead and ordered the muffler through Nordhavn. Our muffler was held in place with a special, custom made mounting bracket. Once the muffler arrived, Nordhavn arranged for a company called Prime Fabrication to make the bracket and weld it onto the muffler. When the bracket was attached, it was sent to Olympic Coatings to put the thermal barrier coating over the entire thing.

Eric picked the completed muffler up from Olympic on a Monday morning in November 2012.

He was eager to have it installed right away. We had promised to do a funeral service and burial at sea aboard Kosmos that upcoming Friday morning, and he wanted the new muffler in before the outing. Christi was hesitant. What if something went wrong? She thought it would be prudent to wait a week before installing it. But Eric assured her the installation would be no big deal and we’d have no issues preventing us from doing the funeral service. Famous last words.

Bob Allen, the mechanic who did the work, wrote this about removing the muffler:

Nordhavn’s dry stack exhaust system is similar to a conventional truck exhaust design in that it routes engine exhaust vertically to be vented far above the vessel. The stack is adjacent to (and affixed to) a mast.

Also similar to a truck-type vehicle, the Nordhavn utilizes a muffler to quiet its exhaust note. On a Nordhavn 43, this component is located in its own cavity, above the uppermost deck, behind the pilot house. Some brief research revealed that the muffler Nordhavn installed was indeed a truck muffler for diesel exhaust that was adapted for marine application. Once the factory installed thermal blanket was removed, however, it appeared the marine preparation was minimal.

Excavating the muffler for replacement required the removal of eight bolts, four from each flange and two nuts from a dampened bracket laterally fixing the assembly to the pilot house bulkhead. Unfortunately, the eight bolts couldn’t be more seized if they were welded in place. This was as a result of thousands of hours of heating the muffler materials to 400+ degrees Fahrenheit, cooling to ambient, then heating again. The salty environment also furthered the corrosion.

After preparing the removal with what seemed like gallons of penetrating fluid, only one out of the eight 1 1/8” nuts proved removable with a conventional tool – a box-end hand wrench. After adding a foot of pipe for leverage, hammering the wrench ends and banging fingers, it was decided to transition to power tools.

First, a 7 amp Makita 4.5” grinder with a 1/8” cut-off wheel was employed. Protected by gloves and eyewear, one upper flange nut was shaved off. It took only a few steady-handed minutes. While cutting the second nut, the cut-off wheel, which shrank as it wore down, jammed and shattered itself, as well as stripped the internal gears of the grinder and wedged the axel lock so tight that the cutting wheel could not be removed. A trip was taken to the tool store where the Makita was replaced with DeWalt 11 amp model (which was twice the Makita’s price).

Returning to the scene of the battle, the DeWalt began cutting away the balance of the nuts, while also generating four times the sparks (and rust creating particles galore).

Once all eight nuts were lying smoldering on dampened rags, it was obvious the major part of the job still lay ahead. Once again, penetrating oil and hand tools were applied to what was left of the fasteners. The first two bolts were removed without drilling, but it was clear from the sore and near fractured fingers that the rest could not be removed without electricity driven horsepower.

First, we decided to attempt drilling out the bolts. Each of these bolts displace ¾” of hard steel. We began with 1/8” bits and worked up 1/8” at a time to 3/8” then added ¼” of diameter as bigger and bigger bits cleared our metal. Fastening bolts require a very hard drill bit material, so we were using carbide bits. Extra care had to be taken to keep the tool cool, straight and perpendicular to the work because if a bit catches in the hole it’s creating, a powerful drill can suddenly rotate, injuring the operator’s hands.

Upon finishing a ½” hole, the third bolt began to move and came out after some back-and-forth with the wrench and hammer. One more bolt also became dislodged after drilling a sizable hole. Now all bolts were removed in the upper flange and it parted from the muffler.

The bottom flange was worse. Due to the deterioration, the metal consistency within the bolt steel was flawed. Bits kept binding and several broke, requiring excavation of the bit remains before proceeding.

Part of the difficulty stemmed from the need to drill at an angle to accommodate the muffler diameter. Given the rusty condition of the muffler and the fact that it was free at the top, we decided to try to sever the unit near the base flange by bending it side to side while twisting it using the lateral bracket. Although the unit wouldn’t sever, we were able to bend it enough to facilitate an improved approach for drilling.

After an hour was consumed removing one bolt, the grinder and cutting wheel was re-employed to aid in the process. If part of the muffler flange could be breached from the circumference of the bolt, pressure could be relieved allowing the bolt to be removed with a punch. Care had to be taken not to nick or cut the mating exhaust tube flange. Another couple of hours of grinding, sparks and pounding (swinging a 1.5 lb. ball peen hammer) resulted in another liberated bolt.

Frustration building, we took a break from the sparks and heat. When we attacked the muffler again, we tried to savagely sever the bulk of the unit from its base. After more bending, twisting and pulling — Walla, the rusty innards finally broke enough to liberate 90% of the deteriorated hulk.

Before us lay a perfectly exposed flange pair with only two more bolts to remove. More grinding, more hammering, a few more whacks on the hand, and the remaining fasteners yielded and the balance of the muffler was removed. Exhaust stack flanges were unscathed.

By the time the muffler was fully removed, the entire top deck was covered in rust particles.

We removed the old gaskets, sanded the flange surfaces smooth and were prepared to install the shiny, new replacement. Upon an initial dry fit of the replacement muffler, neither flange aligned with its mate, but that story will be covered in another post.

Eric knew getting the exhaust wrap off to look for the leak would be be messy, since it was falling apart. Getting it back on would be difficult and even messier. We decided it was time to replace the wrap, and hired a professional to remove the old wrap, measure and fabricate new wrap, and install it. While the wrap was off, Eric could inspect the system and make the repair.

Rather than get the same thing, we upgraded to a higher quality product. The outer coating looks like fabric (but is apparently made with silicone), doesn’t ever flake, and can be cleaned by gently wiping it a cloth and Simple Green. It is also easier to take on and off because it is held together by springs and hooks instead of wires.

Exhaust wraps are custom made to fit each boat. We chose a company called SOS to fabricate and install ours. We only had them do the pieces in the engine room since the wrap in the smoke stack was still in good shape.

Chris from SOS came out to take measurements. When he removed our existing exhaust wrap, he noticed there was a significant amount of carbon build-up underneath one the flange wraps, so we now knew the general location of the leak. Here are a few shots of our “naked” exhaust.

Eric assumed that the leak was coming from the closest gasket, the one on the elbow. Eric replaced the gasket before Chris came back to install the new wrap.

The new wrap fit great and looked good. (These photos were taken today, so Eric has taken the wrap on and off numerous times since it was installed in 2010. Eric wants to make it clear he did kind of a sloppy job of putting it back on last time; normally it fits together a little bit nicer.)

The next time we ran the boat, Eric was frustrated to find that the exhaust was still leaking. Eric continued to work on by changing each gasket one by one, but even with all new gaskets, the leak was still there.

Baffled as to why there was still a leak, he wondered if maybe the ceramic gaskets weren’t sealing properly. He changed all the gaskets to graphite, a more flexible material that would seal better and wouldn’t become brittle as it deteriorated like ceramic would. Ceramic could take temperatures up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit and graphite could only go up to 1200 degrees, but the temperature difference was not an issue since we’ve never seen our exhaust temperature go above 800 degrees. But even with the graphite gaskets, the leak was still there.

In the autumn (2010), Eric was again examining the exhaust when he noticed a tiny hole in the wrinkle belly. It was in a hard to see place between the folds. He thought it was a miracle he spotted it at all. Ah ha! Mystery solved! He put some JW Weld (glue that can take really high heat) on it and we went out for a test ride. At first, all seemed fine. Eric was elated–the exhaust leak was fixed! Hooray! Then, as he customarily does before shutting off the engine, he ran the boat at 2200 RPM for a few minutes to clear out any soot from the stack. The higher RPMs caused the glue to crack. So much for JW Weld!

In November 2010, we took Kosmos to Nordhavn in Dana Point to have a whole slew of maintenance work done (hopefully, we’ll get into more of the work they did in future posts). One of the things they did for us was weld the wrinkle belly, which fixed the leak. We’ve had no further exhaust issues since then.

In September 2011, we took Kosmos up to San Francisco. On the ride up, Eric noticed a weird dust around the engine. It definitely wasn’t exhaust soot. We had a hard time getting the dust out of the carpet when we vacuumed, so it wasn’t ordinary dirt, either. At first he thought it was from the main engine serpentine belt. The belt had been recently changed and Eric thought either the belt itself was defective or it was somehow installed wrong and chaffing. He watched the belt carefully, and after a while it was clear the belt was perfect and that the dust was coming from somewhere else.

We noticed the dust again when we brought Kosmos back to San Diego at the end of October 2011. Eric still couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

When we went to Catalina in May of this year (2012), we again noticed the dust, along with some silver flecks. We knew the silver flecks were from the exhaust wrap in the smoke stack and that it was time to replace the wrap up there. We assumed that the dust must have also come from the disintegrating wrap.

We’ve been happy with the insulation in the engine room, so we called Chris from SOS back to do the stack wrap. Unfortunately, we found out that there are parts of the stack that are completely inaccessible, so not all of it could be easily replaced. But Chris did as much as he could.

After Chris unwrapped the muffler to measure it, he called Eric over to have a look. Eric was shocked to see the muffler was totally rusty! Argh! At least now we knew where the mystery dust was coming from!

Eric knew the muffler was made of carbon steel and that other Nordhavns had experienced rust issues with the muffler, but we didn’t think it would happen to us, at least not this soon. For some reason, we thought the wrap protected the muffler from rust, but obviously, it didn’t. Later, another Nordhavn owner told us the wrapping actually accelerates the rust since it holds moisture in.

The metal was thick, so it would be a long time before it rusted through (based on what a mechanic later told us, it probably had three years of life left). Mechanically speaking, there was no need to replace it. We have heard of people who regularly scrape rust off their mufflers as part of their standard boat maintenance.

Eric insisted we change the muffler right away. First of all, unwrapping the muffler and physically scraping it was a tedious and messy job that neither of us wanted to do. Plus, rust was a hazard for the baby, and the rust particles in the engine room and around the smoke stack on deck would only get worse. Eric said that if we did it now, it would be a relatively simple job. If waited too long it could cause a leak at an unexpected time — and all boaters know that leaks always come at the worst possible time. Plus, if we waited, the bolts would be even more rusted and difficult to take off.

Eric started looking into mufflers…. to be continued in another post.

We are also pleased to report that The Unexpected Circumnavigation Part 2 is now available at Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Germany/Austria, Amazon 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 pull himself up from lying to sitting with a little leverage for a while now; today was the first time he sat up without any other leverage. He can also pull himself from sitting to standing with enough leverage. Here he is beaming with pride after just pulling himself up in the crib (yes, we lowered the crib right after we saw this):

He likes to stand and can stand for a remarkably long time given his age. Nowadays, he prefers to be pushed like this in the stroller:

Keith still demands constant attention. He wants to be held most of the time; even if he does agree to be put down, he wants you to stare at him and look at nothing else. Here he is screaming at Christ for turning away from him for just a moment as he was playing with some toys:

He still prefers playing with adults over toys, and is just starting to develop an interest in other children and animals. Separation anxiety seems to be setting in already, but since he likes people, he is usually happy to go to someone else as long as they shower him with attention.

Right around Keith’s seven month birthday, he broke out in a rash all over his body, had a low grade fever, and didn’t seem to feel very good. The doctor said it was viral and would go away within a week. A few days later, two bottom teeth came in. Once the teeth broke though, he seemed to feel fine, but the rash was still present. Six weeks later, he still has the rash. It comes and goes, but will only clear up for a few days before he breaks out again. We’ve been to the doctor two more times and they still insist it is viral, but we suspect it is an allergic reaction to something.

Keith only went to sign language classes for five weeks before breaking out with the rash, and we haven’t taken him back in case the rash really is viral (the kids interact with one another, and we don’t want to make the other kids sick). The classes were fun and we’ll likely take him back again after the holidays. Meanwhile, we’ve been practicing signing at home. Keith hasn’t signed back yet, but we think he is getting close to physically being able to do it. Right at the eighth month mark, he started clapping his hands and grasping them together, both important developmental steps.

We have started giving him small, rapidly dissolving finger foods to help him develop fine motor coordination skills. He figured out how to get the food into his mouth in no time, which is no surprise since he loves to eat! Here he is picking up a rice puff:

Keith is still regularly going to swimming, though over the last six weeks he has missed three classes as a result of the rash (the kids don’t interact in swimming, so we aren’t as concerned about him making other kids sick). He loves being in the water (as long as its warm–he takes after Christi in that way). And he even has a girlfriend in the class! She joined the class about 3 months ago and for her, it was love at first sight. Keith was indifferent to her until just this week, when he finally flirted back a little. Already a ladies man!

On the subject of water, Keith has finally gotten used to the life jacket, so now we can take him out on deck when we’re cruising aboard Kosmos and on dinghy rides. He likes to be on the boats.

Fairly early on (we want to say 2.5 months, but since it is all a blur, we aren’t sure), he put himself on a schedule where he ate at 7:00 pm, immediately went to sleep, then woke up at 1:00 am and 4:00 am to feed. We thought the night stretches would get longer on their own, but they didn’t. At 6.5 months, we started working on moving the night feedings to 2:00 am and 5:00 am. We had more or less gotten Keith onto the new schedule when the rash broke out. Suddenly, he started getting up six times a night. We’ve never been able to get him back to only getting up twice a night. If we’re lucky, he’ll only get up three times, but he averages four, and six is common. Keith generally takes 3 half-hour naps during the day, so he isn’t a very good day sleeper, either.

Keith’s digestive issues have continued to improve. Christi slowly but steadily added the foods that were acid-inducing for Keith back into her diet and is now eating normally again. Keith seems to be tolerating her milk fine, though he still can’t seem to digest those foods when he eats them himself.

Christi is doing better overall. Being able to eat out and buy pre-made food from the store has significantly improved her quality of life. Before, she was always hungry because she never had time to cook, which wasn’t good for her energy level, frame of mind, or overall health. She thinks not eating enough had as much to do with her severe exhaustion as the lack of sleep did; with Keith currently getting up so much in the night and not napping much during the day, she is actually getting less sleep than ever but is coping better with it better than before. She is also enjoying being home with Keith all day more than she used to–he naps just enough to stay in a good mood and is becoming more fun every day. We still have a nanny ten hours a week, which is a tremendous help.

Keith’s poor sleep pattern has been a lot harder on Eric, though. Christi is still only feeding Keith twice during the night, so Eric gets up with Keith the other one to four times (Christi is awake, though. She can’t sleep at all when the baby is crying). Eric needs to be sharp at work, which is tough on low sleep. Fortunately, work is going well for him overall.

Here are a collection of random photos:

Keith riding Daddy the first week of October:

He was a tiger for Halloween:

At a fish tank in Sea World, taken  the first week of November:

Eating a cracker:

Keith showing off his teeth on Thanksgiving Day:

When the work was completed, Eric inspected it. The mechanics had forgotten to tighten one of the bolts on the engine mounts! And the alternator was not the same one they had taken to rebuild! The mechanics immediately tightened the bolt as Eric requested and apologized for the oversight, but both argued with Eric about the alternator, insisting it was indeed ours. For a good fifteen minutes, they swore up and down that the reason it looked different was as a result of the rebuild process — the guys that did the rebuilds were so good that they could make our American made Leece-Neville look like a brand new no name brand that was made in Mexico. Of course, they had no explanation for the fact that the alternator they removed was 140 amps and the one they installed was 160 amps.

Eventually, a supervisor came to deal with us. He said “Yes, that is a new alternator. Your old one was corroded inside and could not be rebuilt. You should be thrilled to have a new one instead of a rebuilt one. Why are you complaining?” When we told him we were sensitive to brand and wanted another Leece-Neville, not a generic no name brand, he said “What do you care what brand it is? Alternators are all the same.” We had to argue with him for a long time before we got to talk to a head honcho. The head honcho reluctantly agreed to swap out the alternator they had installed for a Leece-Neville, with no extra labor charge to us since it was their error for installing something without asking our permission first. As an FYI, Leece-Neville had discontinued the 140 amp alternator, and we wound up with a 160 amp Leece-Neville. It did cost a bit more, but we think it will be worth it in the long run.

When the bill came, we were charged with 23.4 labor hours, not the 11 they had worked. When Christi went to talk to them about it, they said “How would you know what we worked?” When she said she was onboard the whole time, they were shocked. Clearly, it never occurred to them that they were being monitored.

At first, they insisted the hours were correct, but after some arguing, they finally lowered the bill to 16.53 hours. We knew some work was done off the boat, but we think it was probably an hour or less, not 5+ hours. But at that point we were tired of arguing and paid the 16.53 hours. We told the boss we were going to complain to “Lugger” Bob Senter and the boss immediately called Bob to tell him we were difficult people that didn’t know what we were talking about. Fortunately, Bob knew better.

Driscoll’s did eventually apologize for our unpleasant experience. They said the “billing error” was a “clerical mistake” and that the alternator shop they sub-contract to took it upon themselves to swap out the alternator without informing the yard, so the mechanics were under the impression that it was our alternator when they argued with us. While that may be true, we still think it was strange for them to argue with us instead of checking, and that they should not have argued with us at all about wanting a Leece-Neville as our replacement.

When we got back to the marina, we complained to three of our neighbors about the horrible experience with Driscoll. They all said that they weren’t surprised. Between the three of them, they recounted eight different horror stories that personal friends of theirs went through with Driscoll. Compared to some of the other stories, we got off lucky.

After the engine mounts were replaced, there was less engine vibration, but the vibration wasn’t gone. This August (2012), we took Kosmos into Shelter Island Boat Yard to have the bottom repainted. While there, a mechanic from JW Marine took a peek at the engine and confirmed what we suspected: the engine had not been properly balanced on the mounts. Sigh. The mechanic showed Eric that the majority of the weight was only on two of the four mounts, which was the likely cause of the vibration.

In October (2012), we finally had the mechanic come aboard to rebalance the engine. He disconnected the shaft from the engine and used a hydraulic jack to lift the engine.

The original plan was to simply lift it up and put it back down, making sure it was evenly balanced on all four mounts, then line up the shaft. But upon inspection, one of the mounts carrying the majority of the weight (a front mount) was broken. The bolt on the bottom of the mount was tightened down too low, which caused the metal bolt to detach. Also, the bolt was resting so low that it was probably actually the cause of the vibration. Here is a photo of the two mounts. The one on the right is the broken one. Note the seriously different heights of the two mounts due to the damaged rubber on the broken one. No wonder the engine wasn’t balanced!

We ordered two new mounts for the front. When they arrived, the mechanic changed out the old ones. Before he actually put the engine back down, he disconnected the exhaust from the engine in order to ensure that he had plenty of “wriggle room” to get the engine in exactly the right spot. He lowered it down, making sure that the weight was evenly distributed between the four mounts and that the shaft was perfectly lined up with the engine.

But he didn’t actually bolt it all back together. Instead, he said the engine needed to “settle” on the mounts for a few days — meaning let the weight of the engine squish down the rubber in the mounts — to make sure that, once completely settled, the shaft was still lined up within acceptable tolerance (under 5/1000th of an inch) of the engine. Here are some photos of the engine in the “settling” stage.

He came by the next day to measure the settling. Fortunately, while it had settled 2/1000th of an inch, it was still less than 5/1000. If the engine had shifted more and the shaft was no longer lined up, he would have had to re-balance the engine all over again. He came back three days later and measured again. It had not settled any further, so he was confident it was fully settled and ready to be put back together. Reconnecting the shaft and exhaust and bolting the engine in didn’t take very long.

We’ve taken Kosmos out a few time since then, in both the bay and to the ocean. We’ve only been out about three hours each time, but so far, the vibration seems to be mostly gone.

Our first “real” experience with mold came in early 2010. In October of 2009, the weather turned especially cold and damp (by San Diego standards) and stayed that way through the spring. Around Thanksgiving, we started to notice occasional drops of water on the forward stateroom floor. Our immediate assumption was that the hatch was leaking. The next time we washed the boat we ran lots of water over the hatch, but it was water tight.

We paid more attention to where the water was coming from and noticed the drops were forming on the headliner. Oh no! Did we have a hull leak? Soon after, a storm blew in that brought heavy rain for a few days. We watched like a hawk, but there were no more drops of water during the rain as there were on days when there was no rain at all, so clearly it wasn’t a hull leak. We were baffled. If there was no leak, where were the drops of water coming from?

Eventually we realized that it was condensation. Cold air was coming into the dorade vents and hitting the warm air inside the boat and condensing on the headliner. We started to run a dehumidifier in that room and the problem seemed to be solved.

Meanwhile, as soon as the weather turned damp, Christi’s asthma started to flare up. This was odd, as Christi’s asthma rarely bothered her. As time went on, the flare ups were getting more frequent and more severe. In February 2010, she ran out of medicine and made a trip to the doctor. The doctor told her he thought she was exposed to mold and to go home and look for mold.

We thoroughly searched the boat and found small amounts of mold in all three hatches, on several window sills, and on several port holes. We knew it was from condensation — we’d seen moisture forming in those places several times, particularly on days when Christi was cooking foods with boiling liquids, like pasta or soups. Christi started running the exhaust fan when cooking (she was already in the habit of keeping the kitchen porthole open during cooking) and wiped down condensation whenever she saw it.

We also found some mold in the forward stateroom closet (on the mold resistant cedar) and in the cabinet above the desk in the forward stateroom. We needed to get into that cabinet frequently, and since the door was out of the way, we often left the cabinet door open. The closet was vented. We weren’t sure the mold in these two places was residual from the condensation issue we’d solved earlier or if it was a different problem. We kept an eye on it, and the mold never returned, so clearly it was tied to the condensation.

We cleaned all the mold with a special mold killing cleaner and treated each area with a mold preventing solution. We also treated other areas onboard that were susceptible to mold with the mold preventer. And, last but not least, we started running an air filter onboard to remove airborne spores and help keep air circulating throughout the boat.

Last summer (2011), shortly after finding out Christi was pregnant, we did a major spring cleaning onboard and never found any mold. We put the mold preventer spray on just about every surface anyway, just to prevent a mold problem from ever starting again.

Right after cleaning was completed, we changed almost all the lights onboard to LED, so we pulled down most of the headliners in the boat. Much to our surprise, we found a little bit of mold on the hull above the kitchen, probably also a result of boiling items on the stove. In the past, when we’d cleaned and looked for mold, it never occurred to us to check the headliners. We were pretty certain the mold up there was residual from the year prior, before we started running the dehumidifier and the exhaust fan when cooking. We cleaned it with the special mold killer and sprayed mold preventer all along the hull up there.

This summer (2012), Christi’s asthma flare ups started again. As we mentioned in another post, mid-June to mid-September were especially difficult months for us. We half-heartedly looked for mold in the places we’d found it before, but all those places were clear. A serious mold hunt was a labor intensive process and we were just too tired and spread too thin to deal with it at that point in time. Christi stayed away from the boat as much as possible.

In October, we finally hired someone to search for mold and do another serious spring cleaning. We found mold in several places in the master stateroom bathroom: in one of the mirrored cabinets, in one of the lockers inside the shower, in the area under the shower seat that houses the stabilizers, and under the floor between the shower and toilet. In addition, we found some mold under the floor in the forward bathroom, as well. Since we purchased Kosmos, we’ve always wiped down the shower after each use to prevent moisture issues. But, Christi likes hot, steamy showers and we think the moisture from the steam was probably the primary culprit, especially because 1. the bathroom exhaust fan was broken for several months (one day maybe we’ll get around to writing a post about replacing that exhaust fan) and 2. this year we had an especially hot and humid summer (by San Diego standards).

Our cleaning person also pulled down every headliner to check for mold, but all was clear except for a very small spot in the pilot house. He used the mold killer everywhere he found mold and treated virtually every surface on the entire boat with the mold preventer.

This time we also checked a couple places we hadn’t previously thought to check: the dorade vents and master stateroom blower intake. Both dorade vents had some mold inside them. The intake for the master stateroom blower was mold city–by far the most mold we’ve found anywhere. Our primary sources of fresh air were contaminated with mold! This explained why Christi often felt her worst when we were laying in bed. We usually kept the blower on, thinking the fresh air would make her feel better, but it was actually blowing mold spores in her face and making her asthma worse!

We are pleased to report that Christi now feels great while aboard, so the problem seems to be solved now. Our opinion as to why we never had issues with mold while we were cruising was two-fold. One, we ran the engine regularly, usually for several days at a time. The engine room got very hot, and the hot, dry air circulated through the boat and killed the spores. Two, we ran the air conditioning at least a couple times a week to dry out the interior.

Now that we mostly do short bay trips, the engine room doesn’t get hot enough to kill spores. And since San Diego’s weather is so temperate, we rarely run the air conditioning. While the dehumidifier definitely works, the air conditioning probably works better.

Happiest Baby on the Block DVD by Dr. Harvey Karp – the techniques are for calming down screaming infants. They really worked for Keith, as long as there was not something physically wrong making him scream.

Halo Swaddle Sack – swaddling was wonderful for helping Keith to sleep for the first five months. We could never get it right with a regular blanket, but the swaddle sacks made swaddling easy. We chose the Halo brand because you can position the arms so they are in or out (or one in, one out) and change diapers without taking the sack off. Here is Keith at 4.5 weeks with his arms out.

Natursutten Pacifier—made in Europe of all natural rubber. European pacifier standards are higher than in the U.S., and we believe rubber to be a safer material to suck on than plastic or silicone. Christi would have gone insane without a pacifier! (photo taken when Keith was six months)

Munchkin Pacifier Clip (pictured above): Once Keith started using his hands, his favorite thing to do was play with his pacifier. He’d take it out of his mouth, try to put it back in, usually fail and drop it, then cry. The rubber pacifier would hit the floor and bounce away like a ball. Thanks to the holder, after he dropped the pacifier, he could pick it back up and try again. We like Munchkin Brand because, so far at least, he hasn’t been able to remove it himself (he can remove other brands).

California Baby Diaper Wash – Instead of using the standard pre-moistened wipes, we use this spray with non-sterile gauze pads. It cleans better and is non-irritating. Keith has only had one diaper rash since we started using it, and it cleared up in a day. The bottle seems expensive at $10, but the first bottle we bought lasted us a full 3 months and the second bottle we bought 3 1/2 months ago is still 1/3 of the way full, so when all is said and done, it is much cheaper than wipes (especially since you don’t have to buy as many rash creams or powders.) Another plus is it is made in California, and we like supporting local businesses.

Mommy’s Bliss Gripe Water: Since Keith has acid reflux, he frequently has an upset tummy. This stuff magically makes him calm down within a few minutes of giving it to him. And it tastes good, so he is happy to take it.

Musical Lamb by Infantino: Keith was given this when he was 2.5 months old and he loved it right away. It was the only toy (other than the baby gym mentioned below) that he showed any interest in until he was about 4 months old. Even now, at almost seven months with zillions of other toys that he likes to play with, this lamb is still his favorite. (photo taken when Keith was 5 months)

Taggies Blankets: As first time parents, one of the things we didn’t realize was just how long it takes babies to learn to use their hands. At about ten weeks old, Keith started grabbing cloth. We’d gotten a couple Taggie blankets as baby gifts; small squares of fabric with ribbon loops sewn around the perimeter. They weren’t items we would have bought, but we were glad we had them because they helped him develop hand control. Both blankets were small enough that he could easily grab it and move it around. He also liked to grab the loops, which took more hand-eye coordination than just grabbing the cloth. And when he got sleepy, he’d cuddle with the blanket. We’ve already put up several photos with his Taggies in other posts, but here is one more: Keith at 2 1/2 months.

Summer Infant Digital Video Baby Monitor: We picked this one because we can both hear and see him. The portable handset moves the camera around the room and allows us to zoom in. The camera has infrared so we can see him at night. We can talk to him through the handset. When Keith outgrows it, we’re going to put the camera in the engine room so we can monitor what is happening in there from the pilot house (we’ll have to turn off the volume when the engine is on, though). It will be nice to be able to talk to each other when one of us is in the engine room without having to scream across the boat (when the engine isn’t running, of course).

Fisher Price Baby Gym: We debated about putting this on the list since it is kind of big and won’t fit on most smaller boats. On Kosmos, it only really fits in the cockpit (with a pad underneath for cushion). But we added it to the list because it will fit fine on a catamaran or a larger monohull. Keith started using this at birth and he loved it right away. Until he was four months old, it was the only object that held his interest (except for the lamb mentioned above). Now at almost seven months, he still plays with it, though he doesn’t love it as much as he used to. (photo taken at two months)

This is part 3 of a series on baby products that work well onboard boats. Click on the links for part 1: Bassinet, Stroller and Car Seat and part 2: Feeding, Diapering and Bathing

Saturday morning we headed to shore right after breakfast. Keith was again furious about the life jacket, but this time his screams weren’t as hysterical as before. We quickly made our way over to Isthmus Cove, where Richard and Pam were waiting for us at the dock in their 1991 Sea Ray Sundancer 420. We hopped onboard. Here is Eric approaching the boat while holding Keith in the carrier.

They were on their way to Avalon to pick up some more friends and we’d decided to come along for the ride. As we headed south, they pointed out all the interesting sights along the way. The scenery was beautiful, with dramatic hills rising out of the sea most of the way. And it was fun to be on a fast boat for a change. The 16 mile jaunt took only 20 minutes; it would have taken almost three hours aboard Kosmos!

We only stayed long enough to pick up their friends and then we headed back up north to Emerald Cove, an especially scenic little bay about two miles north of Isthmus Cove.

On the way back to Two Harbors, something scary happened. Richard thought he might have seen something in the water ahead, so he slowed down. There was something; it looked like seals. Had we not slowed, we could have hit one of them. But then, after looking more closely, we realized those weren’t seals, but people in wet suits snorkeling in the fairway with no floating marker! We were shocked. What were people doing swimming in a traffic zone, on a cloudy day when the visibility in the water was poor, with no marker?

To be fair, their boat did have a dive marker on it, but the boat was at least 200 yards away (swimmers are supposed to stay within 100 feet of the flag). The reality was that being so far from their boat put them in more danger: Richard had seen the marker and deliberately picked the course he did to stay away from where the swimmers should have been. We tried to explain to the swimmers how much danger they were in, but they insisted they hadn’t done anything wrong.

After the boat ride, our friends dropped us back off at the Isthmus Cove dock and we headed back to Kosmos. There was a wine festival about to start onshore and we wanted to get back before it got too crowded. Any other year, we would have gone to the wine festival, but with Christi on limited alcohol consumption and eating a very limited diet due to Keith’s acid reflux, it just wasn’t good timing.

This time, Keith calmly let us bundle him into the life jacket and waited three whole minutes before he started screaming. We’re sure that after a few more trips, he’ll get used to it. Here is a photo of Christi and Keith right before we put the life jacket on.

On Sunday morning, our friends came by Kosmos for a visit. They didn’t stay long, though, since they needed to head back to the mainland. We laid low the rest of the day and never even went to shore. Keith slept for a record 8 hours on Sunday night!

On Monday morning, we untied at 0600 and headed back to San Diego. Sea conditions were wonderful. Four to five knots of wind, no wind waves, and 2 foot swells at long intervals. It was overcast and cool, and visibility wasn’t the greatest.

In the early afternoon, the wind picked up to around 6 knots and tiny wind waves developed that didn’t affect the nice ride. Visibility also improved, but never got good. Around 1700, a large pod of dolphins came to play. One jumped all the way out of the water for us.

We saw a submarine off the coast of San Diego. Keith slept about half the time and seemed to not even notice the seas when he was up.

In bad news, one of our relatively new navigation LED light bulbs failed. We are disappointed. We hope this is a one off and that we didn’t buy another bad batch of bulbs.

On Thursday, June 7, we took off bright and early from Oceanside. Conditions were almost the same as Wednesday, except the wave interval was 8 seconds instead of 10 and they were hitting us on the nose. Eric and Christi were both green almost as soon as we pulled out of the harbor. The good news, though, is that Catalina Island offered some shelter, so the closer we got, the better the sea conditions became.

Keith slept about half the time. While he was up, he seemed unaffected by the seas. We brought his changing pad upstairs, so diaper changing was no longer an issue. We saw the Hover Crafts again, and this time one came up very close to us so we got a good look at it. And a couple pods of dolphins came to visit.

We pulled into Catalina Harbor in the early afternoon and radioed the Harbor Patrol to get a mooring assignment. There were about a dozen boats in the mooring field and at least forty empty moorings. We were assigned a spot with no one around it so it would be easy for us to tie up. Amazingly, as we were motoring towards it, another boat tied to the mooring next to the one we were assigned to. We asked if we could move one over so we would still have plenty of space to maneuver. The Harbor Patrol said no problem.

The moorings at Catalina are a little different than any other mooring we’ve been on. Since it had been so many years since we’d been there, neither of us really remembered the right way to tie up. After some arguing and awkward fidgeting with the muddy lines (that left us both coated in mud), we finally got properly secured. “Ah,” we said to one another “It’s time to relax!”

Literally one minute later, the Harbor Patrol radioed us and let us know the slip we were on had just been reserved and we needed to move one over. Sigh.Now that we knew what we were doing, the second tie up was simple and completed in a few minutes.

That night we stayed onboard and enjoying the peacefulness of the anchorage. Here is a picture looking back at the entrance of Cat Harbor from Kosmos’ deck.

We started Friday off with a leisurely morning onboard. After lunch, it was time to head into shore to meet up with some new friends of ours, Richard and Pam, at the only bar/restaurant in town.

We were excited about Keith’s first dinghy ride! In the past, every time we tried to put Keith in his life jacket, he screamed his head off. We figured he didn’t like it because it was way too big and uncomfortable. But he had grown quite a bit recently and fit into it better, so we had high hopes he wouldn’t mind it this time.

He still hated it. He started screaming the moment we put it on. Here is a photo of him eyeing Christi suspiciously as she tried to put it on, moments before the wailing began.

Our dinghy isn’t the most stable, so we were a bit nervous loading him in the dinghy. His hysteria made us even more nervous, but we got him in with no problems. The ride itself was short, calm and uneventful (except for Keith screaming).

The dinghy dock was nice. Getting tied up and off the dinghy was easy, and the dock itself was stable. Apparently, the dock had been recently rebuilt or refurbished as it had been damaged by the tsunami last year. Keith didn’t stop screaming until we took the life jacket off on shore. Here is a shot of the dinghy dock and most of the Cat Harbor, taken from shore.

The town of Two Harbors sits on an isthmus in between Cat Harbor and Isthmus Cove on the northeast side of the island. From the dinghy dock, it was about a half mile walk down a dirt road to Isthmus Cove. This photo was taken about halfway down the road and is looking towards Cat Harbor.

The town was indeed tiny. We saw maybe two dozen buildings total, including a yacht club, a restroom, a visitor center, the restaurant and some residences. The commercial area was on the Isthmus Cove waterfront and the residences were set farther back. Beyond the town it was mostly rolling hills, brown from the summer drought.

The view was lovely from the bar, overlooking the mooring area that was full of boats.

We visited with our friends for a couple of hours. Eric enjoyed the restaurant’s signature drink, called a Buffalo Milk, a yummy concoction with cow’s milk and an assortment of liquors.

Keith was just as angry about being put back in the lifejacket for the dinghy ride back as he was on the ride in. Even though it was a very short trip to Kosmos, it still seemed long with the screaming baby. We loaded Keith back onto Kosmos with no problems.

We were feeling pretty darn good about ourselves at this point: Keith’s first passage, first dinghy ride and first shore excursion were all a success!

We had a quiet night onboard.

Read Part 3 here.