Saturday, June 2, 2007 –The seas have calmed down from Friday, but it is still a rough ride. We feel like we are human pinballs in a pinball machine right now. We are still getting the ugly beam seas (meaning getting hit from the side by waves), but they are not nearly as strong or as frequent.

Unfortunately, the air conditioners in the pilot house and the staterooms (bedrooms) started shutting down in the extreme rocking. Last night we had to keep the boat completely closed up with all the rocking and it was really hot inside with no air conditioning. None of us got a lot of sleep because it was uncomfortable with the heat and the rocking. Tonight it is calmer and we are running the air conditioning.

Sunday, June 3 Back to the 12 to 14 foot seas, just like Friday. Thank God we only have one more day to go.

More answers to blog questions from the last couple of weeks:

Q. How do you know Richard and how did you choose him for crew on the San Diego to French Polynesia passage?
Our crew mate for the last 5 weeks, Richard, owns Nordhavn 43-14, Blue Jaunte. We had met him several times over the last couple of years. Jeff Merrill was also his sales person. When we were trying to decide on a third person for the passage, Jeff Merrill suggested that Richard would be a good match for us. We have similar taste in food, political views, sense of humor, and general interests, which may be more important in small confined quarters than experience. He is more experienced a cruiser than we are, especially in rough water. Being that he owns an identical boat, he was very comfortable with operating, running and maintenance on board Kosmos. He has been a fantastic crew member and we have loved having him with us.

Q: Did you get land sick after the 21 day passage?
A. Interestingly enough, when we first got off the boat there was only a residual feeling of rocking for the first couple of minutes. Eric never felt any land rocking after that. Christi would feel it for a few minutes each time we came to shore. It never lasted long.

Q: Have the notorious no-no bugs been a problem in the Marquesas?
A. Christi got a No-no bite early on in Taiohae on a small spot of skin not covered with deet. It didn’t itch much, but swelled up huge and was swollen and tender for a week. A couple days later, Richard bought us a gift of the oil the locals use as an insect repellant. It is made from flowers, smells great and is good for your skin. It seems to work just as well as deet. We hated covering ourselves with poison and love this natural oil. We wish we had bought more.

Q. What exotic fruits have you tried?
A. The only fruit we tried that we have not already mentioned is Star fruit. It tastes like a bitter Kiwi fruit. There was lots of stuff growing on the trees, but I think only the pampelmousse was ripe. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to try the miraculous healing fruit, Noni.

As to the pizza dinner criticism: have you ever gone 3 weeks without pizza? Withdraw is not pretty. We had the shakes and needed a fix.

Q: How much does food cost in the Marquesas?
A. We had already been warned that French Polynesia is expensive. First of all, it’s French. Secondly, almost everything is imported, and imported from a long way, so a lot of the cost is probably shipping. And the dollar isn’t doing too well right now, which only adds to the pain. In reality it wasn’t quite as bad as what we were braced for. In Taiohae, we could get sandwiches from street vendor for a couple bucks, pay $10 – $20 each for lunch entrees in one of the three regular restaurants, or you could drop $50+ each in the nice restaurant for an entrée and salad. Beer is $5.00 per can. Anaho and Hanavave have no restaurants, though the pension in Anaho provides food for it’s guests.

Q. Are you going to New Zealand?
A. New Zealand is not in our itinerary. We have a very limited time to travel so we can’t go everywhere. We have both been to New Zealand and loved it. We’re trying to go as many new places as possible.

Q. What is a nautical mile vs. a kilometer? Is a knot the same as a nautical mile?
A. The nautical mile (nm) question is a good one. The Earth is divided up into 180 degrees of latitude (east to west measurement). One degree is then further divided into 60 minutes. One nautical mile is equal to the distance of one minute. How they arrive at the number is very logical and completely makes sense, unlike the random statute mile used in the USA. A nautical mile is about 1.15 statute miles, so our 2832 nautical mile crossing was 3256 statute miles. A kilometer is .621 statute miles, so a nautical mile is about 1.85 kilometers. Our crossing was 5243 kilometers. Related to a nautical mile is how long it takes to go 1 nautical mile in 1 hour, which is confusingly called a knot. We report all our distances in nautical miles, and all our speeds in knots (nautical miles per hour).

Q. Is all the information about your boat, fuel, etc. in metric or American standardized measuring systems?
A. Everything we have reported so far is in the American standardized systems, except for the amount of fuel we took on in Taiohae. Now that we are out of America, we will probably using both the metric and American systems, so we will try to remember to be clear about what measurement system we are using so as not to confuse people.