Yesterday the wind dropped a little more, down to 12 16 knots, still on the nose. Every day the ride gets a little bit better. Hopefully, this trend will last! For days we have seen no one, but now we are starting to see quite a few freighters, presumably on their way to/from the Red Sea. When we left Singapore, there was an obnoxious guy abusing channel 16. He was singing, whistling, making clicking noises and saying random things. Not only was he annoying, he was tying up the communication line so no one else could use it. When people would tell him to stop, he would attack the commenter, calling them monkeys with small bananas, as well as using obscene racial slanders. Well, guess what? He is back today. Same guy, same shenanigans. At one point someone told him to stop, and he responded by singing that Peter Gabriel “Monkey” song and improvising some of the words, then went off on a foul mouthed racial tirade. He was on the air for pretty much the whole day, so they are probably paralleling us. They would have been out of range sooner if they were going the opposite way.
Today we achieved a milestone. We are very excited to report that at 0310, we made it to the halfway point around the world! We are really proud of ourselves. Our marina in San Diego that we left from is at 117-10W longitude, and we now are at 62-50E longitude.
The distance from our slip to where we are now is 10,031 nautical miles (nm) as the crow flies, but we have actually gone 14,727 nautical miles since we haven’t followed an exactly straight line. 14,272 nm = 16,412 statute (American) miles = 26,403 kilometers. So far, we have spent a total of 105 days at sea for a ratio of 32% of our journey spent underway.
Also, to be clear, if you were to dig a hole from San Diego straight down, you would come out several hundred miles south of us, closer to Madagascar. The farthest possible distance from one spot to another on the globe is 10, 800 nm, so we are not at the exact opposite corner of the world, but we are darn close!
We suspect that we have completed more than 50% of the total miles we will do on this journey. Our route on the second half of the world is a straighter line than the first half was. But who knows… maybe we’ll take a detour or two along the way.
Today the radio chatter was non-stop. There were tons of ships calling one another, and many would have their complete conversations on channel 16 (for non-boaters, you are supposed to only use channel 16 to call someone, then switch to another channel for the conversation). There were a few people screwing around on the radio, too, most notably the monkey guy. We couldn’t believe that guy was still in range. Then we started paying attention to coordinates given during various conversations. We heard a call from 200 miles away. Then one from 300 miles. Then one from 500 miles. Normally, the maximum range on our radio is 50 miles. To pick up calls from 500 miles away is absolutely unbelievable.
While you would think it would be exciting to have such range, it was really quite annoying. The radio literally squawked non-stop. Then at 1815 (6:15pm), we got a distress call on the VHF radio that has GMDSS. Distress calls set off an incredibly loud alarm that sends your heart racing. Eric went over to the radio and determined it was fake. Fake MMSI number (radio registration), and no coordinates for rescue. Then the monkey boy started screwing around again, so we suspect it was the monkey guy who set it off.
And, a couple of blog questions:
Q: How are the major systems holding up, and what are the most significant issues you have had do deal with?
A: Major systems have been holding up well (knock on teak!). Most of our issues have been minor. The bilge pump (diaphram type) has needed to be repaired twice. Our secondary (spare) autopilot has also stopped working properly. Our boom has gotten progressively harder to twist over time. We need to do this twist each time we switch from paravane mode to dinghy lifting more. We now use a lever to twist it. Our port stabilizer is starting to squeak.
Q: Do you wish you had done anything differently when picking options for Kosmos?
A: Very minor things, really. We wish we got a “y” valve on the washer so the water from the laundry goes overboard instead of into the gray water tank. We wish we could have gotten drawer fridge and freezer instead of standard, but they were too much money and out of our budget. A solar switch for the anchor light would be helpful. If you are doing the kind of cruising we are, you may consider solar panels, a quiet wind generator and/or a water collection system. You don’t need them, but it is nice to not have to run the generator as often to make power/water. [80-81]
Wow that monkey guy sounds like a serious jackass – it’s bad enough with his tirades and squawking but to then set off a false distress signal? That’s just BAD. Too bad there’s nothing that can be done to punish him.
What are you guys going to do with Kosmos after your big trip is over?
Congratulations — halfway around the world requires so much patience, frustration, tiredness and inconvenience that most people cut their trips short. And there is no problem in cutting a trip short, except that in later years —- will one look back and think, “What if? Why didn’t we go there?†I am sure you heard the stories of people who gave up in Ports such as Phuket.
Look at yourselves —– the meetings and experiences you have had on this voyage have changed you forever and that is wonderful. Those experiences add a depth and fullness to yourselves that can be gained no other way and makes you more valuable to know as friends, lovers or associates. You both are more full now and can receive more and give more from yourselves.
One of the most regrettable moments in life was stupidly coming back to San Diego for work, when I could have been in Antarctica for just $150 and telling my co-workers that another week was required.
Now the back and hip have been injured and one can barely set long enough to follow your great adventures on the computer. I gladly pick up your words from every posting and make them part of me now. I would have never done that if you were just another San Diego couple —— such as I was a half of for so many years. I have never wanted to be like some of the great adventure writers of the past and make one magic voyage to the Orient or South Sea Islands and retire back to England in boredom for the rest of my life and write my memoirs in flaming fashion for an unknowing readership.
It is better to touch and taste the many things that make life so fulfilling, than to set despondent in America again and just be another old man. When Somerset, Kipling, Conrad and the others sat in their proper attire at their English teas and daydreamed back about the wonderful island girls that loved them so much (and you know they themselves also loved the girls even more or they would have not written of them in such endearing terms so many years afterwards) —– can’t you just feel their sorrow and sadness ooze out like a soft London fog from not following through and keeping past loves and longings current?
The staunch and proper English writer always returned back home and left his brown skinned love to slowly walk into the Indian Ocean alone and drown herself from heartbreak and his not caring. They were horrible people who betrayed life and love for custom and convenience. When lack of hope and evil deeds become too strong, isn’t it better to walk slowly into the sea with your love in your arms, while you can hear the local villagers sadly dragging in the brush for you funeral pyre and talking about the wonderful colored cloth they were going to wrap your bodies in —- together?
Roger Whitaker can sing his “Last Farewell†about his island girl and return heartbroken to England. I love his song very much but I don’t want to sing “for you were so beautiful†—— I want to see your beauty coming directly at me —– from the heart and through the tear stained eyes.
Thank you two so much for adding life to my life. Al
I answered my own question (or actually you answered it for me!)
Q29. Are you going to sell the boat when you get back?
A29. We have no idea at this point in time.
Gratz on the milestone. Best wishes for the half yet to be enjoyed!