On Thursday, June 19, 2025, we spent the morning getting ready to go to sea. Johnny came to Kosmos to say goodbye and pick up his car. We untied at about noon and headed south.

Given that it was a Thursday, the ICW was surprisingly busy, especially around Peanut Island, and the ride was a bit rocky from all the wakes. The current was about 1.5 knots against us, which made the autopilot sometimes struggle to stay on course. Making the trek through the ICW a little stressful in the tight quarters.

The ride out through the Lake Worth Inlet was surprisingly turbulent. Where the inlet current met the Gulf Stream, the conflicting water directions made for confused seas. The water looked like it was boiling! The wakes from the many boats passing us going both directions only added to the confusion. The autopilot was really struggling there — at one point an alarm went off alerting us that we were too far off course. Fortunately, the uncomfortable patch wasn’t that big, and in less than an hour, the seas settled down. From there on out, it was relatively calm for the rest of the day/night, with 2- 3 foot swell at 5 – 6 seconds plus 1 – 2 foot wind chop. The wind was light at about 10-knots.

Once in the Gulf Stream, Kosmos was flying, doing 7.9 knots at 1650 RPM. Eric increased RPMs to 1750, which moved our speed up to 10.2 knots. If we could maintain the 10.2 speed, we’d get in a full day ahead of schedule.

Eric was pleased that the alternator was online and appeared to be working properly.

It had rained a lot in the morning, but by the time we left, it was partly cloudy. It was also hot and humid, so Eric ran the generator and air conditioning until the sun set. The sunset was blocked by low atmospheric clouds, but the clouds turned an interesting color.

After dark, the wind dropped to about 5 knots and the cloud cover thickened. In the wee hours of the morning, there was a silent lightning storm in the distance that lasted for several hours.

The stars being mostly blocked made for a dark night. The crescent moon didn’t rise until 0230, but when it did, it was surprisingly vibrant.

Our speed slowly but steadily crept up throughout the evening/night, and in the wee hours of the morning, we were averaging 11.6 knots at 1750 RPM, with the speed creeping up to 11.7 every now and then. We were hoping it would continue to creep up and that we’d beat our record speed of 12-knots while leaving Apataki, but 11.7 was our max.

In other happenings, Eric noticed that our rear navigation light was dim, so he changed it. Because it was calm, it was simple and quick to reach up, remove the cover, unscrew the old light and screw in the new light, then replace the cover. Had conditions been rough, that same task would have been challenging.

At one point, Eric saw a ship towing a Space X barge coming towards us from the east. The barge had something tall on it, which he thinks could have been a rocket. Eric sped up in order to get ahead of it.