Tuesday, November 11, 2025 — Here was Kosmos in her slip at Morningstar.

Cruising season in the tropical latitudes officially began on November 1. Many families that were silent all summer have begun chiming in on the various boating apps, sharing where/when they were going. We’d mentioned that in Annapolis, we hadn’t met a single family going to the Eastern Caribbean — most were going to The Bahamas. As such, Keith has been asking to go to The Bahamas since that was where all the kids would be. Eric and Christi kept assuring Keith that there would be lots of families in the Caribbean and he’d have plenty of friends. But as we watched the check-ins, Eric and Christi began to doubt that was true. Few families indicated they were going to the Eastern Caribbean, and those that were wouldn’t be heading over there until later in the season.

Meanwhile, yesterday it cooled down again, but the terrible cold snap hadn’t hit yet. We knew the freezing temperatures were coming and would last for a while. We did not have the proper clothing/gear on board for such low temperatures. There was no weather window to Bermuda for the next three weeks, but a weather window was opening up to The Bahamas on Wednesday. Eric and Christi decided to give up on the Eastern Caribbean and just go to The Bahamas, instead. Keith was thrilled by the news. 

One of the things that Eric and Christi had reflected upon was how the leaking hatch/broken bilge pump incident completely changed our cruising plans. If everything had worked smoothy, we would have been arriving in Bermuda yesterday. In the grand scheme of things, stopping to change a bilge pump and tighten a leaking hatch should have been a minor delay that affected nothing long term, yet that little blip has had a giant impact.

Yesterday, Eric rented a car and went to West Marine to get parts while Christi and Keith did school. As he was walking out of the marina, someone asked him what a particular part was. The guy said that he’d inherited his uncle’s car and they were in the trunk. Eric told him they were Y-adapter electrical plugs that were worth about $300 each new. He sold one to Eric for $100. We were amazed – Eric had just said a few days ago that we needed a replacement plug and fate or karma or whatever you want to call it brought us one! And that was yet another direct result of “the blip.”

While he was at West Marine, he got the broken fender fixed. Upon return to Kosmos, Eric reconfigured the anchor holder using a small fender. He’s quite pleased with the result and said it was better than the previous configuration.

Then he worked on the transmission leak. When he opened it up, he saw it had an oddly shaped O-ring that he wasn’t aware of. It was more of a clover shape than an O. He believed this was where the leak was coming from. He didn’t have a spare on hand, so he put sealant on it, hoping that would do the trick. 

Since Eric wasn’t sure which size fender would fit best under the anchor, he had bought two sizes of small fenders. In the evening, he went back to West Marine to exchange wrong size fender for a spare of the one that fit. 

Today, it 35-degrees when we woke up, but with wind chill, it felt like 25. And it was really windy. The walks to and from the marina bathroom were uncomfortable.

We’d forgotten to clear the drains yesterday, so we did it in the morning. The aft starboard drain was actually clear, so we’d succeeded last time. The aft port drain had some stuff come out, but it wasn’t bad. It was uncomfortable to be working with the hose in such cold and wind.

Yesterday, our friends on Tiki arrived in the anchorage over by Fort Monroe. Eric picked up Diane and Keira from the anchorage and dropped them off at a car rental place. We guess we were wrong when we said we’d never see them again!

The bilge pump had arrived yesterday afternoon, so after Eric returned to Kosmos, he installed the upgraded bilge pump. While he was in the lazarette, he did a little bit of reconfiguring so that the pump was easier to access. He was quite pleased with how much better the new pump worked and felt it would be more effective in an emergency situation. He was also feeling more confident about changing the bilge pump at sea. The pump he removed will go back to being the spare.

Something went wrong at the car rental agency, and Tiki wasn’t able to rent the car, after all. Eric and Keith picked them back up and they all ran errands together. When it came time to go grocery shopping, they picked Christi up and we all went to Trader Joe’s together to stock up on passage food. After dropping Tiki off at their boat, we had a quiet night onboard.