Author Archives: Christi

Engine Mounts (and Main Bank Alternator)

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Last April (2011), we took Kosmos into a local boat yard, Driscoll, to have some work done. The two rear engine mounts had worn out, causing some vibration, the main house alternator was nearing the end of its life, and the a through-hull needed a new barb. Driscoll was supposed to replace the two back engine mounts, rebuild the alternator, and fix the through-hull. The work took two days. Christi was onboard all day both days, holed up in the pilot house working on The Unexpected Circumnavigation Part 2. Since the mechanics went in and out of the engine room through the hatch in the living room, they usually didn’t see her. But she heard them come and go, and heard every noise they made in the engine room, including their conversations. She noted exactly how many workers there were and how long they worked for. The labor hours totalled 11.

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 Continue reading →

Moisture and Mold Issues

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When Kosmos was brand new, we were paranoid about developing a mold problem. After all, mold was a common issue on boats and we were traveling in the tropics, where the warm, moist air was a mold haven. But we made it all the way around the world without ever finding mold. (Well, there is one exception, when some sheets got wet and moldy after water got into a storage compartment located under a window).

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 Continue reading →

Outfitting Kosmos For a Baby: Miscellaneous Useful Items

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A while back, we started a series on baby products for the boat. Since boats have limited space, one has to be choosy about what they bring aboard. Here is a list of fantastic baby products we wouldn’t want to live without:

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.

Continue reading →

Keith’s First Ocean Adventure: Enjoying Catalina, Then Back to San Diego

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This is part three of a three part series. Click on the links for part 1 and part 2. 

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 Continue reading →

Keith’s First Ocean Adventure: Leg 2 Oceanside to Catalina

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This is part two of a three part series. Read part 1 here. 

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 Continue reading →