Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Welcome to Bali, Crete, Greece

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We were in bed early and slept soundly. We are always so darn tired after a passage. When we did finally get up, we got right to work scrubbing down the exterior of the boat. The salt was really caked on and we had a hard time getting it off. It took some serious scrubbing. We now have a renewed appreciation for the South Pacific, where it usually rained hard for an hour every day, washing away all the salt and dirt. We rarely washed the boat there — nature kept it clean for us. And when we did wash it, very little scrubbing was needed. We miss that.

When we were finally done, we got Kosmos situated so we could be gone a couple of days and we headed to Bali (not to be confused with Bali, Indonesia) along the main highway. The drive is beautiful. About a third of the road is inland, the other two thirds along the water. The highway is well maintained, with good signs. Crete is mountainous, with very little flat land anywhere that we could see. The road winds up and down the mountains, so you get incredible vistas from mountain peaks and close ups of the foliage in the troughs.

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The vast majority of cars on the road are Continue reading →

Welcome to Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

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By sunrise, we were in more protected waters and the seas calmed down significantly, becoming a pleasant ride. At 0645, we rolled up 3,333 hours. We left San Diego with 333 hours, so we have done exactly 3,000 hours at sea since leaving home. We are at 17,875 miles, so our average speed has been 5.96 knots. We are averaging 1,375 miles a month. We have been seriously moving.

We neared our destination, the town of Agios Nikolaos on the island of Crete around 0700. From the distance, it looks just like all the photos you see of the Med, with blocky buildings nestled in tall hills along the shoreline.

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We pulled into the marina, where someone was waiting to assist us. We backed into our spot and threw him two lines, which he tied to the sea wall. Then he handed us each a mooring line, which we pulled up to the front of the boat, securely fastening each side on a separate mooring. No dropping the anchor, which was good. We were snugly tied up between two very large yachts. Within a few minutes, the marina guy, Stratos, Continue reading →

Passage from Port Said, Egypt to Crete, Greece

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Day 1

It felt good to be moving on the sea. By morning, the wave speed had slowed down. There was little wind chop, and it was an overall pleasant ride. Wind has varied from 8 knots to 16 knots. What makes it an even nicer ride is that we are running at a normal RPM and speed for a change. Kosmos is happier running in her sweet spot than she is running flat out, the ride is smoother for us, and fuel consumption is much, much better.

We crossed near the 31N by 31E line, which we thought was an interesting numerical moment. We had a beautiful sunset, with the sun especially red.

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It is much cooler here. We actually have to shut the windows at night and wear blankets when we sleep. We almost forgot what that was like aboard, since we have been so used to the heat of the tropics and desert.

There has been a ton of traffic on the radio ever since we left Egypt, mostly from warships calling every vessel that pops up on their radar. So far we have heard ships from Canada, NATO, and Israel. We have never heard so many military groups in one place before. The war ships will Continue reading →

Transiting the Suez Canal

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This morning we were up early to get ready to go. Here is sunrise over Suez.

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Normally, small yachts transit half the canal one day, spend the night in a town called Ismalia, then transit the second half of the canal the next day. We had committed to being in Greece in 4 days, and the only way to make it on time was to do a one day transit. For it to happen, several pieces needed to come together. First off, we needed to leave by 0700, because if we didn’t make it to Ismalia by 1300 (1:00 pm), they would make us stay in Ismalia for the night.

We paced around nervously waiting for the pilot. Meanwhile, Heebe finally told us what our transit fees were. The trawler that we had mentioned seeing in Port Ghalib had been charged USD$485, and we expected our fee to be the same. Ours was USD$540. Heebe never showed us any government paperwork to verify the fees, so we suspect he upped the fee and kept the difference. He also charged us an extra fee of $70 for the quick transit and we are not sure if it goes to him or is a government fee, but we suspect it goes to him. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to argue with him over the fees, both because we were out of time and because we were afraid if we made him mad that he might sabotage our effort for the one day transit and charge more.

Heebe took care of our exit stamps on our passport before we left and promised that our boat clearance would be waiting for us in Ismalia. We were irritated that he hadn’t taken care of the boat clearance yesterday.

The pilot arrived at 0815 and Continue reading →

More Time in Suez and Egypt Thoughts

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Yesterday we were going to go to Cairo and do more sightseeing, but when it came time to actually get out of bed, we opted for a day at home, instead. Christi spent the day cooking up all the produce, doubting it would last through this next passage. Eric changed the fuel transfer filter and the forward and aft fuel filters on the main engine. He also drained the sump on the fuel supply tank and didn’t find any water. Yay! The fuel we got in Ghalib was good.

We did go into town for dinner, determined to find this fabulous restaurant we had been told about (and still can’t remember the name of). We lucked out and found a local that works with the yacht club who was on his way home, and he agreed to drop us off there. Good thing, because when all is said and done, we would have never, ever found it. Here is a picture of the exterior. What is funny is that the grill they cook on is literally across the street, and they run the grilled food inside as it is ready. Hopefully, one of our readers speaks Arabic and can tell us the name of the restaurant.

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We walked in. Most of the tables were occupied. Everyone in the entire restaurant stared at us for a long time after we sat down. We ordered a couple shish kabob plates. When the food came, we were surprised by Continue reading →