Fish activity around Kosmos the morning of Thursday, November 17
Eric had made plans to go diving along the big rock island with some of the Oceananigans crew. Diving the rock was even better than snorkeling it was. They saw an eel that was so big that it could be mistaken for a sea monster. The head was as big as a man’s torso.
Continue readingThe moon was still high in the sky and vibrant at the first light of dawn on Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Sunrise was dramatic
Continue readingSunrise on Friday, November 11
Our plan was to do our chores, go snorkeling, and then go to shore for dinner. Somehow, the day disappeared. By the time we were ready to go snorkeling, it was so late in the day that it was already time to go to shore! The wind was still strong, and it It was chilly enough that we needed long pants and long sleeves for warmth (as opposed to bug protection, which is why we’d sometimes worn long sleeve or pants on warm/hot days). Here was the sunset, taken from the beach in front of the restaurant.
Sunrise on Saturday November 12
Continue readingQ: What is the difference between paravanes and flopper-stoppers? You guys seem to use the words interchangeably in your blog posts.
A: Paravanes are a stabilization system designed to be used while the boat is in motion. It involves lowering weights into the water to add more resistance to the motion of the waves. Our “fish” (weights) are 45-lbs on each side. More details can me found here and here. Unlike active-fin stabilizers, the paravane poles/fish can also be deployed at anchor to help dampen the roll in anchorages.
Flopper-stoppers are light-weight (2-lbs) flat, rectangular plates that can be hooked to the end of the paravane polls (instead of the “fish”). They are meant to be used only at anchor. They can be pushed down by a wave pretty easily, but they are resistant to coming back up, which dampens the motion. At anchor, flopper-stoppers work better than the “fish.” Since they only weigh 2-lbs each, flopper-stoppers are significantly easier to deploy and retrieve than the “fish.”
We didn’t buy real flopper stoppers until after the blog went inactive. In our old posts, we did talk about deploying the flopper-stoppers, but we had been mistakenly using the word incorrectly. What we’d meant in those old posts was “utilizing the paravane ‘fish’ while at anchor.” Sorry for the confusion.
In the recent posts from the Sea of Cortez, we’ve been careful to use the two terms accurately. When we first arrived in the Sea of Cortez, we were using flopper-stoppers at anchor. But after two failures (first, second) we’ve given up on flopper-stoppers and are back to using paravanes at anchor.
Sunrise on Thursday November 3
After we finished our morning chores, we went snorkeling along the rocks behind the boat again. Eric and Keith also donned wetsuits for extra jellyfish protection. The spot was still nice and we got to enjoy it more fully this time.
Sunrise on Wednesday November 2. As the sun rose, a massive number of birds flew over to the rocks islets.
Christi was pleased to report that she was feeling better. The day of rest did the trick! After we finished our morning chores/school, we went snorkeling along the rocks directly behind the boat. It’s always nice when we are close enough to good snorkeling/diving that we can go straight off of Kosmos. The water had cooled down; Christi wound up putting on a shortie wetsuit.
