Following the Red Line to San Diego

May 31, 2009 We were up early and ready to pull out of port by 0645. Even though we were going through the usual motions, it felt different. For the first time in over two years, we were going back. We always moved forward. The fact that we were going back hit us hard. It’s over. It is really over.

We were joined by a journalist from Circumnavigator for the trip down. We pulled out as soon as she arrived. We actually had to fight the instinct to go north or west, and instead turned south. We used the never used in 2 years “reverse route” feature of the plotter to set a reciprocal course back to San Diego. Going back on our previous course seems wrong. Our plotter draws a red line where we have been. By definition of our circumnavigation the red line has always been behind us. Now we were following the red line.

Right away, we realized Continue reading

Party in Dana Point with Nordhavn

May 26, 2009 Nordhavn wanted to throw a celebration party for us at their offices in Dana Point, but with our trip to Greece and Eric going back to work, we had trouble coming up with a date that worked everyone. We finally agreed to the 26th for the party, with us taking the boat up there on the 25th and leaving for San Diego again on the 27th.

Sunday was Continue reading

Some Kosmos World Trip Statistics

Here are some stats on our trip. If you are you interested in any other numbers, let us know and we’ll try to come up with them for you.

Trip Duration
Overall Time: 2 years, 2 days (733 days, 2008 was leap year).
Days at sea/days on land: 199/534 = 27% time at sea

Boat Numbers
Average speed entire trip: 6 knots
Engine Hours: 4,774
Generator hours: 1,902
Nautical Miles: 28,940 (33,821 statute miles, 53,539 kilometers)
Diesel consumed: ~11,800 US gallons, 44,600 liters
Main engine failures: None

Passages
Number of passages 7 days or longer: 8 (3 alone, 5 with crew)
Guests that did passages with us: 14 (counting the overnight guests on the Panama Canal transit)
Longest non-stop passage just the two of us: Continue reading

Last Couple Days Before Going Back to San Diego

There is still no reported case of H1N1 Flu in Baja, but yesterday all the schools were closed in the state.

Yesterday morning Gone Native left again, headed for San Diego. After they left, we went for a ride down south to the end of the main drag. That is yet another place we hadn’t gone before and it kind of surprised us. For the first few blocks it is commercial and looks like the rest of the city. Then there is a military area that is blocked off. Beyond the military area, the road parallels a beautiful beach that is lined with single family houses. In the US, the homes along the waterfront would be zillion dollar mansions. There were a couple nice homes, but most weren’t very nice, maybe so-so at best. A lot of the houses were actually trailers, and several of them were scary looking. There were even a few vacant lots, and one lot in particular looks like there was once a home on it that was destroyed. After several more blocks the road comes to an end and opens out into a public beach. The first picture is looking south and the second is looking north, towards downtown.

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While it was sunny and gorgeous out, it was still cold, so we didn’t walk on the beach. We enjoyed the view and headed back to Kosmos. What is so odd is that Continue reading

Cabo San Lucas to Ensenada — Days 3 and 4

Day 3

This morning the ride was even better! There was no wind chop at all and the swells were small and widely spaced, making the hobby horsing was definitely less severe. The water looks silky from the lack of waves. But more importantly, with the better sea conditions, Trevor finally snapped out of his sea sickness completely. He was lively and full of energy all day. What a relief!

When we checked the weather forecast this morning, it said Continue reading