Boating Tidbits and Q&A

Monday, August 24 — While we are not moving relative to our around the world pace, we are still using Kosmos. We start the engines every week. Also we have taken the boat out twice since Eric fixed the transmission cooler. The first time it took Christi literally all day to get the boat ready to go. Since it had been so long since we had moved Kosmos, just about every storage space aboard had to be re-packed and an almost overwhelming number of things needed to be stowed. But, the good news is she found some stuff she had lost weeks before!

On that first outing, we went out to Continue reading

Book Coming Soon!

Volume 1, of the yet untitled book covering San Diego to Australia will hopefully be ready to purchase soon. Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Here are a few good reasons:

  • Prologue: How we formed the dream and the early planning stages.
  • The entire 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva has been re-written. At that point, the blog was in real time and we didn’t want people to worry about us. But the truth was that it was tough!
  • Many new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
  • In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
  • Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, and the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
  • Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
  • Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
  • All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

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

The Water Park and Going Back Out to Sea

Yesterday morning we got up early and had breakfast with Bruce. This time we went to a different restaurant in the marina complex, which was more expensive and not quite as good. Man, we should have gone back to the first place. Right after we were done eating, Bruce caught a cab to the airport. We were sad it was a short visit. Gone Native also left, too. The weather window was still excellent and they wanted to make the most of it. They had really only stopped for fuel.

Even though we Continue reading

Fueling Up and Heading to Ixtapa

Eric had not intended to buy fuel here in Huatulco. He had read about the fuel dock in Santa Cruz Bay and decided it wasn’t the right place for us to get fuel. It was shallow and there were often surges that caused the boats being filled to bang into the sea wall. Gone Native had gotten fuel there the day they arrived and had confirmed our suspicions that it was not a fun experience.

When we checked in, the marina had told Eric that a fuel truck could deliver fuel to us here in the marina, which was a big surprise to us. He debated about it for about a day, and decided to get the fuel for a couple of reasons. One, we had been planning to Continue reading