Around Taiohae Bay

Sunday, May 20 – We all slept late and lounged around in the morning. It felt really good to have nothing we absolutely had to do. Don’t get us wrong we have plenty of boat chores that need to get done, but they could wait.

Eric went for a ride in the dinghy and met some people that were hanging out on their boats. One boat had some mechanical failures with their autopilot and generator. In losing their generator, they also lost their water maker. They had to steer by hand for 7 days (not fun) and could not shower for almost two weeks (eeeewwww). That made us very thankful for the fact that we had absolutely no failures or problems in our time at sea.

At lunch time we all dinghied in to land to go out to eat. As we were walking down the street, Eric recognized Continue reading

Kosmos Arrived Safely at Nuka Hiva!

The crew is healthy and happy. We had no system failures, and overall it was a great passage. We really appreciate everyone’s support. Seeing land after 21 days at sea is as wonderful as you would expect. Nuka Hiva is beautiful sight. We have lots to do, so look for more of a recap later. Land ho!

The numbers: We traveled 2835 miles on about 1000 gallons in 500 hours. That means 5.67 knots, 2.83 miles per gallon, and 2.00 gallons per hour.

San Diego to Nuka Hiva Day 19-20

  • Position and Time: S 05-09 by W 138-20 at 2140 UTC May 17, 2574 miles from San Diego
  • Average Speed and Course: 6.3 knots, 199 degrees true, 1600rpm
  • Wind: 15 knots at 300 degrees relative
  • Waves: 3-4 foot swells at 12 seconds, 2-3 foot wind waves.

It is time for some current talk, as in flow of water kind of current. On Tuesday evening our speed magically picked up by about 1.2 knots, which means we have finally escaped the clutches of the evil equatorial countercurrent (translation: where the current goes opposite way of our travel direction near the equator). Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! After 4 whole days of painfully slow speed (low of 4.4 knots), we are singing and dancing in the aisles to celebrate the restoration of our speed. While still keeping Continue reading

San Diego to Nuka Hiva Day 17-18

  • Position and Time: S 00-26 by W 136-26 at 1935 UTC May 15, 2271 miles from San Diego
  • Average Speed and Course: 5.1 knots, 204 degrees true, 1600rpm
  • Wind: 12 knots at 270 degrees relative
  • Waves: 3-4 foot swells at 10 seconds, 2-3 foot wind waves.

We crossed the equator! Yipee! The exciting event occurred at 5:52 am this morning, local time (one hour later than PST). It was still dark outside. It was a rare, clear night with the stars brilliantly shining. The stars are amazing out here. Our wake was sparkling and glowing with specks of bio-luminescence, which is stunning. It was a spectacular setting for our huge milestone. We gathered in the pilot house, watching the countdown on the GPS, then celebrated by Continue reading

San Diego to Nuka Hiva Day 8-9

  • Position and Time: N 16-47 by W 126-45 at 2355 UTC May 6, 1084 miles from San Diego
  • Speed and Course: 6.1 knots, 210 degrees true, 1600rpm
  • Wind: 7 knots at 210 degrees relative
  • Waves: 6-8 foot swells at 10-12 seconds, 3-4 foot wind waves.

The trip meter went over 1000. We are officially arrived to the vicinity of the middle of nowhere! Pretty soon we will be half way, which is still the middle of nowhere.

Yesterday, we deployed the paravane fish. We wanted to see how much it helped with the roll. It helped some, slowed us down, as expected. We decided that the fish didn’t stop enough of the roll to justify the loss of speed, so we put the fish back in their holders after a day. It was a bit tricky to bring them in out of the open ocean, but we did it.

We are still experiencing good size waves from the front at regular intervals, while simultaneously getting Continue reading