Category Archives: Repair

Where we fixed something that failed.

Sightseeing in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida, USA

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Saturday, May 9 — This morning, the clouds were so thick and dark that it felt ominous out. Eric rinsed down boat and set up the new power cords. We went to lunch at a Japanese restaurant called Sushi Bear, located about a mile away. We noted that it was in the same shopping center as West Marine. The food was good, and it was good value for the money.

While we were in the restaurant, Eric’s watch notified him that rain would start in 10-minutes. And it did start exactly in exactly 10-minutes. After we finished eating, his watch said that rain would now stop for the rest of the day. It didn’t stop as promised, but having faith in the weather app, we drove downtown via surface streets. The area we drove through was very pretty, predominately made up of large, older, stately homes. We stopped at a small commercial strip mall so Eric and Keith could get custard at a place called Whit’s Frozen Custard. They both liked their custard.

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The Work Done on Kosmos in Seminole Boat Yard, North Palm Beach, Florida, USA — Part 2

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Continued… In the April 12 post, we’d also on the mentioned we having the gaskets in three portholes and in the hatch for the chain locker replaced.

And we’d also mentioned that the last three original through hulls were also being replaced.

There were quite a few more things done in the yard that we haven’t mentioned before:

They replaced the hose from the main engine to the water heater. It was a two person job, required a lot of boat yoga, and was kind of messy. Eric was glad that project was done; he was worried about a getting a leak in the hose. They said the old hose was definitely ready to be changed. They replaced it with a much stronger hose than was there before.

The work that Eric was most excited about was that they connected the inverter to the air conditioning circuit and added a new switch. With this upgrade we can run one aircon unit at anytime with a simple switch at the aircon panel — this means we can run AC in the pilot house while at sea without having to turn the generator on. Or, when at anchor, we can run the AC downstairs for a few minutes before bed to make it more easier to fall asleep without having to run the generator and all the units. Since we find it difficult to function when it is hot and humid, this will be a major improvement to quality of life.

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The Work Done on Kosmos in Seminole Boat Yard, North Palm Beach, Florida, USA — Part 1

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Dawn on Friday, May 1

Today was the 17th anniversary of the completion of circumnavigation. But it was a busy day, so we didn’t have much of a chance to reflect. Kosmos was supposed to be put back in the water today, so the first thing we did upon waking up was to pack up our stuff and check out of the hotel. We went to the boat and dropped off our stuff. We saw that the painting work was completed, but they hadn’t removed the plastic yet (more on the painting below).

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Hauling Out at Seminole Boat Yard, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

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The sunrise on Sunday, April 12, 2026 was mostly blocked, but a sliver of sun managed to peep out from behind the clouds.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday were quiet days. We spent all three days doing chores around the boat in preparation for the haul out. We did lots of odds and ends, such as cooking up everything in the refrigerator that wouldn’t last for a couple of weeks and removing the storm plates from the windows. Last week, Eric had turned off the generator through-hull and opened up the generator so that the raw water pump could be changed. He got confirmation that it would be changed in the yard, so he put the generator back together and turned the through hull back to open on the off chance that it may need to be run. Someone came to pump out the blackwater tank. Eric and Keith also cleaned up rust stains that we’d noticed around the boat.

On Monday afternoon, we checked into a motel near the marina. It certainly wasn’t fancy, but it was the best deal in the area in terms of value for the money. Last year, this motel had been booked and Eric had been forced to stay farther away. He was happy about being closer this year.

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Seeing Special Blend and The Clewiston Museum in Clewiston, Florida, USA

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Dawn on Friday, April 10, 2026

In school, Keith was currently studying about the United States’s rapid expansion during the 1800s. As part of the expansion, Native American people living in desirable locations were forced off their land and moved to less desirable locations. The Seminole Indians of Florida resisted, so the US waged three wars against this tribe and their allies. Many of these allies were either free blacks or runaway slaves that the Seminoles had welcomed into their tribe. These black people were referred to as Black Seminoles.

It was fortuitous that we happened to be studying the Seminole Wars while we were so close to where they’d occurred. We wanted to take Keith to a museum about the Seminole history and we found one that looked interesting in a town called Clewiston, located on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee and about halfway between the east and west coasts of Florida. Since it was nearly an equidistant drive between North Palm Beach and where Special Blend lived on the west coast of Florida, we asked them if they’d be interested in meeting us. They said they would.

In the morning, Eric talked to Yacht Tech about the sight gauges – unfortunately, those particular gauges weren’t made anymore. They decided the best course of action was to recycle the old gauges by changing the valves and cleaning up the corrosion. At the end of the conversation, Yacht Tech confirmed that no one was scheduled to come out to Kosmos today, so Eric joined Christi and Keith.

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