Category Archives: Upgrade

Snorkeling at Warderick Wells, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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Thursday, January 8, continued… Keith got ready to go snorkeling. Eric and Keith went to the ranger station to check in. Christi stayed behind to make lunch and dinner. Tiki Tour had also moved from Shroud to Warderick this morning and had moored in The Horseshoe. The Tiki crew and their guests — a family with two kids close in age to Keith — met Eric and Keith at the beach by the ranger station. The kids played on the beach. After a couple of hours, Eric returned to Kosmos to eat lunch and to pick Christi up. Keith said he wasn’t hungry and asked to stay with the other kids.

At about 1600, Eric and Christi returned. They found the group snorkeling in the pass.

The snorkelers saw a group of twelve spotted eagle rays and they followed the rays for quite a while. They said the rays were amazing. From the dinghy, all Christi and Eric could see were black blobs that looked like moving rocks.

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Changing Plans in Norfolk, Virginia

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Tuesday, November 11, 2025 — Here was Kosmos in her slip at Morningstar.

Cruising season in the tropical latitudes officially began on November 1. Many families that were silent all summer have begun chiming in on the various boating apps, sharing where/when they were going. We’d mentioned that in Annapolis, we hadn’t met a single family going to the Eastern Caribbean — most were going to The Bahamas. As such, Keith has been asking to go to The Bahamas since that was where all the kids would be. Eric and Christi kept assuring Keith that there would be lots of families in the Caribbean and he’d have plenty of friends. But as we watched the check-ins, Eric and Christi began to doubt that was true. Few families indicated they were going to the Eastern Caribbean, and those that were wouldn’t be heading over there until later in the season.

Meanwhile, yesterday it cooled down again, but the terrible cold snap hadn’t hit yet. We knew the freezing temperatures were coming and would last for a while. We did not have the proper clothing/gear on board for such low temperatures. There was no weather window to Bermuda for the next three weeks, but a weather window was opening up to The Bahamas on Wednesday. Eric and Christi decided to give up on the Eastern Caribbean and just go to The Bahamas, instead. Keith was thrilled by the news. 

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Getting Ready to Leave For Bermuda

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Sunday, November 2, 2025 —

The time changed today for Daylight Savings. Eric was up at 0500. While this was certainly not a sunrise photo, we thought we’d post a photo of how beautiful the marina was today with all the leaves turning pretty colors.

In good news, it looked like there was going to be a weather window to Bermuda on Wednesday. It wasn’t going to be great conditions, but it would be good enough. In anticipation of the passage, Eric spent the day getting the boat organized for our upcoming passage:

He repacked part of the forward stateroom (Keith’s room). Since we’ve been here so long, lots of stuff has come out of the cabinets. Getting it all back in was a challenge.

He checked the generator coolant, which meant moving stuff in the engine room out of the way so he could take the cover off. He also put an extra bilge pad under generator.

There was a little corrosion on the raw water pump, so he scraped it off and added a some anti-corrosion coating. 

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And Even More Exploring and Boat Chores in Annapolis, MD

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The dawn on Monday, October 20 wasn’t dramatic. But one of the things that makes dawns special was that they were rarely the same.

We were pleased to report that it was calm in marina today, which was a huge relief. We needed to rent a car to stock up on supplies for our upcoming trip to the Caribbean. The marina was going to charge us $40 per night for parking. Eric did a little searching and found another marina just outside of town that was less expensive and had free parking — the marina fee and car rental fee together would be the same as what we were paying now for the slip here in Annapolis Yacht Basin. Eric made arrangement to move Kosmos to the other marina on Wednesday and rent a car on Thursday. We decided to fuel up during the move. 

In anticipation for the fuel up, Eric checked all the raycor filters and added the fuel additives Biobor and Stanadyne to the tank. Eric forgot there was back pressure in the new pump and spilled some fuel when checking the filters. He got fuel all over himself.  

After we finished school and chores, we walked to Picante for lunch. Eric hadn’t eaten there yet, and he loved it. Eric hadn’t really done much sightseeing in town yet, so we walked by the State House and took side streets back to the City Dock, including several that none of us had been on before. While most of the trees were still green, a few were changing colors.

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