Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

Off to San Francisco: Leg 2 and New Toys

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We pulled into Ventura Keys around 1130 on Thursday. We have friends named Stan and Diane who own a house with a private dock, and they had kindly offered to let us stay at their dock while we waited for a good weather window at Point Conception.

In a crazy small world coincidence, Stan and Diane have neighbors who actively cruised for several years on their sailboat, Gone Native, with their teenage sons. We met up with Gone Native in Hualtuco, Mexico and again in Ixtapa and Ensenada and had fun hanging out with them.

We had a lovely afternoon with Stan, his son, Scott, and Dave from Gone Native. In the evening, Stan and Diane hosted a dinner party for us and the Gone Native family. It was a great evening!

On Friday morning, we checked the weather. It looked like the best window over the next few days was today, so we Continue reading →

Off to San Francisco: Leg 1 and Repair/Maintenance Items

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On Wednesday we left for San Francisco. Leg one was from San Diego to Ventura, which took 24 hours. We left at 1130. For the first seven hours, the wind was steady at 15 knots from the forward port side, with two to four foot swells, gently shaped, at about 3 – 6 second intervals. Wind chop was about 1 – 2 feet, also gently shaped. We wish all rides in head seas could be so nice! Speeds varied from 5.5 to 6.5 knots at 1775 RPM depending on currents.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky, the wind picked up to 18 – 20 knots and the wind waves became slightly bigger at 2 – 4 feet, but noticeably sharper and at more rapid intervals. The pointier waves caused Kosmos to hobbyhorse and sent some sea spray over the bow, but it still was not a bad ride considering it was head seas.

The rougher conditions only lasted a little over an hour, then we got into the shadow of Catalina Island, where the seas slowly but steadily improved. By midnight the ride was relatively pleasant again (for head seas) and speeds had picked up to 7 knots. There was no moon and it was pitch black out, so there was no visibility all night.

We expected conditions to worsen once we passed Catalina, but they didn’t. In fact, they continued to slowly and steadily improve the whole rest of the trip. By 1000, the wind chop was completely gone, leaving only the gentle swell, making for a lovely ride.

Shortly after leaving San Diego, we had a small SNAFU arise. The entire downstairs reeked like the blackwater tank. Christi Continue reading →

Interview with Christi on From Left to Write Book Club

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From Left to Write Book Club did an interview with Christi! Read it here. And there is still a chance to win a free book, this time leave a comment about what luxury you would pack on your boat trip around the world.The winner of the book contest will be announced on their site on July 29th.

Ask Christi a Question and Win a Free Book!

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From Left to Write Book Club is going to be interviewing Christi. They are taking questions from the general public. To encourage people to submit questions, they are giving away a free book. Each separate question posted in the comments on their site is an entry in the book contest.  Now is the time to ask all those questions you’ve been wondering about! http://www.fromlefttowrite.com/ask-the-author-christi-grab/

June 2011 Update

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Part 1 of the Unexpected Circumnavigation  continues to sell well, for a self published book at least! We are working on getting it onto Kindle and into other e-pub and mobi forms. Right now it is only available in PDF, which isn’t quite the same as e-pub.

Part 2 is in the home stretch and should be completed relatively soon. Christi hasn’t been updated the blog primarily because she is focusing on finishing the book.

We have loaded a few photos from our circumnavigation onto Facebook (you do not need to be a member of Facebook to view them). There aren’t a ton on there now, but we have been slowly but steadily adding photos. If you “like” the page, you can see the photos as they are posted. Or, you can follow Christi on Twitter, which also notifies you when photos are added.

Work is keeping Eric very busy, but we have hopes that later this year he can try working remotely. If he can, we’ll do some limited coastal cruising and see how working remotely goes. With that goal in mind, we’ve been steadily getting Kosmos ready for cruising, including a new drawer freezer than can run on either AC or DC, new batteries, new alternators, and a whole host of other items we will hopefully get around to writing about soon.