Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

TLC for Kosmos and Lots of Greek Foods

Posted on by
Reply

After a leisurely breakfast and some more time spent looking at photos, we said our goodbyes and drove back to Agios Nikolaos. We made a stop for lunch, and were back at the boat by 1400 (2:00 pm)

It was finally time to pay attention to our poor, neglected boat. Between the beating she took in all the rough seas over the last few months, the constant hard running, the extra salty Red Sea, and the combination of extreme dust and no rain throughout the Middle East, Kosmos was in desperate need of some TLC in every single area. This is the ideal place to do it. Right now, the climate is temperate, making it easy to work outside and in the engine room (no, no air conditioning in the engine room. Actually, it gets hotter in the engine room when the air conditioning is on due to the generator). Bugs also aren’t much of a problem. The boat is securely tied and the water in the marina is flat, so we can do all the things you can’t do when it is rolly. There is a sufficiently stocked boat store literally at the edge of the marina, so it is easy to run and get that one little thing you need to finish a job. There is internet here, so we can look up on-line resources to help make the job easier. There is an oil drop off station here in the marina. We have our own hose connection with great water pressure. There is staff around to offer you pointers in the right direction for help and supplies. It just doesn’t get much better than where we are right now.

Once we got back, we Continue reading →

Welcome to Bali, Crete, Greece

Posted on by
1

We were in bed early and slept soundly. We are always so darn tired after a passage. When we did finally get up, we got right to work scrubbing down the exterior of the boat. The salt was really caked on and we had a hard time getting it off. It took some serious scrubbing. We now have a renewed appreciation for the South Pacific, where it usually rained hard for an hour every day, washing away all the salt and dirt. We rarely washed the boat there — nature kept it clean for us. And when we did wash it, very little scrubbing was needed. We miss that.

When we were finally done, we got Kosmos situated so we could be gone a couple of days and we headed to Bali (not to be confused with Bali, Indonesia) along the main highway. The drive is beautiful. About a third of the road is inland, the other two thirds along the water. The highway is well maintained, with good signs. Crete is mountainous, with very little flat land anywhere that we could see. The road winds up and down the mountains, so you get incredible vistas from mountain peaks and close ups of the foliage in the troughs.

view-along-highway-to-bali-small.JPG

The vast majority of cars on the road are Continue reading →

Kosmos in Sea Magazine July 2008 and Site Updates

Posted on by
1

On page 21 of the July 2008 Sea Magazine you will find a Nordhavn advertisement with a picture of a Nordhavn 43. It is Kosmos! The ad is about us. It even links to the blog, so hello to any new readers out there. They interviewed us for the ad when we were in Thailand. That picture of Kosmos was taken at Ko Muk. The ad mentions we are “working our way from Australia through Southeast Asia”. Well, print media can be a bit behind the times. That was many thousands of miles ago! See the new map on top of the Travel Summary page for an overview of our route so far. Also, we added a few more stories to the Highlights page, and some pictures.

Welcome to Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

Posted on by
2

By sunrise, we were in more protected waters and the seas calmed down significantly, becoming a pleasant ride. At 0645, we rolled up 3,333 hours. We left San Diego with 333 hours, so we have done exactly 3,000 hours at sea since leaving home. We are at 17,875 miles, so our average speed has been 5.96 knots. We are averaging 1,375 miles a month. We have been seriously moving.

We neared our destination, the town of Agios Nikolaos on the island of Crete around 0700. From the distance, it looks just like all the photos you see of the Med, with blocky buildings nestled in tall hills along the shoreline.

view-coming-in-1-small.JPG

We pulled into the marina, where someone was waiting to assist us. We backed into our spot and threw him two lines, which he tied to the sea wall. Then he handed us each a mooring line, which we pulled up to the front of the boat, securely fastening each side on a separate mooring. No dropping the anchor, which was good. We were snugly tied up between two very large yachts. Within a few minutes, the marina guy, Stratos, Continue reading →

Passage from Port Said, Egypt to Crete, Greece

Posted on by
1

Day 1

It felt good to be moving on the sea. By morning, the wave speed had slowed down. There was little wind chop, and it was an overall pleasant ride. Wind has varied from 8 knots to 16 knots. What makes it an even nicer ride is that we are running at a normal RPM and speed for a change. Kosmos is happier running in her sweet spot than she is running flat out, the ride is smoother for us, and fuel consumption is much, much better.

We crossed near the 31N by 31E line, which we thought was an interesting numerical moment. We had a beautiful sunset, with the sun especially red.

dsc01484-small.JPG

It is much cooler here. We actually have to shut the windows at night and wear blankets when we sleep. We almost forgot what that was like aboard, since we have been so used to the heat of the tropics and desert.

There has been a ton of traffic on the radio ever since we left Egypt, mostly from warships calling every vessel that pops up on their radar. So far we have heard ships from Canada, NATO, and Israel. We have never heard so many military groups in one place before. The war ships will Continue reading →