Category Archives: Wildlife

Days 2 – 4 on the Passage from North Palm Beach, FL to Deltaville, VA

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Friday, June 20 – Sunday June 22 — On Thursday, we’d mentioned that our speeds inside the Gulf Stream were incredible. Eric had had calculated that if we could maintain a speed of 10.2 knots, we’d get in a full day ahead of schedule, so he’d increased RPMs to 1750 to get us up to 10.2 knots. Then our speed picked up even more, eventually getting to 11.7 knots!

After that peak, our speed slowly crept back down, and by 0800 on Friday, we were doing 10.4 knots. While the extra speed was exciting, we were on track to arrive in the middle of the night, so Eric dropped the RPMs back down to 1650 for a daylight arrival. At 1650 RPM, we were still doing a blazing fast 8.8 knots! The speeds continued to slowly creep down the rest of the day, and by 0800 on Saturday. we were down to 7.1 — which was still a great speed.

On Saturday, the speed slowly crept back up. Eric kept reducing RPMs to keep us on track for a daylight arrival. By midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we were doing 9.3 knots at 1500 RPM! On Sunday, our speed was a yo-yo, but we were still averaging a fast enough speed that Eric continued to gradually reduce RPMs to 1425 — and we were still averaging 5.5-knots at 1425!

On Sunday evening at about 2000, Eric changed our course to avoid the shipping lanes in the Chesapeake Bay. The new route added more miles, which was fine as we needed to arrive later, anyways. Once he’d re-routed us, he increased the RPMs to 1650.

On Friday, for most of the day, the sea conditions were the same as they had been on Thursday: 2 -3 foot swells at 5 -6 seconds with 1-2 foot wind chop. But on Friday evening, we were hit with a squall at about 1830. It was ominous on the radar.

The wind went from nearly dead to strong in an instant, and the seas rapidly worsened. We’re pretty sure it rained a little bit. But it passed relatively quickly, and all went back to being calm almost as fast as it had picked up. We could see the silent lightning from the storm for a long time after it had passed.

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Moving to Old Port Cove Marina, North Palm Beach, Florida

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Over the two weeks that Kosmos was in the boat yard, Eric was very focused on boat chores and errands related to the boat (ie trips to West Marine), and did little by way of social activities and/or sightseeing. There was a Nordhavn 40 in the yard, and one evening, Eric had dinner with the owner. On Sunday, when the boat yard was closed, Eric went back to turtle sanctuary. The turtles that lived there were unable to be re-released into the wild.

As noted in the boatyard summary post, Kosmos was put back in the water on Friday, June 6. However, the work wasn’t done yet. There was more to be done in the water.

The first order of business was the slip. Yacht Tech had a slip reserved for us behind their office at Old Port Cove, but there was another Nordhavn in it that needed to be moved. On Friday, before Kosmos was put back in the water, Eric helped to move the other boat to a marina a little farther north. Kosmos went back into the water at the end of the day, and Eric took her straight to the slip at Old Port Cove.

Old Port Cove Marina
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Keith’s Perspective on Palm Beach, Florida/Le point de vue de Keith sur Palm Beach, en Floride

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This week has been fun. On Saturday we ate at a pizza restaurant called Nico’s, then we got Gelato. 

Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi nous avons mangé à une pizzeria qui s’appele Nico’s, puis on a mangé une glace. 

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The Loggerhead Marine Life Center, Juno Beach, Florida, USA

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Dawn on Friday, May 23

Yesterday, Eric realized that the blackwater tank needed to be fuller in order to get the suction going, so he added some water to the tank. In good news, it worked and he was able to pump out the blackwater tank, although he was concerned that it may not have fully emptied out. 

After morning chores and school, Eric and Keith went to the water park. It was empty, just as it had been on Wednesday. The park had a lot of rides. They went on almost all of them, and the longest wait was 2-minutes. They had a blast. We later found out that the local schools finish the year on Friday, so they were glad they didn’t wait to go. It’s probably crowded when school is out!

In the evening, Johnny and Joanne had us over for dinner again. They also invited another couple they’d been friends with for many years. Joanne made a great dinner and we had a lovely evening with them.

Today, it was rainy. After morning chores and school, we went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center, which we were told was a turtle sanctuary. We took the road that ran along Singer Island north. While there were plenty of houses and small condo complexes, one hallmark of the island was what felt like a never-ending line of high-rise towers.

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The Manatee Discovery Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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On Wednesday, May 21, it was a hazy morning, obscuring the colors of dawn.

In preparation for the haul out, Eric spent the morning stowing away gear that normally lives on the deck. Moving it all was quite a project. 

Once school and morning chores were done, we drove over to the Manatee Discovery Center. While the center itself looked like it was relatively new, it was located next to an electricity plant in an older, lower socioeconomic area.

We were pleased to find out that there was no admission fee, though donations were accepted. The upstairs was closed today for a private event, but the upstairs had traveling art exhibits and beautiful views, so we didn’t miss any important information about manatees.

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