These islands are located just off the coast of the north-western portion of the African continent/mainland, nearest the political divide of Morocco and Western Sahara. The archipelago consists of seven major islands, one minor island, and several small islets. They are of volcanic origin. 2 million people live there now. There are many theories about Continue reading
Day 3
It was another relatively warm, sunny and beautiful day. At 1000, all was still status quo. The only change was that sometimes the wind would move to starboard aft corner for a while, but it usually stayed on the port aft corner. The wind speeds are consistently between 7 29 knots apparent, though they sometimes sit for a while at the higher end of the spectrum, and sometimes stay at lower end of spectrum for a while.
The waves were still big and lumbering, coming at us in long intervals, hitting primarily from the port aft quarter, which makes that terrible corkscrew motion. The waves definitely feel worse when the wind kicks around to the starboard, and the seas become mildly confused. It is still hard to Continue reading
Yesterday we wanted to get up early so we could leave ASAP. Mind you, early for us these days is before 0800, when the sun rises. It was cold and dark, making getting out of bed painful, but we had to do it. We had no time to dilly dally. Fortunately, it wasn’t as cold as it had been all week, so getting up before turning the heater on was a little more bearable. The wind was calm when we awoke. We knew it would change soon.
Eric gave Kosmos a quick wash down. There was jet fuel residue all over the boat, and we are afraid if we go out to sea that it will turn to cement and be difficult to remove down the road. Christi ran to Continue reading
Happy New Year! Wishing all of you and happy, healthy, safe and prosperous 2009.
It is time for a quick break from the usual travel log stories and do a summary of 2008. You can always check the Travel Summary to see the details of where we have been. Here is our map from the Travel Summary page showing our progress since April 2007:
Last year, we did our year end summary list based on blog-time, meaning we didn’t talk about anything that hadn’t posted yet. This year we are doing the highlights in real-time, so some of these highlights are previews of blog stories yet to come. This is mostly due to the blog stories being several weeks behind real-time.
Since the 2007 highlights posting, Kosmos has made 33 stops in 18 countries. We have crossed two oceans the Indian and the Atlantic. We crossed the dreaded Gulf of Aden just after the pirate attacks had started up again after a 2 year lull. We crossed the Red Sea and went through the Suez Canal and then the Mediterranean Sea. We have done a lot of miles that is for sure!
Last year we were mostly in rural places experiencing nature, this year we spent most of our time in urban areas experiencing cultures and histories. We have been to some of the poorest and richest places in the world. We have been to Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian areas, and gotten a taste of Asian, Indian, Arab, Turkish, and European cultures. We have been consistently impressed with how kind and generous people are the world over. Even people who have almost nothing are willing to share the little they have. It is touching. We have had quite a few complete strangers invite us to their houses for home cooked meals, all of which are special highlights for us for the overall trip. We have had many other locals take us sightseeing and/or to experience the local culture first hand. We didn’t have many difficult times this year, but each time we did, we always had at least one, and usually more, locals willing to help us out, sometimes at a sacrifice to themselves. This year has opened our eyes to how wonderful human nature really can be and to how much fun it is to partake in other cultures.
Here are some of the more memorable things that stand out, as well as the statistics, from this year:
We are looking forward to 2009. We hope you follow along on the Kosmos Travel Log. 🙂
July 2008 to December 2008 — Egypt to Monaco