Saturday, December 20, 2008

Home for the Holidays... kinda

Well... we haven't made a post for a few days because we have left Istaboa in Panama City and flown back to Memphis for some quick family holiday stuff. We are planning to be back aboard by Christmas Eve as our family plans end early.
Our good friends aboard RoyEl are keeping a close eye on Istaboa as are the staff of BayPoint and Mark the teak guy from Mattke Bros.





Kosmos


The above pic is a 43 Nordhavn owned by Eric and Christi. This adventurous couple is not fooling around with coastal cruising. They even passed by the Gulf of Aden which of course is a very dangerous pirating area. They seem to not worry about pirates saying technology will make them safer. Hmmm. I admire their audacity.
The last email I received was a trip summary... I will let you read it.
Amazing!


From Kosmos, a Nordhavn 43, that has just crossed the Atlantic in 20
days--at 1.97 gph:

We made it!!! :-)

Kosmos Atlantic Passage Summary

Vessel: motor yacht Kosmos (Nordhavn 43, 43 feet)
Aboard: Eric and Christi Grab, and Colin Rae
Departed: Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain on November 30, 2008
Arrived: Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe on December 20, 2008
Route: 2768 nautical miles, SW then W
Hours: 480 (20 days)
Fuel burned: ~950 US gallons (3590 liters) (76% of total fuel aboard)
Fuel left: ~290 gallons
Averages: 2.91 nm/gal, 1.97 gal/hour, 5.76 nm/hour
Generator hours: 15 (= air conditioning and laundry hours)
Water used/ made: 550/400 gallons
Active fins on time: 99%
Paravanes deployed time: 60%
Highest seas: ~10 feet.
Average seas: ~6 feet
Highest wind: 42 knots
Average wind: ~15 knots
Failures: Starboard navigation light bulb (replaced with spare)
Kosmos totals: 26091 nm, 4424 hours on main engine, 1712 hours on generator

Comments:

Having the paravanes deployed the majority of the time cost us some
speed (~0.5 knots), but the extra comfort was worth it. We had mostly
following wind and sea, but there was a mix of no wind and even a
couple gale force winds from squalls. At the end we had beam seas and
wind. Nine flying fish grounded themselves aboard. We saw 4
sailboats, and 6 ships. Colin is a future Nordhavn 40 owner (hull
65). The passage was a wonderful learning experience for him and he
was great crew. Overall it was very successful passage. We will write
more details and have pictures on our travel log
(http://kosmos.liveflux.net) in a few weeks.

We are 4/5 the way around the world. Now it is time to enjoy the
Caribbean and then through the Panama canal to explore Central
America
and Mexico. We plan to return to San Diego in May 2009.

Eric & Christi

Adios and Merry Christmas if we don't post again till after,

Istaboa