The Cosmos Adventure - News

George Hotz Report 1/6/03 to 1/18/03

Cosmos

1/6/03:

 Cape Town harbor; if your a serious sailor, this is the place to be. I look forward to waking up early in the morning, making coffee, and taking my cup topside into the cockpit to look around at all of the boats, ships, oil drilling platforms, etc. This is our second full day here and we have been doing, mostly, boat chores. We did stop long enough yesterday to visit the V&A Waterfront. Today, Mario picked us all up at about 1400. He took us to a sail loft where we left the sail cover to be repaired. Then, he drove us all around the Cape Town area to see all of the sights and Kodak moments. Mario left Cosmos yesterday to tune back in to his life in Cape Town; it was very generous of him to take the time to give us the guided tour.

The chores done so far consist of cleaning Cosmos inside and out, polishing all the exterior stainless steel, after a fresh water rinse, remove mainsail cover for repair. This requires the sail to be removed also because the cover stays on the boom and the sail drops into it. Captain Grandpa Joe is installing bilge pumps in each engine room. A lot of time has been spent getting Cosmos tied up sufficiently in order to survive the daily, and nightly, winds that pipe up with their mighty gusts.

1/11/03:

This is the Saturday that the rest of the Cape to Rio race boats leave. They partied all last evening and this morning they are doing of the last minute preparations. Of coarse, they will never finish all of these chores because, as all boaters know, boats are never finished. Cosmos is tied up at the dock, right in the middle of all this pandemonium. There are race crews, tourists, vendors, and news media people all over the docks; walking and gawking. The start of the race is at 1500. this will be fun to watch.

We rented another car and took a ride to Cape Point, Cape of Good Hope, up to Table Mountain, to some wineries, and to a lot of other local interest locations. We did a lot of climbing, hiking, picture taking, and wine tasting.  At Cape point, after we parked the car, we walked up for about half a mile to the lighthouse. This was the Southernmost point on the Western coast, and, the dividing point between the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.. At Table Mountain, after we parked the car, we rode a rotating cable car up into the clouds and hiked around on the tabletop of Table Mountain. We saw many wonderful sights on the way to and from these locations. This morning I took an early dinghy ride throughout the harbor with my camera. I had the whole harbor to myself and have many Kodak moments to sort through and hope to share some with the Cosmos Website.

At about 1400 we took Cosmos out to the starting line to watch the start of the Cape to Rio race. It seemed that every boat in the world was there. What a wild scene; everyone was jockeying for a good position, wind screaming out across Table Bay at about 25-30 knots. Captain Grandpa Joe took the risk of leaving me at the helm while he shot video coverage of the whole start. You could nearly walk across the bay with all  the boats  gunnel to gunnel (exaggeration).  I am sure glad that Cosmos has two engines, it made it easier to maneuver in the crowd of vessels. It reminded me of 4th of July, after the fireworks, in Annapolis harbor, only worse. I loved it.

1/12/03:

I have Cosmos to myself, today. Everyone else has gone to the V&A Waterfront to shop, go on a tour, check their Email, etc. I have only a few small chores to do and then I will goof off for a while. We may leave Cape Town tomorrow and head for Luderitz, Namibia.

Captain Joe had a new awning made for the cockpit. It even has shade cloth curtains for the stern and sides. This will really make the boat comfortable in the Caribbean.

1/13/03:

Cosmos has a fuel leak at the port engine. The new o ring did not fix it; there is a crack in the body of the high pressure fuel pump. We had the fuel pump removed and taken to a shop where it is to be repaired with a component that is to be shipped from Johannesburg. We will install the pump tomorrow morning and leave Cape Town, if all is well.

We did some shopping for fresh food, and a few other last minute items, and washed the boat this morning. We deflated and stowed the dinghy, filled the water tanks, climbed the mast to inspect the standing rigging, rigged the water generator, redistributed the 5 gallon jerry cans and water cans to level the boat, taped the engine room access hatches to prevent water leaking in, put new filter elements in the watermaker, and updated the provisions list. So, now, because of the fuel leak, we get one more happy hour in Cape Town, South Africa.

I never get tired of looking at Table Mountain. There is always something new, or different, altering the view of the mountain. Bright sunshine brings out the colors of the rocks and foliage and creates varying shadows. Clouds obscure different areas of the mountain and thus change the shape to what is left to see. Clouds also tend to slide along the surface of the 'table', and then drift down off the edge, and roll down the face, and float away. Whenever one looks at Table Mountain, it will be different, and beautiful. I will miss Table Mountain.

1/14/03:

Cosmos left Cape Town at 1100 this morning. I am not sure we all really wanted to. We had a good time there. We are heading for Luderitz, Namibia. Cosmos has a fresh, rebuilt, high pressure fuel pump on the port engine. It is 1510, now, and the starboard engine has been running since we left the Cape Town harbor; it is about to overheat. The engine's temperature was 198 Degrees at 1500 when I went off watch. My relief, Joost, will switch to the port engine when the starboard engine gets to 200 degrees. Then, I will replace the water  pump impeller; that is most likely the problem. This has happened before.

1/15/03:

It is 1000 on our second day out of Cape Town. The sea water temperature is 57-58 degrees, no wind, smooth seas, and the sun is just burning through the fog. It was cold and wet on my 0100-0400 watch this morning. Wet from dew, not rain. We have switched engines a couple of times and both are running a little hotter than usual. We decide to keep a close eye on their temperature instead of replacing water pump impellers. It would be unusual for both impellers to go bad simultaneously.

It is 1345. I couldn't resist at least taking a look at the starboard engine. My curiosity was rewarded with the sheared off bolt head and accompanying flat washer that were laying in the engine room bilge. I soon discovered that these components had broken off of the alternator lower pivot mount bolt. As a result, the alternator was sliding off of the pivot bolt because there was no head on the bolt to retain it. This condition was creating slack in the v belt that turned the alternator and the water pump.  This same situation occurred on the port engine early on in the circumnavigation. I lucked out and found a bolt in the Cosmos fastener collection but had to shorten it. I remounted the alternator, adjusted the belt tension, and we will test it later today. While I was at it, I checked the waterpump impeller and it had one vane torn, so I put in a new one. Gosh, these Volvo diesels sure like their attention.

It is getting warmer as we move North; more comfortable in the wind in the cockpit this afternoon. We have 328 miles to go to Luderitz. The wind is on our nose, and too light to sail anyway, so, we are motoring on one engine.

It is 1800. We got a 'no charging' alarm and check the starboard engine again. The alternator has sheared the new pivot bolt and is hanging by the top adjustment bolt. This condition caused the v belt to slacken, and slip, and the alternator was not charging adequately. This time I only had the next size larger bolt, so, I drilled out the alternator bottom mount pivot bolt hole and the mating mount bracket hole and used the big bolt. This arrangement looks quite strong; we might consider doing it on the port engine.

It is 2400. The starboard engine is purring smoothly directly under my bunk and I am dozing, smug in that I finally have this engine squared away. Suddenly I hear a thump and a disturbing vibration from below me. Upon opening the engine room, I see the engine rocking violently; to the point that the engine mounts will surely tear out of their base. I run up to Daniel, on watch, and have him switch engines. I felt sure that something had become snagged on the propeller and thrown the entire drive system out of balance. Cosmos' has saildrive units so the engine, transmission, and outdrive are assembled as one integral unit. When the propeller is out of balance it shakes the whole unit.

1/16/03:

It is 0500. I decide to start the starboard engine, during my watch, to see if whatever was fouling the prop has washed off during the night. The vibration has gone and I hear a squealing noise from the lower end of the outdrive. I decide to wait till daylight when we can dive to have a look at the prop and cut away any residual debris.

At 1030, Yost dives under the boat to check the starboard prop. He finds nothing. Then we ran the engine and the squealing has diminished greatly and the engine runs smoothly. The wind has finally picked up so we start sailing.

1/17/03:

 Cosmos has been sailing with the genoa, only, until after lunch today. We then put a spinnaker up and have been playing with that all afternoon. Every 300-400 yards we pass a napping seal. They float on their side with one flipper sticking up in the air as if to say "Hey, I'm napping here, don't run over me". Sometimes they see us and sometimes they don't. When they do, they don't seem very impressed, and resume their nap.

The sailing has been ideal; bright sunshine, 8-18 knots of wind from behind, seas on the port quarter. I deployed the water generator yesterday afternoon and that, along with the solar panels, have been making enough power to sustain the needs of the boat. This morning we made a new water generator propeller retrieval device out of a traffic safety cone that we bought before leaving Cape Town. This device is a split plastic cone that we attach to the 100 ft. x  5/8" line and let it slide along the line to the propeller that we pull behind the boat. When it reaches the propeller, it enshrouds it and stops it from turning. We can then pull the propeller back aboard the boat with out twisting the tow line all up. The faster Cosmos is moving, the harder it is to pull in the line, especially if it is turning. So, this device saves a lot of wear and tear on our hands.

1/18/03:

It was colder last night. We kept the companionway door shut in order to keep some warmth in the cabin. The wind and seas were behind us all night and we had to shorten sail so that we would not get to Luderitz before daylight. This slowed Cosmos down to 5-6 knots. The land breeze warmed us as we came down into the harbor at the base of Robert Bay. This is a busy fishing harbor with boat engines, or generator engines, running all the time.

We tied Cosmos up to a pier and strolled into town at about 0730. The ATM's were working so we got a little local currency and found a restaurant just opening up for breakfast. Captain Grandpa Joe hopes to find a better place to keep Cosmos; this pier is pretty rough.

George