The Cosmos Adventure - News

George Hotz Report Received November 24, 2002

Cosmos

11/7/02:

Well, here I am, back in the airport. It is 5:44 in the morning; I am early. My plane doesn’t leave until 7:10. I like being early; it makes me feel ahead of everyone else; like maybe I’m winning. Of course, there’s some things I don’t want to be early for: funeral, red lights, wine, etc. Captain Grandpa Joe will be here soon; gate B44, Dulles Airport. I left my wife at home, all warm and snuggled under the covers. I think she had a smile on her face as I left her in the dark. After all, I had completed all of the items on her “honey-do” lists during this break in Cosmos’ circumnavigation. I think I took care of my daughters’ “daddy-do” lists too. Now, back to my list.

My duffle bag weighted in at 62 lbs. This morning. I hope I didn’t forget anything because there’s no more room in it. I really don’t want to carry it, as well as my laptop and carry-on bag. But I know I will have to carry it from the marina gate to Cosmos; about a quarter mile. Maybe I can throw it all in the water and float it to the boat.

Being home these two months has been like a vacation from a vacation. I had a great time with my Grandkids and the rest of our growing family. Now I return to Durban, South Africa, to wake up Cosmos, Captain Grandpa Joe’s 45 ft. Prout catamaran, so we can sail her home via the South Atlantic, Caribbean, Bahamas, and Bermuda. Home is Round Bay, of the Severn River, near Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A; where Captain Joe grew up.

It is 11:19 a.m; we just took off from Atlanta, Georgia, enroute to Capetown, South Africa; 14 ½ hours and 8421 miles away. Our flight to Atlanta was quick and uneventful. This flight is the one I like. We eat well, snack often, and get more video and audio entertainment than we have time to take advantage of. The back of the seat in front of me contains a video screen for me, only, and I have a varied selection of movies to watch. Or I can just listen to any kind of music that I want to. Excuse me, I have to stop writing, now, so I can have my snack.

I’m back. You know, I hear a lot of people whining about the airlines, but, let me tell you something. I worked on jet engines when I was in the Navy, and I also worked in the jet engine test lab at Pratt&Whitney Aircraft Co. after that. I also spent two years on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier while I was in the Navy (almost forgot about that). Since then I worked as a machinist, and then, as a maintenance supervisor at an aluminum plant. So, I can’t help but know a little about jet engines, theory of flight, strength of materials, scheduling, teamwork, manufacturing and fabrication, and a few other things that I can’t recall right now. After all, I am retired. All I am saying is, that to provide all of this entertainment with some measure of comfort and a large measure of speed and safety, to feed you, haul your luggage, and be polite to you, while trying to make a profit in spite of heavy competition, is quite a feat. At this moment, they’re doing it with me at 37,000 ft. of  altitude, minus 65 degrees F, at 551 MPH, for over 14 hours, nonstop.  The part I like best is how these little bitty engines have the power and efficiency to push this massive hulk of a 747 with all of its burden, at this speed, for this long, and this reliably. This is fine engineering.

Well, we made it to Capetown. Here, we join up with Mario Viljoen, our new crewman, and fly together to Durban. In Durban we have to start dealing with all of our luggage. Renting a car made it easier getting it to the marina. In that Customs didn’t confiscate my monster duffel, this is when I start carrying it. I must have looked pretty funny, switching shoulders every 20 yards with the duffel bag. Cosmos looked tidy and clean, thanks to the efforts of Hilary, Anders, and Steve, our last crew.

11/10/02:

We’ve been doing chores since we got here and Cosmos will be ready to go soon. I got the engines on line, yesterday, after installing new water pump impellers, retightening the v belts, and checking the vital fluids, pulse rate, blood pressure, cholesterol count, etc.... I put new filter elements in the watermaker so it will be ready when we need it. It rained all day, yesterday, so we didn’t get the sails on.

11/12/02:

We got the sails put on the evening of the 10th. Now, we’re having trouble with the cooling pump for the refrigeration, again. We had the pump motor rebuilt, but now there is a problem with the complete assembly running as a unit. We also installed a new circuit board in this system. We may buy a complete new pump. We have become very distressed over this lack of refrigeration because we bought some beer yesterday. The boat preparation continues with the installation of the bow nets, mounting the dinghy davits.

11/13/02:

Today I rigged the tackle for the davits, rigged and readied the stern anchor, and tied down the dinghy on the cabin top. We don’t carry the dinghy with the davits at sea. The davits are used in harbor, and in other calm conditions, to secure the dinghy. I also spent some time, today, taking care of any items that we might have missed while bending on the sails. These included safety wiring two shackles, reattaching the mainsail outhaul, and cleaning and lubricating the main halyard shackle. The small refrigerator in the galley has been pressed into service to relieve our concern over having to consume warm beer. Normally, this refer is used as a bread box. The large refrigerator, in the nav station, is used for keeping food cool, and it holds more beer. The large refer is the one that is currently down; new pump on order. It seems that we may have to wait till next week for a favorable weather window.

11/17/02:

I did some Christmas shopping today. It didn’t start out that way, but I heard Christmas music in several shops; this early. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet which we will probably celebrate at sea. We took Cosmos out into the harbor this afternoon to check out the running rigging and get Mario familiar with the handling of the boat.

11/20/02:

It looks like we may get a favorable weather window sometime this weekend. It seems luxurious to have so much room on the boat with only the three of us. On the last leg of the circumnavigation there were five of us. Mario is using the master cabin, forward, with the king size bunk. He is quite happy with this arrangement in spite of the fact that if he wants to stretch out, he has to position himself diagonally on the bunk. Mario is 6’6”. You ought to see him crank a winch.

11/22/02:

The QE II came into port last night. This afternoon we took Cosmos out for a sail-by and photo-op. We stationed Mario on another boat while Captain Joe and I sailed Cosmos to and fro passed the Queen; a real Kodak moment. There is a big high system coming through that should clean up the weather for a Sunday, or Monday, departure. We’re really looking forward to Capetown and the stops along the way. We picked up our laundry this morning and have been provisioning a little at a time. Hilary’s efforts in organizing the food lockers and revising the provisions list really paid off; finding things and reprovisioning has been a breeze.

 George