The Cosmos Adventure - News
George Hotz Report from Durban to Knysna
Cosmos
11/24/02:
It’s Sunday morning. We just clocked the wind in the harbor, here in Durban, at
42 knots. We have a high front blowing through and we hope to leave tomorrow and
sail to Cape Town. We have several places along the way where we can stop if the
weather deteriorates. There are nine boats planning to leave tomorrow. It will
be interesting to see just how many actually do. Every boat, skipper, and crew
has a different level of tolerance regarding weather conditions.
11/25/02:
Well, it’s Monday. We think we’re leaving today; the wind is still blowing like
mad from the wrong direction. We look around the boat for any last minute items
to tend to; anything that we have forgotten to take care of; anything that will
make Cosmos all that she should be. This may be the most hazardous, or rigorous,
passage Cosmos will make. We ate a big lunch and waited around for the wind to
change direction as predicted by the weatherman.
At 1430, we took in the lines and motored Cosmos out into the harbor, in
expectation of the wind changing, favorably, any minute. Rrrrriiiight, sure, you
bet. We were just too ready, had had enough of Durban, so we procured consent
from Durban Harbor Control by V.H.F. Radio, and blasted off into the entrance
channel with both diesels snorting into the face off the largest ocean rollers
and stiffest breeze that I have ever had the displeasure of sailing in. These
conditions lasted for the rest of the afternoon, all night, and well into the
next day. The rest of the trip was a downhill sleigh ride. Having the 1st watch
on leaving Durban, I felt it necessary to run the engines at an RPM higher than
normal in order to make significant headway against the wind and waves. This
higher RPM took its toll on the starboard engine, in the form of water hose
leaks, after several hours. This resulted in my spending many hours in the
starboard engine room chasing, and repairing, numerous coolant leaks in the old
and brittle hoses. I was, finally, able to reroute the hoses in order to
minimize the stress on them and this gave us the reliability we needed to enter
port. We usually need both engines for entering port, and we did, as we entered
East London on the Buffalo River.
Speaking of reliability, we discovered that every component in the large
refrigeration system was working properly, except the thermostat switch. We
confirmed this by isolating it from the system and wiring in a manual switch to
operate the unit. The thermostat switch is one of those components that is
manufactured in a manner that renders it cheaper to replace than to repair. That
is fine, as long as a replacement is available. So, with an awful lot of beer to
cool down, we decided to take a shot at repairing it. I set up a “sterile field”
(surgical term) on the saloon table and managed to disassemble this devil,
figured out how and why it worked, tested each component of it mechanically
and/or with a multi-meter, and consulted with Captain Grandpa Joe. We decided
that there was nothing wrong with it, contrary to its past performance, and I
reassembled it, installed it back into the system, and it has functioned
flawlessly ever since.
11/27/02:
Here in East London there is nothing of particular interest other than one of
the best shower facilities that I have ever encountered and the only decent
restaurant is about twenty yards from the boat. We have decided to replace the
hot water/coolant hoses on both engines. We have a guy delivering thirty feet of
hose tomorrow morning. I guess I know what I'll be doing the next couple of
days. This is a “blue collar” town; industrial. They make auto parts and ship
them to assembly plants, elsewhere.
11/28/02:
Happy Thanksgiving. I spent the morning installing an access port in each engine
room work platform to facilitate cleaning out the sumps. There is a large shelf,
or platform, in each engine room, directly over the low point of the bilge. The
presence of this shelf has made it impossible to thoroughly clean out the bilge
of each engine room. These shelves are used as work platforms for servicing the
engines, and the hot water tanks and storage tubs are kept on them. These
installations made Captain Grandpa Joe very happy and he rewarded me with enough
new hot water hose to rehose the coolant systems of each engine. I’ll do that
chore tomorrow morning. The Crew bought me dinner this evening and surprised me
a with a grand birthday cake. We stayed at the Bistro after dinner and competed
in the Musical Trivia Contest. We were overwhelmed by other teams from all over
town as well as from other boats. This contest is a weekly attraction for the
local young adult crowd and they were fantastic. I think that we have discovered
what folks do around here for entertainment. They just sit around and listen to
music. In almost every category of the contest, two, three, or more teams would
end up in a dead heat and have to have a “sudden death” run-off to establish a
winner. The sound system was great and all these folks had a screaming blast.
The Cosmos team performed miserably but we competed with enthusiasm, screamed
and hollered, and had just as much fun as everyone else.
11/29/02:
Today I replaced all the coolant hose for each engine and Captain Grandpa Joe
got to play with his new access ports to clean out the engine room bilges. We
plan to leave at sunup tomorrow morning to sail to Port Elizabeth, our next stop
on the way to Cape Town.
11/30/02:
We did not leave this morning. We left last evening at sunset.
There was practically no wind, and we only had the ocean rollers to contend
with, so we motored all night and today. We used the Genoa all afternoon and
evening as the wind rose behind us. We had hoped to make it as far as Knysna,
but the weather window wasn’t expected to last that long and we turned in at
Port Elizabeth. Cosmos tied up at a concrete quay at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club
just in time for a drink and a very late dinner. We’ll take the first weather
window for the short overnight sail to Knysna where we hope to haul Cosmos out
of the water to do some maintenance on the bottom of the hulls.
12/04/02:
Wow, it’s the fourth, already; Santa Claus will be here in no time. I wonder if
he’ll be able to find Cosmos. I’ll have to leave a hatch open so he can get all
of my presents down into the boat; Cosmos doesn’t have a chimney. Hey, Santa
Claus, we will be in Cape Town. We plan to leave Port Elizabeth sometime
tomorrow, and head for Knysna.
Port Elizabeth has been rather pleasant. There is always some activity in the
harbor: big ships entering or leaving port, fishing boats coming in or going out
or unloading, tug boats running to and fro, boats being hauled out for
maintenance, trucks skirting the harbor carrying freight or shipping containers
or seafood. The shopping is good and just about anything is available. The main
part of town is only a little nicer than Durban and smaller. We have a half mile
hike to a decent restaurant if we want to eat out and the food is good. The only
thing open at the yacht club is the bar. We’ve met another batch of cruisers
here; folks from all over the world. This is typical of every port we enter.
There is a German single hander here on his way back to Germany. He has been
cruising for 13 years. During this time he has lost his boat’s mast three times.
The most recent dismasting was just a few weeks ago. He apparently was
continuing on around the Capes of South Africa, here, and was suddenly rolled by
a large breaking wave. He suffered some severe injuries, himself, and is now
fixing up his 40 foot steel sloop and will eventually resume his travels,
hopefully, more safely.
12/6/02:
We left Port Elizabeth the afternoon of the 5th and had to motor all the way to
Knysna. We got a little wind after midnight and raised sail to take advantage of
it, but we still had to use an engine to keep our speed up. It was important to
get to the entrance to Knysna at 1430 in order to go in just prior to high tide.
By hooking up the GPS to the Autopilot and the computer, we can time Cosmos’
arrival, at any destination, to the minute. This is a great benefit when we need
to take advantage of a flooding or ebbing tide, to avoid certain weather fronts,
to coincide with a bridge opening, social event, or happy hour, of course.
All of the ports that we have visited since Cocos-Keeling have been working
ports with lots of ship traffic, cargo handling facilities, industry, and dirt.
Knysna is like a breath of fresh air, beautiful, clean. Cosmos entered the
Knysna Lagoon by passing through the Heads with a boost from ocean rollers and
the rush of the tidal current. The Heads are the great stone cliffs on each side
of the entrance. It is more like a big resort. Cosmos is in a marina slip with
water and electricity. The waterfront is like a big mall with shops, restaurants
and bars. Everyone is happy and having a good time. Tomorrow we plan to go into
town.
12/7/02:
We went into town, this morning. It is Saturday morning, so everyone else is
here also. There are hundreds of shops selling crafts, souvenirs, food, and
clothes. This is a very popular tourist, vacation, and resort town. If the
lagoon was deeper, and it’s entrance wasn’t so treacherous, I am sure that
cruise ships would come here. After lunch, we took Cosmos out into the lagoon,
and anchored, for what turned out to be, an abbreviated snorkeling session. The
water temperature was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit; it is hard to appreciate just
how uncomfortably cold this is until one is totally immersed in it.
Making these one, two, and three day passages along this South African coast has
enabled us to fill Cosmos’ water tanks at each port. We can go for a week
without having to take on water, so, I flushed and pickled the watermaker. We
probably won’t use it again until after we leave Cape Town; we’ll save filter
elements.
Another thing about all of these working ports that we have visited is that the
stack emissions of the ships have deposited a layer of soot everywhere. The soot
accumulates all over the outside of the boat, in nooks and crannies, in the
yarns of the lines, in the crevices of the hatches and trim. Captain Grandpa Joe
has launched a campaign of fastidious gel coat hygiene and has been scrubbing
Cosmos with every cleaner, detergent, and mild acid in his arsenal of cleaning
supplies. Cosmos looked better than any other boat in the harbor when we got
here. Now she’s glowing.
12/12/02:
We hauled Cosmos out the day before yesterday. The concrete quay here is a
semicircular array of hotels, restaurants, and shops; including the marina
haul-out facility. Cosmos is now another tourist attraction for the vacationers
to gawk at here on the quay. Everyone in the second story restaurants can look
out at her and daydream as they munch on their seafood platter. She’s really
looking spiffy, now, with her acid washed and waxed topsides, repaired gel coat
blemishes, fresh anti-fouling paint on the bottom. Some of my chores during the
haul-out were: replace lube oil in both saildrive units and transmissions,
replace rotting bolts in both rudder gudgeon and pintle mounts, replace both
engine cooling water seacocks. We also had our laundry done while hauled out and
the shower facility is one of the best we’ve ever encountered. The crew will
leave Knysna almost as clean as Cosmos. The marina crew has been very helpful;
even to the point of driving us around town to shop for nuts, bolts, fittings,
and valves. Cosmos goes back in the water tomorrow, and if we’re lucky, we will
leave for Cape Town on Sunday.
George
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