4/21/03:

Last night I watched a huge cruise ship leave the Charlotte Amalie harbor, followed by Sea Cloud, the five masted schooner that we also saw in Man of War Bay, Tobago. This morning, before sun-up, I watched two more huge cruise ships enter the harbor as I showered at the stern of Cosmos. It was quite a contrast to be showering in the middle of the crowded harbor, in the dark, as if I owned the place, only to be dwarfed by these two pelagic behemoths as they ghosted in. I bet that the business that these cruise ships bring in is the only thing that has kept St. Thomas alive; and these ships appear to be far less than full themselves.

Captain Grandpa Joe and I went into town this morning to look around, and pick up a few items. After lunch, Joe went to the airport and met Bob Olsen, our new crew. Bob will stay with Cosmos all the way to the Chesapeake Bay.

I installed a paper towel dispenser in the galley and Super Seals on each engine seawater pump. Joe inventoried the food stores in preparation for grocery shopping tomorrow morning.

4/22/03:

Laying in my bunk, this morning, just before dawn, I heard another cruise ship enter the harbor. Yesterday's two ships left just at dinner time. As I got up to make the coffee, I heard a second cruise ship come in. And now, as I sit in the cockpit, welcoming the new day and taking in the view, here comes a third cruise ship. Each of these things look about a quarter of a mile long. So, today we have Century, of Celebrity Cruises; Norwegian Dawn, of NCL; and Carnival Pride, of Carnival Cruise Lines. We have been here two days and have seen seven of these monsters. The people on these ships come ashore to tour the island in the back of pick-up trucks, eat, drink, buy souvenirs, and get back on their ship to leave. Maybe a couple of these ships arriving every day could support a small city.

4/23/03:

Sure enough; those three cruise ships left the harbor right at the stroke of Happy Hour, yesterday evening. We had just finished our major grocery shopping expedition in provisioning for the passage to Bermuda. You would have died laughing at seeing us racing through Charllotte Amalie, during rush hour, in the middle of a torrential downpour, pushing an overloaded grocery store shopping cart, dodging and/or holding up traffic as we made our way back to the marina dinghy dock.

Captain Grandpa Joe said that he wanted to leave for Bermuda at first light this morning. As we awoke at about 0530, we saw that a cruise ship had just docked, another was entering the harbor, and a third was waiting outside the harbor for his turn to come in. This means that ten cruise ships have visited this St. Thomas harbor in four days. That represents a lot of island tours, souvenirs, hamburgers, beer, and "duty free" shopping.

We weighed anchor and motored Cosmos out of the harbor at about 0600 hrs; dodging the cruise ships, and picked up a mooring at a nearby dive site for a last session of Caribbean snorkeling. We also scrubbed down, dismantled, deflated, and tied down the dinghy. While Captain Joe sealed the engine room deck hatches, I rigged the wind generator to operate as a water generator and mounted it on the stern rail. We took on fuel and water yesterday afternoon, so, we were ready to go. We left St. Thomas at 1000 hrs; this morning. With no wind, Cosmos begins her passage to Bermuda, under diesel power.

4/25/03:

1900hrs; I just came off watch. We had a fine day's sailing under mainsail and genoa, with the wind and waves on the starboard quarter. The first two days of this passage were practically windless and we had several heavy showers. Today was nice, and we're 318 miles North of St. Thomas.

We didn't cover much ground the first two days due to having to motor. This has jeopardized our spending any time in Bermuda, and getting home in time. Captain Grandpa Joe has to be home by the 7th of May, so, we have changed course and are heading straight for the Chesapeake Bay.

4/27/03:

There is a predicted wind change expected tomorrow, so we have altered course to the North in order to be in a position to take advantage of it. We have 698 miles to go to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Our speed picked up last night due to higher windspeed and larger rollers that Cosmos surfed down. During my 2200-0100 watch, I had a momentary peak boat speed of 11.4 knots. That is not a Cosmos speed record, but it is pretty exhilarating. Today is cloudy and drizzly and we are still wing-and-winging it with main and genoa sails at 6-7 knots. We had to pay for this good sailing by having to endure a sudden, nasty, squall, with winds of 30-50 knots and a few gusts of 60-80 knots, according to the anemometer. The squall was also accompanied by confused seas that kept Cosmos' speed down and made for a rough ride. We kept the winds behind us and Cosmos got through it unscathed.

4/28/03:

We didn't get that forecasted wind change that we were expecting today. Instead, we lost our wind altogether. Cosmos is hundreds of miles from anywhere and has no wind to speak of. The part of the Atlantic Ocean, that we are in, is glassy smooth. We have been motoring all day; a sunny day, and when we motor, we run the watermaker, and have nice hot showers.

4/30/03:

1100 hrs; I just came off the 0700-1100 watch. Today is calm, 5-8 knot of wind, nearly flat seas. It is cooler, now at 73.5 degrees F, and the water temperature is 71, sunny and clear. Last night it got down to a damp 71 degrees F outside. I wore long pants and a sweatshirt, during my midnight watch, for the first time since South Africa. It is really good sleeping weather, though. Cosmos is 386 miles SSE of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

We are seeing a lot of trash in the water; plastic bottles, plastic milk crates, metal barrels, rope, lumber. In that we are not sailing, we have often taken the time to check out items floating in the distance, thinking that perhaps we will discover a great treasure. Cosmos' galley already has an abundant assortment of plastic containers. A treated 2" x 10" x 16' plank that we saw was in excellent condition and the scrapings from it would have probably made a wonderful seafood chowder. The clump of yellow polypropylene line that we encountered was the current residence of several fish that got there ahead of us. The second clump of line that we came across was a length of braided ships hawser (large dock line) that I found particularly attractive, and had difficulty resisting bringing aboard. I have had some success in using these for creating a nautical atmosphere, or decor.

We are still motoring and have been for a couple of days, now. Yesterday, we had to switch to the starboard engine for an hour while Captain Grandpa Joe and I cleared a fuel line blockage. The blockage occurred in the fuel line upstream of the primary fuel filter, and stopped the port engine abruptly. I found the filter, and it's glass bowl, to be clean and under vacuum. I was able to manually blow out the crud from the section of line preceding the filter. Then Captain Joe pressurized the port fuel tank by using the dinghy foot pump, to push fuel through the line, until the fuel ran clear. We then reconnected the fuel lines, bled the air from the system, and put the engine back on line. This was the first episode of any fuel problems that we have encountered during the entire circumnavigation. I have to attribute this fact to our religious use of the "Baha Filter" that we use to filter all fuel coming aboard Cosmos. This filter catches debris, and water, and I w!ouldn't want to be without it. This morning, we decanted diesel fuel from some of the 5 gallon jerry cans into both fuel tanks and, again, we used 'the filter'.

We are seeing other ship traffic, now, and we should see more and more as we get closer to the coast. We, actually, do have the sails up and are motorsailing. We raised the sails yesterday afternoon in order to take advantage of any wind gusts and to help our speed and fuel economy. If the wind ever decides to pipe up, we will be ready for it. While motoring, I ran the watermaker for what we think is the last time, to top off both water tanks. Then I flushed an pickled the system. What a wonderful advantage it has been to have had this watermaker during the circumnavigation.

The current arrival of Cosmos, in Annapolis harbor, is scheduled for the 10th of May, about 1630 hrs. We are now looking forward to entering and sailing up the Chesapeake Bay.

1800 hrs; the water has been glassy all day. This has made floating trash easier to see. It also made the viewing of the 25-30 porpoises very clear, and much more spectacular than normal, as they frolicked about at the bow of Cosmos during the last half hour. This calm condition of the Atlantic, along our route, makes me feel that the ocean has put all normal activities on hold until we have passed. This would be great if Cosmos was a power boat; but as a sailboat, she needs wind, and maybe some following seas to help nudge her along.

5/2/03:

Having altered our course in order to avoid some bad weather, we headed straight for the Chesapeake. We tried to get across the Gulf Stream before the bad weather got to us, but, you can't fool Mother Nature. She ambushed us, and kept us struggling all day to make any headway. We finally exited the Gulf Stream just South of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. We haven't been able to make any significant progress to the North all afternoon. Just before evening, we had a lull in the wind, and we are now making a mad dash for the Chesapeake Bay using both engines, before the wind picks up again.

5/3/03:

Whew; well; here we are, in Willoughby Harbor Marina, in Willoughby Bay, Norfolk, Virginia. We are all showered, fed, and warming up, after a long wet night of driving Cosmos up here from down around Albemarle Sound. I assumed my 0700-1100 watch this morning just in time to, actually, sail Cosmos over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We tied Cosmos up at the marina at 0930. It is cold, low 60's, wet and windy here, and forecasted to stay this way through the next couple of days. 'Cold, wet and windy' is something that I haven't experienced much of during the last two years. Tomorrow , or the next day, Cosmos will begin her last passage of the circumnavigation, up the Chesapeake Bay to her home port of Annapolis, Maryland.

George