George Hotz has been keeping a log too. Following is his log which is almost totally different from my reports. You can use it how you think best. He will continue to write a log and we will send it periodically. I am certain

Captain Joe

Cosmos

Start George's Log

05/15/01: Can you imagine preparing for the simultaneous retirement and sailing trip around the world? Well, that is what I have been trying to do for the last several weeks. I've barely been able to contain myself as I trip over the stumbling blocks of each task. I will retire and leave home within the same week and that is less than three weeks away. I get mixed responses from people regarding the sailing trip. To some, it's just ho hum, indifference, or jealousy. To others, it can attain a level of intrigue, inquiry, excitement or alarm, and Johnny Potts rewarded me with a big hug in thinking that it was the last time he would see me alive.

05/21/01: Yesterday evening we had a Bon Voyage Party. I guess we really are going to make this trip. Our third crew member, John Daiger, didn't show up. I heard he was still trying to finish a painting job he had committed to before we leave. Too bad. He missed some good camaraderie, good chow, good booze, pretty girls, cake, and Captain Joe and I modeled tee shirts that he printed the boat's logo and the trip's route on; too cool. There isn't much time left for events like that; we gotta get outta the Gulf of Mexico by the end of June; (that's the beginning of hurricane season). Joe has changed the name of his boat from Scorpio to Cosmos.

5/31/01: Retired today, Thursday, checked out, signed out, turned in my uniforms, said goodbye to everyone that was available, and left the plant, Eastalco, by 11 a.m. Spent the next week finishing up the retirement process through the Alcoa Retirement Center. Their procedure didn't work for us Alumax folks. I'm glad I had the time to check-up behind them and bug them over the phone almost every step of the way.

6/8/01: Kathy took off from work today and we visited John and Taryn Potts to see their newborn son, Griffith. Johnny and Patsy were there also and they asked me a lot more questions about the boat, Cosmos. I guess I satisfied their major concerns because when we left, they didn't say anything about never seeing me again.

6/9/01: Joe and I did a masterful job of loading the BMW with all of our stuff that we were taking to the boat in Ft. Lauderdale. Our audience didn't think that the car would hold everything; neither did we. The best item of cargo was Joanie's chocolate chip cookies. We left Joe's house at about 1115 Saturday the 9th, and were aboard Cosmos in FT. Lauderdale Sunday morning at about 0500.

6/10/01: There is stuff spread out all over the boat. Things that Joe bought are covering the salon table and settees. The contractors have stuff everywhere else. Things like: Davit frames and tackle, water maker parts and spares, wind/water generator components, line, hose, tools, sails, fasteners, you know; stuff. Joe had to make a list to keep track of the lists of more stuff to get, and stuff to do. My 1st big job was to install the davits on the stern and rig them for use. Then I installed a through hull electrical plug in the transom for the wind/water generator power cord, assembled the generator and propeller, assisted various contractors and worked around a lot of them while they were aboard. These people do for a living what I do for fun. Unfortunately, they are incredibly inept, unreliable and unprofessional for the most part. Too many of them only soil the reputation of the better contractors.

Joe is a ball of fire with his cell phone in one hand and an electric drill and screwdriver in the other. If he's not drilling a hole and screwing in an eyebolt to secure some item in stowage, he's chewing out some contractor on his cell phone. I'm scared to death that he'll hear the cell phone ring, forget what hand it's in, and drill a hole in the side of his head.

It is hot here and I relish the relative coolness of the evenings; I'm just too tired to really enjoy them as much as I'd like.

6/11/01: Joe did a great job of "Scotchgarding" all the salon settee cushions. He did it out on the lawn and left them to dry and air out. With all of the pedestrian traffic on and in the boat, we are looking forward to cleaning it up when everyone is finished. The evening thunderstorms don't do a good job of rinsing off the deck as we had hoped; but, two storms sure soaked the cushions that were left out that evening. Oops.

6/12/01: John Daiger arrived last night. Good natured, hard worker, willing to learn, should make a good Crew. We can't use the Galley yet because of all the 'stuff', so, we go out to breakfast at 0630, get back as soon as we can, and start working. We might get a chance to eat lunch by 1330 or 1430, then work only a little while longer and go out to get more 'stuff'.

6/1501: Today is Friday; it's been a busy week. We've done an incredible amount of work on the boat. I'm sure that I could fill a page just listing what we've done, as any boater will understand; boats are never finished. The new mainsail should show up tomorrow, for the third time. They had to trim the roach, nearly completely, to keep it from hitting the backstays. Also, the new dodger should show up for a final fitting. We have done a lot of stowing this afternoon in a desperate attempt to make the boats interior look at least a little orderly. Elke is arriving this evening.

6/16/01: Saturday; big day. I'm awake early to make this note because I will be too tired to do it this evening. We didn't fool Elke; the boat interior is still a mess. I'm glad we tried though. We're all going to breakfast in a few minutes. Aaron arrived yesterday too; Joe and Elke's older son. Now we have some real energy. I think that they will help do some provisioning today. We all went out to dinner last night; it was a special evening.

6/17/01: The mainsail arrived and it looks great. Now, all we need is the new dodger and we'll be just about all set. Aaron rearranged everything in the 'garage'; that is a large storage locker in the forepeak of the port hull. He also helped with some other chores and was good to have around. He just flew in from London for a couple of days. That was Capt. Joe's father's day present. John has been a very good sport about doing a lot of clean-up and stowing chores. He also has been appointed the fishing expert for the trip and has been consulting with the neighbors and upgrading the fishing equipment.

Early this evening, Andy, of Andy's Canvas, showed up with the new dodger. I helped him install it and tomorrow he will put the finishing touches on it. We are very impressed with this piece of canvas work and it will make the trip much more pleasant by protecting us from the elements at the helm.

6/20/01: We have been provisioning for the last couple off days. WE do chores during the morning and when it gets too hot in the afternoon, we go shopping. Then we spend the evening stowing all the stuff that we bought. It gets up to a 100 degrees at mid day here, so the air-conditioned stores are a real treat. We have everything now except the perishables; we'll buy them the day before we leave.

We are waiting for Andy, again. He has to mount the solar panel frames on the dodger.

6/21/01: We really got the boat shipshape, today, and took her out for a sea trial. Everything is functioning pretty well. There were some minor problems with the sail reef point rigging, the vhf radio, the sail cover, and the trim of the boat (stern heavy). It sure was a treat to be out in open water where it's cooler.

6/22/01: Today we shopped more and stowed more. We also had the sailmaker, the riggers, the canvasmaker, and the electrical people running around the boat all afternoon. It was great fun talking to and working out problems with these guys. We also got to test the water generator and the newly installed solar panels. It was a very productive day.

6/23/01: Today started out with the usual breakfast at IHOP. This has become a tradition that will be sorely missed. All the waitresses know us and are excited and very inquisitive about our voyage, however, none of them have accepted our invitation to come along and cook for us. I bought the material and installed an access and inspection port in the sole of the port head, mounted the Man Overboard Pole on the starboard backstay, and relocated the 65 pound fisherman anchor and chain rode to a forward deck locker to help the trim of the boat. Then we went shopping again. This evening we took the neighbors out to dinner in return for helping us out. They kept an eye on Cosmos in our absence, adjusted the fenders as required taught John about fishing and repaired some of our fishing gear. They also let us use their clothes washer and dryer.

After dinner, John stowed some more food and cleaned the refrigerator while Joe and I went out to buy the perishable food. We will try to leave tomorrow.

6/28/01: Well, we did leave late on the 24th. We followed a big cruise ship out of the harbor and right into a series of thunderstorms. We had a fantastic lightening show that lasted all night. After sailing all the next day and night, we anchored in Key West harbor the morning of 6/26.

In Key West we were able to ship the anemometer to Raytheon for repair and return the new, spare, damaged, dinghy seat back to Avon. The new outboard motor performed flawlessly, 1st time, 1st pull,Yamaha. This was my first visit to Key West and we walked around town to visit some the stores and restaurants. We had dinner in town so we wouldn't have to cook (Heaven forbid we should have to cook). I too k my first Valium that evening to ward off malaria in Panama. I have to take one each week. We left Key West that same evening after topping off the fuel tanks; we were still unable to enlist any waitresses to cook for us. We have now left the U.S. for real; enroute to the Panama Canal.

Now, we're skirting Cuba to the west and staying just close enough to stay out of the gulf stream and not excite the Cubans. I suppose were being observed by satellite by the appropriate government agencies. Aside from some petty rigging failures, we are having a fine sail and favorable weather.

6/30/01: We have sailed down the Yucatan Channel and into the Caribbean Sea. We're about a 130 miles West of the Cayman Islands. Tonight will be our forth night at sea since we left Key West. The wind has swung ahead of us so we aren't moving very fast; these catamarans are best when the wind is abeam or abaft the beam. The weather has been kind to us. John hasn't caught any fish yet, but he sure hasn't given up. The watermaker has been great. I have only shaved twice since I left home, just too lazy to bother I guess. I find the beard to be less comfortable than being shaven; I'll probably shave today, or maybe not; I'll have to think about it, or maybe I won't think about it; I am retired you know.

7/15/01: We motored into Cristabal Harbor, Panama, on the 6th of June. It was very exciting. There were huge ships anchored everywhere; waiting to transit the canal. We were instructed to proceed to anchorage 'F' where we spent the next week, or so, prior to transiting the canal ourselves. The harbor was full of activity, productive, and cleaner than I expected it to be. The shore appears colorful, tropical, and hospitable. It rained often enough to keep our water tanks full and I found the weather to be quite comfortable. Going ashore, we found the city of Colon to be struggling with its government's bad habits.

The week before we got here, there was a riot in town. The people were fed up with the high unemployment. The government doesn't pay it's debts to the businesses that the people work for so the businesses go bankrupt and the people loose their jobs and petty crime increases because people have to eat….. I could see the frustration on some of the faces, and fear on some other's. Some folks even stopped their cars on the city streets to warn us about where not to go in town and the danger to watch for. How sad for them not to prosper from the gift America has given them simply because their own government can't keep it's hands out of the till.

The people that we met and were associated with were very polite and accommodating. We even made some friends; the Jauncey family living on the trawler they built and running a boat fixing business right there in the anchorage; Diego the businessman that sold Captain Joe a new inflatable dinghy; and, of coarse, a new group of waitresses. We celebrated Captain Joe's birthday, acquired a new dinghy, got a lot of work done on the boat, and Don Kilpatrick joined us. These were some of the highlights of our stay in the harbor and Colon. The Iridium satellite phone seems to be the best way to stay in touch with home as long as one doesn't use it too much and run up a big phone bill.

We passed through the Panama Canal on Friday, the 13th of July. This was a magnificent process; an effective harnessing of Mother Nature and basic physics. I have never had so much fun just watching. Actually, we did participate by operating the boat and handling lines. We were dwarfed and intimidated by the size of most of the ships that transited with us. Cosmos was assigned an advisor, Manuel, and he guided us and instructed us on every facet of our passage. Cosmos was required to have four 125-ft. lines to be used to control the boat in the locks. Manuel was very particular about our knot tying and deck cleating techniques and he checked up on us regularly. In every lock, we tied up to a pair of tugboats and they were tied to the lock wall. This meant that we were the last vessel to maneuver prior to closing the lock gates and flooding or draining the lock. The lock typically contained Honan, a gargantuan Japanese car carrier that was apparently designed to fit the canal locks with only a couple of feet to spare on each side and just enough room behind for us, the two tugs that maneuvered Honan,, and us. The turbulence caused by the flooding of the lock and the prop wash from Honan really made for some tense moments. There were some residual currents in some of the locks caused by the vessels themselves or the lock plumbing or both, and these caused some injury free incidents for Cosmos. Manuel seemed to like Cosmos and asked Captain Joe if he could drive the boat for the 48 mile passage through Lake Gatun and Gallard Cut. The last lock, Miraflores, next to The Bridge of the Americas, in Balboa, is where Cosmos was set free to enter the Pacific. This is also where the cameras are for the canal's website and we waved frantically hoping someone at home might be watching Upon Manuel's signal, and after his warnings of strong, opposing, current, we retrieved our lines from the tug, and roared through the gates with both engines before the current could effect our exit. So, we are now in Balboa Yacht Club's anchorage, on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. We will leave tomorrow for the Galapagos Islands if the new voltage regulator arrives from the Balmar Company. We celebrated John's 36th birthday today; he will start his new year in the South Pacific.

7/29/01: We're in the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, now. It's been a while since I have made an entry in this log; I guess I'm getting a bit lazy about it. Our trip here was not at all ideal. The winds and current were against us most of the way and we expected this. So, we motored a lot and slammed a lot; hard on the boat. It took us almost nine days; mostly cool and rainy. I enjoyed the memory of the Panama Canal and our having a fourth crewman aboard during this leg of the trip. The new voltage regulator did arrive in Balboa along with some new lines from the rigging company. A lot of electrical/electronic stuff has been performing poorly due to moisture or installation/programming problems. We had to install the spare 'fish finder' enroute just to have a reliable depth finder when we entered the Puerto Aroyo Harbor. Some of the major maintenance so far has been: replace starboard engine water pump impeller (while passing through the canal); replace the mainsail halyard, replace and program port engine voltage regulator; replace starboard head discharge hose; change oil in both engines; rebuild and replace anemometer at masthead; overhaul refrigeration cooling water pump; reroute port head discharge hosing; relocate bails on boom for better running rigging attachment;

We lost John Daiger yesterday. He said that "boat life" is just not for him. He made arrangements to go to mainland Ecuador and packed up and we helped him haul his stuff ashore last evening. So, now we are three, again.

In spite of all the problems that I have mentioned about Cosmos' condition, the boat is getting better as we make repairs, changes, improvements and new installations.

Puerto Ayoro, Galapagos, Ecuador, is a volcanic island of natural wonders that the native population is struggling to protect from disease, predator, and squalor, while promoting and accommodating tourism. They are doing a good job. They are busy building little houses, hotels, and shops all over the town. They often use the native lava rock, that is so plentiful here, to build with. This lava rock is generally pretty ugly, but, I have seen some creative workmanship that has produced some handsome, rustic, walls. This afternoon we really got a workout. We decided to go snorkeling at Tortuga Bay. This required us to walk over a mile out of town, enter a state park that preserves the land around the Bay, walk another mile and a half, or so, on a wonderful lava rock and stone pathway. This reminded me so much of the Wizard of Oz yellow brick road that I fully expected a wicked witch to jump out of the bush and confiscate my sandals. Tortuga Bay turned out to be more suitable for surfing and had a beautiful white, fine, sand on the beach. Immediately adjacent to this beach was a large sound, or lagoon, that was quiet, shallow, had the same type of beach, and was recommended for snorkeling. Captain Joe and I tried it but there was nothing on the bottom to look at. It was a refreshing swim, and it perked me up for the trek back to town. We decided to eat dinner before taking the dinghy back to the boat; we were too tired to cook and do the dishes and, hey, we're retired guys, remember. Being Sunday, all the decent restaurants were closed, so we walked another mile to the other end of town and found a wonderful German hotel and restaurant, the Angermeyer Hotel, to be open; it was great. I was highly tempted to get a room in the place and spoil myself for a day.

I have been doing some Christmas shopping and am acquiring quite a bit of loot. I will have to ship it home soon or will run out of room here on the boat. When I get home in December, I will have to try to find some well behaving little people to give it all to. Ho,Ho,Ho.