Cosmos in Galapagos

Cosmos Web Master,

We have been unable to send email via our Single Side Band Radio because reception is not good from Panama to the Galapagos. I have accumulated all of the email since my last transmission. Now I am in Sharknet, Internet Cafe in Port Ayora with the opportunity to get caught up. The following contains several reports.

Captain Joe Dorr

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Cosmos

Moored at Balboa Yacht Club, Panama City, Panama

July 16, 2001

We made the passage through the Canal on Friday the 13th. I also got my driver's license on Friday the 13th. My luck day.

We stayed at Balboa Yacht Club to wait for a voltage regulator from the states. It actually arrived in Panama last Wednesday, but without the tracking number there is no tracking it down. It was easy to get once we had the tracking number.

The stay was good for the boat. We have installed new genoa sheets, new halyard for the main, installed the VHS microphone at the helm, put non-return valves on the hot water so the hot does not go backwards and make even the cold water hot, installed a temporary saloon table, and interfaced the GPS to some new chart software that I bought from Paul Jauncey, the Ship Doctor J

Route planning and navigation just took a giant leap forward. We now have global charts, plus detailed charts from French Polynesia on to New Zealand. Planning a route is not point and click. Following the route is automatic with the interface to the autohelm and the GPS. All we have to do is raise the sails and pray for the right winds.

Following are some emails from home, sent by family members:

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Email for WCX9872 via PinOak Digital

From: [Joe's Mother]

To: Wcx9872 User

Subject: Canal

Date: 07/13/01 20:58

Joe and Crew,

We got a good view of the Cosmos and Crew at the Miraflora Lock. We requested that they pan in on your ship. Good Sailing and God Bless You.

Mom

To: Wcx9872 User

Subject: Hooray!!!

Date: 07/13/01 21:24

Way to go Cosmos Crew! We saw you go through Miraflores Lock in front of that BIG SHIP. Brother Tom emailed the camera operator to focus on the Cosmos, and they did! We saw you guys on the deck and at the helm. I hooped and hollered, as they say, and felt like I'd given birth without the labor pains. What a thrill to see you via the magic of technology.

Tom printed some shots as you went through; we'll have Tom M. scan and post them on the site next week. What an amazing, amazing experience, even from this land-locked perspective. Thank you guys, and congratulations to all. Break out the champagne.

love to all, elke

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Cosmos

N 06^o 58', W 080 ^o 34'

We left Balboa Yacht Club, Panama City yesterday, heading for the Galapagos Islands. This leg of the trip is expected to be more challenging than the trip from Cuba to Panama. The trip from Cuba to Panama was a rough ride to windward, but the wind was enough off of our bow to allow us to head almost in the direction of our destination. The trip from Panama to the Galapagos is expected to be a ride straight into the wind. We are entering the ITCZ (inter-tropical convergence zone). The ITCZ is a weather phenomenon along the equator that spreads different distances, north and south. In all of the world, the ITCZ is widest where we have to cross it. The ITCZ is the result of the sun creating the most heat at earth-level along the equator and therefore the air is almost always rising, and going nowhere fast. When the wind does blow, it blows 87% of the time from the Galapagos toward Panama. In addition, two well known currents, El Nino, and the Hunboldt Current converge right in our path to try to push as back toward Panama.

This is, of course, a challenge for a sailboat. Over 800 miles to go with little wind, and not enough fuel to motor the distance. Some sailors sail all the way down the South American coast past the equator, and then head for the Galapagos. We are trying to take a more direct rout. Our winds died this morning. Our speed reduced from 7 knots to 2.8 knots with one engine at cruising speed. We also have current that is running against us.

We just turned thirty degrees to a course of 202^o, which is about 40 degrees away from the Galapagos. Our speed increased to 4.3 knots. We will probably cross the equator and then turn toward the Islands. We have nothing but open ocean between us and the Galapagos so we have many poor options from which to choose. We won't allow ourselves to run out of fuel, but this can be a challenge since the wind only blows favorably for our course about 10% of the time. People have been in situations where they remain still on the ocean for days and days, waiting for some favorable wind. Let's hope that is not what happens to us.

You might ask why we are sailing into the wind so much. The answer is that we have no option for this segment of the trip. Once we get on the south side of the equator, we will pick up the very favorable, S.E. Trade winds for what has been termed the "Milk Run" and ride those almost all the way to New Zealand. I don't know, but I suppose the milk being referred to is coconut milk.

Looking for wind to the Galapagos.

Joe Dorr

Cosmos Captain

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Dear Web Master,

We have a major deficiency aboard Cosmos. Scurvy 2001. No movies. We have movies on DVDs, but we do not have a DVD movie driver for our laptop. We tried to watch our first movie on the laptop, while on anchor in Panama and the computer told us we don't have the right driver. Can I enlist your assistance?

Can you go to www.gocyberlink.com and buy PowerDVD 3.0 on CD and ship it to us? We would have downloaded it in Panama, but it is a 6 meg file. I got all of this information with thanks to Tom Abraham. If you have any technical questions, he is you man to talk to.

I don't believe it can get to the Galapagos soon enough, so I will send an address for you to ship it to in French Polynesia. We won't get there for over a month but you could order it now and I will give you an address when we get closer.

Thank you.

Joe Dorr

Cosmos Captain

<<< <From the Webmaster --- considerate done!!!>>>>

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Cosmos

At Port Ayora

S 00^o 45', W 090^o 18'

July 26, 2001

Dear Web Master,

We have arrived in Port Ayora today at 1230 local time, 1430 ECT, and 1830 UTC. The trip from Panama was about as expected. No matter what is expected, though, I can't help but think about the worse case. About 350 miles into the trip, the wind was right on our nose and the currents were working against us at about 2 knots, so our progress was reduced to 1.5 to 2 knots for about 48 hours. If that continued for the rest of the trip, we would have certainly run out of fuel.

Each engine uses about 2 gallons per hour. At 2 knots, it would have taken us 250 hours to go the last 500 miles. At two gallons per hour, we would have needed 500 gallons and we carry 105 gallons in our tanks and 72 gallons in jerry cans.

We were lucky. The wind blew for two days from the SSW at 20 knots. We headed due south and managed to clear the adverse El Nino and Hunboldt currents. After that, the wind died and we were able to motor on one engine at about 4 knots. Much better math for finishing the trip, with about 50% motoring on one engine and 50% sailing. The sailing was sometimes excellent, if you like hard sailing into the wind. Lots of pounding.

The total distance was about 850 miles. We used about 105 gallons of fuel, a case of beer, and no Spam. We did enjoy several cans of Vienna Pate with Grey Poupon (Ok so it was Vienna Sausage but it tastes like pate when you are 500 miles at sea and you have been through a week of nausea).

Some surprises along the way:

1. About 500 miles out of Panama, at about 1:00 AM, a boat intercepted us from about 6 miles out. When I made a 10% turn, the boat changed course to continue its intercept and worked its way along a constant bearing line to about one quarter mile of Cosmos. And then it shined a bright light on us that lit up our boat. A bit disconcerting, since they made no reply to calls on the radio to determine their intentions. We later decided it must be long line fishing boat that was warning us off of his net cables and since they did not speak English, they decided not to answer our radio calls. Anyway, it was a tense few minutes.
2. It is common to have flying fish come aboard a sailboat at sea (most often in the middle of the night). On this trip, it was common for squid to come aboard. No less than six squid were found on our deck on various mornings of the passage. And when they land on the boat, two things happen. Black junk splatters everywhere, and the smell becomes inescapable. I need to find out if they ever leap out of the water. I suspect that they were dropped on deck by seagulls

3. It is cool. We are on the equator. We expected hot. But instead, the air temperature and the water temperature are both about 70 degrees.

Well, now we are anchored in Academy Bay, off Port Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos. This should be a very interesting stop.

Joe Dorr

Cosmos Captain