The Cosmos Adventure - News

Report From George Hotz -- Received May 14, 2002

Cosmos

4/16/02:

We are finally leaving Whangarei. This afternoon we motored down to the Port Whangarei area and anchored in a lovely bay at the mouth of the river. Actually we did not anchor, we grabbed a vacant mooring. We dragged anchor on the rocky bottom to the point that the onlookers probably thought that we were trying to carve our initials in it. I hope that was not a forecast for the rest of the trip. There are five of us now; Captain Grandpa Joe and I, Tom, Steve, and Anders. Wow, we get chores done in no time, now, and Cosmos is looking great. We're fully fueled, provisioned, gadgeted, and stuffed with all of our favorite toys. Cosmos is sitting low in the water and everything is ticking and ready to go. This morning I made pancakes.

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4/17/02:

This morning we motor sailed a little more than half way to the Bay of Islands and anchored (successfully)at Poor Knight's Island and did some snorkeling and cave exploring during a sunny afternoon. This morning Tom made pancakes.

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4/18/02:

Today we motor sailed the rest of the way to the Bay of Islands and anchored at Opua. This was a very scenic, sunny day, running up the coast and then weaving through the islands. We topped off our diesel fuel tanks at the fuel dock in Opua on our way to the anchorage. This is the last fuel we'll get until we reach Australia. We were also able to get our empty propane tank filled on the way to the restaurant where Tom treated us to our last dinner out before leaving New Zealand. Tom is going home tomorrow and Cosmos is going across the Tasman Sea to Australia. Tom made omelets this morning. The cuisine aboard Cosmos has improved a notch or two. This is probably due to our being a more diversified, international, crew with a wide range of tastes and experience in the culinary arts as well as being just plain darn hungry. Of coarse, we really hate to see Tom leave.

The laptop computer that I have used up till now was a very old, unidentifiable, generic, unit with some inherent software problems that can't be corrected. I have limped along with it until the screen hinge broke a couple of weeks ago. Captain Joe helped me find a new laptop on the Internet, his wife, Elke, purchased it at home, and Tom brought it to me in New Zealand when he came to sail with us last week. Am I spoiled or what.

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4/24/02:

Yesterday we passed the halfway point; halfway to Australia; halfway across the Tasman Sea. We've had one fair weather sailing day; two rainy, cold, windy sailing days; and, now, two lovely, windless, motoring days. When we run under power, then engine makes hot water for us to do a better job of washing dishes and take showers. I have been running the watermaker, as necessary, to keep the water tanks full. The extra work that we did on the boat's systems in preparing the boat for four months of inactivity last December really paid off. The engines, watermaker, and sails have all been put back into service with no problems. We even had time, before leaving Whangarei, to make a few improvements like: installing three new cleats and rebuilding the saloon table (again). The other chores done prior to leaving are too numerous to mention, not all completed, and not all started. This is the nature of boating and the essence of this adventure.

The Tasman Sea is turning out to be more hospitable than expected. The new crew, Steve Hall and Anders Torin, are blending in well. Cosmos is staying clean and well maintained. At, or near Cairns, Australia, we will acquire another crewperson, Hilary Peabody. Won't that be interesting.

George