The Night before the first Journey

Here are some pictures the night before the big journey and sleeping in the boat for the first time.

The Route from Catawba to Cleveland

Provisioning the Boat. The day a few days before the big journey.

Pre trip emails

Catawba Moorings is where i am departing from. Tiny docks in 10 ft of water. When I back up there is barely any room to swing around. I am actually thinking of moving my boat to the 60 foot docks the evening before motoring out so i have a straight shot out in the am. Screw dock assignments i am leaving and not coming back. Anyhow, a horrible channel awaits. Navionics shows that the channel markers are wrong on the north side. Coming in from the sea trial i hit something. It went from 10 foot to 6 foot and i felt one little boom and swung to port. Looking at navionics (50 bucks on ipad) you can tell exactly where i was. Look between the red "10 and the "12" cans. On the westerly route in near catawba moorings right before the preferred channel marker.  Anyhow, ill get out of that channel and then There is a huge shoal after i navigate out of West  harbor "Catawba bay" that is marked to the north with a green marker. Once i hit that point i plannel on a direct course to Avon. Then 8 degrees starboard to head direct to edgewater.

I thought about nets. Who wants to foul a prop? I sure dont. Guess i might want to get that circular saw blade thing i saw in cruising world for my prop shaft. So what should i be looking for? Will i even see it? (Good thing i filled my water tank so the bow comes down somewhat.  Well maybe that is my biggest potential problem... Nets. The route it seems is super easy. Go out pass green can. Turn 92 degrees motor 8-10 hours. The end. 

I dont have any gauges on my motor yanmar 15hp 3GM so i guess ill "play it by ear"

The electronics on the boat are going to be awesome but as you can see. Didnt prevent me from running over something.

Oh another thing the owner left the boat unplugged but battery on and bilge set to auto. That was all that was on. Should i be worried setting that on for a week? The battery for the engine is separate. Found out the guy put agm batteries in and they are only 1 and two years old too. 

On Monday, May 4, 2015, Jim  wrote:
Looks like a good plan. 5.5-6 is probably just about right for the top cruising speed for your boat. On a day like what is forecasted Friday, (SOUTH WINDS 10 KNOTS OR LESS. WAVES 1 FOOT OR LESS) I would plan on motoring the whole way but getting up sails any time it made sense. I'd plan for 4 knots, shoot for 5 and generally get about 5.3. My engine - a Universal M-18 has a max RPM of 3200. "Optimal Cruising RPM" is 2100-2600. At 2600 RPM I get pretty close to 6 knots. Nice. My trip from Put-in-Bay was about 51 nautical miles. I did it in 9 hours to the minute. That's an average of 5.67 knots. I ran at about 1800 when motorsailing and at about 2500 when the sails were doused. You might not want to run yours quite to full cruising speed the first time. But you're planning for 11.5 hours so you should be fine.

I could not believe how many fish nets there were. I think I counted 12. Of those 12, only 3 were properly buoyed. One was over half a mile long. If you really do get a flat day, they're easier to spot - particularly with binoculars. Keep thinking about them. They seem to come out of nowhere when you're not watching for them.

I know you've just completed your ASA Coastal Navigation course, but this is a website I use for initial planning: http://map.openseamap.org/ It's not a chart replacement nor is it good for spotting depths and obstacles but it's terrific for figuring distances when you begin your planning. It's also great for fantasizing about future trips.

Which marina are you departing from?



-----Original Message-----
From: John
Sent: Monday, May 4, 2015 9:24 PM
To: Jim
Subject: Re: Greetings!

Just got home so I can write back a proper amount.

WHAT a sunset. Wow.. Dawn loved Edgewater too. Some boater to the East (The titled docks) was blasting his music. (rap)

so here is what i wrote my dad yesterday it is a cut and paste job. I called him today because the weather is perfect friday (and I want this done NOW!)

here is what I sent him. Timeframes are worst case estimates and calculating if I was doing 4kts. My boat cruises per the owner at
5.5-6 kts. (We will see)

Here it is.. substitute friday for thursday and saturday for friday. I will sail it on friday and start on thurs.

Summary
 we go up friday right after work or i get out early. We sleep overnight in the boat and when we wake up saturday we sail/motor to cleveland.

Detail
Friday
3:30 pm i leave work and drive to edgewater marina. We park your car in the secure marina. We transfer any of your gear to my car and we take my car to my house. Put edgewater parking pass in my wallet.

4:00 pm we leave my house for catawba with dawn driving. Her car is loaded with my stuff the night before. We transfer your stuff to her car.

5:00 pm we arrive at the boat and transfer stuff to the boat.
Dawn departs back to Cleveland.

8:30 pm sunset

Saturday

5:45 am sunrise
Stow electrical and waterlines

6:45 am cast off motoring the channel

7:15 am clear channel if winds are good hoist sails and head to cleveland

8:15 am abeam marblehead lighthouse

3:30 pm abeam Avon point

6:15 pm arrive edgewater marina

6:45 pm leave dock boat secured. Drive your car to my house

8:30 sunset

On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 8:59 PM, Jim  wrote:
> Hey! That’s my boat. Normally, my dock lines are tidier but it’s
> discouraging to have so much seagull crap all over the dock.
>
>
>
> So, what’s the plan for getting yours to Cleveland?
>
>
>

> Sent: Monday, May 4, 2015 8:45 PM
> To: Jim
> Subject: Greetings!
>
>
>
> out showing the wife our dock at edgewater. Came to visit yours too