The total time for the trip was 7 days and 16 hours (we left the slip in Coconut Grove shortly after 6am on Saturday, May 16 and arrived at my slip in Baltimore at 9:50pm on Saturday May 23.
We spent 3 days and nights on the ocean sailing from Coconut Grove to Morehead City.
We spent the night at the Morehead City Yacht Basin and then sailed to Dawry Creek where we spent the night at the Dawry Creek Marina.
We then sailed to Coinjock where, after a dinner of 32 oz Prime Rib, we spent the night
We then sailed to Norfolk, sailed on past the warships in the harbor and then into the Chesapeake Bay where we sailed nicely till about midnight when the wind, which had been blowing 12-15 knots from the West turned North (the direction we were going in) and increased to 25 - 28 knots. We spent the next 7 hours crashing into waves (while dodging tugboats and sailboats and cruiseliners. At 7 am we had enough and turned into Solomons and anchored for 4 hours, taking a brief nap. At 11 we set out again to find the winds had calmed to almost nothing, the seas had flattened and off we went up the Bay to arrive in Baltimore at 9:50pm.
So...we sailed some, motored some, motor-sailed some, and slept some...for a total of 184 hours
We put 112 engine hours on the boat.
We used a total of 108 gallons of diesel (or just under 1 gallon/hour)
We used no oil (a good thing!)
All in all a great trip!
The boat is comfortable and reliable (a very good thing!)
Robert is a great Captain, and I look forward to sailing with him again.
There are somethings I've decided I want to add to the boat, in anticipation of doing the round trip from Baltimore to Florida at least several more times.
Radar: While AIS is a wonderful thing, there are some things that don't send an AIS signal. Besides non-commercial boats, which are not obligated to have and use AIS, there are some commercial boats (especially fishing boats) that don't bother. There are also plenty of sailboats (especially in the Chesapeake) without AIS and of course there are many unlit buoys scattered around which are impossible to see at night. Additionally it would be nice to be able to see a squall coming (although happily none came our way the entire trip!).
I"m currently agonizing over which vendor to go with. The leading contenders are Raymarine and Garmin. I will go with an 18" radome, but haven't decided if I'll mount it on the mast or an a pole behind the cockpit. I also haven't figured out where I can put the display and not screw up the ability to look forward over the instrument panel.
AIS: I can now receive, using my VHF radio and extracting the AIS signal via a serial to USB converter and putting that into my MacBook Pro at the Nav table. But I can't output a signal and I'd like to be able to be seen as well as see..At the moment I"m looking at a "black box" unit sold by Si-Tex for ~$500 and I'll need a splitter (~250) so I can use the share the VHF antenna with the radio.
Inverter/Charger: It would be nice to be able to use some home appliances (which only run on120 volt AC) while at anchor (or even under sail). In particular I"d like to be able to use the microwave to defrost some of the food I keep in the freezer and to use the Keurig coffee maker from time to time (having given myself a second degree burn on my ankle while making drip coffee on this trip, this has now become a necessity...not a luxury!). I'm looking at a Magnum 2812 that can put out 2800 watts, or possibly a Xantrex 3012 that can put out 3000 watts..both are overkill, but I don't have to use all the power available! The microwave uses 600 watts while the coffee maker uses 1200 watts. I'd only use these intermittently (say for less than 15 minutes at a time) so they wouldn't put too much drain on the battery. (to calculate...say I use the microwave for 10 minutes which amounts to 100 watt-hours. if we assume the inverter works at 100% efficiency (I'll correct that in a moment) then that comes to about 8 ampere-hours. Assuming only 90% efficiency that brings it up to about 9 amp-hours. I have 6 batteries which each have about a 90 amp-hour capacity to I have a total of about 540 amp hour capacity. So the microwave, used for about 10 minutes would use up less than 2% (actually 1.7%) of the battery capacity...bupkas!!
Head/Electrosan/Salt tank: We have a 15 year old electric head, a 7 year old Electrosan (a gadget that macerates and sterilizes the waste material from the head and dumps it overboard (no holding tank needed) and a 7 year old salt tank (needed to keep the Electrosan happy) that is acting up. There is little worse than worrying, each time you or someone else flushes, whether its actually going to go where it is supposed to go. It is worth it, for my peace of mind to install new equipment. I've already purchased an "Elegance" electric head and a new Electrosan and Salt tank and they will be installed by Tidewater next week!
Remote oil filter: For reasons that are absolutely inscrutable, Yanmar (a Japanese maker of Diesel engines) installs their oil filter horizontally, to ensure they will leak oil everytime you change the filter. Island Packet compounded the issue by placing the engine so that the side wall of the engine compartment is about 3 inches from filter. they also positioned the engine so that the filter is below the floor level (almost in the bilge). When I go to change the oil filter I can either see the filter or I can touch the filter..I can't do both. So I stuff a lot of diapers under the filter, reach down with my hand (with my head around the corner of the engine compartment to be sure I can't see what I"m doing), unscrew the filter and then spend about 15 minutes trying to work it out around several of the components that are attached to the engine...blocking the way out!. Of course oil is dripping everywhere. Then I reverse the process to get the new filter in (but at least no oil is dripping on this part of the adventure).
I will be installing a remote filter kit that enables me to move the filter to the rear of the engine compartment, with the filter hanging down (so I can put a bucket under it) and lots of room all around...I can't wait to have that in place!! maybe next week!!
