We decided that it was best for me to fly north with the kids due to the chance of rough weather so Carl and I pooled our internet resources and found a couple of crew members for the trip from Stuart Florida to Marion Massachusetts. It took them 6 days cruising at a good 10 knots most of the time which is approximately 200 miles a day. I think they reached 14 knots at one time but you have to remember they were in the Gulf Stream which gave them a boost of 3 knots.
There were a few hiccups along the way but they arrived safely and with smiles. A few of the issues they had to deal with were:
Buying way too much food and finding what to do with 6 extra loaves of bread.
A break in a fuel line and filling the bilge a couple of gallons of stinky diesel.
Furling issues with our new code zero sail. Try catching a fish while wrapping a new light wind sail around the bow of the boat, giving it a fresh bath. They lost the fish and had to re-pack the sail. It was definitely the low point of the voyage for them. The sail worked magically but there are issues with the furling system that need to be ironed out, hopefully we don’t have to send it back to Mack Sails for adjustments.
Little bit of sea sickness in the first couple of days
They had a super calm day where they were cruising at 3 knots ( I think it was the Gulf Stream that was moving them) but this gave a great chance to jump in the ocean for a swim without it turning into a man overboard fatality.
They did have one rough day with the wind on the nose at 25-30 knots. We now know we have to weld in all our ports forward of the master, the master doesn’t have any hatches so we’ll need to leave those for ventilation. There is no need to have ports in all the cabins and head because each room has a hatch. By welding them closed we’ll be able to skip the expense of new port holes. We will have to replace the ones in the master because they leak as well.
To sum it all up an ice truck driver from Canada (Frank), a Swedish chemical engineer from Atlanta (Peter) and an anal speed freak over shopper (Carl) make up a pretty good team. Thanks fellas!!
Good summary of our sailing trip, thx Carla.
We did have a couple of challenges as mentioned above and we managed to deal with them one a time. I think we were fortunate to have them happen when they did. The Code Zero furling issue we discovered in light winds and when the diesel fuel line started to leak, the sea was calm. I much prefer to scope up diesel from the bilge when there are no waves.
Special kudos to Carl who was able to find the diesel leak and fix it more than 100 miles off shore.
I enjoy your writing, it flows well and is entertaining.
Peter
Peter