First Cruise - Tips please!

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dave.newton
 

Rick has cover it well but my random thoughts are:

Anchors

I have a main Manson Supreme anchor rigged in the cockpit. It lives in a plastic crate in the engine well. A painter runs outside the rails to the bow. There I double check it is made fast (I've recovered plenty of anchors for people who could swear they tied it on!).

It's tied to the stancions with wool so it breaks free if deployed. I also have a pick up buoy on the anchor rope so I can detach it from the painter and use the anchor as a marker buoy. (or if I do hurl it in without attaching it to the painter I don't lose it). The painter stays on the boat and the crate can be taken off containing anchor, 8m chain, 50m rope and buoy.

That way I can drop it in seconds, very handy if single handed and bad things are happening too fast.

The original Danforth Fortress lives in the anchor locker but it takes a lot longer to get at.

Vitels Provision the boat the day before if you can. I always remember something I've forgotten after a nights sleep!

Batteries Shore charge them for 24hours if you can to be sure you start with maximum capacity.

Fuel Unless you have two main tanks Carry a spare quantity but stow it above decks so the fumes can drain overboard (same for any gas).

Checklists I have checklists for everything. Launching, Rigging, Battening down, New crew briefing, Overnight mooring, Sleeping on board, Leaving the boat, Recovering the boat, Towing. But then I have the memory of a goldfish!

Dry clothes Take more than you think you can possibly need.

Stugeron Unless you know you definitely don't need it, take some well in advance. Seasickness can be life threatening when single handing.

Headtorch and spare batteries

I'm sure I will think of more things just after you depart (but then so will you ;-)

Have fun.

Dave.

Dave Newton Sailbadthesinner

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Thanks Dave, great list!

Thanks Dave, great list!

Love the anchor idea for single-handing.

Been looking at the weather and vaguely thought about going overnight but then thought about my old incandescent nav bulbs and decided otherwise. It's hilarious, I've spent so long sorting out the wiring problems with the nav, steaming and anchor lights and now I won't use them :) Must make a note to switch to led this winter!

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

john.richardson
Hello Mike,

Hello Mike,

Fair enough, all the very important stuff has been covered, but there are some absolutely critical items that you must not, under any circumstances, leave your mooring without -

1) Your pillow from your own bed at home, this is vital for a good nights sleep.

2) A flask of your favorite tipple - this is vital at any time!

3) A way of making really good coffee - a passage of more than 1 hour cannot be undertaken without really good coffee.

Have a great trip.

John Richardson 'Sonny' 26M

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Hahaha, thanks John!

Hahaha, thanks John!

Well I'm on board, along with about a ton of stuff; unfortunately it doesn't include my pillow nor my favourite tipple. I thought, as it's my first coastal hop, perhaps I ought to remain sober.

Coffee however I do have, along with a camping gaz stove and endless supplies of butane. No fresh milk boo-hoo; have to make do with dried.

Looking forward to my first night aboard my Mac; I might even sleep in the aft berth now that I have re-seated the fuel tank strap retaining thingies. That way I get to sleep with my beloved autopilot :)

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Captain's log, star date...

Captain's log, star date...

Blissful first night on the board; didn't even notice as she settled into the mud on the mooring.

Up at 05:15 to pick up the latest GRIB files; good news as I now have better winds today!

Boil the kettle whilst getting the boat ready to sail; glorious sunrise, very excited.

I drink my coffee and munch my breakfast with this permanent ridiculous grin on my face as I settle into life on board.

I then stick my head out of the coachroof to see that we are now shrouded in the thick fog; haha. I cleanup down below and put my head down for a quick nap.

The sun is now starting to break through so I better get going.

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

john.richards
Mike, this looks like just

Mike, this looks like just the sort of material that would make a terrific article for the newsletter, not to mention how much better it would be with the addition of photos. Perhaps you can do yourself a running commentary with all your experiences with a first sail - warts and all? No pressure of course, but if you could type it up within ten minutes of returning to your mooring... :D

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Sorry John, just realised I

Sorry John, just realised I hadn't responded, I'll give it a go, I'm currently doing a gallery thing of the trip which should provide the bones of a story.

Rick, some of the pics turn into other pics when I click on the thumbnails; have I done something wrong?

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

rick.jones
rick.jones's picture
Hi Mike

Hi Mike

I've just had a look at your gallery, and I notice you've added very long titles to the photos, turning them into full descriptions. These fields are limited in length, and too much text causes errors (I actually got database error messages in the site log).

Unfortunately there's no provision in the gallery structure for full descriptions on each photo, but you can write as much as you want in the body text of the gallery's main page (use the Edit tab).

Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Thanks Rick, as you say there

Thanks Rick, as you say there is a character limit to the photo descriptions. Once you get to it it prevents further characters being entered so it's impossible to exceed the limit when "saving".

Several times I would copy and paste an illegally long text into the description. It would get cut down to max size by the site and then accepted and displayed ok.

However, my later attempts were met with an error message. Will experiment with various lengths.

My feeling was that it's nice to have a story for each pic rather than having to toggle back and forth between pics and posts.

Anyway it's great to be able to do it at all; many thanks for all you do!

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

mike.floutier
mike.floutier's picture
Looks like the character

Looks like the character limit is 250 in terms of entry BUT it appears that any more than around 245 and you get an error.

Probably better to have the lengths normalized.

MacGregor 26M 2009 - Sky's the Limit -  Suzuki DF50

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