Getting our systems in place for our maiden voyage
When on charter, Rebecca and I were often complimented by our guests on how well we worked as a team. Unlike many other cruising couples, there was no yelling back and forth. In fact, we seldom found the need to even speak to one another when working (does that sound bad?). Each of us knew what the other was going to do because we had our systems worked out. On this new boat, that is obviously not yet the case. We have a good bit to learn and it’s almost all going to be through trial and error.
Yesterday’s process of readying the dinghy for the passage is a perfect example. What would have been a 20 minute procedure on ZTC took well over an hour on the new boat (note that I am not yet ready to reveal the new name). We first had to remove the engine and while there was a block and tackle in place for the job, it required re-rigging the hoist with a longer line. Following that bit of work, we then had to figure out what to do with the tender.
This “shackle” WAS being used for raising the dinghy onto the davits. Trust but verify!
While we weren’t sure about carrying the tender on the davits, we decided to raise it up first to see how it felt (we had yet to see the tender raised onto the davits/arch). The first time we raised it we had the bow to port and found that the stern of the dinghy was pressed into the SSB antenna. Not good! We then switched it around and while that issue was fixed, we still weren’t sure. We decided to raise the tender onto the bow to see how that looked. Two points worth noting:
- Many Amel owners carry their tender on top of the aft cabin. We knew that this tender was too long for that to work.
- While we have seen other people raise their tenders in this way, we had never actually done it ourselves. How hard could it be though?
Anyway, we moved the tender around to the port side and rigged the spinnaker halyard to lift the dinghy up. A lifting harness was already in place so presumably someone had already done this. After a bit of pushing and pulling, we got the dinghy onto the bow only to find that it was too big to rest there. Bummer!
OK, back to Plan A, the davits. Once we raised the dinghy to the proper height, and locked it down securely with some truckers’ hitches, it seemed snug enough. We’ll see once we get out there of course. We learned a few things from this escapade:
- We will be a lot faster once we get our systems organized.
- We need a smaller tender. That we’ll address once we arrive in Grenada.
With the weather aligning in our favor, our plan is to depart shortly, heading straight towards Grenada. At approximately 150 nm, this should take us a bit over 24 hours. We’ll hopefully be able to check back in tomorrow. Have fun… we plan to!
Our tender resting securely on the arch/davits. Let’s hope it stays that way!
Enjoy guys and have a safe passage. Hoping the dingy stays put -:).
Me too. If not, we’ll deal with it.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen out there.” Capt. Ron
6AM and all’s well!
Ready to go.
Safe passage.
Thanks for the well wishes.
Hey Mike I once forgot to open the drain and it rained HARD!!!!! while under way. 10 gallons or a hundred pounds of water moving side to side .Not good. We had what we thought to be the best davit system . Oh sure!
Did they break?
Two outboards?
Just like ZTC? or just in case one fails!
Redundancy!
I’ve always been a fan of tricing lines.
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-triced-up.html
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2012/07/hang-em-high.html
You get a lot of security and stability for little work, wrapping the lines around in a criss-cross manner. In fact, the tricing lines will easily hold the dingy with the lifting tackle removed, which I have done when making adjustments or repairs. When tight, the dingy is practically fused to the boat.
Even works when you forget to pull the plug–yup, I’ve done that a few times too!
Good posts. I rigged “spring” lines to keep the tender from swaying back and forth. That worked great too.
We carry an AB 3.2 dinghy on the mizzen deck when at sea. We carry it bow facing port side and the stern pontoons go the the starboard life rail. Meaning can only walk to stern on the port side; starboard side is blocked by the dinghy. When Med-mooring we move it to the bow. We never sail with the dinghy on the davits/stern arch. Can. But do not. Did when we first started cruising in this boat but quickly learned that our dinghy is much too heavy and swings too much. I do not remember if your mizzen deck is narrower than the SM.
Never considered having it sideways to the boat. I suspect that the beam on your SM is a bit larger than ours.
The one thing that fail miserably on our maiden voyage were the batteries. I suggest turning off all charging sources and spending 24 hours on just the batteries, just to see how they hold.
We also had a through hull failure. But I’m sure you have plugs.
The boat has virtually new AGM batteries. They seem to be holding their charge very well.
Making It Happen -Part II!!!!
Exactly!
I wouldn’t be so quick to change tenders. Perhaps deflating it may help you during passages.
It really is a bit big for us, knowing our needs. The 8.5′ RIB we have on ZTC is near perfect!
Now I have that Ylvis song in my head again.
Have a safe passage!
Thanks!
Can’t wait to read about the voyage!
http://www.zerotocruising.com/chapter-2-begins-or-is-it-chapter-3/