Hi All,
All is well onboard!!!
Terry indeed arrived around 8:00 just as I was finishing up getting the boat ready….well, or so I thought. This is the first time I have prepped the boat by myself and quite frankly I failed miserably. I think I got all nervous about the “admiral” stuff which in many ways was new to me….like where does she store this and that….that I just blanked on my stuff.
So, after giving Terry a run through the boat…..btw he owns a Selene 59….and we discussed the route and weather, especially the first leg going through the inland waterways to the Gold Coast Seaway bar….we started the engines around 9:30am….and then bam, no inverters… wth….didn’t I just test them yesterday….uh, no dude you forgot…oh crapola…..yep, as soon as we shutoff shore power the inverters are supposed to automatically switch and start inverting….NOT, lot’s of alarms….crapola….I spend 15 min trying to problem solve to no avail….of course this is a Sunday (Sat in the USA) so no techs to call….ok, plan b we can run the GEN and bypass the inverters….so, get that workaround going and viola we have 120 volt power…we really only need the 120 volt power for the navigation computer…yes, important but we have b/u, but most importantly for all the refrigeration….can’t loose all that food!!!!
OK….back out of dock…good didn’t hit anything….get outside the breakwater and hit the autopilot button….wth….nothing…it’s not steering…now what….didn’t I test this yesterday….cute little guy laughing his head off on my right shoulder responds, AGAIN….no dude you forgot this one too LOL….oh, shut up….so I ask Terry to take the helm…he was busy getting all the lines and fenders tied up….jump down into the LAZ to look at the pumps all the time praying it is something simple like the switch got hit for the wrong pump….we have redundant pumps and it is easy to hit the switch when I changed out the charcoal filter for the watermaker…please let this be a simple fix…we do not want to hand steer 400nm…..and you bet, switch on pump B and supposed to be on pump A…..make the switch and viola we have autopilot….YES!!!!!
So, we start to get underway and crapola again….no boat speed….oh shut up, I know, I forgot this one too….forgot to put in the boat speed paddle which I take out when we are docked to keep it from getting coated with barnacles or algae….so I sheepishly ask Terry to take the helm again….and you know he is thinking did this guy really cross the Pacific….jump into the ER and install the speed paddle….now this requires taking out the plug and letting seawater into the boat….not your fist choice but it’s the only way….so I get it done with a big slash of seawater in the face….like, serves you right dumb ass.
OK….oh, did I tell you Kathy and I are now text buddies….yep, sounds kinky but wow, I felt so connected doing the text thingee with her…almost like she is right there….I used to tease Dave and Dana for all the texts they used to send one another….like 10k in one month but now I get it!!!! So, I’m texting Kathy telling her all the issues…of course, we are both very concerned on the inverters…. and I notice the IR pointer remote is not working. This is like a mouse and makes running the nav computer super easy….I think it went out at the beginning when the inverters did not work….Terry had brought his ipad and was basically using that to navigate with….so I rebooted the nav computer….took 3x and viola the IR remote works again….but in the meantime all the screen resolution is gigantic now….like 4x what it should be….I give up and we live with it….finally when I was alone on my watch at 7pm I played for about 10 minutes and got it all back to working but geez, really!!!!!
OK….so I keep checking the inverters….for 3 hours the panel says error….”low AC output” and “stacking error”…..then after about 3 hours no error message….ok, wth…I switch off the GEN and onto inverters and viola we are now inverting…..whoa….happy dance time….so what does that mean….well, I think something is loose or going out so fingers cross they keep working for another 2 days and then we will take them to the doc…these are 11 years old…ancient in boat years!!!
Weather: for the 6 hour run inside it was very pleasant but we noticed the wind build to 20-24kts…..ugh, forecast for 10-15….means, could be rough outside….and sure enough, we cross the benign bar around 4:30pm and get smacked with 5-7′ headseas….ouch….Terry and I are talking and all of a sudden we are doing a huge dive and all I see is whitewater on the windshield….holy crashing wave batman….no harm, just a terrific slam…we had slowed down to 6 kts and that was a very good thing as @ 7-8 kts that would have hurt something.
Eventually, as we got further away from the coast and into deeper water the seas and winds calmed to 10-15 and by midnight 5 kts with calming seas…now that is what we want!!!! We might even be able to fish later on today before the winds pick back up to 10-15 but from the NE or behind us!!!!
Stats: 06 Dec 1800 UTC (4:00am Dec 7 local time):
Position: 29 21S 153 36E
Traveled: 131nm today; ETA to Bobbin Head Tuesday ~3pm
Course: 176M COG
Wind: <5 kts variable
Waves: 1-2′ ESE, still a slight headsea
Speed: current speed is 8.3 kts SOG; has varied 6.0-8.5 kts today; avg is 7.5 kts for passage; 1650 rpm
Weather: 10% cloud cover; sea temp 75 deg F; air temp 70 deg F
Boat sightings: 6 after leaving bar
Fishing: Not yet
Sail: down
Fuel burn: too soon to calculate
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO
