Do it again? Absolutely. It is a great trip.
Changes?
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No schedule for a rendezvous with the family.
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No attempt to meet folks at an anchorage (like Lewes). Only meet folks at dockside.
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More time to wait for fair winds and tides.
Summary
11 days on the boat.
72 hours of passage-making.
386 nautical miles. About 5.3 knots overall.
Out-of-pocket expenses were only about $670. Call it $10/hr of passage making.
Repairs
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Mizzen cover tore. This may be due to stress on the cover when easing the topping lift.
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Macerator pump does not work.
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One of the night running lights on the binnacle is out.
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The tachometer hour meter and engine room hour meter don't work consistently. The tach hour meter seems to stop working when the running lights are on. The engine room hour meter seems to stop working when the engine room is very hot.
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The port water tank has some fine particulate in it. We'll pump it overboard and refill it.
Upgrades
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Alternator output seems too low to support extended cruising. 10 amps (or so) of charging doesn't seem to match the 6.5 amp load while passage-making. Running lights, radios, instruments and the autopilot require a great deal of power during overnight passages. Leaving the engine on 2/3 of the time seems to be a large burden. Installing a digital ammeter will help clarify the issues.
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We need to finish making and installing deck safety gear. We only have one tether. We really need four for the various workstations: aft, cockpit, main, forward.
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Showers that drain into the bilge are a bad idea. We need a proper shower drain pump.
Operational Changes
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Having both the claw and the CQR plow anchors in the bowsprit doesn't work out well. The claw gets in the way because it's so wide. For now, we'll carry it aft until we figure out a better approach.
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Pre-printed log book pages with the relevant data columns would be handy.
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Four-hour watches may not be ideal. CA did 2000 to 0000. I did 0000 to 0400. She came back at 0400 to 0800, but we were both up for the morning watch to enter the Chesapeake. This schedule left us both wiped out the next day.
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We have to be much more disciplined about starting the engine on the engine battery, not the house battery. Too many starts on the house batteries may be shortening their lives.
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The freshwater deck fitting needs to be connected and the hose made readily available. It would have been slightly nicer to take a freshwater shower right on the aft deck.
Things That Worked
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The CQR holds no matter what. What a great anchor.
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The chart plotter's "GOTO" mode to set a course worked out very well.
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Having paper charts for planning purposes is helpful: we could see more and better visualize what's going on.
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The Benmar autopilot is rock-solid reliable.
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The new fuel handling worked out perfectly. Two fuel-filter changes were effortless. We're cleaning our fuel tank by burning through all the old fuel and collecting the crud in the filters.
Details
