Cruising Course Day 4 - Cabbage Key to Bradenton

Do I need to say it?  Coffee, anchor, and away we go once again.  Same start as all the previous days...but we did sleep in just a bit later.  The winds were again with us, up slightly from the previous day so after motoring out of the bay, we were able to raise the sails and travel by the power of the wind.  Apparently much of Tracey's earlier trip was missing the wind so we've been pretty lucky the last few days.

As with the previous days, we again took turns manning the various lines to raise the sails and then each of us took turns at the helm.  We've also taken turns cooking, washing dishes, and of course lounging around on the boat as we travel.  Yeah, it's a rough life.

I haven't really mentioned it yet, but thus far we've made breakfast, lunch, and all but yesterday's dinner while en route.  Breakfast ranged from fresh fruit and yogurt to omelets, lunches were generally just sandwiches, with hot dinners as varied as corned beef and cabbage to a spaghetti casserole.  All in all, we've been eating well and cooking has been easier than one might think.  The boat came with a 3 burner propane stove as well as a refrigerator and a freezer (we're told it doesn't keep ice cream well though) that runs on the house batteries.  Having a seawater pump for the sink helps save fresh water supplies while washing dishes and the Dawn dish soap didn't seem to have problems with it.

We made good time on this leg and arrived in Bradenton in the afternoon.  While this was the end of our 282 nautical mile trek, it was not the end of the course.  We will be staying on board another night and doing some maneuvers that we didn't have the chance to do during the trip the following day.  Having done a fair amount of cooking we chose to eat at the restaurant at the marina.

One other thing happened that day: After disappearing for a while, Captain Tracey came back with our tests for the 104 and 114 course.  Nobody really wanted to take the test while we were sailing (I personally wanted a little more time to study), so we postponed it until the next morning.

Thus far we have learned quite a bit about what it is like to live aboard a sailboat while traveling.

Here's the rough map of this leg of the trip:

View Cabbage Key to Bradenton in a larger map

Cruising Course Day 3 - Marco Island to Cabbage Key

As has become the routine, we awoke to the morning coffee making ritual followed by raising the anchor and continuing our journey.  Our winds from the prior day continued so after motoring out of the nice protected anchorage, we were able to again raise the sails.

Anchorage near Cabbage Key

As seems to be the case when you are actually going somewhere in a sailboat (instead of just puttering around a reservoir), we set and trim the sails and head on without having to do much adjustment or re-trimming.  The hardest part of sailing these past couple legs have been avoiding the crab pots. The captain must be getting more comfortable with his student's skills too as he disappeared into his cabin for a little while during this trip.

A little while after we were underway, we see a powerboat heading straight for us from about our 2 o'clock.  As they get closer you can tell the boat has that gray "government issued" look to it and indeed it was the coast guard.  They swing around behind us and come up along side.  We've been intercepted.  As it turns out, they were looking for another sailboat that had radioed a mayday and then contact was lost.  They asked if we had seen them and when we said we had not they asked us to let them know if we see this boat.  I hope those folks are OK.  It is nice to know that the fine men and women of the Coast Guard are out there, and it is also a stark reminder that everything worth doing has some risks.

We sail up the coast past Naples, Fort Myers Beach and pass by Sanibel Island to enter Pine Island Sound as we head toward our planned anchorage across from Cabbage Key.  I'm once again at the helm and bring the boat into the anchorage and drop the anchor.  We set out the proper 7:1 scope for an overnight anchor and I take a range-like sighting off a couple trees (one behind the other) on an island off our right to watch for dragging.  We don't appear to be moving and so we set the chart plotter's anchor alarm and call it a day.

Several folks go for a swim off the back of the boat.  Two of our group head a bit closer to the nice homes at our anchorage.  A "nice" lady apparently comes out of her house and asks them if they are aware there are crocodiles around.  Yeah, we get it, you don't want us peasants swimming near your fancy abode...well sorry, but the waters are public here.

Cabbage Key

After the swim we break out the dinghy and head over to Cabbage Key for dinner at their restaurant and to watch the sunset from their water tower.  After a few minutes at the water tower, the mosquitoes change our mind and we take refuge back at the restaurant for dinner.  After dinner, we hop back in our little rubber floating "car" and head back to our floating "house".  Another nice day in the books.

And trying something new...a rough map of this leg of the trip:

View Marco Island to Cabbage Key in a larger map

Cruising Course Day 2 - Sandy Key to Marco Island

After a good night's sleep anchored near Sandy Key, we were awoken by Captain Tracey making coffee in the galley before the sun was up (he has a nice metal thermal coffee press, seems particularly good for a boat).  As would be a familiar theme on this trip, in addition to the lessons, we were also on a schedule to get the boat up to Bradenton by the 25th so we would once again get an early start.  We raised the anchor and continued our journey as the sun rose over Florida Bay.

The winds were still light and so we continued steaming along the ICW in Florida Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.  As we got to the more open waters of the gulf and made our turn northward, we were greeted with better winds out of the northeast.  Finally, we could sail!

Raising the main on a 41 foot Catamaran is quite a chore by hand.  Fortunately the boat had an electric self tailing winch, so after we made sure the sail's battens weren't getting hung up in the lazy jack system, push the button and up the main went.  If it weren't for all the main halyard on the deck to deal with, it couldn't have been easier.  We also unrolled the 150% genoa and the result was 6~8 knots on a broad reach with no drone of the engines.  Much better.

Sailing on the ocean actually seems easier than all the sailing on reservoirs that have made up much of our prior experience.  On our reservoirs near the mountains the winds would often be inconsistent, blowing from different directions at different times.  This left us constantly tweaking sails to get the right trim for decent power.  Ocean breezes, as one might expect, tend to be more consistent in direction if not in speed.  Of course, the chop of the waves was not something we generally had to deal with...but in a 41' catamaran, they weren't much of an issue either.

While underway my wife went down into one of the hulls and it made her a bit queasy.  She took some Bonine and pretty much went to sleep at the saloon table for a little while.  The other couple didn't seem too interested in a lot of learning either , so we just had a nice relaxing sail up the coast.  I was at the helm a fair amount of the time, dodging the occasional string of crab pots along the way.

We ended our sailing day anchoring off the northwest shore of Marco Island.  Unlike the previous night, we anchored in the light this time...in front of some expensive homes.

Of course, the view the other direction at sunset was a bit better...

While a boat floats in water, fresh water on a boat is a very limited resource so another thing we tried that evening was bathing off the back of the boat.  Basically, it is swimming with a little soap and a fresh water rinse from a hand shower mounted in the transom.  It works fairly well and definitely saves on the fresh water use.  Our regular soaps and shampoos don't work great in salt water though, so we'll have to try some of the specially formulated ones at some point.

It was a nice relaxing day...something I can definitely get used to.

ASA 104/114 Live Aboard Course, Day 1

I know, I know...haven't been posting anything the last couple weeks...but I have a good excuse...my wife and I were in Florida working on our Intermediate Cruising/Bareboat Chartering/Cruising Catamaran combined course and our first bare-boat charter.  So, I'll be catching up over the next several posts.

On Friday October 19th we flew to Miami to meet Tracey and his Maine Cat 41 for the last leg of his annual migration bringing the boat from it's summer home in New Jersey to it's winter home in Bradenton, Florida.  My wife and I and another couple are taking a combination ASA 104/114 course as we crew the cat down thru the keys and then up the Gulf Coast.  There are also two other gals on the boat that are accompanying Tracey just for fun.

We don't arrive in Miami until the afternoon, so we spend a little time going over the particulars of the boat and getting settled in.  The Maine Cat is a very utilitarian designed boat, you won't find a lot of pretty woodwork on it...or doors separating the berths.  But it has ample galley space, enough room for 6~7 to live aboard for several days, and a nice open patio style saloon/cockpit.

We spend the night on the boat at Dinner Key Marina, enjoy our last infinite hot water shower, and head out early the next morning as the sun rises.  We depart the marina and motor across Biscayne Bay, passing Stiltsville as the sun rises.

We follow the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) thru the upper Keys and over to Florida Bay.  Winds were light and we tried putting up the sails, but other than a small leg, we were forced to motor-sail or steam (play motorboat) most of the day.  From a learning perspective we each got our turn at the wheel and coaching on how to stay in a channel when there are currents, etc. to deal with.  We also did a fair amount of navigation work, looking for appropriate anchoring spots using the charts, Skipper Bob's guides, etc.

It ended up being a long day and at dusk we still had a little bit more to go.  To make things more difficult, it is stone crab season and the area we were in just adjacent to the Everglades park was full of crab pots.

So, motoring slowly with spotters at both bow pulpits we made our way over to the park boundary (where fishing isn't allowed so there shouldn't be pots to get wrapped in the props).  We make our way to the lee side of Sandy Key (a small dot of uninhabited land in the Everglades park boundary) and drop the anchor in the light of the moon...and the steaming light.  We then learn how to set a bridle for the anchor so we don't sail on the anchor (wind will catch the hull and cause the boat to swing excessively).

We then hung out on the cat's trampoline enjoying the pristine night.  Not a bad ending to the first day of class.

Annapolis Sailboat Show, the Traditional Sailboats

The final installment of the Annapolis Sailboat Show posts, here are the traditional mono-hull boats that we looked at. Included is our favorite or our vote for "best in show".  Again, these impressions are based on our naive eye with a focus on the livability aspects of the boats and are again boats we should be able to afford...at least used.  As the specific details of each day fade, these are in alphabetical order.  Unlike the catamarans, we often looked at two or three models of each in the 35~42 foot range.

In the Beneteau line, we looked at the Oceanis series 37 and 41.

The Oceanis 37 was a nice two-berth layout.  As is typical on a mono-hull, the forward berth is a V-berth (think triangular shaped bed to fit into the pointy end of the boat), the salon takes the center portion of the boat including an L shaped galley and head, and another larger berth that tucks under the cockpit.  One thing I didn't expect was how light it was inside the cabin.  Often people describe the interior of a traditional sailboat as "entering the basement", but I found these to have a lot of light for a basement.

The 41 was similar, but instead of a single berth there were two berths aft and a little larger salon.  Both boats were well appointed with  a lot more wood accents than I recall seeing on the cats.

At Catalina we started off looking at the new 311, which is the newer edition of the 309.  This seems a bit small for a long-term live-aboard, but we will be renting one soon and wanted to see one in person ahead of time.  It should be suitable for a few days.  Stepping up to the 387, the space improves as it should.  The rear berth is a better size and other than the headroom would make a fair owners cabin.

The berth is angled, so it may not be quite as comfortable as it appears in this image.  stepping up again to the 440, everything seems to improve space wise, except the berths.

We also saw a couple Hunters and an Island Packet 370.  Given Hunter's reputation, we didn't really spend a lot of time looking at them.  The Island Packets, having exactly the opposite reputation was more interesting.  The design was rather old-school in general with smaller portholes instead of the larger windows found on most newer boats.  The forward berth is quite different than the typical v-berth as it has a more respectable shaped bed instead of the typical wedge.

I do wonder why they didn't use some of the space to the sides of the pedestal as storage/nightstand space though.   While most boats seem to have a larger rear berth when there are only  two, the IP 370's rear berth is smaller than the forward berth.

Our final contender were offerings from Jeanneau.  We got a chance to sail the Sun Odyssey 379 as part of our Take the Wheel seminar and found it quite a nice boat to sail.  Taking a little more time at their booth, we found the interior to be a pretty typical layout for this size boat: a v-berth at front, a salon seating area behind that, followed by an L shaped galley on one side and head on the other, and finally a berth aft.  Then we took a look at the Sun Odyssey 41 DS.  This is our pick for best in show. They raised the deck so the lower spaces have bigger windows and the most light below deck of any of the traditional sailboats we checked out.

Don't know what they were thinking with orange in this picture.

The V-berth in front is pretty standard fare.  But the aft owners cabin is quite impressive.  A queen size berth with two seats, plenty of storage make this a space you don't see on many boats.

With the aft cockpit, the headroom is still lacking.  My only real concern with this layout is the same concern I have with most of the boats we got to see at the show and that is how well you can take advantage of cooling breezes at anchor (the bow points into the wind at anchor which puts the aft berth at the lee side of the boat).  But the space of the owners berth and the windows and light that rival some of the catamarans make this boat an overall winner.  Of course, this boat is new for 2013, so no used boats making it unlikely we'll end up with one.  Maybe we can find something similar.

So, you may be wondering if there was any progress towards a decision between catamaran and mono-hull.  Sadly, not too much.  Each have advantages and disadvantages and we're still having a bit of a hard time determining which items are essential and which are not.  Hopefully we will gain more insight during our ASA 104/114 course.

Catamarans at the Annapolis Boat Show

As promised, here is more information and impressions from the boats we saw at the show.  Remember we don't know a lot about buying a boat...so it will be very interesting to see what we think about these comments in a few months or years.  We will likely not buy new, but that's most of what is at the show.  At this point we didn't know if we would prefer a catamaran or mono-hull, so we were looking at both.  Here are the catamarans:

The first catamaran we looked at was a Gemini Legacy 35.

This is a newer variant of the popular Gemini 105MC.  I can see why these boats are popular.  They are a reasonable size at 35' length and with a 14' beam they should be a bit easier to find a slip for than the average cat.  In this small space they have a queen size master berth which is impressive.  This berth is up front where cooling breezes should be easily obtainable at anchor.

 There is a double berth and an option for either a second double berth or a second head.  The boat is a "galley down" which means that the galley is located down in one of the hulls.  It doesn't seem all that separated as the floor in the hull isn't that far below the salon deck.  As with most catamarans, there is a lot of window and light in the salon and since the master berth is in front of the salon it shares the same features.  The boat does have some items that feel a bit cheap...such as a number of hatches that explicitly state "no step"...wonder if that would be a concern if stumbling about on a rolling deck trying to correct a fouled sail or line.  Overall, this floor plan would work nicely for us.  The difference between the 105MC and the Legacy appears that the Legacy now has two diesel engines and has replaced the centerboards with shoal draft keels.

Other than the Fountaine Pajot 41 we were able to sail on during the take the wheel course, we also looked at the Mahe 36.

This boat was a "galley up" design with a smaller galley space than the Gemini located in the main salon area on the bridge deck.  Again light and airy as one would expect on a cat.  The model we saw was the two stateroom version, but I understand that it comes with a three stateroom version that looses one of the heads.  Going from the salon down into either hull you found a cabin with a tapered near queen size berth in the rear of the hull and a head in the forward part.

Unlike the Gemini, you were pretty isolated when down in one of the hulls...a good thing since they are basically the bedrooms.  Outside we found it easier to get from cockpit to the fore-deck as the walkway widths were wider than the Gemini.  The view at the helm was better too, although I'm not sure if a bimini or dodger is available for the helm station (and I imagine it would suck to be baking in the sun or drenched when manning the wheel).

We also saw another small catamaran we hadn't heard of prior to the show called a Tomcat 9.7.  The layout was fairly similar to the Gemini, with a couple of quirky exceptions.  The master cabin was open to the salon area and the access to the master cabin was through the head.  The boat did have a trampoline on the fore-deck while the Gemini had a hard deck.  It also had two outboard gasoline engines instead of the inboard diesel(s) of the Gemini  and Fountaine Pajot models.  The quirks are just not something we felt we could live with, so we didn't look at this boat very long.

The final cat we took a reasonably serious look at was the Lagoon 380.

The largest of the cats we would consider (without winning the lottery anyway).  The one at the show was the 4 stateroom version with the two smaller heads.  This is also a galley-up design.  The space in the salon is nice and the galley was a bit larger than the Fountain Pajot, but I'm not sure it was larger counter space wise than the Gemini.  The berths were all contained in the two hulls.  The aft berths were larger, but I think they were shy of queen size.  The forward berths were closer to v-berths.  Overall, for the increased size of this boat, it seemed that the space was not very efficiently used.

Of the catamarans, I think our favorites that would be within our budget (at least used) would be the Gemini and the Fountaine Pajot.  The master stateroom, overall size, and galley space are the big winners for the Gemini while the deck space and guest room space were the winners for the Fountaine Pajot.  I'm wondering how important having the master berth be at the front of the boat where it can take advantage of any breeze at anchor will be.  In the tropics I assume this will be important.

Next time I'll go through the mono-hulls we looked at as well as our favorite boat overall.

If you want to see a sailboat

It's no secret that we really don't know a lot about all the various live-aboard sailboats out there.  So, what do you do when you want to know about sailboats...you go to the largest sailboat show in the world*...the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis.  So, that is what we did this past weekend.

Not of the show itself...but Annapolis is a sailing town

It was quite an experience.  You can look at pictures and floor plans, but until you actually see them in person, walk the decks, stand (or hunch over) in the berths, climb around and generally experience them in person, you really never know.  You can find boats of all sizes and price ranges at the show, but with our limited amount of time we focused on the sizes and makers we thought would likely fit our needs.  On the monohull side, we looked at Beneteau, Catalina, Hunter, Island Packet and Jeanneau.  On the catamaran side, we looked at boats from Fountaine Pajot, Gemini, Lagoon, Tomcat.

Most of our first full day at the show was participating in their "Take The Wheel" workshop. This consisted of breakfast, presentations for new sailors on purchasing your first boat, lunch, taking two boats out for a demonstration sail, and a wine and cheese party.  The presentations contained a fair amount of information we recently learned in class but had some other good information. We got to take a Fountaine Pajot 41 and a Jenneau 379 out for a spin.  The catamaran was having some issues, so we motor-sailed it.  It was fairly maneuverable with the engines, but I don't know how she would be under sail alone.  The Jenneau on the other hand wasn't having problems and we had a real chance to see how it performed.  It was fun to sail and I could easily see sailing it just the two of us.  Despite the issues on the first boat, they were both good experiences and I would highly recommend taking this workshop for anyone new to sailing that would like to experience larger boats.

In my next post, I'll cover more details on the boats we saw at the show, and what we've determined so far about our future boat.  Stay tuned...

*this is a claim that was made at the show...no idea how true it is...but the show is pretty big.