Shake-down Cruise: What We Learned

After 5 1/2 weeks of living on “Next To Me” in Harbour Isle Marina in Fort Pierce, we finally took off for an extended shake-down cruise:  2 weeks in the Florida Keys, a 503 mile round-trip journey.  We returned last night and are glad we made the journey as we learned a lot:

1.  Cruising is more fun than sitting on a boat in a marina.

2. The south Florida scenery is no prettier than our Puget Sound home cruising grounds (mountains, waterfalls and dense, tall evergreen trees), but the palm trees, turquoise waters, and white sand beaches are certainly a match, and the warm air and water beats it hands down.

3.  We’re now capable of anchoring safely and securely enough to sleep well at night, a new skill. Only once did we fail to set the anchor securely on the first try, we figured it out right away, and immediately made a second try which was successful.

4. Navigating the ICW, communicating with bridge tenders via radio and managing busy bridge-openings, dealing with shallow water and a narrow channel was a little tension-inducing on the southbound leg of our journey, as we were still very much novices in a big, twin-screw vessel. On the northbound leg, 250 miles later, we felt relaxed and comfortable with these tasks, including leaving one of us alone at the helm at times while the other went below to take care of other tasks.

5. The NOAA weather forecasts sometimes use the same words we’re accustomed to hearing back home, but the experience is quite different because the geography and water are so different.  We’re still in the process of learning how this works, and expect to continue learning this the entire 6,000 mile journey, as the water and geography will continue to change.

6. We’re getting better at communicating information to each other: when, how much, how to say it, and how to interpret what each other says. Because we’re pretty good at this in our marriage, we thought there would be no learning curve while cruising, but that’s not been the case. We’re making progress.

7. Because the previous 15-year owner of our boat stayed in marinas while cruising and never anchored out, the boat has no inverter. We knew that, but thought we could maintain our refrigerator at proper cooling/freezing temps by running the 8KW generator a couple hours each morning and evening. After being on the hook for a week in Marathon with no electrical hook-up, we discovered that’s not the case. We found the refrigerator’s inside temp to be 58 and 62 on consecutive days, so had to throw out meat and other items. This afternoon we’re meeting with a contractor to figure out what to do in terms of refrigeration and power supply to solve this problem. We’ve had alternative refrigerators and power supplies in our 5th wheel trailer, but those are not suitable for the marine environment. We have more to learn.

8. This boat provides us with really comfortable living. We have everything we need and almost everything we want, and no complaints about any of it (except that refrigerator issue!)

So, the Shake-down Cruise was successful in telling us things we needed to know before we’d feel comfortable heading north on our 6,000 mile journey.  We’re getting close!

Last, we spent 30 minutes yesterday, a VERY windy day with small craft warnings, listening to a VHF radio conversation between a Skipper and the Coast Guard. The Skipper, who was off-shore in the Atlantic contacted the CG to report his sighting of an 18-f00t open aluminum boat with an outboard which appeared to be in distress. Turns out the Skipper on the radio was Captain of a 150-foot boat. He first reported the 2 men on the small boat were waving their life vests in the air suggesting they needed help . He then reported it appeared they were taking on water, then beginning to list and perhaps sink, then that they had capsized and the men were in the water. Meanwhile, the Skipper reported his crew deployed their 22-foot dinghy and were off to attempt a rescue. He finally reported they succeeded in bringing the two wet, cold men aboard, wrapped them in blankets, and eventually transferred them to a Coast Guard boat that also responded to the radio transmission. It was remarkable how calm, brief and professional both the Captain and the Coast Guard guy were throughout this conversation, and it reminded us the importance of knowing the proper way to handle such emergencies. Tragedy averted, though the boat did, in fact, sink! Whew, we were happy when it was over.