Motorsailer Sojourn’s Blog

Friends and family, there are at least three reasons for this page:

1. A checklist for Kay & me so nothing (as little as possible!) falls through the cracks (of the cockpit grates)
2. An opportunity for you all to contribute to our preparation process–what do your experienced or perhaps more objective eyes see that ours don’t? (we’re too close to the ship to see the port holes)
3. If you’re contemplating a voyage in the future, maybe this will be of some small use to you (either to help YOU prepare OR to discourage you from contemplating this sort of divine madness!)

So here goes…  (****** UNDER CONSTRUCTION ******)

We already have:

Navigation:

1. 2 portable GPS units (to be used as backups)
2. 2 sextants (which won’t be very useful until we hit the Gulf and beyond, and then mostly just for disaster preparedness (lightening takes out every instrument on the boat AND we’re far offshore), but keeping our hand in on reducing sights from an artificial horizon or dip short – and its very obscurity is partially what makes it fun!)
3. 2 hand-bearing compasses (1 requires batteries, 1 doesn’t)
4. ship’s compass (I’m obsessive-compulsive, so yes I’ll swing the compass and create a deviation table before the trip)
5. autopilot (needs work on wiring – voltage drop probably from increased impedance in wiring between control computer and breaker), wireless autopilot remote / instrument repeater
6. wind speed/direction, water temp, fathometer (depth)
7. LORAN (thanks Keith!)

Communication: 

1. our two cell phones
2. laptop computer (for blogging, email, backup for chart plotter & instrument repeater, backup to satellite weather, games, surfing, writing, reading, etc.), handheld depth sounder (for dinghy, backup). Broadband (high speed internet) access thanks to a 3G ATT air card with antenna outside the boat (also considering an amplifier for pulling in distant towers).
3. ship’s VHF radio & handheld VHF marine radio (dinghy to mothership)
4. marriage protectors (communication headsets for anchoring comm – bow to/from helm)

Mechanical:

1. Spare oil & transmission heat exchangers (coolers)
2. Several (not enough) engine and generator oil & fuel filters
3. Fuel polishing system including fuel transfer, redundant filters, etc.
4. 1. Refreshed hull moisture barrier (Interlux 2-part) and hard saltwater bottom paint (Micron CSC Extra). Raised waterline to handle full cruising load.
   2. Replaced zincs for salt water corrosion (shaft, rudder, transom, bow thruster, pencils in engine, oil and transmission coolers)
   3. Installed “Shaft shark” (to cut lines that get tangled around shaft and propeller – inevitable “debris” (adrift crab pot lines) especially in the Gulf and points south)
   4. Installed shelves and line hangers in all lazarettes
   6. Have a skilled diesel engine mechanic go through both engine and generator with me and make any adjustments, possibly help replace more difficult-to-install parts.
   7. Replace belts (alternator) and hoses (exhaust, radiator)
   8. Replace heat exchanger (radiator) as we have an annoying minor leak that I can’t eliminate (cracked neck).
   9. Inventory of engine & generator spares: extra belts, hoses, zincs (pencils for engine & generator), impellers, fuel and oil filters, water filters, fuel injector, fuel injection lines)… can’t afford space for spare prop (well protected) or shaft, etc. If necessary, can procure before venturing offshore.
   Three changes of oil and filters (should only need one or two for the trip as we’re anticipating 400 hours of engine run time and we’ll change oil every 200 hours).
   More filter elements for all (oil, fuel, water)On Deck:

On Deck

1. Fenders (for marinas) & fender boards (for locks)
2. Spare mooring lines & anchor rodes
3. Spare anchors (3) for stern and for replacing any lost
4. Rigid inflatable dinghy (on davits on transom)
5. Trip lines for bow and stern anchors, rigged with buoys

Education:

• USCG Captain’s License (OUPV, Masters papers, towing & sailing endorsements,  50 or100 ton depending on Uncle Sam’s sea time review) 

Navigation:

1. Charts (backup to chart plotter and laptop navigation, DNR river charts, laptop charts, will attempt use of EarthNC-Plus (see favorite links page in this blog).
2. Cruising guides (Quimby’s, Skipper Bob’s, DeliveryCaptain.com for the waterways, Rules, Light List and Coast Pilot for the Gulf)
3. Some additional electronics installed while in Minnesota, some for fun, mostly we feel essential, what we can afford before leaving port (see below). Key to this installation will be a good antenna “farm”. Installed on a KATO Marine stainless “radar mast” that is at the stern of the boat and provides a sturdy elevated point for the radome as well as antennas for LORAN, GPS, broadband and satellite weather.

Electrical

1. Replaced generator brushes and test for stable 110 VAC output
2. Have entire amateur radio station on board but not installed. Likely an underway project.
3. Purchased a digital multimeter (DMM) that measures AC & DC current & voltage, continuity, frequency and temperature, as well as a 600 amp current clamp probe, a corrosion reference electrode for determining whether we have sufficient sacrificial anodes (zincs) protecting our hull as well as sensing stray electrical current in the water around the boat which could be damaging to our underwater running gear.

Combustibles:

1. Top off fuel before departure from a known good source (AgPartners fuel truck) – 208 gallons
2. Spare oil (12 quarts per change x 3)

Entertainment:

1. Our DVD collection (although we’re hoping not to have ANY time or motivation to watch ANY of these – emergency boredom ONLY!!)
2. Su-do-ku books (Kay’s a madwoman!)
3. Power Squadron course manuals (Kay keeps threatening to finish her JN (celestial navigation) course. Go Admiral !  I keep threatening to finish N (monster celestial navigation).
4. First Aid Manual
5. Amateur radio books

Documentation:

1. Paper and electronic charts (chips) for the entire trip (we know we’ll find we’re missing something along the way that we’ll get along the way)
2. Ship’s Systems manuals
3. Rules of the Road
4. Cruising guides (Quimby’s, Waterway Guide, Fred Meyers’ Nitty Gritty Tenn-Tom, manuals from DeliveryCaptains.com for Tennessee, Lower Black Warrior, etc, DNR river chart books, etc.)

We need or want: 

Navigation:

1.  potentially one or two ham antennas (there is an emergency antenna on board that I can hoist, but none permanent at this point)

Mechanical:

1. Steering spares: x gallons hydraulic fluid, other?
2. Other? (I’ll add to this list as I think of other things or get comments from y’all…)

Electrical:

1. Marine SSB radio and antenna (we’ve decided that with good broadband coverage and our cell phones with ham radio as backup, we’ll defer this expense until we’re ready to venture off shore.

On Deck:

1. Some (not all) dayshapes (motorsailing cone, anchor ball). Others not needed for the waterway leg of our trip (my assertion).  
2. Other?

Documentation:

1. Gulf Coast Pilot
2. Gulf Light List