Happy new year!
And with that I have to get my butt in gear to re-commission Enee Marie. I've bought my plane ticket to Grenada - March 19 - April 1. In that time I hope to install auto pilot that is being ordered and delivered via Budget Marine right there in Grenada. I hope the 2 weeks is enough time to get this installed. If not, I'll have to have the yard finish up.
We've already had a service come in and clean up all the mildew that's collected inside. I knew this was going to happen when you leave a boat closed up in the tropics for over a year! They've done a good job according to the yard and they will continue to air Enee out in the months to come before I arrive.
I also have a new 120% fore-sail to order. Got to press that button soon. Our current genney is badly shaped and way too big for sailing in the trades. As the sail maker in Grenada says, with around 15 knots of wind our big heavy boat is only going to go so fast anyway so not much point in over-canvasing her. I agree and hope that a new, smaller sail will allow us to point a little higher.
All of this is in preparation for returning to Enee in early June, put her in the water and do a shake down cruise north to Antigua or St. Martin. One of those will then be the jumping off point for a sail to Bermuda. That's about a week. That's also scary but we feel it is the next level for us and something we want to do. That will also require the purchase of a new life raft. We have one on board but it is so old that no one services them any longer. I don't want to go to sea with an unknown entity in the life raft container!
We also plan to purchase SPOT satellite position locater. We used this when I crewed on the crossing from Key West to Kemah TX. You register it and then just push the button and it will send up to 10 e-mails with your current position and put it on a map. Good for the folks back home. It also has an "I am in trouble" button that you can press. Hopefully we won't need that feature.
We'll re-sign up with Chris Parker and his weather service for daily updates on weather along our route and routing advise. Once we head north towards Bermuda I won't be stubborn about that goal. If conditions dictate that we head more west toward the states so be it. Picking up the gulf stream and riding it north is another option.
A good question to work on now is fuel and range. I sure as hell don't intend or think I'm able to motor all the way to Bermuda. The typical winds in June are south east. I hope I can put that wind on Enee's quarter and sail all the way to Bermuda and points north. Needing to motor some is inevitable and will have to run some perhaps if the wind generator can't keep up with the electrical needs of the auto pilot. But just days of motoring isn't possible I don't think. We carry 75 gallons of diesel and I can strap maybe 6, 5 gallon gerry can's to the rail. We use about 2/3 of a gallon an hour at around 1500 rpm. So, boys and girls, what's my range? Assume that Enee can average 4.5 knots. Let's see. . .
~100 gallons x 2/3 hour/gallon x 4.5 nm/hour = 300 miles
That's not even half way to Bermuda so this is when our diesel is TRULY an auxiliary engine. I'd have to double (at least) our fuel capacity by adding some kind of tank. I don't think that's going to happen.
I think I'm going to stay at Cool Runnings right across from the boat yard in Grenada. I could stay on the boat for nearly free but I hate staying in boat yards. This place is very reasonable and has AC and a kitchenette. I think after crawling around in a hot boat all day I'll need nice shower and AC to keep at it.
So, all comments appreciated as usual. I need to start writing here more often now that things are actually happening. . . sort of.
