tcm
...
nav: don't need to do very much of this too much in advance. Moose#1 used his puter and listed zillions of lovely waypoints and planned to click past each one. Before we went i thought that it was all very fine, and i was all for planning fuel tankers to meet us a month in advance.
But in practice from where he had to leave us, the weather was not so good, and we headed west to la coruna and in toughish wind stayed 2 miles offshore using radar around headlands and went into lots of bays to avoid the swells and do 20+ knots instead of 12 or less. Then, we went to lots of ports we hadn't planned to visit, and just plugged in a "near enuf" offshore waypoint 2 miles from the marina, sometimes from the almanac, sometimes not. To an extent, lots of waypoints - especially those in the middle of the sea - *might* be an indication of someone who would like the sea to be like roads on land - it gives the impression of order and safety. "yes, we go to this junction, then head west to this waypoint, then etc etc...." but the sea isn't like that and in some cases (massive fog) we had to move way offshore during daylight hours to keep clear of fishing boats who loved the flat water, completley spoiling a plan for a direct route.
food. Tons of food that people like is a Big Thing. Easy food is bacon sarnies, spag bol etc. In tough weather, mars bars, chocy biccies, limitless orange juice. Clive arrived with cokes and fanta - a real treat. We eased up in reasonable weather and eventually cooked at sea almost regardless rather than "grinnned and beared it" until the next port - which engenders a spirit of "phew" when yo0u arrive and means everyone is reluctant to set out until the next bright sunny morning.
water:big tanks are for nice long showers, but i think slow the boat down. Most places have water, so we ran on emergency levels most of the time.
money: some places do indeed only take cash for fuel, so at least enuf money for two fillups is needed. Fortunately, these days, it's all the same currency...
mechanicals: especially on a short hol on a boat, there's a tendency to say to yerself "well, phew, it all seems to work..." which is not wrong, but on the longer trip i found it wasn't good enuf - others were (fortunately) more picky and asked questions which pointed to potential problems.
mechanicals 2: aside from the motive power, lack of radar and night lights would have stopped us dead. I had spare lights, and long distance wd consider spare radar bits. And praps a whole nuther radar set for a long-distancing liveaboard boat.
Chartplotters are fun items - a bit irrelevant other than to check yerv entered a waypoint correctly, and mostly useful to answer the "how far to go" question. If any distance offshore, the screen is blank with small dot/arrow until looking at very wide pic.
Charts are not fun items, and include lots of notes that aren't on the e-charts.
Long-distance motorboating is sort-of ideal for "chancers" - let's go/let's stop/let's go somewhere else... are decisions that probably should be exercised all the time, and we did.
It was v useful to have done a course (like at suncoast) that teaches you to drive (ie berth) a two-engine boat with one engine busted or otherwise indisposed. It helps even more if you have a bowthruster! But don't tell suncoast fer crissakes...
I never chanced the fuel levels, as a full tank gives more options. the crew tried to chance it, but we had to turn in to a fuel dock,. and a very good job we did too as wind blew up and we were at sea an extra 3 hours.
Fishing boats and ships might be professionals but are often flippin maniacs. We had fishing boats fishing slap in front of the shipping lanes exits (legal but blimminek...) ships doing 20 knots with anchor lights, other ships doing u-turns n any old place. In a F7, they are also v stressed like anyone else, and go ape at each other on the vhf...
"skipper is boss" might work on a short-distance race, but can't work against the mood of experienced crew, unless you have the backup of a warship. Not that we had any mutiny or enything close, tho I think we had praps too many crew to start - my fault not theirs, as everyone was fine, just a few too many. Mind you, we used the skills and cotributuion of everyone in boatfixing etc, so mebbe, since they all had somewhere to sleep, seven was ok?
Later on though, three crew was the minimum - i felt uncomfortable not having a spare bod during fast offshore running in busy areas at night, one to drive, another to gaze fixedly at the radar.
All above not delivered from any great height - i feel i must have screwed up on the prep cos the blimmin boat broke down bigtime twice and we lost better weather windows. I spect others (specially BrendanS) will know more bout where i mucked up, your thoughts invited.
But in practice from where he had to leave us, the weather was not so good, and we headed west to la coruna and in toughish wind stayed 2 miles offshore using radar around headlands and went into lots of bays to avoid the swells and do 20+ knots instead of 12 or less. Then, we went to lots of ports we hadn't planned to visit, and just plugged in a "near enuf" offshore waypoint 2 miles from the marina, sometimes from the almanac, sometimes not. To an extent, lots of waypoints - especially those in the middle of the sea - *might* be an indication of someone who would like the sea to be like roads on land - it gives the impression of order and safety. "yes, we go to this junction, then head west to this waypoint, then etc etc...." but the sea isn't like that and in some cases (massive fog) we had to move way offshore during daylight hours to keep clear of fishing boats who loved the flat water, completley spoiling a plan for a direct route.
food. Tons of food that people like is a Big Thing. Easy food is bacon sarnies, spag bol etc. In tough weather, mars bars, chocy biccies, limitless orange juice. Clive arrived with cokes and fanta - a real treat. We eased up in reasonable weather and eventually cooked at sea almost regardless rather than "grinnned and beared it" until the next port - which engenders a spirit of "phew" when yo0u arrive and means everyone is reluctant to set out until the next bright sunny morning.
water:big tanks are for nice long showers, but i think slow the boat down. Most places have water, so we ran on emergency levels most of the time.
money: some places do indeed only take cash for fuel, so at least enuf money for two fillups is needed. Fortunately, these days, it's all the same currency...
mechanicals: especially on a short hol on a boat, there's a tendency to say to yerself "well, phew, it all seems to work..." which is not wrong, but on the longer trip i found it wasn't good enuf - others were (fortunately) more picky and asked questions which pointed to potential problems.
mechanicals 2: aside from the motive power, lack of radar and night lights would have stopped us dead. I had spare lights, and long distance wd consider spare radar bits. And praps a whole nuther radar set for a long-distancing liveaboard boat.
Chartplotters are fun items - a bit irrelevant other than to check yerv entered a waypoint correctly, and mostly useful to answer the "how far to go" question. If any distance offshore, the screen is blank with small dot/arrow until looking at very wide pic.
Charts are not fun items, and include lots of notes that aren't on the e-charts.
Long-distance motorboating is sort-of ideal for "chancers" - let's go/let's stop/let's go somewhere else... are decisions that probably should be exercised all the time, and we did.
It was v useful to have done a course (like at suncoast) that teaches you to drive (ie berth) a two-engine boat with one engine busted or otherwise indisposed. It helps even more if you have a bowthruster! But don't tell suncoast fer crissakes...
I never chanced the fuel levels, as a full tank gives more options. the crew tried to chance it, but we had to turn in to a fuel dock,. and a very good job we did too as wind blew up and we were at sea an extra 3 hours.
Fishing boats and ships might be professionals but are often flippin maniacs. We had fishing boats fishing slap in front of the shipping lanes exits (legal but blimminek...) ships doing 20 knots with anchor lights, other ships doing u-turns n any old place. In a F7, they are also v stressed like anyone else, and go ape at each other on the vhf...
"skipper is boss" might work on a short-distance race, but can't work against the mood of experienced crew, unless you have the backup of a warship. Not that we had any mutiny or enything close, tho I think we had praps too many crew to start - my fault not theirs, as everyone was fine, just a few too many. Mind you, we used the skills and cotributuion of everyone in boatfixing etc, so mebbe, since they all had somewhere to sleep, seven was ok?
Later on though, three crew was the minimum - i felt uncomfortable not having a spare bod during fast offshore running in busy areas at night, one to drive, another to gaze fixedly at the radar.
All above not delivered from any great height - i feel i must have screwed up on the prep cos the blimmin boat broke down bigtime twice and we lost better weather windows. I spect others (specially BrendanS) will know more bout where i mucked up, your thoughts invited.