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The hassels of actually getting underway. The below is just to help and what we have found keeps thing easy and efficent.
We were usually out of the docks, by noon to 1 pm, and headed over to Norman and the Willy T.
That was many years with the moorings and sunsail . .
The last two years , we have been bare boating with Conch. Going with them again in a few days. ( two weeks of sailing )
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Again, this is just to maybe help keep you ahead of the power curve, and have a happy ship load of friends.
With Conch, we have a sleep aboard, that begins at 4:30 pm, the boat is cleaned, watered, fueled, checked by staff and ready for us to board and leave the next day. Small fee for the early sleep aboard.
That plan really helps us to depart road harbor early the next day. Early the next day, we will re- top off all water tanks .
For the early boarding, sleep aboard , We do not sit around on the boat, We are busy preparing . And I mean very busy, and after the work is done and the sun is down, it is grub and grog time, and hit the rack.
Early boarding procedures : 1630 hrs.
1. Go to Rireway and load up and stow provisions and board at 4:30 pm. Load up with a couple giant bags of ICE. .
2. Go thru the vessel inventory to make sure everything is on board, and we know exactly where it is located. Check off each one on the inventory list. That is done.
3. Also also begin our own personal pre departure check list as well. We locate all ships gear, operate all of the different systems, electrical, engine room, check rigging and sails. anchors, electronics, bilges , marine head, batteries etc.
Actually some of it , we will finish up first thing the next morning . Anything that we are not familar with, the briefer will going over the next day during his overall boat system brief. This not only saves time, but we discover
any problems that can be fixed or corrected and not hold us up getting out of the docks the next day.
4. Navigation and plotting : Nav, charts, course, ETA to destination, mooring fields. navaids, , things to do ashore. All done and taken care of.
Next Day,
5. Scheduled chart briefing should be fairly early on your departure day.. I think the moorings and sunsail were early , about 9 am.
6, System brief wold be about 10:00 or 11:00 am. That would will also go along fairly quickly due to our earlier pre sailing personal checks and inspections.
Don't forget , you also have to brief the passengers and crew on the systems as well. And with the catamarans, that is one heck of a lot of people.
Erica attends the chart and systems briefing. Also, we have any questions for the briefer written out as well.
We have found, that if we are prepared, we can get thru the chart brief, and boat systems brief, and let go dock lines and be under sail.
