We sailed with The Moorings from May 15 to May 23 on a Dufour 44.3. This post is probably way too long for most people - sorry if you can't get through it but I write these as much for my own remembrance as for anyone else to read. You have been warned...
Last year we had a Beneteau 46.3 and really enjoyed it but when looking at yachts for this year, I was tempted by the new Dufour 44.3. A little smaller but it had a water maker - oooh, the possibilities of unlimited water!
The one concern was the disclaimer in The Moorings service agreement that the water maker was NOT covered under their 4 hour fix-it guarantee. Hmm... In the end, I chose the Dufour.
We took the AA direct flight from MIA and did the sleep aboard the first night. We provisioned with Riteway and they got MOST of our stuff. One interesting thing they couldn't supply was tortilla chips and nobody else in the islands seemed to have them either. We checked every store we found and could not find tortilla chips. Two bottles of salsa got left on the boat for the shore crew...
We had the boat briefing early on Friday and as our guy was going through the things, another guy came to the boat and explained that he was the "Dufour person". He basically explained that the Dufour was new and readily admitted that they are going through some "teething pains" as they switch their fleet over and Dufour works out the kinks of stamping out large numbers of charter boats. He was very forthcoming about all the issues they were finding and how they were working through them.
One of the first things we noticed right when we got on was that there was no microwave despite it being clearly listed on the yacht description. Turns out that the microwaves that they shipped didn't fit in the space allocated so they were having to figure something else out. So that microwavable food that we bought from Riteway? Yeah, we were going to actually have to use the oven to cook that stuff - the horrors! It wasn't really a big deal for us - we only had a couple of things and we kind of enjoy the roulette wheel of cooking in the oven and wondering what the temp actually is and when stuff will be done.
The bigger issue was that the panel where the microwave was supposed to be, was just a snap-in frame that was barely held in.
That sound you hear is foreboding music signaling drama to come later. You will hear that music a few more times...
The next issue was that the bow thruster didn't work. I guess the controller board for the thruster is right next to the forward air con and the condensation zaps the circuitry for the thruster. Whoops! No foreboding music here though, I have a crack foredeck crew who NEVER miss a ball and the only time I used the thruster last year is when I wanted to play with it to see how it worked.
Actually, there is some foreboding music when I talk about my crack foredeck crew - my wife and my buddy. Their skills in this area were put to the test a few days later...
The next issue was the fridge(s) - there are two - didn't really shut very well. This affected their cooling performance during the trip and also caused an issue later on.
There was a drawer - full of stupid heavy china plates and dishes - that also didn't latch very well (more music).
The Dufour guy took a peek in the anchor chain locker, left, and came back with a shackle. They've been finding that the bitter end of the chain isn't being fastened to the ring in the locker. The chances of that being a problem are pretty low I guess but yikes!
At this point, since it was clear that this was going to be a Beta test, I started making a list, which I'll highlight below. I was a bit conflicted at these revelations. On the one hand, I didn't really know that I'd be beta testing these boats. On the other hand, I credit The Moorings with being transparent with the issues and seeming to stand behind their service. I actually mentioned to the guy about the "No 4 hour Service" carve-out on the water maker and he said that if we had to stop for water, they would reimburse us for the cost. I didn't have that in writing of course but I was still impressed that they were showing some commitment to these boats and their charterers.
Anyway, a few of the other things that I noted (some of these are nit-picky but they do add up):
The audio system was really strange. We could connect our phones to it via BT and it would play but then sometimes just stop. The only way to get it going again was to reboot (yes, it seemed to have an operating system) the radio. It also seemed to be connect to the chart plotter(s). At one point, I turned off one of the plotters and the music stopped. Strange.
The wheel is really close to the panel that the plotter sits in/on such that when you turn the wheel, your fingers get pinched between the wheel and the edge of the panel.
There is no peep-hole in the Bimini to let you see the main. On the 46, you could unzip a half circle of cover and look up at the main to see it foul the lazy jacks EVERY SINGLE TIME as you raise the main. On this boat, you have crane your head out the side. Irritating.
The 46 had angled foot rests that you could pop up to give you a more horizontal place to stand when at heel. Nothing on the 44. I'm not sure if this is actually a negative though because I've also tripped on those platforms on the 46.
One of the things I was interested in was the possibility of having a dinghy davit. The pictures of the boat online show one but I wasn't sure if those were just marketing photos and the actual charter boat would not have it. Turns out it DOES have one (or is it two - I'm not sure if you call the whole thing a davit or if each of the arms is a davit and you have two). Anyway, the first thing I noticed was that there was only a 2:1 pulley on each line that ran to a cam lock. I couldn’t imagine how that would be enough to lift the dink. I mentioned this to the briefer and he just said "don't use the davit. It's easier to just tow the dinghy." This really bugged me but then I realized that the lines had a direct path to the two main sheet winches and guess what - they were just long enough to reach them and take a few wraps. It's a bit more involved than just towing but it worked well.
Oh, and somewhat related, I was surprised to find that the swim platform was manually raised/lowered. You had to tug on 6:1 block and tackle to raise it. Not a big deal but we couldn't just have the ladies raise or lower the platform at the push of a button like on other boats.
The mirrored cabinets in the head are heavy (good) but don't have struts to help hold them up/open when you are trying to get something in them (bad).
The next issue was the heads. Now I don't know how the head/holding tank design is supposed to work but it SEEMED like the holding tank was above the level of the toilet and the check valve (?) between the toilet and the tank was faulty because after every flush, waste water would refill the bowl. What seemed to help was multiple fills and flushes but still, after refilling the bowl with just a bit of water, we would come back to the head and the bowl would be almost full with varying degrees of bad water. It was quite unpleasant and irritating. Oddly, though, there was never water on the floor - even after some pretty high heel episodes. I was thankful for that at least.
The auto pilot was very strange (to me anyway). As we were coming out of Road Town, I pointed the boat towards Peter Island - our first stop - and hit the the Auto button on the pilot. The boat decided it would rather go to St John and did a hard right turn. I hit the port 10 degree button a few times but it didn't respond and I had to put it back in Standby. I tried again a few times but it had a mind of its own. There was a Mode button on the panel but I'd never seen that before and didn't know what it did. I pressed it a few times but nothing seemed to change. This was a pretty major issue because the next day I had to manually steer from Norman to Gorda straight upwind in 25-30 knots - more on that later but it was a pain.
A few days later I got around to finding and reading the manual and I THINK it was in "wind" mode. A long press on the Mode button got it back to Auto but it still acted weird. On the sail back from Anegada to Jost in 11-13 knots and easy seas (in other words, conditions that should have been easy to hold a course), my heading would wander plus or minus 10 degrees off my set heading. I'm used to the AP holding a very tight heading and seeing it really work the wheel whereas this thing just seemed to lazily keep us going in the general direction we wanted. Maybe it's to put less strain on the system and/or batteries by not working so hard at keeping the exact heading but it was frustrating. If I hit the 10 degree button, it seemed like it would say "Oh, you want to go there? Well let me think about that for a bit. You sure you don't want to keep going in this direction? Oh alright, I'm turning, I'm turning - jeez."
I THINK the radio would not transmit. I stupidly did not do a radio check before leaving and while coming back in at the end of the trip, I could not raise the dock master. I could hear other boats talking with them but they could not hear me and my radio check went unanswered. I'm a dummy for not checking that before we left.
And finally, the depth gauge seemed like it was reading actual depth, not depth beneath the keel. At Anegada, I was motoring (very slowly) through the mooring field and the sounder was reading 4.5 feet when I touched bottom and stopped. I actually could not get going again but a guy in a cat jumped in his dinghy and helped me pull back and out of the mud. Phew!
So that's the list of "issues" I found in the boat. Despite them all, I enjoyed it and I'm confident they will get the issues worked out. We also had a fantastic trip, with lots of adventures.
So, on with the trip. For our first night I wanted to try Key Cay on Peter. It sounded like a less crowded spot and I wanted to try something new. Well, we got there and found it was going to be too rolly. Looking back across at Norman however we saw Benures Bay and figured we'd give that a try. It was fabulous! There were only two other boats there when we got there and they left after about an hour so we had the whole place to ourselves. There were quite a few balls there - more than I was expecting and it was super nice. A guy from Pirates Bight came by later to collect the fee.
The next day we woke to a howling 30 knots from the North. We thought about just staying put but we really wanted to head to Gorda so when it dropped down to about 25, I put a reef in (yeah that was naive) and headed out.
Remember how I talked about the heavy drawer of china and the flimsy microwave panel, and the fridge doors that didn't latch very well? Yeah, as soon as the main filled, everything, and I mean everything came crashing down and onto the cabin floor. Broken china, beer cans spraying, bedlam. There was nothing for it though so we kept on. I unfurled the jib and we pretty much buried the rail. I was thinking that this was probably going to be too much though so I figured we'd have to either turn back or maybe head to Cooper. I didn't get much time to really think about it though because the other wife yelled at me to look at the dingy line. I looked over to see it slipping on the cleat. I grabbed the tail end but could not hold it and away she went. Crap!
I take full responsibility for this situation. I know how to tie a cleat hitch and I did not mis-tie it but what did me in I think was it was a brand new (read slippery) yellow polypro line, the cleat was also shiny and new, and I, not putting these two things together, didn't put enough wraps on the cleat before hitching it off. All on me - but with a slight defense...
So, I called the husband - who hadn't seen this - back to furl the jib. He saw the boat floating away and calmly said "you know we lost the dinghy right?" "Uh, yep." We got the jib furled and I came around under main and motor to try and chase down my dink. We had talked about MOB situations and how someone should never take their eyes off the target and this came in handy here as it was easy to lose sight of it in the 25 knots of wind, 6-7 foot waves, and foaming whitecaps.
I really had no idea how I was going to do this but I really, really, really did not want to pay for a new dinghy. We had plenty of sea room so I figured we would be able to at least try a few times and we might get lucky.
Remember the crack foredeck crew who never miss a ball, they went up on the bow and as I went past the dink and rounded up beneath it, they somehow snagged the painter and made it fast on the cleat - on the first try! I couldn't believe it. We luffed up and moved it back to the rear cleat and I started breathing again.
After this ordeal, and since the seas were getting bigger and the squall continued to blow, we dropped the main and decided to try and motor to Gorda. Not having yet figured out the auto pilot made this a very long trip. I tried to tuck up closer to Tortola the but seas were still quite big. The Dufour guy mentioned that this was a very flat bottomed boat and we really felt it in these conditions. We would come up on a wave and absolutely SLAM down on the next one. I don't think I've ever felt a boat and the rigging shudder like that on any other boat.
We eventually made it to Leverick just as the squall passed through and the day brightened like none of this ever happened. It was quite a ride. When we kicked on the A/C, we noticed the fans were blowing but we were not getting cold air. There was a "HP" error on the panel. We googled it and found a ton of hits basically saying that in high heel conditions, air bubbles get in the cooling lines and cause a lock out/high pressure issue and you need to bleed the lines to get it going again. I had no idea where or how to do this so I called the Moorings and they sent a guy from Leverick. He went right to a floor panel - which was the only one not screwed down - lifted it up and proceeded to un-hose clamp three water lines, which sputtered and then flowed. Cold air!!! Yay! The fact that this guy knew right were to go and they don't even bother to screw down the panel, tells me they get this problem a lot.
We went ashore looking for tortilla chips - nope - and made reservations for dinner. At the little beach bar near the pool, we chatted with another crew who had come through the storm. They had lost several bean bags from their cat and were facing several hundred dollars in replacement costs I guess.
Last year, I was getting over a cold and was miserable at the Leverick restaurant but this year it was great and I really enjoyed it.
The next day started rainy but cleared nicely so we decided to head over to the Sandbox and anchor there. We later dinghied over to Saba for drinks and dinner at the upper bar. I know people complain about the loud music there but we loved the vibe and had a great time.
Next day was a great sail to Anegada where we rented a Mini Moke and hit Cow Wreck, Tipsy, and Loblolly Bay and then dinner at the Wonky Dog. We were thinking we would spend two days there but we did everything we wanted on the first day so we decided to head to Jost the next day. We knew that Great Harbor fills up fast so we played the Boaty Ball lottery that morning. We got one but It was odd because only 10 balls were showing (just before 7 am) and I knew there were more than that there.
We had a nice sail to Jost (despite the Auto Pilot wandering all over the place) and found the reason for the lack of Boaty Balls. Apparently, there was a giant flotilla of alumni from MIT and (my guess is) they were hoovering up all the balls. I'm not really sure of the details but it seemed like there was a mix of captained boats, and bareboats so probably some of them did the "reserve the week" thing. It was a lively bunch and we ran into the brunt of it at Foxy's where they had taken over the place. It was fine though. We're kinda meh on the food at Foxy's anyway so we just had some drinks at the bar and then went to Corsairs for pizza.
The next day we got a BB in Cane Garden Bay and stopped at Sandy Cay on the way over. I was a little confused by the mooring situation there. The guide book says there are nine balls and I was under the impression that you had to take a ball - no anchoring. When we got there however, I only saw two balls and lots of boats anchored. So we anchored and enjoyed the day.
At CGB we went ashore to arrange a taxi to Bananakeet and stumbled upon Jeff Ross at the Elm. Wow! Was not familiar with him but we were blown away. We didn't want to leave but had to clean up for dinner.
We got to Bananakeet just before sunset and it was glorious. We were the only people there until a bit later and we really enjoyed it.
Next day we sailed to Norman with a stop at the Indians. Dinner at Pirates Bight, which was lovely, followed by a Fireball shot ski, drinks, and debauchery at Willy T. They will put tattoos anywhere your wives want them to - just sayin...
The last day was an absolutely glorious one tack sail back to the base. As mentioned, I couldn't raise the dock master on the radio but we managed to flag down a guy. He came along side and he kind of said "You come in?" and I said "Yeah." What he apparently meant was that I was going to dock the boat. Uh, no. I whistled him back and he got on board and performed maneuvering magic that was well beyond my abilities.
I went through the list of issues in the debrief and they seemed genuinely appreciative of the feedback. I know I took up a lot of this post on the problems but in the context of the trip, they were minor and we had a fantastic time - quite possibly the best trip we've taken in terms of adventure and variety.
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