We head out Saturday on our Beneteau 40 De Life. For week two, we planned on having my daughters and my sister's family join us. While having eight on a 3-cabin monohull is possible, we decided that we needed something, well, wider. So, in week two we'll be on CYOA's Helia 44 'Glad In It' with ten of us.

Not our first time on a cat, but my first time as skipper. We're going to spend the day before our crew arrives out with Kimber as our check out captain. Kimber sailed with us for Cat Fight and I'm looking forward to spending the day with him learning tricks, tips and systems. We'll have all of the provisioning done and the boat ready to load crew and have a gentle start. Glad In It is a loaded sweet ride, so this is a rather gilded introduction for us. Its even more fun since we know the very cool owner of Glad In It and the home port listed on the transom is our home town of McLean, VA. "Did you buy a catamaran" questions have already started.

So, spending a week on a charter cat a year after we bought our monohull? We love De Life and she is great for vacations for up to four people, six in a pinch. Looking to the future, we're considering becoming liveaboards and want to understand the monohull/catamaran tradeoffs.

We'll be doing two counter-clockwise circuits of the VIs flying our TTOL flag. If you see us on De Life or Glad In It pop by for a cold beverage.

Cheers, Rick

Have a great trip. Let us know what you think of the Helia, we have one reserved for Jan.

Wooo Hooo
Fun soon come.

The Helia is an incredible platform. Glad In It is a great boat so is de Life. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />


Glad In It

Great boat she is. All tricked out and tons of room. Great single handed helm! Awesome Fusion stereo to boot!

Enjoy!

We just did 10 days on a Helia 44 (Ohana out of TMM), and loved the boat! Very comfortable--loved the helm, sun deck above, salon is well-laid out, and the freezer and refrigerator were the best! Have a great time!

Looking forward to spending a day on the water with you guys.

Sounds wonderful! Do you bring your own beer, Rick? Just curious. I remember being so excited when we were there when I found a (very expensive) 6-pack of the Island Hoppin IPA after downing Carib's all week, so nice to have a real beer

moonhat, we provision Hoegaarden, St. John Brewers IPA and Heineken plus whatever catches our eye. I'd love to bring down some Mad Fox beer, but growlers would be tough, even with a dedicated beer fridge in Glad In It's cockpit. A sixtel of Praha Pils would be nice! Alas, we'll need to drink up at the Tap Room in Cruz Bay.

Cheers, RickG

Have a ball!
Hard to go back to a monohull after living on a cat.
They are so much more livable.

I like the way a monohull sails better, though.

Don't forget the Ice Maker as well for the non beer drinkers.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Jay, we'll see how the ice maker keeps up! I'll apply the rules of happiness from De Life:

1) Crew safety

2) Cold beer

3) Crew comfort (see #2)

Cheers, RickG

Our ice maker works great, Home Depot special

Our silicon ice cube trays work great too

Glad In It along with all our Helia's are a little more sophisticated in the ice department.

Jay, I'm still excited to see the new freezer/evaporator on De Life. You've done a lot of work on her since I was down in March. The new batteries and refrigerator compressor are key.

Cheers, RickG