Well, fellow sailors, our time rapidly approaches to cast off from FL for a 7-month cruise up to Maine and back. Friday was my last day at work for 7 months and that alone feels great.
The weather looks good to start our northern adventure on Sun, 1 Apr and none too soon since we are already getting forecasts for the low 90s (F) next week as the daytime highs.
The bottom paint has been painted right up to the boot stripe and I am not proud to say that in the stern we have the waterline over halfway up the boot stripe. Since we are taking the IntraCoastal Waterway, we will be lucky to sail (even motorsail) 20% of the time underway, but that's what this sort of trip is.
We hope you'll follow along on our blog. Since we will have cell phone service most of the way, I can check in here from time to time, too.
Stay well and enjoy life!
Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
Duane and Diane, and Clyde, very best wishes. It sounds like a great adventure. You'll probably be glad you have the shoal keel. I've put your blog on my favorites bar. By the way, if you haven't loaded Tapatalk on your phone, let me tell you it's very good for the C36IA forums.
Larry Brandt
S/V High Flight #2109
Pacific Northwest, PDX-based
2002 C-36 mkII SR/FK M35B
[QUOTE=deising;12506]... we will be lucky to sail (even motorsail) 20% of the time underway, but that's what this sort of trip is.
Stay well and enjoy life![/QUOTE]
Well we wish you "fair currents" on your trip :D
S.V. Wind Star
Rob & Margie Kyles: Auckland ,New Zealand
Mk I Hull #105 1983 Std Rig, Std Keel
Very good, Rob!
Larry, we expect to be at the infamous low bridge on Sat. The results will all be in the blog.
Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
Enjoy the journey!!
Allan Rex
# 2216
Have a wonderful time! I'm sure we'll all be following your blog.
Mike
Deja Vu
1991 MK I # 1106
Marina del Rey, CA
I look forward to following the trip and hope you enjoy it to the fullest.
Stephen Kruse
Kruse Control #1428
1995 C-36 MKII SR/WK
Lake Lanier, Ga.
Captain Duane and Admiral/Diva Diane,
Have a great trip! Sue and I look forward to meeting up with you somewhere along your route!!!
Tom Sokoloski
C36/375IA Past Commodore
Noank, CT
Have a great trip. Say hello to Maine Sail when you get there! You must feel really good about that forestay attachment about now...:)
Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)
Have a geat time, long term cruising is wonderful.
John Meyer
Hilbre 2135-Currently in Santa Rosalia, Sea of Cortez
John Meyer
Hilbre
C36 MKll, Hull 2135
Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro, CA
Ahoy, all! Thanks for your good wishes. We are only 4.5 days into this cruise and already I am outta the work mode and into the cruising mode.
Glad you are following along in the blog. It is not intended to be entertaining, but at least a good accounting (for you and us) of or adventure.
Cheers!
Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
Duane,
Great blog, thanks for keeping us jealous and updated.
Wishing you warm weather, fair winds, favorable currents, cold beer and toothless insects.
Steve
Cepheus dream
C36 MK I # 825
MK I Tech Editor No Mas
Diva Di and crew. Good luck tomorrow going under the Lake "O" 49 foot railroad bridge. I see the height today is actualy listed at 50.52 feet.
__/)__/)__/)__Capt Mike__/)__/)__/)__
Punta Gorda Florida
1990 Std WK M35 Hull #1050
Thanks, Steve; I hope to keep you all jealous a lot longer.
Mike, the winds kicked up with the frontal passage and crossing the 8 foot deep lake with 15-25 kt winds on the nose Sat looks to be a poor choice. We may have to stay another night at Roland Martin's marina and help put the Tiki bar waitress through college. :D
Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
Have a great trip! Can't help but throw some ideas out there (though I am sure you have already researched the day-lights out of this....If you plan to stop anywhere north of Long Island Sound...here are some ideas:
- Block Island (this place is one of my favorite destinations and worth spending a couple of days. the moorings fill quickly though there is a nice anchorage area as well)
- Cutty Hunk (first island you will reach as you head north into Buzzards Bay)
- Newport - can't go wrong checking out Newport. Narraganset Bay is a wonderful spot to sail. You will be rubbing shoulders with the 12-meters as well...
- Hadley Harbor (close to Woods Hole - wonderful anchorage and great to ride out a storm)
**Cape Cod Canal** - be sure to catch the tide...otherwise it will take a long time to get through and you will burn a fair amount of fuel...
- Marblehead - this is where I live (I would offer my mooring however we just sold it and are moving to Annapolis in 18 days). I could go on and on about Marblehead...simply beautiful spot. There are some neat island where you can drop a hook in the area such as Misery Island (don't let the name fool you)
- Rockport - neat spot close to Gloucester...Gloucester is a neat area to see though not a favorite area for us to spend the night due to the boat rocking all night due to the wake of fishing boats headed out and in 24 hours a day
Enjoy your trip! If you have any questions at all or want to bounce any ideas off me, don't hesitate to call. Shoot me a message and I will send you my phone number.
jack
Jack Bahen
Kinera - 1985 C36 Mk I Tall Rig
Hull # 422
Annapolis, MD
Congrats and have a great trip. You are welcome to our mooring when you get to Long Island Sound - let us know if you plan to stop by Northport!
Tim Farrell
S.V. Kailua
C36 - 1986
Hull# CTY0678A886
Daune
First post with new (to us) Catalina 36
Great blog!
We are planning a long term cruise in a year from Toronto, Erie canal, Hudson ICW. Your insight is great.
What upgrades would you make to have a more comfortable trip?
We have chosen a tall rig, fin keel knowing the Bahamas will be challenging with the deep draft and ICW a challenge with the tall rig.
We have full ST 60 auto pilot, Radar, chart plotter etc, 2 - 45lb anchors, solar panel, plan to add wind gen to keep the 2 large AGM's charged, motor hoist and pad eyes for securing the dink on the foredeck.
The trip will be indefinite so mods additions can be done while underway at the appropriate facility.
Thanks for sharing.
Brad
2000 Catalina 36
Hull #1915
M35B
TR Fin Keel
"I can teach a man to sail, but I can never teach him why."
Timothy E. Thatcher
Thank you, Brad. Glad you found the blog interesting and helpful.
While we have modified out boat over the years to make her more suited to our warm-water cruising environment, where sailing and anchoring are much more common than motoring and marina visits, there would have been a few things to make this cruise more pleasant:
1. Better sound-proofing of the engine compartment. We ran the engine (in order to make a reasonable distance in a reasonable time) essentially 99.5 % of the time we were underway. Its loud drone was not enjoyable.
2. A better helm seat. Ironically, our boat came with one and we sold it since we always wanted quick access to the swim ladder and didn't motor much. For this cruise, it would have been appreciated. I wound up sitting on an overturned plastic milk crate with a seat cushion as padding. It was OK, but not that great.
3. A better auto-pilot. We feel our ST4000 is underpowered for many conditions. I wound up hand-steering a lot more than i expected to.
4. Instruments that would swivel or be otherwise visible when not directly behind the helm. In many spots along the ICW, you had better be watching the depth sounder at least every 10 seconds. On our boat, you are stuck behind the wheel to do that.
For your cool-weather cruising, this may not be an issue, but we found that once we were headed south while it was still summer, we could only get adequate comfort by paying expensive marina fees to run the air conditioning. I wouldn't want to try it with this C36, but a quiet generator that would allow us to run the A/C (probably 3kW) at anchor would have made a huge difference.
Hope that helps a little, Brad. Good luck with your new boat and the cruise.
Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/
Duane
Thank you for the prompt reply, we don't have air on the boat and had hoped fans would get the job done (hey we're from Canada!
Appreciate the input an look forward to sharing a beverage with you and the Admiral.
Fair winds and following seas.
Brad
2000 Catalina 36
Hull #1915
M35B
TR Fin Keel
"I can teach a man to sail, but I can never teach him why."
Timothy E. Thatcher