Cruising: It’s a full-time job
By Mike Jastrzebski
I’ve come to realize that living on a boat and cruising is a full time job. I’ve finally finished fixing all of the problems that popped up while we were in the Bahamas. Now, I’ve got to do the things I didn’t get done before the trip.
We plan to leave Cape Canaveral in November and work our way down to Miami before heading back to the Bahamas. From there where we go is anyone’s guess. That leaves me less than 3 months to prepare. I’ve been looking into ways to mount solar panels on the boat. Our bimini is not sturdy enough to handle a big panel so we’ve decided to add a good set of dinghy davits. We plan to mount a 250 watt panel on the davits, but standard davits aren’t tall enough to raise the panel high enough to avoid shading from the bimini. I’ve done my research and I think I’m going to have the davits made to order from Garhauer Marine Hardware. I’m going to call them this week and get a quote. If all works out I’ll blog about it and post some pictures.
I also bought a router from Al Francone over at WiFi Solutions for my Lynx antenna. It has worked perfectly, allowing me to connect to the marina wifi with my iPad and allowing Mary to connect with her netbook.
I’ve also decided that instead of mounting my radar dome on the mast, I’m going to put up a mast pole behind the cockpit, and this week I’m going to order a water bladder to increase our water capacity. We have a large storage area beneath the V-berth that I plan to use for the bladder. It will be a pain, and a bit time consuming, but we just don’t carry enough water for cruising.
On the writing front I’ve started outlining what will become my Abaco Wes Darling book. The working title is Stranded Naked Blues, but it may become Junkanoo Blues, or even Abaco Blues. The writing is moving slowly, but I hope to have the boat work done by mid-October and then I’ll turn most of my energy toward the book.
Next week maybe I’ll share my to-do list for the boat and let our readers weigh in on whether they think I can get everything done in 2 1/2 months.
Share on Facebook
