Making the jump

[SV_Harbinger]

Well boys and girls, the time is nigh.
The bank account is ready, a manager has been found for the houses, the kitty is sufficiently fat, and Harbinger tugs increasingly hard at her mornings every day. There is still some things that need done, standing rigging, some bottom work and the like, but after 10 years of ownership and 5 of living aboard, refiting, and saving, there is only a maintenance cycle (and a winter) between me and casting off for parts unknown...
Literally unknown lol, I don't have a planned destination, just a direction, north (from where I am now) until after hurricane season, then south chasing the warm, possibly Bahamas, not sure, after that even less sure lol.
But for now, I sit here watching the flames in the heater, coffee (sans brandy, too early for that yet) in hand looking through charts, and reading through cruising guides....
And when I do get out there, if anyone sees me feel free to give a rap on the hull, the coffee is good (with or without a northerly twist) and visitors are always welcome.
In the meantime looking forward to seeing a location on the plotter other than the one shown lol, it gets cold here lol.
I would also like to thank everyone, here and other wise, who have helped me to get to this point.

[redhead]

I love the name of your boat.

Well, we're in the same boat. We spent 4 years fixing up our old boat and finally got off the dock for 2 months last summer for a shake down cruise. It was stupendous. I'm sure by now you know every inch of your boat and that will come in handy. I know you must be watching the clock waiting...

I noticed that you're in Buzzards Bay and will head north next year and I can recommend one thing we're grateful we did.

Take an extended shake down cruise to put every boat system through it's paces BEFORE leaving heavily populated areas with marine supply stores, expert advice, etc. Even though we had rebuilt our windlass and tested it extensively at the dock, we found it was just too old to handle the new tackle and daily use. Had we headed up to Alaska without that shakedown we would have been in a world of hurt, no big cities, high import duties, don't know anyone, and on and on. We know people who had to fly parts in - very expensive.

Much good luck to you - keep posting your adventures!

[JPA Cate]

Congratulations, Harbinger, soon, soon, you'll be free! Enjoy!

redhead's advice, above, is good.

When we were finally ready to cast off for parts unknown, there was a last loading of the ship, and she went down on her lines. What also happened, was that there was no anti-siphon valve in the exhaust line, and we sucked water back down into the engine, necessitating a head job on a new engine when we got to San Diego from San Francisco. So, either don't overload, or, install an anti-siphon. Jim made ours to drain out into the cockpit, so you'd hear it gurgle when you turned the engine off.


Ann

[SV_Harbinger]

Ann great advice about the anti syphon, I have mine led to just under the coaming and it sounds like a kid with a milkshake when I kill the engine lol.
And thank you for the compliment Red, and not to worry I plan on staying relatively close to civilization for a while, in all likelihood I'll probably spend the summer bobbing around Maine before turning south when the cold months start.