Dry Run: So this past weekend we decided to do a "dry run" for the big trip and stayed overnight on the boat anchored by our favorite island. As a result, we discovered that our dinghy, which was supposed to be fixed, was only partially fixed. It no longer leaked air so it stayed fully inflated, but it still took on water at a rather rapid rate I might add. The good news is that we discovered this now as opposed to later. Part of the reason for the dry run / shake-down cruise was to identify potential problems, and we were able to catch the dinghy issue, see where the water was coming in, and apply a patch to correct the problem.
The other thing we discovered on our test run is that there are a number of things that need to be added to our "must bring" list. The list grew and grew over the weekend as we discovered one thing after another that we couldn't live without like electrical tape, clothes pins, and our Healthwise Handbook. Much to our dismay we found we could have used the latter as the captain burned his hand when he touched one of the halogen lights in the master state room ceiling. I believe this happened at about the exact same time he was explaining to me that the lights become hot. He was in the process of touching the light with his hand to see just how hot it was and yelped in surprise. The area has now blistered to about the size of a quarter - a minor but painful injury which added our health book to our take-along list. The offending light, as well as 10 of his friends, will soon be replaced by the less dangerous and much less energy-draining LED counterpart. Unfortunately, the LED versions are quite expensive to install, so there is another unexpected and somewhat significant pre-trip expenditure which wasn't in our budget plan.
Other than sinking a dinghy and a burned hand, the over-nighter was quite lovely. The constant rocking of the boat put me to sleep much earlier than my normal bedtime. In fact keeping my eyes open past 9:00 p.m. did not seem to be much of an option. Amazingly the captain whose normal sleepy time is around 2:00 a.m. was close on my heels to retire for the night. Sunday morning found us out in our leaking dinghy exploring the island for shoaling. Over the years "our island" has become smaller and smaller. The captain was convinced he had touched bottom when he was out that way a couple of weeks ago, so we took the dinghy to go exploring for depth. I sat at the front of the dinghy with an anchor attached to a line and repeatedly dropped it over the side of the dinghy looking for the anchor to hit bottom and attempting to get some approximation as to where the shallow points were now located. For the most part we didn't find anything very interesting as everything appeared to be at least 4 or more feet wherever we dropped our line.
After our own explorations the captain decided to beach the boat and ask some of the other captains what they knew about the depth coming into the island. Some people are very friendly and offer all sorts of information just due to common interest of being a fellow boater. Well, the first boater we asked did not fall into this category. We had seen him come into the island over the exact route we were interested in so my captain asked about depth. The other captain blatantly refused to even answer our inquiry as if we hadn't spoken. His wife said "it's shallow everywhere" and then she too ignored us. Their approach worked well as we quickly moved on in hopes of finding a "happy" boater. The boat's name was Short Fused. I decided that must describe the owner's personality.
Further on down the beach I found someone that I recommended we ask. I gather by the size of this person's boat, my captain was less than hopeful that the inquiry would give payback. As it turns out, this boater was not only friendly and talkative but also extremely knowledgeable about the local waters. We left with the information we had been seeking, and I was able to have an "I told you we should ask" smirk on my face as we walked away.
All too soon our fun, test weekend had to come to a close as we had a dinner engagement. Before heading up the river though, we headed out into the bay to do some engine checks and play with our chart plotter. Engine checks were fine, but my-oh-my the user interface on the chart plotter leaves a person very quickly considering whether or not to send it over the side of the boat into the briny deep hoping to never have to deal with it again. It is a Garmin and I would expect more. It is not a touch screen and has no keyboard, but instead has a combination of rocker switches and +/- (zoom in/out) buttons that are certainly not intuitive. For example, the screen shows a "back" button on the display but no where in the manual does it describe how to go 'back'. It seems to me that if a display is going to have a back button then it should either be very obvious how to get to it or it should be explained in the manual. Fail!
I played with the chart potter while the captain piloted the boat home. I had learned how to deal with it a couple of years ago when we purchased it, but due to its unfriendly nature and my "rustiness" regarding its use, it was like starting all over again. I was able to set a couple of waypoints and plot a route, which were non-trivial accomplishments. Unfortunately, the way the plotter works, I believe I either set the route to take our boat over land, or if not, then certainly over waters too shallow for our boat to manage. I told the captain I had a route set and then abandoned him to get the dishes done before we reached home with the knowledge that the captain could and has, many times, found his way home from that particular spot in the dark. I had no worries that we would be 'high and dry' for the next few hours.
So, now we are home and back at work for another 7 days, and I'm wishing our 'dry run' had been the beginning of the real thing with the knowledge that if it had been the 'real thing', we wouldn't have been quite ready. I now find myself with a list of projects to complete this week, so the mini weekend getaway turned out to be very fruitful and enjoyable.
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