It all works great! The 3208 TA Diesel Cat (1470 original hours) starts right up, doesn't burn oil (no sooty build-up on the transom) and has not hiccuped once on the entire trip. She burns around 6 gallons an hour at 2070 rpm and makes 14 knots (16 mph) – which is a nice 'stately' speed and quite economical fuel burn curve. Peter will be giving the engine a full service when she gets home to Hampstead, which is right on time for the regular scheduled maintenance.
The portable Honda generator sits on the swim platform and functions perfectly for brewing coffee, toasting English muffins and charging the batteries when at anchor or at a mooring. No problemas con esto aqui! The outboard for the “rubber ducky” - 10' Avon Rover – planes out with 2 adults and Brandy on board. It has been a great water taxi for exploring, taking Brandy to the beach to do her business and us people to shore for any land errands we might have. All this and the generator stow under the dining lounge bench seating in the main salon! Really practical and elegant in its simplicity!
The CNG (compressed natural gas = lighter than air) stove/oven/broiler works great and has only consumed 1 ½ cannisters of fuel in 3 months of constant daily use, at a cost of $14 per bottle. The top loading, cold plate refrigerator is very efficient and doesn't require much power and does not cycle a lot. We are good for 36 hours at anchor and still have plenty of battery to fire the main engine right up. The deep stainless sink is big enough for any duties we have encountered. The Magma propane powered BBQ has served us well , but is a little bit of a pain to use – especially in 30 knots of wind … ha-ha.
We have AM-FM Radio and CD player – always great music on board the ALEX... In a perfect world, there would be speakers in the aft cockpit and on the fly bridge with a selector switch to control which speakers are “on”. Oh well, it can be a 'hard life' out here on the ocean..........
The fully appointed head and shower work perfectly. The mechanical marine toilet has a 'flow and dry' valve and single pump handle. The skipper keeps it lubed with Head Lube and we have had zero problems with it. To avoid that “head smell” we pump out regularly in the appropriate manner and use the marina facilities whenever available.
She is an extremely well built and sound boat. Very stable and maneuverable, she can turn in her own length. I don't know much about boat building (but I do learn a lot by watching and listening). As I understand it, this boat is faired in and bonded at every imaginable joint throughout with a finished gel-coat, even in the bilges. The hull is designed to pluck lobster pots out of the North Atlantic in a full winter gale. Peter says he would like to take her out in that kind of weather “just to see” how she behaves. He says we would just need to take all the canvas off and stow it away – and drive from the inside, lower helm station. I would be game for that – my only requirement would be that it is NOT COLD WEATHER. And, of course with Peter's confident experience, he can put her in any slip even with a strong current and wind... “One engine, no bow thruster, no problem” has become a frequent saying after we tie up in a marina... ha-ha – not arrogant, just experienced boat handling skills. Also, I am proud to admit, my deck hand skills have greatly improved – I can lasso a piling with more success and even sometimes make up a bow line cleat from the deck of the boat. Onwards!Up to date, it has been a very 'easy' cruise – without serious incidents or mechanical problems. All the marinas we have visited have had good facilities, have been 1/2 empty and quiet -- and have had dog friendly rules. Well, we specifically scouted this type of marina in advance. The only real thing lacking has been good mobile broadband Internet connections – and, I am sure that this will improve in the future. (Or, one could outfit their vessel with a newer state of the art satellite communications antenna.)
Well, I hope that fills in any blanks that this boat log has left out during the trip … I relied on pictures being worth 1,000 words because I realized that I might miss the trip if I spent too much time writing a blog! If anyone has any specific questions, I would be glad to answer them – just leave a comment and I will respond when/if I have a good wi-fi connection during the last leg of the trip.
