T-minus one month to blast off!
Side note: If you can read this blog post then we were successful at testing out posting via the XGate email service that we will be using in conjunction with an Iridium 9555 satellite phone.
We just passed the one month to go mark for our planned departure from Annapolis. I thought it was interesting to look at what we’ve done over the last month since we returned from the boat to prepare for the crossing. So here is a fairly comprehensive list of what we’ve been working on recently:
Ordered –
• Viking Rescyou 4-Man Offshore Life Raft
• ACR GlobalFix Pro GPIRB
• Iridium 9555 satellite phone with Optimizer WiFi router and external antenna
• XGate email service for the satellite phone
• Galerider Drogue with 350’ of rode
• Charts – Paper and electronic (Navionics)
• PSS Shaft Seal
• 4 plungers for the Shakewell seacocks
• 16’6” Forespar Carbon spinnaker pole (a whisker pole only for us)
• Garhauer rigid vang
• L&S Ecopilot solenoid for autopilot (supposedly reduces consumption from 30 amps/day to 5 amps/day!)
• Kyocera 140W solar panel
• Morning Star ProStar 30A 3-stage charge controller
• 40” SS handrails for dodger (and for solar panel mounting)
• 4 more 5-gallon diesel jugs (we’ll have 5 total)
• 2 more 5-gallon water jugs( we’ll have 3 total)
• 200’ of 10mm Spectra for 2nd & 3rd reef and spare halyard
• Boom preventer line (Part 3mm Spectra, part ¼” double-braid)
• Twing/barber hauler lines (to keep the spinnaker sheets off the boom and/or for the gennaker and to pull the jib sheet outboard for reaching)
• Antal Ring Loops for the boom preventer and the twing lines (my favorite item!)
• Garhauer T-Track mounted blocks for twings/barber hauler
• Garhauer T-Track mounted cleats for spring line and/or fenders
• Spare starter for Yanmar
• Spare solenoid for Yanmar
• Cruising Solutions Tri-Color LED
• Cruising Solutions Anchor LED
• Starboard drink holders for binnacle
• 2 Sport-a-Seats
• 300W portable inverter (in addition to the 150W we already have)
• Digital barometer
• Dive masks and snorkels
• Male to male mono audio cable to connect all-band radio to Mac as backup to satellite phone for weather info
• Y-Valve for overboard discharge
• Whale manual pump for overboard discharge
• Portable 12V fan
• Johnson Pump 2200 gallon/hour submersible bilge pump (in addition to existing self-priming, but small pump)
• Whale foot pump and spigot for fresh water
• Brion Toss Splicing Wand
Contracted –
• Installing PSS Seal
• Installing Balmar 110amp alternator & ARS-5 regulator
• Rebedding chainplates
• Compound and wax the topsides
Whew! That’s a few items, but we are feeling ahead of the curve at this point. We would have been comfortable doing each of the items we contracted out, but in the interest of time we turned a few things over to the professionals.
Wow, what a list Justin & Chris ! Who did you order from, who was able to get it to you in Annapolis in time to meet your departure deadline ? Or did you order from many suppliers eg the Sport-a-Seats ? I have seen some of your gear advertised in the Defender Catalog, but have also shopped at Fawcett’s and Westmarine when my J120 was at Port Annapolis Marina, just before my delivery trip to Lake Champlain in 2010.(K2’s old hunting ground !) I am trying to weigh the merits of twin Whisker Poles for Wing-on Wing with twin jibs or a set up similar to yours with main held out by the preventer and poled out single jib. What size jib are you using with your Carbon Whisker pole ? I have a carbon mast and I am uncomfortable drilling holes for a pole ring mounting which ideally should be on an adjustable track, so I am looking for some mast circumferential clamps to hold the pole support.
John,
Thanks for the message. We did order from all over the place, but we ordered far enough in advance that there was no issue getting things on time. We had just waited until the shakedown sail to make sure we were really going forward with crossing the Atlantic before we bought a bunch of the expensive bits we’d need for offshore.
We use a 120% #2 as our primary headsail and that is what we poled out. Our pole is 16′ long and I’m glad I got it longer than J since it works better that way with the genoas. That said, unless you were planning to cross an ocean, I wouldn’t bother with a whisker pole. We rarely used ours and it wouldn’t have been an issue if we didn’t have it. We’d have just reached more. I don’t see us using it much at all in the upcoming years. Our small gennaker on a furler gets a lot more use.