New Boat

Well the story is kind of strange but the short version is we sold our KK44 Hull 7 and bought another KK44!! Yep we are the owners of KK44 Hull 20.

It's not too often you are able to make some changes after time like we had with our boat.

So first let's talk about the Navigation Electronics changes.
1) Yes I did put in a class A AIS receiver/transmitter this time. Our trip to New England and in the fog made us realize this was a must have. Others who have done the same have no regrets at all about the cost. Well after paying the bill, and getting over that. :-)

2) This time I made sure I have fully dimming screens for use at night. I loved my 17 inch monitors but man at night they blinded me and were of no use. I had to put some red filters over it to make it even remotely usable. So I went with the Furuno 15" monitors, I sure hope they are worth it.

3) I previously mentioned having Max Sea software on this boat and that may still happen, but we went with the new Furuno Navnet 3d system. We ordered it when it first came out so hopefully it will be in soon. I have the Black Box unit in the Pilot house providing info to my two screens and a 12" unit up on top.

4) I'm not going to mess with a good thing and stuck with a Simrad Auto Pilot, the last one worked flawlessly and I think this one will as well.

5) Last time I went with a Icom 502 up on top and a 602 down below. This time I went with two Icom 604's both installed down below and with the new fully functional mikes up on top. The reason I had them staggered before was the 602 and 502 had the remote mikes with only channel and volume adjustment. Now I can answer MMSI calls, etc.

6) I stuck with the 4 foot open array.

7) I'm using a combo of the fish finder and depth sounder. It worked great last time. I think the combination seems to help you figure out what type of bottom you have, etc. I didn't go with a speed sensor again. I figure why do I want to know my speed over water. Speed over ground seems to me to be the only relevant number.

8) My father has some problems with his vision and has a apprehension of cruising at night. So he really wanted some type of night vision. So on this boat we will have the Navigator II system from FLIR on the boat. This one was must have for him.

9) Weather. Ok, I think I may have gone overkill on this but man it's nice to have multiple sources of info. I had exactly two uncomfortable days on the boat. The first was when we left Amelia Island into 20 knot winds and 10+ foot waves, the second was a nice squall that came through the bay, the forecast said 70 knots. I also had persistent winds when I was up in Long Island sound of 20 to 25 with gusts to 30 knots. Having multiple sources of info would help me realize where the fronts are, should the weather get better, etc. So, I have Sirius Marine weather overlay and the Furuno PB100.

10) Somethings are just fun, so we also added the underwater lights. I went with the Ocean LED for a few reasons. First they draw hardly any power, they last forevor, they can be out of the water and not overheat(a issue with where I have to mount them on the krogen), and I saw them in florida(The ocean LED's) and they were awesome. Anyway I'll include a picture tonight I took of them in the Nasty Annapolis Harbor water. I can't wait to get them in some clear water.

Electronics..

Hmm.. This one will probably change as I flush it out a bit.. But I've been giving considerable thought to electronics lately.

Recently as you read in my blog we did a trip up and back to New England and it validated much of my setup. The ARPA was awesome as was the AIS, but I found a few faults and I am going to detail them here.

1) My Radar antenna is interfering with my AIS. Anytime a object goes in front of me I lose them temporarily and I no longer get their name information anymore till they are behind or beside me.. Not good!! A weird quirk is that it seems as though I can see them from far away with the name but as they get closer is when they go away. After reading as much as I can(best place was furuno's ais FA-150 manual) that my metal mast and my radar are the problem. So later I will relocate the antenna down to the pilothouse roof to help eliminate that problem all together.

2) On my short list is to add Furuno's MaxSea software on a laptop for the boat. This will allow me to work on courses and and other things without interfering with person at the helm. A added benefit will be that it appears that the MaxSea software will give me additional AIS information like rate of turn, destination, etc. Also, it appears as though I can click on the AIS object in the plotter screen which is something that I can't do in the Furuno Plotter(you can only do this on the radar).

3) I would DEFINATELY add some type of AIS transmitter. I've spoken about it sooner, but I think it's important that the boats that can kill you can see you. I think this is even more important for sailboats who sometimes even with a fine Furuno Radar they simply don't get picked up(They even had a radar reflector). FYI, I could see the Lobster pots next to them but not the sailboat. A added benefit of AIS thats not talked about is proximity alarms. You can tell it to alarm if the CPA is less then x miles.. Or if the proximity is less then x miles, or if the TCPA(is less then x minutes), etc. How advantageous is that when traveling at sea and you see the blip in the distance.

4) Definitely add Sat Radio and Sat TV. Our trip while pleasant and I caught up on a bunch of books would have been much nicer if I could have been able to get access to these. The problem with these technologies is that they still don't really resolve real blue water travel as they only go out in the ocean so far. I can't wait till they go all the way around the world.

5) Wireless internet, without Sat radio initially and not having TV Wireless internet was big. I was able to get Verizon wireless offshore within 3 miles most of the trip, in fact I was able to get it more offshore then I did in long island sound. A repeater or amplifier would have totally fixed that problem for me I believe.

6) With a lot of electronics comes a lot of draw on the power. I have a 6kw radar(furuno bb), a BB Furuno Plotter, 2 17" monitors, Autopilot, AIS Receiver, Fishfinder, Depth Sounder, a 10" Furuno Plotter up on top, etc. If I were to do this again I would seriously consider 1 or 2 dedicated 4d or 8d batteries with it's own charger off of the engine. This would leave quite a bit of power left over for the house and if I put the radar on for anchor guard I wouldn't kill the house supply. I would then also want a switch to flip to the house bank in case of charger failure or some type of redundancy for the genset to keep the important electronics running.

7) I'm still waiting for the Sat Phone and Internet access via satellite to work itself out in terms of speed and price of minutes. Speed being the primary thing making me wait. When the speed comes, I believe the that there will be more of draw to use that service.

8)On a larger boat then my 44 it would be nice to set up the Genset for autostart in case the batteries fall below x percent. I would really like to explore ways to reduce the number of hours I run on my genset. From a fuel, wear and tear, and putting a load on the genset it just makes sense.

9) Low on the list but maybe if I did bluewater is a water maker. It seems as though the technology is moving along pretty good and soon there will be a lower maintenance reasonably priced option. But right now with us coastal cruising, well water is just way to available for free. Maybe if I was in the islands but as it stands we hold 400 gallons and well we can make that last a while.

10) Last but not least is I would subscribe to some weather service. This would be weather fax, sirius or xm weather, or some other service. This can make all the difference in the world from your trip being enjoyable or a pain. We were VERY fortunate to have some evenly spaced out weather windows, and by using internet webservices like weatherunderground.com I was able to time those trips.


Ok, this may change more later but I figured I would put this down.

The total trip..

Ok, I had some questions that keep popping up.. The usual, where did you go, how long was the trip, etc.. So here I am to give you some of the info.

We visited all these ports in this order.
Cape may
Manesquan
New York(2 days)
Port Jefferson(2 days because of weather)
Mystic
Newport
Greenwich
New Rochelle
New York
Cape May
Home

How many miles??? Well according to my GPS we did 812 nautical miles.
How many engine hours?? 95
How many genset hours?? 120
How much fuel did you burn?? Approximately 350 gallons(Hard to tell we didn't top off before we left). So take 2.55 times 350 and that was our fuel cost for the whole trip!! 892 dollars!! Not bad considering were a floating house!!

The most expensive place to tie up?? Newport at 5.50 a foot.

Favorite place?? Probably Mystic, then Newport, then New York.

FYI, even though we hadn't filled up we still had about 220 gallons left. Which is crazy considering that we filled up last fall after the Annapolis Boat show, we've been boating nearly all winter and all spring.

Long Post to catch you all up..

Well the day that we left New Port was a very quiet and very Foggy day. Thank god for my Furuno, my AIS, and my fog horn. I had less the 50 yards of visiblity later that morning and even though I was perfectly comfortable my Mom was fairly stressed. One of the options I chose is ARPA on the furuno not to be confused with MARPA that Raymarine has(sorry my only other point of reference). The Furuno Radar will automatically aquire targets that cross through a area in front of the boat and track 10 of them. After that you can track 10 other targets by pointing and clicking on what you want to watch. It made it really nice to see things and the shapes would change shapes depending on if it was newly aquired, moving or not moving. You would also get a history line on your plotter with a direction as well to where it's going. The line would very in length depending on speed as well which was nice. Anyway, the radar consistantly picked up other boats and the lobster pots as well. Thank god the lobster pots are marked MUCH better then they are in the chesapeake bay with them painted in bright neon colors for the most part.

The AIS helps with some of the ships but I ran into some weird inconsistencies. Here are exampels I am beginning to see more and more ships who don't need it to carry it on board. Several sailboat had AIS on it's nice to be able to hail them and let them know your intention. I often feel like I'm cheating by me only being a blob on there plotter or radar and I get the full value of the information they transmit. But other ships like some ferry's don't transmit at all in Long Island sound, the two ships that go back and forth from Bridgeport to Port Jefferson come to mind. Nearly all commercial ships regardless of size in New York trasmitted which was real nice for looking ahead when doing the eastern river and working with some of the ships. I will have to put in some type of transmitting AIS on this boat soon, the safety aspects are just too great. By the way, when following some of the non commercial ships through New York on a regular basis you heard the big boys thank them for AIS and thank them for working to stay out of the channel. That solves that one conversation we have again and again on the T&T list.

Ok, back to the trip.. We made a long day down to a Marina in Greenwich Ct and stayed at the Delemar Hotel and Marina. What can I say about it, it's a ok marina floating dock side tie with power that happens to be up against a 5 star hotel. There was a HUGE ship there and I wish I could remember the name. The restaurant was a VERY good restaurant that is styled with a meditraneon taste and the staff all have the French and other European accents. You don't have to be too dressy but dressy nice will make you feel comfortable there. The town was well... Ok.. There is a main drag only a few blocks away and it appeared to get better a few blocks up but we had to get back to the boat to miss some thunderstorms.

Next morning we get up late as we couldn't get a slip in New York and we couldn't stay at the current marina as the restaurant was catering some 150 foot boat with guests where we were. Drat, ok I poke into Active Captain and start to look at the marina's closer to New York. Jeff Siegal recommended a marina called Huguenot Yacht club, I called them up yes they had a spot that could take me but no power. Drat, called a few other places and no can do so I called the yacht club back and confirmed. We also got a confirmation in New York for the following day and planned on picking up some basics like fruit and milk. Well it' was only a few hours and were there, it was smoking hot in the upper 90's with the radio saying temps adjusted to 102 again the fog was there but this time 1/4 nm visibility was the consistant basis. Again thank god for Radar as it let me see the Bridgeport Ferry as they weren't transmitting AIS again. Grrr.. Not they weren't close but thoses boats are not slow at all!! So about this marina, we get there and there are this what I called island docks.. Floating docks along the river that don't connect back to the mainland. You call and dock hands run out on a dink and tie you up. They then if you hail them will take you(Free) back to the dock so you can go the little park island or the club house. The clubhouse isn't much but it has the usual burgers and bar and few other things. What this club does do is A) they are REALLY cheap 25 bucks!! B) This place is SUPER friendly, we were invited but unfortunately could go to have dinner and drinks on another boat. Also all the people would walk up and introduce themselves. What a quaint place, if we had the time would probably would have splashed the dink or maybe I would bring a bike next time to explore the neighboring town New Rochelle. By the way I think those floating docks will easily take a 60 footer and maybe 6 feet of draft there as it's a sailboat yacht club. Great find!!

Well, I check the charts and pop on the internet and figured out my currents.. I thought that we would want to leave at high tide and ride the falling tide through long island, hells gate, and the east river. I got it perfect, I was cooking my way through and actually hit 13.5 knots and assist of 5.5 knots when going through the east river. Hells gate is not nearly what everyone makes it out to be, maybe if we weren't stabilize or maybe if I hadn't run some of the crazy inlets I have before. But hell Johns Pass off of Clearwater is way worse that Hells gate twice a day. I guess where I may freak is if I had a 5 or 6 knot boat and caught a opposing tide it's clearly around 4 to 5 knots in there and you wouldn't be making all that much progress so maybe thats were some of the rep comes from.

So we are going over to Liberty Landing Marina and we hear on the radio they set up a security zone while they are filming on Staton Island some movie. It was kind of wild about 6 helecoptors are hovering about as still as I've ever seen around there with these huge cameas on the front of them. We get to the marina tie up and walk the docks a bit as we make our way to pay the bill. We see the new Nordhavn 64 Brightwater or shearwater or something like that, really nice boat. It's the same boat I had seen about a month and half earlier over at Annapolis Yacht club again the boat only had crew onboard. What a waste that boat is beautiful. I then see Randy Picklmans boat Morning star at the dock, nope not there but I email and we later join up. His wife cindy made some AWESOME oatmeal cookies and we chatted for a couple of hours. We probably could have gone on forevor but we were leaving early in the AM and I still hadn't gotten a reservation in Atlantic City. My goal and fall back plan is to hug the coast a bit 2nm to get a southerly current, I don't know why but people tell me it's there.


5:30am we cast off and true to there word I got about a .75 knot push the entire day and after trying and trying and being ahead of schedule we decide to do Cape May. Maybe for a bit we doubted our decision as the seas built and turned on us from 3 to 4 foot lumpy seas to 5's and 6's on the nose, it started the boat to pitch a bit I turned her to quarter them a bit more. It helped some but with this boat head seas are definately the most uncompfortable. I'll take a sea from behind me anyday in this boat as that is just smooth. I called ahead and South Jersey marina hooked us up and we arrived at 8pm just as they were closing down. We got a order of take out from the Lobster house and just relaxed on the boat. Again we left early 6:30 this time and attempted to catch the flood tide up the Deleware river. Well opposing tide against the winds from the north made the first 2 hours interesting, fortunataly the further north we got the better the wave action was and we finallyh could settle down at around 11am. The winds were still howling and someone said on the radio 20 knots with gusts up to 30, I can't verify but it was howling pretty good. I almost forgot that we saw a parade of Krogens going north, just north of Hells gate we saw Anchors Way, then of course Randy's boat at Liberty Island, another 42 offshore, then in the deleware river we passed a 48 and 58 going north as well. I almost felt like we didn't get the invitation to some exclusive party or something. Most of them apparently are going up the hudson to lake champlane(sp?) then out the canal into the ocean and then down south. Well back to where we were, we did pretty good on the tides so far with a consistant .5 to 1 knot push behind us and passed Chesapeak city just afternoon maybe 1ish?? So we decided to press on and go home as my calculations said 9pm at the latest which is just as it's getting dark. If we fell behind we would anchor and chill then get in at the am. Well I was pretty good at my forecast and arrived at the dock at 8:20, had the boat tied up and we got off for dinner. We were all pretty starved as we only had breakfast. Well long trip we did about 800nm over ground in two weeks. Not a bad trip, we stayed in a few places we really like a couple of days like New York and Newport. Regrets?? Again that I had a schedule(damn work), maybe I would have anchored or moored a bit more but with my dad and with out power winches or a hydraulic davit that would have been difficult. I also wish we would have made it to Block island, maybe next time if I have a bit more help I'll do the 24 hour trip going from Cape May right up the coast to Block Island. Then on the return trip I would go south through the sound rather then burning a day getting through New York harbour.

Well thats it.. The blogg may probably well stop other then some projects I may work on here or there...

Thanks for coming along with us..

John Ford

Pride of Baltimore

Shortly after the other posts fog started to roll in. And on AIS who I see? Pride of baltimore! I hail them on the radio and negotiated a close pass. The fog was much thicker later, to the point I tracked stuff by radar. Were fine now, but very hot..

Newport Sight Seeing..

I almost forgot, we walked for a ways and stopped at the US Tennis Hall of fame. It's neat all grass couts, people playing on them and wearing all white. It's where the original US Open tennis tournament was and according to them it's the oldest grass courts still in use in the world. Wimbledon is second by the way!!

We brought my dad back to the boat and my mom and I walked around town and decided to rent one of these three wheeled two passenger scooters. What a blast, we hit all the mansions(didn't go in just stared in disbelief) and did a cliff walk(Amazing). If I were to come again I would definately spend some time looking at the Mansions.

Well thats it..

June 26, 2007

We got a 6am departure and heading to Old Saybrook. Two days of New Port is enough for my dads wallet, to say this place is dangerous for women is a serious understatement. My mom found one store where she spent a hour and half the first day and about 45 minutes or so the second day.

Not being a Sailor and hearing the groans that we are from Annapolis is funny especially being in a motor boat. At a quick glance from my two days of expert analysis it's a toss up as to which is the sailing capital. Newport is a resort town that has some big saiboats, and the sail and other boat oriented shops are intermingled with t-shirt shops and restaurants. Where Annapolis is a working state capital and well the sailing shops are more out of sight in Eastport and other areas. Annapolis also seams to have quite a bit more sailboats, maybe a fact or 4 or 5 times as much. But then again, they may be more widely dispersed and not in dense area like naptown.

I do wish Annapolis would take some hints from Newport and have some more small walking areas, the shopping area in Newport is HUGE! The main drag along the water is every bit of maybe 6 miles, and not main and west streets like annapolis. Newport has also seemed to do a good job of making new buildings blend into the old colonial buildings where as some of the buildings in Annapolis quite simply don't belong. The marinas are all also bigger and more accomidating to transients then Annapolis, also the Mooring field is HUGE!!! Naptown could do the same thing if they extended it more in front of the academy and put them out there for larger boats. Oh, one other thing I like.. They have a very strict 5mph speed limit there.. Not 6knots, not no wake.. 5mph and enforced..

Hmm.. What else, oh another cool thing is there is this tall ship from Singapore there and coming in on sunday when you enter the harbour they had kids from a local school or something playing there. Nice touch!! As we left this morning it looked like they had USCG cadets or something climbing up the masts huridly up and down each side.

Lobster pots.. So far there aren't any in any density like they are in the bay or the carolina's. BUT!! Unlike bay crabs where it seems they don't put pots down in over 45 feet of water, there seems to be no rhyme or reason why and where they put them here. I've seen them in 35 feet, and seen them in 110 feet of water.

Well thats it for today.. We are heading south and hopefully will be home around Sunday or Monday weather permitting. We are not in any huge rush as we having a blast.