Saturday, June 21, 2008

Scary, but Motivating

We’re on the way to Onset, Massachusetts at the south end of the Cape Cod Canal. Some scary broadcasts on the radio this morning. We heard one guy call a May Day in a very panicked voice – he had an engine fire. It turns out that the halon system put it out, everyone is OK, and the boat is being towed in. Then later the Coast Guard broadcasted a possible boat explosion off Rhode Island – didn’t hear the outcome of that one.

I’m now motivated to start some drills for us. I understand that the thing to do is to create checklists for various situations and assign duties to the crew members. I have some checklists that were created by a sailboat, so modifying those for use will be great preparation. Then we'll start the drills! Look out Norm...when you least expect it.....

Is it always windy up here in New England? It seems it's always 15 mph out of the southwest. This makes grabbing mooring balls and anchoring, well......................an adventure. Today, Vicki got the painter line on the first try in spite of windy conditions. Of course Norm negotiated the bow of the boat for a perfect grab. The Painter Line is the line attached to the mooring ball that we connect to our boat in some fashion. The fashion changes from time to time depending on.....if anyone is watching, or how much the wind is blowing, or how long or short we need the connection to be, or if we can see how the mother ship did it for the prevailing conditions!!
After "readying up" the boat and taking care of some minor chores on board, we all dinghyed over to shore to pay the $20 mooring charge and get some much needed exercise. The Adventures' Launch Service was exceptional. The town has a very nice beach; and, people were actually swimming. A bit too cold for us. Here's a shot of "Salt (Tide Hiker) and Pepper (Adventures)" moored in Onset Harbor. We ended the great day with grilled center cut pork chops and salad dinner accompanied by marvelous "reds".

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