On Site

Fort Lauderdale

The flight down was very pleasant. No hitches.

We went to West Marine and spent $300 on charts. Ouch! That covers 1% of the world. Charts are going to be a major expense. Electronic charts are somewhat cheaper, but many are proprietary formats, and many of the chart plotters only have charts available for North America and Europe.

I’m going to buy some used Bahamas charts tomorrow from Al Hatch’s neighbor. Perhaps used charts are the way to go. For now though, my inexperience in tides, currents and lack of local knowledge of the waters has me thoroughly cowed. To compensate I’m probably being too extravagant in paying so much for Cadillac quality charts.

Using the laptop as a GPS, chart plotter, weather fax and so on is very appealing. However, it is a big power drain. We’ll see.

Tomorrow is a big day; the sea trial. Al Hatch wants to spend the day sailing. Of course I do to but a higher priority is to have him walk me through operation and maintenance of every gadget, every fitting onboard. He has 12 years experience sailing her and he’ll be gone in two years. Time to pick his brain for all its worth.

Tomorrow we also see Tarwathie for the first time since the initial visit. Exciting.