Maiden Voyage

Saturday dawned clear and crisp with a steady 12 knot breeze from the north east. We prepared the boat for departure with a bit more vigilance than we would have on Rascal since this was our first time out on Raffaellesco for a cruise. Extricating ourselves was a bit of a challenge as we had a catamaran 5 m behind us a cat 5 m in front of us, we were side tied with a cat on starboard and the wind and the fairway were on port. We fired up the 110 hp auxiliary, tested the bow thrust, cut loose all but the stern line and pushed the bow away with the thruster. Being careful not to let our but hit the cat we were tied to we eased forward as the bow cleared the cat in front. As we cleared the fairway, I started to breath again knowing that we did no harm to the millions of dollars’ worth of fiberglass siting at the dock.

As we navigated out of the harbor it was fun to see the places on shore where we had been tourists for the last couple weeks. We cleared the harbor entrance with the ancient battlements guarding the port on our starboard side. We made the south safe water marker and turned west as Suzette was reading instruction and working to set our course on the chart plotter, a Raymarine AxiomPro 9. There were lots of pleasure boats to dodge, it was Saturday after all. Once Suzette our course set we were on autopilot heading about 300^o C motoring at 9 knots, 2300 RPMs seems to be a sweet spot.

My first task was to set up the water maker and make sure that it was working. You can tell when the instructions were not originally written in English, but rather are translated. Eventually I did figure it out and we were making water. A sample before diverting it to the water tank revealed delicious pure water. We can make drinking from salt water, but I have not figured out that water to wine thing. The water maker makes water at a rate of about 60 liters/hour, so we let it run as we cruised north.

Back on deck we were running through all of the instruments, reading manuals and customizing screens and settings. My favorite find was that I can operate the sound system from the chart plotter (MFD) at the helm, you see my priorities. The instruments are similar to the instruments on Rascal, but with way more features. Sort of like our Tesla the MFD will chart a route for you if you select the end point, sounds risky to me.

We arrived at the anchorage about 1600 and put down the anchor in about 11 m of water with two other boats anchored in as well. It was high tide, so with the 2+ m tidal swings we felt confident. The anchor felt like it may have skipped along some rocks before it augured in, we had hoped. We picked some points on land to monitor our position. Normally we would deploy our tender and put eyes on the anchor to be sure that it set. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the tender to arrive so we will monitor our position.

We no sooner got settled and another sail boat came in and anchored right on top of us! Never fails. Fortunately, he did not stay long and did no harm. In the course of the evening 6 more boats arrived and anchored quite comfortably. A beautiful two masted schooner was the last to arrive. The anchorage was a cove with a swimming beach full of sunbathers; Anse de Soux on the Ile d’Yeu. The water temp was about 18.6^oC, brave souls.

I was awakened at about 0200 and heard what sounded like a dragging anchor! Up and out on deck the wind had picked up, but it was still NE. Checking the landmarks and the anchor alarm we were moving side to side with the wind and current, but not dragging. We stayed on deck to monitor, but finally fell asleep in the big lounger. The sun rise woke us up at which point Suzette went to bed and, well, I am here writing.

Everything is a learning experience right now. As Bob Bitchin says, “the difference between adversity and adventure is attitude.”