3rd reef in the main.

Fiddling around with marking and setting the third reef in the main over the weekend. Bill at Vt Sailing Partners did a great job of installing the reef. Head of the sail now stops right at the top of the inner forstay where the running backs and staysail meet the mast....nice job Bill without even being on the boat. This small and tight to the centerline configuration should be great in heavy winds. 

Sunrise st LCYC

Lists......

Between the lists on our phones and the written lists, we have lots of lists......things get crossed off ...OK...but we should probably do this.....OK....on the list. Problem here is that the list doesn't get shorter. Minnie has been tasked to make sure that we draw that line in the sand and GO!

September day on the mooring

With the heater now installed, it does a nice job of taking the chill out if the cabin. We'll appreciate it on those early mornings in October as we head down the canal, the Hudson River and eventually the outside route to Cape May.  

Two Bob Perry classics

Iemanja to the right and her big sister Emerald, a Passport 47, share the dock at LCYC in Vt.

Santa's workshop

This little item moved to the top of the list

So as the temps dropped here in Vermont, this Espar heater just moved to the tip of the list. 

.....when we're the only ones in the anchorage. This is an early morning view of Sledrunner Cove all to ourselves. Actually our mooring at LCYC is just over the low set of trees in the center of the pic so really not that far away. It's nice, though, just to come over here 5 minutes away to feel like we're away.

Today we'll head up to Shelburne Shipyard to see master mechanic Van. We have 2 fuel tanks on Iemanja, only one of which have been commissioned so far. Being on the lake one really doesn't need 2 tanks which in our case would be 120 gallons of deisel.....but now that we're leaving the lake, the max fuel capacity will be appreciated. Van will pump some air into our as yet unused port tank to see if it holds pressure. If so, then there should be no leaks for fuel to get out....;-)(....we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Great sailing day on Lake Champlain.

We left the mooring around 1400 under motor. Followed a nice course laid out on AquaMap a really nice ipad app for not much money. I think this is going to be our main nav software with raymarine chartplotter helping out and charts as the final backup. By the time we get out off Burlington, the predicted 10-15 has built to 20 and rising. We furl out a  135 genoa to help us with the rolls. Engine shutdown and we sail along beautifully at 6-8 knots, auto pilot doing the work and Bette and I alternating being above deck to keep watch. Iemanja likes 120 -130 apparent. We're spending the night on the north side of Bluff Point. The forecast is for 20-30 from the SW overnight shifting to the NW. We'll see if this the right call overnight. Our bailout will be around to the S side of the point which is not that far to go. 

More things off the "to do list"

So this week has been a very productive one for us. Bette has completed the manual bilge pump install, sea water manual foot pump in the galley, numerous storage solutions, overhead hatch window covers and begun the provisioning of frozen stuff for the upcoming months. I've gotten the AIS working, auto pilot is complete and working except for a couple of details and a third cleat installed on the bow for anchoring/docking.

Today its blowing like stink from the south as we have a pretty tight circulating low to our northwest which has the lake kicking up and the rains coming down.

As we follow the weather to our west, early winter storms in Canada and temps in the mid 50's in Chicago.....feeling like this will be a good winter to be working our way south with Iemanja......

Troubleshooting 101

Start with the battery and work your way out. The 7001 auto pilot control was working fine till I started hooking up other stuff. We'll get it figured out. 

New friends....

We met the crew of Alchemy this morning while anchored at sledrunner cove. A sailing family of 5, they're headin for the start of the 1500 rally to the BVI. We're not far behind leaving the lake. 

About Iemanja....

I came across this link in Blue Water Boats that best describes what Bob Perry had in mind when he drew his Passport 40. We have the pullman berth design which has the head up forward and the master cabin just aft of the foward area and to the port side. Really makes for a nice sleeping area with very little movement in bumpy anchorages.

Will fill you in as we go along here as to how we came across our boat.....


http://bluewaterboats.org/passport-40/

Provisions

Slowly but steadily we bring aboard food an stuff for the ride down to NC. it's a fine line between having too much and not enough. We can certainly prov along the way but that means more stuff to schlepp.