Hi, Wayne, and list,

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
Skip,

I think we all appreciate your efforts in creating these chronicles
but there are a couple of things about this one that bother me a great
deal.

1. Why was fueling and watering left to the last minute before
departure? You knew you were ready to go and would eventually get a
weather window.

Simple enough - we wanted to be full, particularly of water, as Georgetown
is a jug-it location for us, when we left. Further, the timing was such
that we would wind up being early, as it was. Just a matter of choice.
There was no hurry (aka last-minute) involved - just convenience of timing.


2. Why did you take the filter change so casually, especially after 3
years? Filter changes, even when carefully performed, are subject to
various mishaps. You really need to check the engine out very
carefully before getting into a "do or die" situation like heading
into a crowded dock.

The filter change was intended to be casual - that's why I bothered to make
a dual filter setup. It wasn't that filter which was involved, in any
event. All the checks were, ostensibly, done beforehand, as the engine had
performed perfectly after the "change" - that being the valve shift-over -
and, as **** happens, always, that, somewhat, being defined as an
unexpected, negative development, anyway, this qualifies as such an
incident.


3. Why the insistence on doing George Town in one big hop? There are
many good places to stop along the way.

Ya, and we discussed those. A 44 hour passage hardly qualifies as a big
deal (at least for us, these days - perhaps, at an earlier day, it might
have). To make those stops would have involved two channels that we'd
rather not deal with if we didn't have to, particularly, again, as we'd have
arrived before daylight.

We had, indeed, had our departure not been delayed as much as it was,
between our refit and weather windows, discussed hopping down via Normans
and Staniel Cays. However, see above, and, we want to mosey southward from
here before taking our time moving north as the weather warms. We'll catch
those other locations as we come north, our expectation being that we'll be
in the Bahamas for a year (from entry).

Then (the plan at the moment; of course, plans change, so we aren't setting
it in concrete) we'll head south again, leaving GT in early December, to
catch the fronts which will make the Thorny Path a bit less nettlesome as we
ease on down. Unlike some in our acquaintance, particularly since we don't
expect to be back in the Bahamas, let alone the US, in this boat, anyway,
we'll not "hurry" down to the EC, instead, perhaps, taking a year or two to
get there, enjoying all the lovely places in between as we go. So, we
elected to do it in one jump rather than spend several weeks playing along
the way.


4. Why didn't you know the hours of the fuel dock? You had been in
Marsh Harbor quite a while and could have asked anyone on the VHF net
or stopped by in the dinghy.

Well, of course, we thought we did. However, that was a product of having
checked, much earlier, and misremembering the other two. Thinking back on
it, I'd attempted to hail that one, and, failing that, raised the other two,
both of which are 7:30 opening times, but didn't reach this one. That was in
the middle of the day, FWIW. And, also FWIW, that's the same place I'd
gotten gasoline the entire time we were there. Their 4PM closing time was
consistent with a 7:30 opening time, so I didn't double-check.

So, in the end, we parked on a dock which wasn't open, rather than tying up
one of the other two which WAS open :{))


My verdict is too many mistakes, perhaps taken too casually. You know
better than anyone that you really can't afford another major
incident. The goal should be zero defects.


:{)) Yah, but then, who would all of you'se shoot at? I've (as you've
seen, of course) always been able to laugh at myself, even at the risk of
being second guessed and armchair quarterbacked. What we encountered is no
more than, as one of our sister ships describes it, the daily crisis.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for the rest of the report. We aren't finished yet
:{))

L8R

Skip


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Morgan 461 #2
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