Chesapeake Trip – Preparation

This is the second in a series of posts about a trip I made to the Chesapeake on my old Catalina 22, Helbent, during the summer of 2011.

After driving twelve hours from New Mexico to Arkansas, I woke up the next morning and hurriedly took care of a number of things, including packing. By mid-afternoon I was back on the road for the seventeen hour drive to Jersey. As I drove through the night, I kept a pad next to me, writing quick notes about what needed to be done before we could depart. Despite a lengthy catalog of such things, my optimism held, and I continued to believe we would be setting sail in three or, maybe, four days.

Later that day I picked up the boat from the yard and motored it to my slip. The repairs began immediately after I had the docklines back in place. These improvements included:

• set up a reefing system for the main
• redo the electrical system including:
  • replace the battery
  • replace the electrical panel
  • install new navigation and anchor lights
  • install a new cigarette lighter/charger
  • install a small 10 watt solar panel
• replace the Harken cam cleat on the adjustable backstay
• replace the lazarette locks and the hinge screws
• put some 3M 4200 on a bunch of screws and seals to reduce leaks
• change my Tohatsu engine from an internal to an external gas tank

In addition, I had to do the normal commissioning work:

• check all rigging for wear
• lubricate the boom and mast tracks for the mainsail
• raise the mast and rig the boat
• clear out the cockpit drains
• and everything else that I forget about until I actually need to do it at the beginning of the season

And take care of a few other important things:

• help Jonny, my crew, move out of his apartment in North Jersey
• figure out how to assemble and inflate the new West Marine SB-275 dinghy
• provision
• have a quick shakedown sail

Needless to say, it took a little more than three days to get underway. In fact, it was more like a week of hectic long days and daily trips off the island to West Marine. Even then not everything was completed. In the next post I will spend a little more time on how I provisioned for the trip, relate a good evening out on the island while I completed the work, and assess just what I accomplished, what I overlooked, and what I left for later.