Successful Sea Trial!

I’m typing the beginning of this post from the Little Bahama Bank. We’re flying along at 9.3 knots after slowing down to dodge a thunder storm that stood between us and Stuart. We have John, our commissioning manager and Chris, one of our commissioning techs with us. This is our final sea trial, a two day trip to test all systems and assuage our concerns over a difficult 6 month commissioning process.

Heading Out

We left Stuart, FL around 7:30am yesterday and cruised about 11 hours to the Bahama Bank. It was a gorgeous, hot day. We had calm seas across the gulf stream and bathwater on the bank. There were hardly any boats out on the bank other than some lobster fisherman. We anchored on the bank, put out the flopper stoppers, retrieved the flopper stoppers, grilled dinner, stared at fish in the underwater lights off the transom and spent our first night at anchor. It was great!

Crossing the gulf stream

We learned a lot from the trial and were able to test several systems. Blossom ran like a dream and our temporary four blade prop performed well. (I’m sure Martin will post in the near future on some of the technical issues that we’ve encountered). John ran the boat from the fly bridge and it confirmed that we made the right decision for us in getting the hard top flybridge with a side seat. It was very comfortable underway with all of us up top. We could have easily had a couple more people along for the ride. It was also the perfect space to enjoy a cocktail and watch the sun go down.

Anchored on the Bank

 We learned that we’re going to need to practice the heck out of deploying the flopper stoppers! For friends who don’t know what flopper stoppers are, they’re wing-like poles that stick out at a 90 degree angle from each side of the boat. You hang large metal “fish” from them that are hinged. The system is designed to reduce rocking and rolling at anchor. This involved several ropes and a very coordinated effort.

Deploying port flopper stopper

Skip Jack Tuna

We also had a beginner lesson fishing. We bought 2 fishing poles and some lures and Chris set out to show us how to do it. We caught a 12 inch Bonita on the way out and a 10 lb skip jack tuna on the way back. Not great eating, both were released and we enjoyed hamburgers for dinner. We used one of the two water makers for a few hours and added to our 600 gallon tank. No military showers aboard Blossom! We practiced anchoring, which is a bit different from our former boat, Lucky, with automatic (as well as manual) chain counters and releases, and a blasting salt water wash down. Our Ultra anchor set like a dream. On our way back over the gulf, we emptied our gray and black tanks, another system check.

It’s windy today as we head back with some thunderheads forming and reforming along the horizon. We’re all a little tired, having spent a very hot night on the boat. In hindsight, we should have run the gen and turned on the AC. Martin and I have some left over hang-ups from Lucky that we need to get past. Like running the gen at night was unthinkable because it was so loud. That’s not true on Blossom and we all would have had a much better night sleep had we just run the AC. Lesson learned.

I also used this trip to test the transdermal patch. I’m very prone to sea sickness, especially if I haven’t been aboard a boat in a while. I was useless on the last sea trial as all I could do was stare intently at the horizon and hope not to have to make an emergency run to the cockpit. Miserable. This trip I've had no problem at all. Granted, the seas have been very calm but I spent 3 hours below, comfortably, in mildly lumpy conditions that would normally send me into a cold sweat. And it didn't make me tired. Definitely an example of better living through chemistry!

I've been noting things down for the past two days and have quite a list compiled. We’ll spend the weekend organizing, arranging, moving and completing some of the dozens of tasks that we've identified need to be done. We have a few things to work on before we head out, most serious is that our Simrad autopilot is not functioning on the fly bridge, (but it’s fine in the pilot house). Our electrician is coming Monday to sort that out. We’ll have put approximately 22 hours on the engine during this trip.

The boat has performed fabulously. John says that he can’t believe how fast she is, he thinks she runs about a half knot faster than the norm for an N60. Maybe it’s because of the bustle we had added under her swim platform to prevent it from slapping - that extended her length at the water line by a bit. The longer a boat is, the faster her hull speed.  We’re not sure, but it’s a good thing and nice to see 9+ knots.

We plan to take ownership of the boat next week and then we can formally move aboard and begin more intensive training. We still have lots of details to finalize but our general plan (such that it is – boat plans being written in sand and all that…) is to head north the week of the 18th with the ultimate goal of meeting up with our friends Sean & Louise - check out their blog - with whom we’ll be cruising. We can’t wait!!!

As I close this entry, we’re hanging out off the coast of Stuart. We made such good time that we have time to chill out wait for high tide. Conveniently, we are also trying to wait out a big thunderstorm that’s hovering over Stuart. Chips, salsa, breeze on the fly bridge and calm water. Life is good and Blossom is amazing :)

One last picture, this was our welcome home sunset in Stuart.