[PUP] Alanui 350miles down, 150 to go!

[Scott E. Bulger]

Ken:  Answers below

Scott:

Great post about the long lines.

[scott]  thank you!

Can I resend it to my blog list?

[scott] you have my permission to put anything I put in the public domain on
your blog (including anything from www.alanui.talkspot.com).  I'd
respectfully ask you to keep any one-on-one communication private, thanks!

Any advice for me on avoiding them? I'll be behind you in a couple weeks.

[scott]  I think I said in a followup email that if I were to make this trip
again I'd do the following:
a.  Get the weather window from 3 sources (yourself, Bob Jones at OMNI and
Enrique at Marina Chahue) all in agreement you have at least 36 to 72 hours
of good weather to go straight across.  
b.  Prepare the boat for a blow.  Tie the hot tub cover down, strip the
cushions from the seats, stow any canvas, no loose lines on deck that could
foul the props...  Alanui was never more ship shape than when we departed
across the GofT.  There wasn't a thing on deck that was exposed.  All
lockers inside were closed and locked.  The lazarette had every container
bungeed in place.  The abandon ship bag, medical kit and all other safety
equipment was located in a fixed location in the saloon.  
c.  Get the MMSI numbers of boats leaving ahead of you, and behind you so
you can keep in constant contact with them if possible.  It's really nice to
call 20 miles ahead and behind to verify conditions are good.  Also at
3:00am the company can be indispensable as you entertain each other in the
wee hours of the morning.
d.  We were 4 boats, a Nordhavn 40 (Alanui, the smallest), a Nordhavn 43
(Paloma), a 44 Defeaver (Frayed Knot) and a 45 Sailboat (Komara).  Our speed
was set by Komara who was best able to make 6.5 knots under power with no
wind.  At times he made better than 8 knots, but 85% of the trip was at 6 to
6.5.  We formed a loose formation not paying much attention to how we were
situated, but just maintaining 1 mile of separation at night.  Frayed Knot
often went a few miles one way or another in search of fish, but the rest of
us stayed within 2 miles of each other. 
e.  What I'd do differently is:
	1.  Make sure everyone was in agreement about arrival time at the
meet point for the pilot boat.  I don't think you want to enter this river
estuary any other time than close to slack.  If you arrive on an ebb you're
going to fight waves that stack up on the bar and a long slog up the
estuary.  It worked out that our 6.5knot cruise was PERFECT for an 10:45
arrival, 15 minutes prior to slack preceeding the flood.  We entered the
river in perfect conditions and rode the flood to the mooring buoys.  Had we
not coordinated our arrival with the slack I think we would have regretted
it.
	2.  At night I'd form a single file line of boats, rather than an
offset L we normally favor.  While I'm sure some will argue that there is
danger in running over the top of a boat that comes to a halt, I would
prefer to be diligent about it rather than expose more boats to the hazard
of running over a long line.  It just seems to me cutting a 40' path through
the sea is much better than cutting a 2 or 3 mile wide path if the boats are
all strung out side by side.  
	3.  If you can't make Barillas by 15:00 I'd divert to Marina Del
Sol, about 26 miles West of here.  While the bar is a bit tricker, it would
be a nice place to spend the night rather than anchoring in the Pacific with
no cover.  

I'm certainly no expert on this with only one crossing, but this is what I'd
do again, and what I'd do differently.

Scott Bulger, Alanui, N40II, Seattle WA
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.