T&T: Cigano's underway- long

[Larry N. Brown]

Listees,

After entirely too much time, MV Cigano is underway. Three weeks ago, we began
a shakedown cruise with an unknown destination- anywhere outside of Louisiana.
Anywhere other than our dock in Covington. Unsurprisingly we got somewhere. It
was one of those situations where we forgot our basic credo: "Let the weather
be your friend" and we bugged out willy-nilly and proceeded to get the living
be-jezzus slapped out of us on Lake Ponchartrain, the Mississippi Sound,
Mobile Bay, Big Lagoon and Pensacola Bay. Hey, this's supposed to be fun,
isn't it?

Things malfunctioned, we didn't sleep well and the wind blew. The wind never
got below 10 kts for any four hour period and it was usually 12-18 gusting to
25 and 35. We finally did what we should have planned to do from the get-go;
we pulled into a marina for a month. Bear Point Marina in Orange Beach,
Alabama, a beautiful little place just west of Pensacola where they love
transients and dogs. We're licking our wounds and planning the next assault on
the world. It will probably be a run back to Covington to put the flooring in
the aft stateroom, fix various things that broke and sell the house.

What I'd like to do in this and successive posts is to begin a series of
threads about what went well and what didn't. So many things happened at the
same time that I felt perpetually swamped; I slept poorly and I never felt I
was ahead of the power curve. Little things just added up and I was ready to
sell the boat and move to San Miguel de Allende but little by little I
regained my equanimity and sanity and good cheer.

What I intend to do is to mention some of the equipment and systems we've
installed over the last 5 years and how we think they've performed, good and
bad. I'd like to mention specific vendors and customer service units and how
they've reacted to my questions. As I'll voluntarily tell anyone who will
listen, if I had it all to do over again, I'd have been cruising 5 years ago
in a smaller, newer, less expensive boat. But. When you find yourself on the
back of a tiger, you have no choice but to ride him to the ground or he'll eat
you alive.

The new Yanmar 4 LHA-STP's acquitted themselves well as did the Kohler 13.5
genset, although a preliminary survey indicates they burned more fuel that I
originally calculated. The 4 220 ah golf cart battery bank didn't last as long
as I thought it would and if I were wiring the boat from scratch, I'd do the
AC system a little differently but on the whole, things performed well.

There was a recent thread on Vacuflush toilets. Cigano came with two of these
and two holding tanks. I replaced them with two Tecma silence toilets and I've
been very pleased. They are practically flawless, easy to use and quiet. If
you have the room, get the Silence Plus; it's a little more cheek friendly
than the Silence. If you get interested, I can give you the name of a
distributor who will give you a dealer's price.

I've used Blue Water Ship's Store in Foley, AL for a couple years now.
251.943.4179. Ask for Scott and mention my name. He claims he's the only store
in the world that you tell him how much you want to pay for something. Check
internet prices and call him. No taxes outside of AL

I installed the Snake River Electronics Ultra-8 tank monitoring system a few
years ago and I was never happy with the calibration or the display. On the
recommendation of a listee, I got in touch with Feriello Sales, a company made
up of engineers and sales people who weren't pleased with Snake River. They've
produced a panel that fits in the Ultra-8 cutout and reads the U-8 senders.
http://www.ferriellosales.com/page5.html  Dennis answers his own phone.

Aquamarine watermaker's seen lots of use and I need a source of inexpensive
string filter elements in 5 and 20 micron. Just ordinary home water filter
size. Aquamarine sells them but at a hefty premium.

I'll save the rest of the steady drip, drip, drip, for another day.

Regards,

Larry and Teri
M/V Cigano, 47' Prairie Sundeck Cruiser
Lying: Bear Point Marina
          Orange Beach, AL