Author Archives: Randy

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About Randy

Airline Captain, USCG 100 ton Master with Radar and Towing Endorsements, former “Coastie”

One day to go

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As this is being written we are finishing up our last minute to do list. Tomorrow is go day and we are ready both in a preparation sense and emotionally. All of the planning, prep and provisioning is done. This past week has been filled with farewells, family and friends and a mad scramble to deal with the inevitable “boat stuff”. I want to thank the guys from Pitman Yacht Services, Doug Bruce as well as James Cleveland from Cleveland Diesel for hanging in there and helping us make sure the last minute maintenance items all got taken care of.

On a personal note, the boys got to see their grandparents this weekend and we also had the pleasure of a visit from my friend and mentor, retired airline Captain John Davis ( US Airways 757 Captain).

Capt. Davis and Randy

Capt. Davis and Randy

All in all, the support from family and friends as we have gotten ready has been nothing short of amazing. I am sure some of them must think we are crazy to undertake such an ambitious trip but they have been there to help out in any way they can.

 

 

We especially would like to thank our boat neighbors at the Port Tarpon Marina, Bob and DeeDee Coan, who graciously hosted a “Bon voyage ” party for us at their home. You guys have been great and we will miss visiting with you while we are gone. There are no goodbyes associated with our voyage; only until we see you again.

Bon Voyage!

Bon Voyage!

 

Today, we ran the boat one final time to verify proper systems functioning. I was very pleased as everything worked well and we observed a top speed of 29.5 knots which indicates the hull and running gear are clean and the engines are making rated power. I have attached a screen shot of our track as depicted on our Delorme satellite tracking website so you can see what to expect as we travel on our voyage.

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Our next post will be after we are underway. To say that we are all excited and looking forward to the start of our voyage is an understatement.

A Quick Trip up the Anclote River to have Pilots’ Discretion hauled out

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Pilots' Discretion being prepped for bottom paint in the Travel Lift

Pilots’ Discretion being prepped for bottom paint in the Travel Lift

With literally days to go before our departure, we still have a few open items on our list of preparations. The largest of those items is to have our boat hauled out of the water to have a new coat of bottom paint applied. The bottom paint protects the hull and running gear from barnacle buildup which in turn can have a dramatic effect on overall boat efficiency ( think 33% reduction in fuel mileage in extreme cases.) It also provides us one final opportunity to go over all of our engineering systems prior to departure so it is an effort worth the cost and labor. Yesterday morning, Theresa and I were at the marina early to get underway for Pittman Yacht Services, a dry dock facility that is equipped with a travel lift crane of suitable capacity to literally pick up our 45000 lb boat and place it on a set of blocks out of the water to facilitate our maintenance efforts.

It was a beautiful morning on the river and although the trip was brief, we enjoyed the opportunity to take Pilots’ Discretion out for a quick trip.

PD crew cuts

It is official, we are aboard!

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The end game or the first day is in sight, depending on your point of view. We finished up moving out of our home yesterday. Today, we will go over and clean up the house and make final preparations so that our new tenant can move in this weekend. Yesterday was Theresa’s birthday and we celebrated it in grand style at the marina restaurant (Davidson’s Dockside). We all are finishing up our vaccinations regimen, Patton included. The Captain issued his first standing order that all male crew members aboard Pilots’ Discretion shall have appropriate high and tight haircuts before putting to sea. Our very capable deck hand, Ryan pointed out to the Captain that it was the Captain that was in need of a proper grooming. That leads us to here; in the video below you will see that all hands pitch in when there is a task that needs accomplished. Ryan served as the ship’s barber and now the Captain is groomed to the ship’s standards. Next week we will haul the Pilots’ Discretion to have a fresh coat of bottom paint applied. After that, our Caribbean adventure will begin with the first favorable weather window. We can’t wait and we hope you will come along with us via this blog. Standby, the adventure begins now!

 

PD crew cuts

PD crew cuts

July brings final preparations before our departure

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We have completed our  boat electronics update project and most of our route planning is now complete. Last week we completed testing and enrollment of the boys in the Calvert home schooling program. This week we will be taking our Cocker Spaniel, Patton in for an update of all of his required vaccinations as well as getting a required titre test to confirm that he is free of rabies. Patton will also be getting an international health certificate.

Most of the boys curriculum will be fulfilled via electronic media and as you can see from the picture below, everybody on the Pilots’ Discretion is getting into reading with either their Kindle or IPad. Our land based home is now for rent and it is really beginning to feel like we are actually going to go! We will shortly be posting the details regarding our decision to enroll the boys in Calvert as well as letting them share their perspective as we make ready to get underway.Patton Kindle

One step forward, two steps back

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It is now mid May and our family has been actively preparing for our trip for almost a year now. Frankly, we thought we would be largely ready by now but the unexpected has a way of sneaking up on you. A couple of months ago we began to have a series of technical issues with some of our electronics. Specifically, our satellite TV system began having problems tracking the DirecTV satellites, our alarm system began to act quirky and a few other things stopped working. We sent our Sat TV system to Raymarine to be evaluated and they reported back to us that all of the internal electronics had been fried. More of the same news from the folks that manufactured our alarm system. I don’t really like to assign responsibility to “coincidence” and the more I thought about it, the more I became concerned that we had suffered a major electrical event. We hired a marine surveyor to evaluate all of the boats systems and sure enough, he found that we had suffered either a lightning strike or a major surge via the shore power. The bad news is that we had lost one chartplotter, one depth sounder, a VHF radio, spotlight and our alarm system. The good news is that we are fully insured and our insurance company authorized replacement of all of the affected systems. Since we are going to both the trouble and expense of replacing all of this stuff, we elected to spend a little extra to upgrade some of our capabilities. We are installing a new Raymarine E127 Chartplotter interfaced with a new digital 48″ open array 12kw SHD radar that is a much more capable unit than the 4kw analog unit it replaces. In addition, we are adding a Raymarine AIS 650 to help us keep track of nearby traffic. As with almost any project of this magnitude, we have experienced our share of frustration as have tried to coordinate a plan to move the installation along. Vendors and installers have blown through deadline after deadline with the net result being that our trip preparations are far behind our original schedule. I am glad we started getting ready early and remain optimistic that we will still be where we need to be when it is time to cast off.