April 29, 2012
We did it! We left the dock! Sunday afternoon about 1:00 we got away. It was quite an event for us. I’ve never seen Cyndi with a bigger smile and mine was ear to ear as well. The harbor patrol and life guards gave us send off at the harbor entrance with the siren blaring and the fire hose streaming water. Then it all fell apart. We got all of our bad luck out of the way in the first 3 minutes of our cruise.
I pushed the throttle levers up to leave the harbor and the engine started to slow down. There we were with the prospect of having no power while heading for the jetty. I’d changed the fuel filters the day before and I guess I didn’t get all the air out of the system. I flicked on the auxiliary fuel pump and the engine powered back up.
Then I went take down the little video camera I’d had set up to record our departure. It was stuck. I got it unstuck just as the boom swung over and hit me in the back of the head. Not too hard. I’m still alive.
OK, now all the problems were behind us. I pointed us to the point and set the electronic autopilot. All appeared to be working. Seconds later, the boat started a big u-turn and an error message came on the chart plotter with words to the effect that some idiot forgot to turn on the autopilot computer. Oops! That was a quick fix and all was really well from that point on.
Six hours later, we were sitting in beautiful Avalon bay on Catalina Island where we will spend the next few days. Depending on weather, and a small remaining to-do list, we should get underway for the next 2850 mile leg on Wednesday or Thursday. -Rich
