bobk
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2005
- Messages
- 4,097
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 48' MOTOR YACHT-Series I (1981 - 1984)
Some of you know my wife's health prevented her from making the trip from Port St. Lucie to Baltimore this year. This would have been our seventh round trip, five on our trawler and two on the Series I 48MY. Anyway I wanted to pass along some info about the trip that may be of interest.
First, since I planned to run at 8 knots, I sought some trawler folks from MTOA to help with the first leg, Port St. Lucie to Southport, NC. We ran 12-14 hour days, anchored six nights and tied to a friends dock one night. This leg was mostly uneventful except for having to dodge some severe weather around Fernandina. We luckily had no Georgia flies this trip, first time ever.
I left the boat in Southport a couple of weeks to return home to my wife, and then ran from there to Baltimore in six days with the help of a very good friend. This time circumstances had us in marinas three nights and on the hook the remainder.
The Albermarle sound was the worst I have experienced with a few 5' beam waves catching us during the last five miles. In general we saw 3-4' seas on the beam or quartering. The next bad weather hit us on the Hampton River as we were preparing to anchor. I didn't want to be dealing with an anchor chain in an active electrical storm, so we grabbed a T-head at the Hampton Yacht Club, which gave us a chance to visit with friends who are members. The second day on the Chesapeake was also a bit rough with small craft advisories for 20 knot winds gusting to thirty from the west-north west. The boat is stabilized, so these seas were no problem... we just bumped the speed a bit to make the stabilizers more effective. All the rough stuff did nothing more than spill a few light items off the counters in the heads.
Fuel burn for the trip was about 1.2 NMPG ignoring the roughly 25 hours of generator run time. Most of the trip we held to 1000 rpm, bumping it up some to make bridges or handle seas and of course running the DD's to 1800 rpm for a few minutes each day to heat them up and blow them out. The smoke cleared generally in less than a minute. We also ran with partly filled tanks which seemed to make a difference even at displacement speed. I've been using Howe's MPC in the fuel for a couple of thousand miles, and at the end of this run, we had a barely detectable dusting of grey soot on the transom which almost rinses off.
Anyway it's good to be back and we made it in time for BYC's opening weekend. We'll be trying to get some local cruising in this summer and will try to get back to Marathon next winter health issues permitting. If not, maybe one of you 'go-fast' guys would want to try a slow trip with me?
I should also mention we saw many older Hatteras' on the trip. Grand old gals all. The Hargrave designs will always look good.
Bob
Chateau de Mer
First, since I planned to run at 8 knots, I sought some trawler folks from MTOA to help with the first leg, Port St. Lucie to Southport, NC. We ran 12-14 hour days, anchored six nights and tied to a friends dock one night. This leg was mostly uneventful except for having to dodge some severe weather around Fernandina. We luckily had no Georgia flies this trip, first time ever.
I left the boat in Southport a couple of weeks to return home to my wife, and then ran from there to Baltimore in six days with the help of a very good friend. This time circumstances had us in marinas three nights and on the hook the remainder.
The Albermarle sound was the worst I have experienced with a few 5' beam waves catching us during the last five miles. In general we saw 3-4' seas on the beam or quartering. The next bad weather hit us on the Hampton River as we were preparing to anchor. I didn't want to be dealing with an anchor chain in an active electrical storm, so we grabbed a T-head at the Hampton Yacht Club, which gave us a chance to visit with friends who are members. The second day on the Chesapeake was also a bit rough with small craft advisories for 20 knot winds gusting to thirty from the west-north west. The boat is stabilized, so these seas were no problem... we just bumped the speed a bit to make the stabilizers more effective. All the rough stuff did nothing more than spill a few light items off the counters in the heads.
Fuel burn for the trip was about 1.2 NMPG ignoring the roughly 25 hours of generator run time. Most of the trip we held to 1000 rpm, bumping it up some to make bridges or handle seas and of course running the DD's to 1800 rpm for a few minutes each day to heat them up and blow them out. The smoke cleared generally in less than a minute. We also ran with partly filled tanks which seemed to make a difference even at displacement speed. I've been using Howe's MPC in the fuel for a couple of thousand miles, and at the end of this run, we had a barely detectable dusting of grey soot on the transom which almost rinses off.
Anyway it's good to be back and we made it in time for BYC's opening weekend. We'll be trying to get some local cruising in this summer and will try to get back to Marathon next winter health issues permitting. If not, maybe one of you 'go-fast' guys would want to try a slow trip with me?
I should also mention we saw many older Hatteras' on the trip. Grand old gals all. The Hargrave designs will always look good.
Bob
Chateau de Mer
