Our First Weekend on Seaquestor
We took possession of the Seaquestor on 21 June 1996. The boat was located on a
mooring in Southwest Harbor, Maine (the use of the mooring for the summer was part of the
deal). We had planned to buy an inflatable dinghy on the way to the boat. However, the dealer,
who had assured us he had the inflatable we wanted in stock, didn't have one when we arrived
at his store in Brewer, Maine. He apologized to us and explained that he had made an error.
He alleged that the dinghy we had ordered was in fact in his Portland, Maine store. He again
assured us that he would have the dinghy the next day in the morning. Thus, we pressed on to
Southwest Harbor with no dinghy. After we completed the paper work on the boat (handing over
the money, picking up the bill of sale, applying to transfer the Coast Guard Documentation and
buying insurance, paying the state and local sales and excise taxes), we went to the Hinckley Great Harbor Marina, where we had rented dock
space for the dinghy and had made reservations to stay for two nights so that we could work on
and provision the boat.
During the day on 21 June 1996, the weather had been steadily deteriorating. By the time we
arrived at the marina, it was raining, blowing a full gale from the east (Southwest Harbor, Maine
is open to the east) and the waves in the harbor were running 2.5 to 3 feet. We explained that
we had no dinghy to get to our boat and the marina manager immediately offered to run us over
on the marina launch. We took him up on it and were on the boat 5 minutes later (our mooring
was located only 300 yards from the marina). We were finally on our new boat.
Linda went below to get out of the weather, while I started the engine and broke out the mooring
lines and fenders. I quickly discovered that we only had two 1/2" three strand nylon mooring
lines (with no anti-chafing gear), so I used old dacron sheets for the spring lines. I then called
Linda on deck to cast off the mooring for the first time. I let the marina know that we were on
our way and I also told them that this was the first time I had piloted this boat (in a full gale and
rough conditions). They wisely assigned us to tie up at an outside pier, where there were no
other boats. I then surprised myself by having no trouble at all motoring over and tying up at
the marina. Because of the combination of poor and deteriorating conditions, I doubled up all
of the mooring lines (with more old sheets - the boat was well stocked with old dacron cordage).
My next discovery was that our shore power cable was too short to reach the power outlet on
the dock. The marina manager again came to rescue and loaned me a longer cable. After that,
we settled in to spend the first night on our new boat. We had a relaxing night listening to the
wind howl in the rigging and to the sound of the boat and dock moving on the waves. Because
the boat was bow into the wind and tied off to a 100 foot floating concrete dock, we didn't pitch
noticeably and actually had quite a comfortable night.
The next morning, we set out early to buy a dinghy and to head off to Hamilton Marine in
Searsport, Maine to pick a number of supplies for the boat. Our first stop was the dinghy dealer
in Brewer, who had promised us that he would have the dinghy we wanted that morning.
Needless to say, he didn't have it. Consequently, we found a pay phone and called around until
we found another dealer that did have the dinghy we wanted in stock. As luck would
have it, that dealer was located about a mile down the road we were already on and we were able
to buy the dinghy in about 15 minutes. We then headed for Hamilton Marine.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the boating scene in central Maine, Hamilton Marine
is the store to buy boating equipment. We were on our way there to buy the things we
felt were absolutely necessary to make the boat safe, comfortable and legal. On the safety side,
we bought new mooring lines (200 feet of 5/8" New England Ropes three strand nylon), a set
of new flares (the ones on the boat dated from 1987), a throwable PFD (rectangular cushion
type), a couple of new type I life jackets and a chartkit for Maine. The comfort purchases
included a lot of minor things to complement the kitchen gear on the boat and some cleaning
supplies for the boat and the bilge. The legality purchases centered around a holding tank for
the head (holding tank, deck fitting for the pump-out, 20 feet of 1.5 inch sanitary grade hose,
through-hull for the holding tank vent, lots of hose clamps, etc). With our new purchases and
quite a bit less money, we headed back to the boat.
When we got back to the boat, I noticed that one of my two bow lines had chafed through, so
I quickly (in about 15 minutes) cut a length of our new mooring line, spliced a loop into it to
fit our 12" bow cleat and installed it to replace the chafed through line. I then set about
installing the new holding tank for the head. Fortunately the rain had stopped, so I was able to
install both the deck pump-out fitting and the though-hull vent fitting under dry conditions. I
then started the unpleasant task of plumbing in the holding tank and replacing all of the hoses
on the head. I finished that relaxing task at about 9:30 that night (1.5" marine grade sewage
rated hose is incredibly hard to bend and push onto hose barbs - particularly in those spots where
all you can touch the hose with is your finger tips). I celebrated by taking a long hot
shower in the marina's shower room. I relaxed for the rest of the evening while splicing loops
onto the new mooring lines and whipping the line ends.
Our second night on the boat was even windier than the first night and we were kept up by the
unfamiliar sound of the rigging and masts vibrating in the wind. As it turned out, we were lucky
to have spent the night at the marina. During the night a 60+ foot fishing boat came off of its
mooring and drifted right through the area where our mooring is located before it ended up on
the beach. Given the location of the fishing boat's mooring and where it ended up, its track had
to pass within 50 feet of our mooring. We would probably been hit if we had been on the
mooring.
The next day I assembled our new inflatable and went over to pick up the outboard motor that
came with the boat (a 2 horse Johnson). When I got back, I put the motor on the dinghy and
discovered that it was completely seized (the starter cord wouldn't move). After lots of trying
to free the motor up, I decided it would have to go into the shop. By that time we were ready
to head home. The wind was still blowing a gale and doubting my ability to row the dinghy 300
yards across the 35-40 knot wind I asked for help getting back from the mooring. I found a
willing volunteer with an inflatable equipped with a 10 horse outboard and we went out to pick
up the mooring. Despite the fact that this was the first time I had picked up a mooring with the
Seaquestor, we got it on the first try and headed to shore.
Well, that is the story of our initial outfitting and first weekend on the boat. While the weather
conditions were terrible and we didn't get to sail our new boat, I did at least build my confidence
in my ability to handle the boat under power in adverse conditions. I also found that
Seaquestor, with her Westerbeke 46 diesel, had absolutely no trouble motoring into 35
knot winds and 3 foot seas. She handled easily despite her high freeboard forward and I never
had any trouble controlling the boat.
This page posted 12 December 1997 by Todd Dunn expet@unb.ca
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