First cruise

I know there are a lot of guys here with hundreds maybe thousands of hours at the helm. In rough conditions, or clear weather on the horizon. for me, this is the first time I've taken my boat out for a run, even though it's only in closed water. It was actually a bit exciting! Might be kinda wordy.

I started out a bit goofy. It was hotter than hot the past few days, and I'm getting up there in years, don't last as long in the heat and humidity like I used to. I'm single handing the boat, as my wife doesn't know much about marine stuff like lines, and knots, and steerage, and windage, etc. So she helps out at the helm with little things, but most of the movement is on me.

I used the Yacht controller to get out of the slip, and it's a fairly tight fit. Standing on the swim step, I never fell in the drink which was a bonus, and it was easy to know when to start and stop the turns. Having a stern thruster makes me look like an expert, but I'm far from that. What a great utility tool. We cleared the dock, the piers and the floating breakwater, and I transferred to the flybridge first. As said it was hot and humid, and I started to get dizzy. My Dr said this is normal for the time of year, and the weather conditions for someone my age. He gets it sometimes too, and on the flybridge with some wind abeam the first time I've ever gotten queasy. It only lasted a min or less and cleared right up.

I'm still learning the economy setting for the engines. Ran them up to WOT to start when they were warmed up, and getting about 2200PM now which was a slight improvement over the sea trial. GPS speed showed 27Kts, which is another high for this boat, it's getting about what the mfg specs. I'm a lot happier now. I throttled down to idle, and transferred to the pilothouse. I bought this big tub because I could drive it in air conditioned comfort, and that's what I intend to do. This was the first time piloting from the inside pilothouse. It's a LOT different.

The visibility of the water, and the other boats from there is just not as good. I can see why a lot of people still drive from the bridge. It's easy to get a 360 deg view up there, and anything in the water in front of the boat is much easier to pick out. I can't see squadoosh out the back from the pilothouse. It would be good place for inclement weather in the open seas of course.

We motored a few miles, while I got the hang of the economy settings, and fiddled with the trim. I didn't keep detailed logs as we went, just a pleasure roam but it seemed to like 17-18Kts real well. If I had a fuel totalizer I would be able to get some consumption numbers, but I'm not planning to put that on a lake boat. I am never more than 20 miles from a fuel dock. hehehe

I've been shopping around for a new marina and slip. The place I'm at is made with a bunch of drill stem pipe, corrugated metal panel, and old lights and fixtures. I'd like something a little cleaner and nicer. We pulled into a nearby marina, and I got permission to line up and check the fit of my boat. The roof brace was listed at 22', and my bridge clearance was 21' with radome and ant. I was playing around, just nuzzling in slow, and looking over the hardtop at the ant and that beam. It fit, but man it was close. I may see about moving if I'm sure I'll get in and out.

After that we set out in a beach and relaxed for a while. Wife put some bait on and caught a couple stripers. She said she'd fix them for dinner. I checked around the boat, and back at the props, thruster, rudders, and it was all fine. After a few hours, we motored out, and picked a cove and settled in for the night. Had fresh bass for dinner and few glasses of vino. After a little bit of rocking around, I slept like a dead man. Woke after 8, and breakfast was waiting.

Then, around 10, things got interesting. A few bolts of lightning in the west were coming our way. I looked at the radar, and my laptop weather radar and it seemed was headed to go right over us. Pulled anchor, got things going, and headed for open water. There's not a lot of breakable stuff in the salon, but there is a TV, and glasses in a overhead rack, and various lamps, and other stuff lying around. I was worried some of it could be jostled, or slammed around if we got bad stuff. The rain started, and we got some 30-35MPH winds, with a bit more gusts. Actually had some 3' waves with a little foam at the top. I was amazed, the boat just drove right through it without even a murmur. No rolling, pitching, slamming. It weighs 26T, and just takes the lake rollers easy.

Not saying it's anything like force 3 or 4, but my wife was amazed it was so stable. We got a good washdown, and found a spot leeward of the worst wind, and just rode it out at anchor. I was ready to get out if needed but the blow passed, and after a few hours the sun came out and it was great.

Late afternoon we came back to the marina, I docked at the fuel dock perfect, barely used the thrusters. Put some gas in and had good luck backing into my slip all alone. The backup camera wasn't working at the stern, but I backed in using the bridge controls, and my wife shouting from the cockpit, left and right. I used the bow thruster just a bit, and shut down, fitted all the dock lines, and we relaxed again with a nice dinner aboard.

I don't generally offer much personal info, but I want to share this. My wife - and myself, we grew up poor. She was 4th of 8 kids, and her dad passed when she was early teens, so it was tight for her until marriage. I started working out of the house at 13, and worked continuous until retirement at 66. We spent a metric ton of money on this boat, and it felt kind of crazy to start with. Now, it was all worth it. Even though I have a dead batt charger that needs to be replaced, it's as if we've arrived, and now our time to just relax and enjoy.

The dizzy was due to vestibular imbalance. It's a known issue affects about 1% of the population, happens in summer with hazy or low vis horizon. I have to be careful about it when I fly as well. I've also suffered from ocular migrane sometimes.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=ocular+migrane&iax=images&ia=images

Driving the boat from the swim platform was a dig at the last guy here who decided to be obtusely critical of my obvious joking about that in a prev thread.