We just completed the maiden voyage on Honey Ryder. And what a great beginning it was.
As I mentioned previously, we shipped 9 boxes ahead of time. The rest of the "must have" yacht gear we stuffed into 3 BIG bags as checked luggage. We added to the load with two, heavy carry ons each. Tom and I are used to traveling light. This was NOT light.
*Note Weather Channel's Jim Cantori in the right of the pic. Tom spotted him in first class, as we made our way back to cramped class when we boarded the plane in Atlanta. He came up to us at baggage claim because we have the same Costco duffel (ours is blue) and he LOVES his Costco bag and wanted to chat about what a great bag it is. He was very big on how kewl our bags are. Okay?...my thought was..."Hey, Jim Cantori is vacationing in the Ft Walton Beach/Destin area, I bet we are going to have great weather. " Turned out NOT - thanks a lot Jim!....but more on that later.
After picking up the rental car, shoveling down some fast food and a quick West Marine stop, we headed to Honey Ryder. The new name and hailing port are on and look great!
PO (previous owner) Matt had lugged all the 9 boxes we shipped to his house over to Honey Ryder and had them nicely stacked in the salon. WOW! We hadn't expected him to do that. Now the fun began...where do we put all this stuff? She is a much bigger boat than our C30 but OMG where do we start. But we did and soon things began to take shape.
I bailed on this fun after a short while for a major supply run. First stop was West Marine in Destin to get a much needed Garmin chip for our 76cx. I ordered one from Garmin but I didn't do it until Monday and it didn't arrive in time. I know, I know, I should have done it sooner. However, I tried over the weekend and couldn't make heads or tales of what
I really needed. I could have NEVER figured it out on my own. AND Garmin customer support is only open M-F 8-6 or such. AND I would have thought I could have gotten it sooner with the HQ in Olathe but it didn't ship out until Thursday even though I ordered it on Monday (ok - late afternoon). I thought about driving down there on Tuesday and demanding to purchase the chip and get some help loading and understanding it all but I didn't think storming the Garmin HQ and having security called was the best plan with our trip departure looming. But honestly.....Garmin really needs some upgrades to their CS.
Anywho after kissing the Destin West
Marine staff for having the chip I need and installing it for me in our 76cx, I headed of to Wal-Mart for the mother load. Three hours and a whopping shopping headache later I headed back to Honey Ryder to find Tom and Matt working on various systems. He stuck around until 9pm helping us learn all about Honey Ryder. Matt truly has been a prince of a guy to work with and we can't thank him enough for all his helping in getting us started on Honey Ryder and her systems.
A quick dinner at Fish Lips and we fell into bed.
Friday morning we were up early and back at it. Tom got our new car (aka the dinghy) down to be sure the outboard was working properly. The next major task was the 3 anchors and all the chain. Seems right in the middle of the 300 ft nice chain was a rusted ball. Tom messed around, switched some stuff out and called it good for now. More systems were checked, more stuff put away and a few additional errands were run before I turned in the rental car.
We departed the dock at 1:55pm. The wind was
blowing 15 knots building to 20 so we motor sailed close haul with 1/2 main out and 1/2 head sail out.
We DEFINITELY made the right choice on Honey Ryder. As we pounded along close haul Tom went below to just listen and see what sounds she was making. Nothing but the water moving along the hull. No creaking, no groans, no squeaks, no banging of doors, nothing - simply a rock solid boat! We have been on so many boats that rattle, squeak and such when sailed under these conditions. Test one - passed.
We arrived at the east end of Choctawhatchee Bay, just this side of Hwy #331 bridge and dropped the hook at 6:35pm. *Sailors quiz - if you anchor in 7.1 ft of water with strong winds and no neighbors, how much anchor rode should you have out? How much could you have out? Answer? What is ALL your freakin chain! We opted to test it all. Yes, you heard correctly, we put out 100 ft of chain. Hey....the chain was not marked, we were testing all the anchor stuff (windless, chain, ect...) there were no neighbors and the weather called for storms. Well it worked of course. We held through the night. I can't say I got a ton of sleep, actually probably 45 mins total because of the storm activity, but that was just my worrying. Honey Ryder did great. Again, even with strong winds we didn't sail around a lot at anchor, there wasn't any clanging of halyards, lines, mast or deck gear. Test two - passed.
Saturday morning - We each had bowl of oatmeal and Honey Ryder had a belt. Ha!
We set off around 6:35 in heavy rain only to have to anchor again and change the alternator belt. Tom made quick work of that and we were underway again. Matt told us up front that Honey Ryder LOVES to eat belts. We had two spares and Tom has already figured out why so soon Honey will be going on a diet to help her cut back in the belt area. I should probably do the same to cut back in my belt area. Double ha!
The rain lightened up and by the time we entered "the ditch" aka the Inter Coastal Waterway, it stopped all together. The sun came out under hazy skies and we motored along.
This portion of the ICW is kewl. It looks like a river with high sand banks and pine trees on each side that fill the air with pine fragrance. It is remote with no development. Very pretty. Much better than the ICW I experienced on the east coast. The depth was good as well. There wasn't much traffic which made me wonder about the dreaded forecast - what did the locals know that we didn't. However with the banks on each side so high we were somewhat
protected. We passed one barge going the other way and a fancy, fancy power yacht. Luckily this happened in a area wide enough.
As we came out the other side, the full force of the winds of the approaching storm hit us directly on the nose. The next 4 hrs across West Bay were slow going as we slogged along. The sustained winds were 27 with gusts well over 30, this made the bay very choppy and wet. However Honey Ryder took it all in stride and pushed on. Test three - passed.
Finally we approached the bascule (drawn) bridge at Massalina Bayou and our final destination this leg, The Laid Back Boat Club. We bumped bottom just outside the bridge on the south side but continued along ok. Test four - passed.
We circled around several times trying to figure out which of the slips were available to us and how best to dock Honey Ryder for the first time. Apparently if you circle enough, the neighbors get nervous and come out to help. Thank goodness. It wasn't a pretty docking but mainly because of me. I seemed to forget every freakin thing I know about docking. A complete docking idiot. Pisses me off still to think about it. I might as well have been deck fluff, too bad I don't have the bikini body for it. Cap10 Tom did awesome manuvering the boat into this very tight, funky shaped slip. He was wonderful to help me in my idiot state and the new neighbors were kind to help and encourage us. In the end we docked her without hitting any other boats or getting dock rash so that all that matters but no points were awarded for style of the program! Ha and double Whew! Must study up on that. Honey Ryder did great. Test five - passed.
After a much earned beer in the cockpit, we finished securing the boat and settling in after the voyage. Later we continued our boat chores with a grand inventory. Thank you again Matt for turning over spares, good gear and great equipment. Dinner and chilling were the only other thing one the agenda.
So it seems you can take the girl out of Kansas AND take the tornadoes out as well since we had tornado warnings and strong thunderstorms all night long. I worried about Honey Ryder bumping around in the funky shaped slip and was up often during the night. I didn't wander outside due to the electric storm combined with high winds and squall lines of rain. Honey Ryder did great riding out the storm. Test six - passed.
Sunday brought the worse part of all...our departure from Honey Ryder. This maiden voyage was a great bonding trip. She has turned out to be so much more than we originally thought and we look forward to many years of grand adventures with her.
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