Provisioning

I will try to recap the steps that i have taken to provision Playmobil for this trip. Safety was an overriding concern and that was addressed first.

I purchased a 6 person life raft that is packed in a valise and stored below. This will come in handy if we need to abandon ship.  Not desirable, but essential if circumstances require it.  I also purchased an EPIRB with integral GPS that should help us if we find ourselves adrift.  New flares will be purchased later today.  The ones on the boat are out of date and it is difficult to ship or fly with incendiaries.

I purchased and had installed a Garmin  GPS that is interfaced to a new VHF that will receive AIS signals from nearby ships.  That should insure that we can 'see' what is around us. I also purchased and will install a radar reflector that should enhance our visibility to surrounding traffic.

I got two new offshore PFD's that will inflate automatically if they hit the water.  I also purchased two double tethers so that we can stay 'clipped in' when in rough water and at night.      Rules to live by are 1) stay on the boat and 2) wear floatation.  If that fails, I purchased a Lifesling harness and a 50 foot throwing rope.

Oh yes, there is the backup GPS and chart plotter. That is my new iPad that I am using to write this.  It's hard not to be a fan of Apple and their products. 

Goals of the journey

One of the goals of this journey is for me to get to know all of the ins and outs of Playmobil. Over the course of this trip I expect that we will log between 200 and 300 hours of time, either motoring or sailing.  We will pull into slips or docks and depart 20 or 30 times.  That is more experience than most boaters get in a year.

This has reminded me of a book that I heard being discussed by my son, Scott, and my friend John Hunken.  They were discussing Outliers, a book by Malcolm Gladwell, that discusses success in varying endeavors.  One of the premises is that it take 10,000 hours of practice to achieve total and complete control of your selected medium.  My experience in racing vintage cars has always emphasized seat time.  The amount of time you actually spend behind the wheel driving. 

If I do 30 of these trips I might approach 10,000 hours of time on this boat.  I don't know if I will have the opportunity to actually do that, but this trip will be a good start.   

One more day to go.

Just about 12 hours before getting on a plane to the boat.  Quiet anticipation.  I am trying to go through in my mind what the days and nights will be like.  I am not quite sure, but I think I will be tired at the end of every day.

I will be pre-occupied the first few days with not doing anything foolish.  Hopefully, after the nervousness wears off, we will settle down into a routine.

Here is Playmobil in its slip in Summit North Marina.  The marina is on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.  Ben Franklin was a big proponent of this canal which was not started until the 1820's.  It took 300 miles off the trip by water from Philadelphia to Baltimore.

36 Hours Before Departure

In thirty six hours, I will get on a plane to Baltimore, where I will start provisioning Playmobil for the trip down the East Coast to bring Playmobil to it's new home in Punta Gorda, FL.  This trip has been long anticipated and I wonder what I have forgotten.

I have lists of lists.  I know that there are things that I have forgotten or purposefully omitted, with the idea that there will be time on the trip to pick additional things up.  I don't want to do too much of that, since that might significantly slow us up.

I am being accompanied by my friend and sailing buddy, Richard Mitchele, who was a shipmate on Donnybrook two years ago.  Donnybrook was a fast Santa Cruz 74 that we raced from Marblehead to Halifax in the 2009 race.