After several 12 hour days of work fixing, cleaning, storing and making small changes it was time for our first shakedown cruise. Give us chance to scrape some of the rust off, and to try out the new stern thruster that Hurst marina installed for us over the winter.
Engine fired right up and off we went, down the river for about a half hour then back to port. Calm winds when we left, but of course the wind had picked up by the time we got back to the dock.
Since this was my first docking of the year I was bound to be a little rusty. Wind on my stern was not too bad, but I forgot to compensate and did not kill our forward momentum enough before pivoting to enter the slip. Bit of a tense moment with the first mate yelling into the headset (rusty on using these as well) when the hull almost kissed the corner point of the dock, but the stern thrusters saved the day and got us off the dock. Nice when something pays for itself the first time you use it. From now on its free!
Really happy with the install that Hurst did for us. We were fortunate to have their senior tech, Corey, doing the work. Nice clean install. One of the major reasons for us choosing to stay at Hurst was the quality of their service support. They have been really helpful for us getting ready for our trip.
We initially were not planning to get a stern thruster, as our experience last summer showed us we could get by without one. However, we met some loopers who told us one would be very helpful on the ICW where current is often a factor when docking. Very glad we decided to put one in.
Our bow thruster was a Sliepner (IMTRA) tunnel thruster, while the new stern thruster is made by sideshift. I wanted to have unified controls, and something that would be good for Louise, so I went with IMTRA controllers.
Now we just need to find places to store all our stuff. Running out of places to store things.
During our shakedown cruise, I noticed that the lower tach was erratic. A quick check of the wiring showed that the nut on the ground post was loose. Tried to tighten, but it would not tighten. Then I noticed a stack of washers under the nut. The treads on the ground post were stripped in one area, and to compensate someone had used a stack of washers to move the location on the post where the screw was. Unfortunately, the nut was only held on by a thread or so. I added a couple of more washers so now the nut has enough threads to bite, but will have to look for a better long term fix. Seems like everytime I cross an item of my to-do list, another item gets added.
