You are right Tim, we did make it to our destination and it wasn't without a few issues, most of which were total rookie moves. You are also correct about this being a capable vessel. I would have never taken off on a journey like this on an unknown quantity.
After reading Fog's posts about his upfit, speaking with Fog, a recent survey, successful sea trial, and a knowledgeable broker, I felt pretty confident about the systems onboard. If anything was lacking, it would be the electronics package. I'm pretty sure the bulk of it is original to the boat. Our first issue came in that department. Although it seemed fine during the sea trial, the depth finder was on the fritz immediately. It constantly flashed random numbers and rarely displayed a reading that I felt was plausible. We never really got into trouble with it, but it certainly caused a lot of anxiety that I could have done without. It actually got better as the trip progressed and actually became usable around 50% of the time once we hit salt water.
BTW David, we started at Aqua Yacht Marina just a mile or so from the corner of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. Pretty much the start of the TennTom. We made ~58 miles our first day and decided to anchor at Fulton, Mississippi. Talk about a cluster.... First, it got dark on us. Second, we had never anchored before. Third, we were reading anchoring recommendations from the 2005 Fred Myers book. Fourth, the generator overheated (raw water impeller), Fifth, it got down to the low 20's. The admiral was pretty sour and, admittedly, I wasn't much happier. Luckily, we made it through the night safely and the morning brought a warming trend and beautiful weather for the remainder of our trip.
Day two took us to Aberdeen Marina for a short day. This is where we found out how out of date the Myers book is ���� Needless to say, Aberdeen Marina is NOT as it was in 2005! Day three was uneventful as we anchored at mile 286.2 of the TTB and day four found us in the first class Marina in Demopolis, Alabama. The dock master said we looked like old pros as we, somehow, put it right into the slip in windy conditions.
My comfort and confidence level were pretty high at this point. The admiral was just happy to have shore power.... and heat! Although we had been doing well... our destination seemed to be in another world altogether.
Nice folks at Demopolis - if still there tell Fred and Matt hello from the Mortimers. Safe travels.
