CeeBee
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 123
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Emily B
- Vessel Make
- Beneteau Swift Trawler 44'
Hi All,
Sitting in Marina Del Rey after an amazing 30 hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on our Beneteau Swift Trawler 44 . The first leg on our 2015 summer adventure with planned stops at Catalina, San Diego and ………. ?
We reported on last years trip http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/sf-la-our-beneteau-swift-trawler-44-a-16200.html It took us 4 days for the SF to LA trip, This year there was an extremely tight weather window to get around Pt Conception thus we decided to just go straight through.
Some thoughts on pulling an offshore all nighter.
Do It. You and the boat become more connected, you become a better more competent boater and the sense of accomplishment when you pull in to your destination is one you won’t want to miss.
Know your real world fuel consumption and remaining fuel. Our onboard GPH burn rate is very accurate but our fuel senders showing amount of fuel remaining are whack and totally inaccurate. We keep a log of what the dashboard indicates we have and what the reality is when we fill up we are able to accurately predict levels and distance.
Double Check your reality. As the night wears into morning, Double Check yourself, you’ll get punchy. Looking through the binoculars around 3am I had a brief moment where I thought the pulpit I could see in the viewfinder was another ship on a collision course that I had somehow missed.
“Her Feel” knowing how your boat handles seas becomes your third eye when running in the dark, You can feel impending large swells and sea state changes knowing how she moves.
Avoiding the Crab Pots,. There are hundreds of crab pots strewn across the Pacific Coast. If in deeper water (we like 400+ feet ) you won’t find them, but in shallower waters up to about 250 feet you’d be amazed how many there are.
Night Vision, Because of all of the crab pots offshore from our home port of San Francisco especially during Dungenous Crab season an early investment was night vision binoculars (rarely used) and then later adding a Flir night vision camera (always used) mounted on the mast and viewable in the Navigation display. The Flir is is a solid investment as you can even see changes in sea state and of course other “company”.
Not a fan of the overhead Red LED’s we place flameless candles from Crate and Barrel around the boat and they work extremely well. Also this trip became a fan of the Petzi headlamp that has a red feature, this was used it a great deal for making coffee, grabbing snacks and dish duty.
Safety, It’s mandatory to wear a Mustang Harness, which we have outfitted with automatic Man Overboard indicators, strobe lights, and whistles. The Mustang vests we use have built in safety harness clip. We run Jack lines to clip in to when going out on deck.
Hope these thoughts help. Get out and enjoy.
Sitting in Marina Del Rey after an amazing 30 hour trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles on our Beneteau Swift Trawler 44 . The first leg on our 2015 summer adventure with planned stops at Catalina, San Diego and ………. ?
We reported on last years trip http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s3/sf-la-our-beneteau-swift-trawler-44-a-16200.html It took us 4 days for the SF to LA trip, This year there was an extremely tight weather window to get around Pt Conception thus we decided to just go straight through.
Some thoughts on pulling an offshore all nighter.
Do It. You and the boat become more connected, you become a better more competent boater and the sense of accomplishment when you pull in to your destination is one you won’t want to miss.
Know your real world fuel consumption and remaining fuel. Our onboard GPH burn rate is very accurate but our fuel senders showing amount of fuel remaining are whack and totally inaccurate. We keep a log of what the dashboard indicates we have and what the reality is when we fill up we are able to accurately predict levels and distance.
Double Check your reality. As the night wears into morning, Double Check yourself, you’ll get punchy. Looking through the binoculars around 3am I had a brief moment where I thought the pulpit I could see in the viewfinder was another ship on a collision course that I had somehow missed.
“Her Feel” knowing how your boat handles seas becomes your third eye when running in the dark, You can feel impending large swells and sea state changes knowing how she moves.
Avoiding the Crab Pots,. There are hundreds of crab pots strewn across the Pacific Coast. If in deeper water (we like 400+ feet ) you won’t find them, but in shallower waters up to about 250 feet you’d be amazed how many there are.
Night Vision, Because of all of the crab pots offshore from our home port of San Francisco especially during Dungenous Crab season an early investment was night vision binoculars (rarely used) and then later adding a Flir night vision camera (always used) mounted on the mast and viewable in the Navigation display. The Flir is is a solid investment as you can even see changes in sea state and of course other “company”.
Not a fan of the overhead Red LED’s we place flameless candles from Crate and Barrel around the boat and they work extremely well. Also this trip became a fan of the Petzi headlamp that has a red feature, this was used it a great deal for making coffee, grabbing snacks and dish duty.
Safety, It’s mandatory to wear a Mustang Harness, which we have outfitted with automatic Man Overboard indicators, strobe lights, and whistles. The Mustang vests we use have built in safety harness clip. We run Jack lines to clip in to when going out on deck.
Hope these thoughts help. Get out and enjoy.
We fueled up in Monterrey and again in Santa Barbara pulling in to SB at 4am and fueling up at 7 although we did have enough fuel to have made it to MDR at 12 - 14 ish. 
