Wind Runner's First Voyage

A few days after commissioning Wind Runner, IP 420 hull number 21, we left Rock Hall to move her to Tampa Bay for the winter. After reaching Miami four weeks later, we decided to leave the boat in Miami and return home to Pasadena, MD for previously scheduled doctor/dental appointments and to prepare for the Christmas holidays. We arrived home Thursday, 12/7. We needed a minimum of another 8 days to complete the trip to our final destination, St. Petersburg, FL, but couldn't make it without missing doctors' appointments and leaving very few days to prepare for Christmas. We would have been able to go all the way to St. Petersburg, FL before returning to MD easily if not for an initial delay of 3-4 days leaving MD because of a propeller problem, another 24-hour delay to replace the cell phone that I dropped overboard the evening before we were to leave, and four days lost enroute due to weather and boat maintenance. Our revised plan is to spend the rest of December at home, drive to St. Petersburg Jan 3-6, then fly to Miami on Jan 8 to continue the trip to Tampa Bay on Wind Runner.

I think we did reasonably well on our first venture with Wind Runner. We took her from Rock Hall, MD to Miami, FL....a distance of more than 1300 miles....with no major problems. And we dealt with those that did arise. We made mistakes, but we were able to recover....and learn....from them. This really wasn't a sailing cruise. The trip, which was mostly down the Intracoastal Waterway, was almost  entirely under motor with a docking or anchorage every night. Opportunities to sail were few because of light wind, persistent southerly head winds, and narrow ICW channels/rivers. However, I view that as a positive. It gave us plenty of time and varied conditions to become familiar with navigating and handling Wind Runner without the added complexity of sailing her. We will have plenty of opportunity to experience sailing her as we proceed through the Keys in January and afterwards on the west coast of Florida and Tampa Bay. We plan to take this a step at a time and not rush the learning process.

We easily traveled 50-60 miles/day with a couple of peak days of 72 and 73 miles. We tried to get underway by 7-8AM and leave plenty of time to get settled in at the end of the day well before dark. We mostly motored at 3000 rpm and a speed through the water of 7.25-7.4 knots using a standard prop. In 4 weeks, we encountered only one other sailboat (a beautiful ketch) that was faster than Wind Runner. No one else could stay with us. We even passed a few trawlers.

The only day we were able to do any real sailing was the last day from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami. We left the ICW at Ft. Lauderdale for the first time since Norfolk and went outside into the Atlantic since Wind Runner won't fit under one Miami bridge. We had a fairly nice day with a northerly wind of 8-15 mph with a few gusts to 18-20 mph We sailed a combination of broad reach and wing-and-wing for the 20 miles to Miami at a speed through the water of 5-7.5 kts. That half day of sailing made motoring 27 days worthwhile. :-)

One characteristic of IP 420s is cavitation/vibration when motoring in shallow water. With the standard prop, it really becomes noticeable at water depths of 3-5 feet under the keel. We found that to be particularly useful when traversing the ICW. Shoaling exists in many areas and the channel is quite narrow in some sections.....it can be easy to stray out of the channel. The cavitation is an excellent "heads up" to warn against entering shallow water. We bounced off the bottom twice when coming upon sudden shoaling and we ran aground twice in approximately 1300 miles. The first time we ran aground was because of shoaling in the middle of the channel. It was no problem to back off and go around the shallow spot. The second time we ran aground was my fault. There was a "Danger - Shoaling" sign posted in an area where a couple of channels converged. I got confused and misinterpreted the area it was marking. I went on the wrong side of the marker....right onto the shoal. We were hard aground. I couldn't back off, so I tried powering forward over it and back into the channel. It worked! I estimate that the shoal was about 4 ½ feet under the water and our 5-foot keel plowed a trench 6 inches deep and 20 feet long through it. Thank goodness for a strong Yanmar engine, a muddy bottom and a tide that was rising. :-)

Wind Runner performed magnificently under motor during this trip. We had a few minor problems and one that could potentially be major. The following is a maintenance/repair summary:

1. The first problem occurred a few days before we left Rock Hall when the Autoprop, an option we chose, was causing severe cavitation/vibration. It was as intense in 40 feet of water as the regular prop is at 3 feet. Autoprop determined that they had delivered the wrong prop and arranged for another to be air shipped from England. However, it didn't solve the problem. A check on Fred Goldman's boat (hull 23), which also has an Autoprop and doesn't have the problem, revealed that he has yet a third Autoprop model. The original, standard prop was reinstalled on Wind Runner so we could leave. Autoprop now has the proper prop (hopefully) for our boat and will arrange for a diver to replace it. However, I'm going to wait until we reach Tampa Bay to have it changed. I'm not going to risk changing it in Miami, then maybe find that we still have a problem.

2. The second day out, the Raytheon chart plotter display at the Nav station developed a case of "crud"....dotted/dashed lines that spread horizontally across the display for about 30 miles north of the ship's position. As we traveled south, the crud followed. It made that 30 mile band unusable. The display at the helm wasn't affected. Since the problem was limited to an area north of the ship position, I could still use the chart plotter to navigate south. Plus, after reaching Norfolk, navigation was by the ICW chart book and not the chart plotter, at least until reaching Miami. However, it would be a problem when we start down the Keys and northward up the west coast of Florida. Gratitude and Big Electronics arranged for the display to be replaced by Raytheon's representative when we stopped at Melbourne, FL. The replacement display works fine.

3. The forward shower pump failed. The dealer, Gratitude Yachting of Rock Hall, is getting a replacement pump from Island Packet and I will have it replaced when we return to Miami.

4. The circuit breaker for the forward vaccuflush toilet failed. I don't think we have an associated vaccuflush system problem. The breaker simply won't mechanically engage. I turned it to the off position when we left the boat for dinner one evening and it wouldn't engage when we returned. I will replace the breaker when we return to Miami.

5. I had the required 50-hour service performed on the Yanmar engine at Norfolk and the 35-hour service on the Fisher Panda 4kw genset at Melbourne.

6. The potentially serious problem is an intermittent voltage regulator. The problem occurred only 4 days out of 4 weeks. However, each time the DC voltage became completely unregulated, went to 16+ volts and stayed there until we shut down the engine at the end of the day. The only symptom we had was a repetitive beep from the carbon monoxide detector that we had installed as an option. (The CO detector has a feature that warns of over or under voltage.) We saw no other symptom, except for the pegged DC voltmeter, which I checked only because of the CO detector warning. Of course, the concern is cooking the batteries, along with potentially long term consequences of equipment operating under excessive voltage. The manufacturer, Balmar, said that it could be either a defective regulator or a loose wire someplace. Balmar is shipping a replacement voltage regulator to me. I will swap them and see what happens as we continue on from Miami.

I was very happy with the performance on the dual Frigaboat keel cooled refrig setup. I did find it necessary to adjust the thermostats a little as we moved into warmer Florida waters....not surprising. I haven't had to go beyond a setting of 3-5 out of 10 on either unit to maintain the refrig section at 35-40 degrees and the freezer at 20-24 degrees in sea water temperatures in the mid-70s. We will see how they perform in sea water temps of 90 degrees.

I was not as happy with the Panda 4kw genset. Even with the "double" sound shield, it is louder than I had hoped. It was OK for the two of us....a bit loud when in the salon, but far enough removed from the forward cabin while we slept. However, I think it would be very bothersome to anyone trying to sleep in the aft cabin.

I kind of wish I had made the CQR anchor the primary and the Bruce the secondary. I had trouble getting the Bruce to set and hold a couple of times with a relatively hard bottom. I finally gave up one evening after several attempts and dropped the CQR, which set the first time. I might think about swapping them.

I don't want to bore you with a lot of detail of our trip, since most days were consumed simply navigating the rivers, channels and sounds that comprise the ICW. However, I will mention a few highlights of our trip....at least, they are highlights to us.

The first three days were spent making our way down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk with overnight stops at Solomon's Island, MD and Deltaville, VA. We had no opportunity to sail because of persistent southerly winds. We entered Norfolk Harbor along with a USN helicopter carrier. We found it necessary to stop for a few minutes at the entrance to the Elizabeth River, which we had to enter, and do a pirouette with the carrier and its tugs as it got positioned to berth. In Norfolk, we stopped for a full day to have the required 50-hour service done on the Yanmar engine. There, we met Ed and Karin from New Hampshire, who were traveling to Miami and the Bahamas on their Island Packet 44, Passages. Coincidentally, they had been at Rock Hall the previous week having work done on their boat where they had seen Wind Runner out of the water one evening when we were chasing the Autoprop problem. We sort of traveled together for the next three days before losing contact with each other.

A major highlight of the Norfolk stop was getting a chance to see and have dinner with a running friend from the Runner's World Online forums, Lauren McGowan. We just might pick her up in Norfolk next June and bring her back to Maryland with us to run the Father's Day 10k with me if the timing of our return works out right.

In Charleston, we went into the City Marina on the Ashley River. We were assigned a slip that was particularly challenging to get into because of its location near a bridge combined with a strong (2-3 knot) current that threatened to push us into the boat in the adjacent slip. We finally got into it after five attempts. I would not have been able to without the bow thruster. I was embarrassed because of the show we put on for those who were around the dock until a lady on a nearby boat said that a trawler also tried five times to get into it and gave up, which made me feel a little better. Another coincidence....the boat in the adjacent slip, which we narrowly avoided hitting, was a new Island Packet 380 named Ishmael which had left Rock Hall just a few days before we did. We had met the owners, who are from Connecticut, a day or so before they left. He had told us that they are friends of Dene and Anita, future owners of an IP 420.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at Jeckyll Island, GA. For those who don't know, Jeckyll Island was developed by the nation's wealthy families (Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Mellons, Cranes, etc) in the late 1800's as their private retreat. Each family built a magnificent "cottage". The cottages had as many as 22 bedrooms and 20 bathrooms, but no kitchens or dining rooms. All meals were taken at "The Club", which was centrally located amidst the cottages. Today, The Club and the cottages comprise a public resort. We made it a short day by traveling just 38 miles from the previous night's anchorage and stopped early afternoon. We planned to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Club Hotel, where a magnificent dinner was served from 2-9 PM. However, they were completely booked for hourly seatings. So, after spending a couple of hours walking among the cottages we enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner of pizza and beer at the Club Hotel's deli. A footnote....the cottages and Club Hotel are grand, but the stately old Oak trees with huge branches spanning 100-150 feet and touching the ground that populate the grounds steal the show. They are magnificent!

Yet another coincidence.....we got a very pleasant surprise when we arrived at North Palm Beach, FL. When we docked, we were met at our slip by Brian Baker, the owner of another IP 420. We had met Brian and Margaret in Rock Hall a couple of times and sat with them at a dinner of IP 420 owners at the Annapolis Boat Show in October. They had left Rock Hall a little more than a week before we did heading for Ft. Lauderdale, where they plan to leave their boat and fly home to Australia for Christmas. They plan to return after the first of the year and continue on to the Bahamas, down the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific arriving in Australia next fall. Brian and Margaret were docked a half dozen slips from us. They had been tooling around the Bay in their dinghy and saw us coming in. They returned to their boat and Brian walked down to meet us and help us with our dock lines. We enjoyed a very pleasant dinner with them that evening. It was good to see them again before they leave for Australia.

This trip further impressed on us the camaraderie and fellowship that exists among boaters. We met many very nice, friendly people who were more than willing to go out of their way to be helpful Not just helping with dock lines and offering suggestions about the local area and upcoming trip. But people who went above and beyond. For instance, there were Winston and Nancy, the dock master and his wife at the marina in Jacksonville Beach, FL. They live aboard their sailboat in the slip next to the one we were assigned. Winston was very helpful in making our two day stay easier and pleasant. Nancy gave us a ride to a nearby shopping area where we could have our first breakfast of the trip off the boat and do some reprovisioning....then she came back to pick us up with our groceries. And there was BeBe, another live aboard in the slip behind us in Miami. She offered a ride to us for shopping, which we didn't need since we were coming home, and insisted on taking us to the airport instead of taking a taxi.

Porpoises....marvelous animals. No matter how often you see them, it's impossible to not be enthralled by their grace, sociability and personalities. Beginning in North Carolina, we saw them just about every day. Mostly, they would swim alongside the boat for a few minutes, then go on about their business. One day, we had a special pair. One was large....obviously an adult. The other was considerably smaller. I assume it was a youngster. Like all "kids", it was playful. I crouched alongside the rail outside the cockpit and it would swim on the surface on its side looking at me with one eye just a couple of feet away. After doing that several times it once rolled over on its back and swam alongside. Finally, it gave us a good leap out of the water before swimming off. Another day we had a lone porpoise for several minutes that was a leaper. He would swim alongside, dip down in the water and then leap out of the water, make a quarter turn in midair, and splash back into the water. He got us a bit wet. I never tire of watching these wonderful animals.  For a few other photos of our playful porpoise, click here.

We also saw a couple of manatees. The first was just outside of St. Augustine, FL. The other was near Ft. Lauderdale. There were lots of white pelicans along the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River. They are rare most places, but have breeding grounds in this area.

Our last stop was at Miami, where Wind Runner resides until we continue our venture about January 9. We have her in the Dinner Key marina at Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay. For those who don't know, the Dinner Key marina is located on historic grounds. Firstly, Dinner Key is no longer an island. Fill was added to connect it to the mainland when the US Coast Guard operated a seaplane base there during World War II. Before that, Pam Am chose Dinner Key as the base of operations for their Central and South American operations when the only form of international air travel was flying boats. Biscayne Bay was ideal for their needs and Dinner Key offered excellent protected waters for a terminal. The old Pan Am terminal building is now Miami City Hall. What were Pam Am hangars are now dry storage for boats. And the surrounding docks and water areas that Pan Am used for loading/unloading are the marina.

One last anecdote....Wind Runner is going to be in the movies! We were in the Las Olas Municipal marina at Ft. Lauderdale for two days. Now, like everything else in Ft. Lauderdale, this marina is luxurious! Although there are a couple of "normal" docks, most are designed to accommodate super yachts. We made a last minute reservation enroute to Ft. Lauderdale, so they gave us the only thing they had left....a slip that would hold four IP 420s! Literally! It was 30x70 feet. Our neighbor in the adjacent slip was a 97 foot cutter (sailboat), which was twice as long and wide as Wind Runner and had a full time live aboard crew. (It's also for sale if anyone is interested.) All of the other boats on the dock that we were on were power yachts in the 70-100 foot range, several also with live aboard crew. The morning we were to leave, there were many people milling about on the dock immediately behind us. I saw a woman walk by with a suitcase. I thought that one of the luxury yachts was preparing to leave and everyone was crew members and support staff....until I noticed the cameras, lights and reflectors. It was a movie crew. They were preparing to shoot scenes for an upcoming Mafia movie. The focus of the filming was to be on a yacht docked behind us and one slip down. However, this was the day we were to sail to Miami and I was anxious to get underway. So, I started getting ready. As I was moving about the cockpit, the director of the movie came over and asked if I could delay our departure for about a half hour so they could shoot a dock scene that they were setting up for. He said that Wind Runner was in the background and they didn't want me moving around while they shot it. Of course, I agreed. I watched (and took photos) as they shot the scene four times. I also chatted with one of the actors in the scene between takes. He told me that many of the actors in the movie are from the HBO series, "The Sopranos". The name of the movie is "This Thing of Ours". The scene they were shooting occurs early in the movie when the guy I talked with is supposed to be delivering $25m to Castro on the boat. He walks down the dock and is greeted by two guards right in front of Wind Runner.

So, we traveled 4 weeks to get one day of sailing, a lot of experience and Wind Runner in the movies. Pretty good trip, I would say. :-)