Another Burgee Will Fly Next Season ** PHOTOS ADDED 12/03**

[RobS]

Have you made arrangements for fuel? I would make sure that they will be open on Saturday....

I have, fuel is avail. where the boat is, the Pleasant Street Wharf. I searched the Forums and obtained the NAPA part # 60-1602 for wiper blades and am bringing three with me. Hopefully they fit. Everything is stock so I should be okay. The blades on there are real dried out.

[Pitou]

Congtatulations on the what looks like a great find ! It sounds as if you're pretty squared away for the trip home. Pick a nice day and enjoy. A new Albin / sure something to be thankful for . Happy Thanksgiving.

[JackK]

Rob -

I would recommend bring along some RainX in addition to the wiper blades. I find that most of the time, the RainX keeps me from having to turn on the wipers.

Have a safe trip home.

Jack

[RobS]

Rob -

I would recommend bring along some RainX in addition to the wiper blades. I find that most of the time, the RainX keeps me from having to turn on the wipers.

Have a safe trip home.

Jack

Yes - It's already in my bag, especially in case the blades don't fit.

[RobS]

Due to the short work week, the documentation was not ready to close the deal Thanksgiving Weekend. Now the docs are done and I'm meeting the broker 8AM Friday at the Pleasant St Wharf in RI. Some signatures, exchanging of paper, money and keys and I'm heading her South and West for a new home....

[RicM]

We closed on Time After Time in Jan of 07 then had to wait, and wait, to take delivery. It was one of the toughest things I ever did. I actually drove (2 hours each way in some of the worst traffic in America) to Stamford twice just to see it and touch it for a half hour. how sick is that? Because it was stored behind 3 rows of boats at the yard I finally got her into the water in late April. My buddy & I took the train to Stamford and did the sea trial in the afternoon, slept on her overnight, (the reverse cycle heat is very noisey) and left for Wickford (117 NM) the next morning at 6. It seemed like the greatest adventure of my life. I had paid slightly more for this boat than the condo that my wife & I live in! But she trusted me when I told her this was the LAST boat we would have to buy because it's the BEST 28 foot boat you can buy.
A year later I love this boat even more. It has taken us on many more extensive adventures than that first trip. A few tight squeezes, a few huge bass, a few firsts (first tuna) and a few others that will remain private. She is up on the hard now just a couple of blocks away, and I can't help stopping by every couple of days and climbing aboard to do some little thing or the other, just to sit in the cabin for a few minutes and think about next season.
Keep us informed, tell us all the details of your trip. You only get to do this once, my friend, do it well.

[furball]

Rob,
Congratulations, and lets us know how the trip home goes. We're just getting ready to haul for winter after only 2months with our 28TE.
Getting our's home was easy, just an hour trip up the Chesapeake. Friday morning, just a touch of fog left on an almost glass flat bay. Turned north under the bay bridge at cruise speed, hit the auto-pilot, sat back and I could not stop smiling.
Since then we've spent every weekend and two overnights on the boat, dogs are at home,

first keeper Stripers in the boat.
Everything we wanted from a boat and then some. The thought of hauling is killing me. Good Luck
John

[Cape Codder]

Rob,
Sure hope you make your journey on Friday.
The temperatures on Sat and Sun sound downright mean!
Highs around low to mid 30's.
I'm not ready for temps like that!

[RobS]

Friday’s forecast was not great as far as winds, WNW 15-20 with gusts to 25, but is was to be sunny and in the low to mid 40’s so that was good. Too late in the year to be too picky with the forecast so this was good enough. It was only to get colder with increasing winds.

Did the closing paperwork, loaded safety and misc. gear, changed all 3 wiper blades (too cold to apply the RainX I brought along) , checked all fluids, added FPPF 8 Plus Cetane Improver and topped off with 51 gallons. Plus a gallon in a portable can in case I needed to change out a fuel filter I would be able to top of the Raycor 500 with fuel from the portable can.

My buddy and I pulled out of Wickford, RI Fri 9AM. About 100ft from the dock I realized I had the marina’s fuel cap wrench in my pocket – oh well it’ll go UPS on Monday. The photo tach conducted during the sea trail indicated that the dash tach is approx. 150rpm over actual. So I cruised with the dash tach just about 3400rpm and was doing 18-18.5 knots with full fuel, empty water and 2 guys aboard.

The ride south in the bay was enough time for me to get quite acclimated with the Furuno plotter/sounder before getting out to the higher seas. Today I figured out that you can change the background color from blue to black which would have made seeing the green navaids on the screen easier.

Nice ride down the bay to Pt. Judith and out to the sound. Heading out into the sound it quickly became 3-4’s that were not too noticeable but became more noticeable as I started my turn to the west. The 3-4’ head sea (with occasional 5’s) allowed for a 13.5 - 14knot cruise to maintain comfort which I was quite happy with. Glad I changed out those old dried out wipers, the spray was pretty heavy at times. Next season I’ll do the RainX, it was just to darn cold at 8:30 in the morning to apply it and the bottle even says apply in temp no lower than 40.

We kept the backdrop canvas zippered down and with the sun out in full it was comfortable in the pilothouse. With the sun low in the sky this time of year it shined in at a nice angle through the large windows on the port side. This was the perfect time to let my buddy take the helm so we could switch seats. We even had the sliding windows open for a while. Then you could appreciate the seas a little more too.

As I closed in on the south east side of Fisher’s it started flattening out to a 2-3’ chop so back up to 18knots. As I approached Fisher’s Isl I added some south to my heading and ran between Plum Isl. and Gardiners Isl and then passed to the south of Orient Pt. towards Shelter Isl and into Greenport.

The night before my parents had driven us up there and we got a couple hotel rooms and they stayed to make sure the closing went off, etc. So after my buddy and I pulled out of Wickford my parents drove to New London and caught the 11AM ferry to Orient Pt. We had agreed to stop in town in Greenport to pick up my dad. It worked out real well as they got to the dock in Greenport 15minutes before we pulled in. On their way down to the dock they picked up some very much-appreciated hot sandwiches.

So about 1:30 we left Greenport along with my dad who joined in for the Long Island portion of the ride home. I have spent countless hours boating in the Peconic’s so this was a very relaxing portion of the ride, scenic, etc.

Through the Peconics and into the Shinecock Canal. The locks were closed which was nice. I’d rather have the few minutes of waiting between the locks than having to go through the ripping currents.

Out of the Canal and into Shinecock Bay. The warmth from the sun was slowly fading. We navigated across the bay and out the Shinecock Inlet for a peek of the white capped ocean. It’s approx. 15 miles from Shinecock Inlet to Moriches Inlet, so barely an hour on the right day. Well this wasn’t the right day. Leaving Shinecock was no biggy but returning into Moriches would be dangerous, especially on outgoing tide which is what we would have had. Moriches Inlet is not marked and is not considered a navigable waterway, it is downright nasty and has taken it’s share of boats. There is an ocean sand bar that runs parallel to the shore (Fire Island) and across the width of the opening of the inlet and down the beach quite a ways. There is a narrow diagonal cut of about 10-12ft of water through the sand bar and breakers that you have to run in order to get through. It’s only a slight diagonal; you are almost parallel with the beach and breakers so you end up having breakers on both sides of you as you pass through. Takes some getting used to - real scary for people on board that have not been through there before. Since it’s on such a diagonal it can be nearly impossible to see when heading in from offshore cause you can’t always see the whitewater of the breaks from behind until you’re right on them. Going out to sea the break in the whitewater is much easier to see. On our current boats we have GPS tracks saved for the cut through. I forgot to write down GPS coordinates for the cut Thanksgiving weekend when I winterized and covered my current boat, pulled the batteries, etc.

It was now pushing 3:00 so it would have been nice to be able to run the ocean and make good time but we it was clearly not the safe thing to do. The wind was still strong out of the west with little to no north in it. With some north you can run the ocean right along the south shore of Long Island and have real light seas even with strong winds but there was not enough north in the wind for this to be the case. The north wind would also help flatten out the inlet when you have an outgoing tide. The ocean would have been passable, but not at full cruise and we did not want to have to play around looking for the cut through the breakers with daylight quickly disappearing.

So we opted for the bay route which is plagued with low water and several no wake zones. Even with a few “I didn’t see a no wake sign did you?” it was quickly getting dark and a little cold too. There a a few canals that run along multi-million dollar Hampton homes. There was not a sole in sight, mostly summer homes for NY City Residents so we pushed it as much as we could. There are 3 small draw bridges that are manned til 4pm weekdays this time of year. With the antenna down we made it under all 3, but not by much. The last bridge was just after 4:00 so there was a sigh of relief when we knew we had it cleared. We weren’t sure we would make it under these bridges but figured getting through by 4:00 would not be a problem but prior to we had ended up touching down in the sand in the bay a couple times. The protected running gear made this damage free but a time waster. There are no rocks, just sand. After the Quogue canals we crossed Moriches and ended up pulling into our creek at 95% darkness and 100% darkness by the time we got down the creek to dad’s dock, the new home for Toy-Rific.

Toy-Rific is the name currently on the boat and the wife, kids and I like it so it’s a keeper. We’re just changing the port of call – the documentation paperwork is on it’s way to the Feds. The roof mounted flood/spot light came in real handy coming down the creek and pulling into dad’s dock. Dad’s house is on the water so when mom seen us pull in, she came down to the boat with beers in hand and told us that she made a stew and the table was set. So we tied her up, had our quick beer, pulled of the essentials and up to the house we went for some hot stew, red wine, coffee and desert. A great ending to a great day for a great beginning.

The fuel gauge seems to be pretty much where it was before we took the 51 gallons, a tad over half, and the trip was about 110 miles. This seems about right from what I’ve read about fuel consumption. This was mileage I measured on the charts – I did not reset or take note of the GPS trip odometer so it’s not exact.

My buddy took a bunch of pics and I’ll get them real soon and post a few.

Today (actually yesterday - I didn't realize it's 2 in the morning aready) I spent most of the day cleaning and checking over things, etc. Dad spent some time out of the weather down below cleaning things up. Amazing what a good cleaning and some neating up of a few things can do. As the sun was setting the dark side of the boat quickly iced up as did the floating dock and then the wet cockpit. That’s when it was time to wrap it up. The brushes, sponges, etc. were all frozen. So sad it’s the end of the season but at least she’s mine and she’s home!

I did have a couple issues that could use some feedback but I’ll post those details in their own post.

[Cape Codder]

Rob,
We shrink-wrapped Santosha last Sunday. So my wife and I were on "leaf-pick-up-duty" all day Saturday on the Cape. It was WINDY!
During the day, I'd look at my wife and say, "I wonder if he made the trip from Wickford?"

My buddy Phil, (shrink-wrap expert) even called my cell at 10am as asked,"Hey, is the guy in the Albin gonna make that trip today? Cause it's blowing a gale here in Plymouth."

Glad to to see you made it safely! And it sounds like you made some good routing choices along the way.

Thanks for all the detailed feedback regarding your adventure.

[RobS]

Hey Bob,

I must say I'm kinda touched that I was the topic of conversation for a bit there. It's awesome how a strong hobby and common interest like this can bring people together.

[jcollins]

RobS,
The last entry in my log book, hopefully, is always "W.O.I." (without incident)
Sounds like your trip was good. Thanks for posting. It's always interesting to read the details. Toy-Rific is a good name for a great boat.

[JackK]

Rob -
Glad to hear your trip was unventful. You had to be sweating those bridges with darkness closing in. Now the hardest part awaits you ... waiting for spring to launch her again !

Happy Holidays,
Jack

[mhanna]

Rob, thanks for the writeup, I really enjoy hearing stories of trips... As soon as I take a long one I will put one together.
Glad you made it back safe.

Matt

[Pitou]

Rob,
Thanks for the Toy-Rific trip report . It sounds like you had a great shake down cruise and plenty of miles to travel and do it. It sure brought back memories. I had a 112 mile journey to get PITOU home from Standish. As I had a smile from ear to ear I'm sure you and your crew did as well. As a boater, I'm sure you won't get discouraged with the little problems that arose during your trip. They all work out. The short sea trials never seem to find everything, if it's anything.
Enjoy the winter planning and plotting. Cheers to a new Albin owner !