It’s been a few days now since the end of my trip, and I’ve had time to figure out what worked and what didn’t

Things that worked

  • I am getting pretty damn good at assembled/breaking down the porta-boat, I can do the whole thing start to finish in under 30 mins now. In the past I had a bit of trouble fitting the seats in the rear cockpit compartment, but I’ve figured that out now. I impressed the SHIT out of a small family on a bayliner one afternoon (and ofc I pretended not to hear the complimentary stuff they were saying while inside it made me feel good since I am a HUGE NARCISSIST)
  • I spent a lot of time by myself, and it was ok. I was worried that I was going to get lonely, or get mopey about my ex-girlfriend but neither happened. I was actually fine. And after I got back, I felt even better. Maybe I’m actually over the breakup? Maybe?? It only took 10 damn months. We will see. It will be a relief not to be sad anymore.
  • The coffee maker thing I have, an Aeropress, worked great.
  • Anchor held in 45 knot winds.
  • Rowing really is not bad, to the extend I never used my outboard and am thinking of ditching it.

 

Things that didn’t

  • As mentioned, my battery bank is waaaaaaaaaay too small (70 odd AH) and with no other form of charging apart from the engine, it just couldn’t hack it. Once I add solar and increase the size of the bank to the planned 400AH lithium I should be golden, but until then, I basically can’t use the fridge on multi-day trips and have to run the engine an hour a day. Which sucks.
  • I need to find a better anchor alarm system. The one on my phone kinda works but it’s tricky to get an anchor set correctly and the internal GPS/magnetometer is kind of terrible, leading it to lose connection or move my position around randomly – which in turn sets off the alarm. Nothing like being woken at 2 in the morning by a screeching alarm and having to run to the cockpit and see if you are dragging. Especially when it keeps happening every 20 minutes (or the time it takes to undress and get into bed again).
  • The loop I spliced into my anchor rode to shackle to the chain is too big and doesn’t fit over the roller properly. I’ll have to resplice it.
  • The zipties I use to measure length on the rode have all slipped around. I need to cut them off and do it properly, with paint.
  • My headsail is really too small. Sigh.

 

On an unrelated note, I went fishing yesterday, hooked a big chinook salmon, tired it out, got it to the boat, where upon a bloody seal grabbed it and made off with it. Cue 20 minutes fighting against the seal and yelling, where it chewed the salmon up, leaving me with the HUGE bottom jaw, still attached to the hook. The guy next to me who fishes a lot said it was probably around 25lbs :(. UGH!

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