Sailing Adventure

The beginning

Chip Prather
03/29/2010, San Clemente, California

We¹re preparing for a trip to Mexico later this year. Leaving on October 25th with the Baja Ha Ha flotilla will mark the beginning of our 8-month trip into Mexico. Our intent is to enjoy the Puerta Vallarta area until January 2011 and then slowly head south to Zihuatanejo. In mid-March we¹re be back in PV for the Bandaras Bay Regatta and then start moving toward the Sea of Cortez. The crew will be Chip and Katie Prather and Jack and Diane McFadden. Preparation began in September when Jack and I replaced the original 24 port lights on MissTeak. After considerable research we selected ports from New Found Metals. Very robust and stylish. The crew at NFM was exceptionally helpful and patient. The instructions available on their website, and others, was a lifesaver. The project took 7 weeks of everyday work to complete but we made it before the rain came (thankfully). The next project was to replace all electronics and to make some additions. After more research, we centered in on the Furuno NN3D chart plotter, Radar, MAXSea Explore, Simrad AP24 Autopilot, F150 Wind, F150MFD, RD30, and the FA50 AIS. Also added an ICOM 802 and Pactor II. We called upon Custom Marine Electronics in San Diego to do the installs and they¹ve done a great job. We¹re still working out problems with the Simrad (drops nav data occasionally) and a conflict between the MAXSea laptop based navigation program and the NN3D (causing the NN3D to reboot itself periodically) but I expect that will all be resolved shortly. Next on the list is to mount the liferaft, replace all hoses and clamps, obtain a 3rd anchor (Fortress), replace all running rigging and to complete building the parts inventory (pumps, alternator, starter, filters for the engine, generator and watermaker etc). We¹re expecting to complete all of this by June 1st and to put away the tools so we can enjoy sailing around SoCal for the summer. More to comeŠ..