Our First Weekend on Seaquestor

We took possession of the Seaquestor on 21 June 1996. The boat was located on a mooring in Southwest Harbor, Maine (the use of the mooring for the summer was part of the deal). We had planned to buy an inflatable dinghy on the way to the boat. However, the dealer, who had assured us he had the inflatable we wanted in stock, didn't have one when we arrived at his store in Brewer, Maine. He apologized to us and explained that he had made an error. He alleged that the dinghy we had ordered was in fact in his Portland, Maine store. He again assured us that he would have the dinghy the next day in the morning. Thus, we pressed on to Southwest Harbor with no dinghy. After we completed the paper work on the boat (handing over the money, picking up the bill of sale, applying to transfer the Coast Guard Documentation and buying insurance, paying the state and local sales and excise taxes), we went to the Hinckley Great Harbor Marina, where we had rented dock space for the dinghy and had made reservations to stay for two nights so that we could work on and provision the boat.

During the day on 21 June 1996, the weather had been steadily deteriorating. By the time we arrived at the marina, it was raining, blowing a full gale from the east (Southwest Harbor, Maine is open to the east) and the waves in the harbor were running 2.5 to 3 feet. We explained that we had no dinghy to get to our boat and the marina manager immediately offered to run us over on the marina launch. We took him up on it and were on the boat 5 minutes later (our mooring was located only 300 yards from the marina). We were finally on our new boat.

Linda went below to get out of the weather, while I started the engine and broke out the mooring lines and fenders. I quickly discovered that we only had two 1/2" three strand nylon mooring lines (with no anti-chafing gear), so I used old dacron sheets for the spring lines. I then called Linda on deck to cast off the mooring for the first time. I let the marina know that we were on our way and I also told them that this was the first time I had piloted this boat (in a full gale and rough conditions). They wisely assigned us to tie up at an outside pier, where there were no other boats. I then surprised myself by having no trouble at all motoring over and tying up at the marina. Because of the combination of poor and deteriorating conditions, I doubled up all of the mooring lines (with more old sheets - the boat was well stocked with old dacron cordage). My next discovery was that our shore power cable was too short to reach the power outlet on the dock. The marina manager again came to rescue and loaned me a longer cable. After that, we settled in to spend the first night on our new boat. We had a relaxing night listening to the wind howl in the rigging and to the sound of the boat and dock moving on the waves. Because the boat was bow into the wind and tied off to a 100 foot floating concrete dock, we didn't pitch noticeably and actually had quite a comfortable night.

The next morning, we set out early to buy a dinghy and to head off to Hamilton Marine in Searsport, Maine to pick a number of supplies for the boat. Our first stop was the dinghy dealer in Brewer, who had promised us that he would have the dinghy we wanted that morning. Needless to say, he didn't have it. Consequently, we found a pay phone and called around until we found another dealer that did have the dinghy we wanted in stock. As luck would have it, that dealer was located about a mile down the road we were already on and we were able to buy the dinghy in about 15 minutes. We then headed for Hamilton Marine.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the boating scene in central Maine, Hamilton Marine is the store to buy boating equipment. We were on our way there to buy the things we felt were absolutely necessary to make the boat safe, comfortable and legal. On the safety side, we bought new mooring lines (200 feet of 5/8" New England Ropes three strand nylon), a set of new flares (the ones on the boat dated from 1987), a throwable PFD (rectangular cushion type), a couple of new type I life jackets and a chartkit for Maine. The comfort purchases included a lot of minor things to complement the kitchen gear on the boat and some cleaning supplies for the boat and the bilge. The legality purchases centered around a holding tank for the head (holding tank, deck fitting for the pump-out, 20 feet of 1.5 inch sanitary grade hose, through-hull for the holding tank vent, lots of hose clamps, etc). With our new purchases and quite a bit less money, we headed back to the boat.

When we got back to the boat, I noticed that one of my two bow lines had chafed through, so I quickly (in about 15 minutes) cut a length of our new mooring line, spliced a loop into it to fit our 12" bow cleat and installed it to replace the chafed through line. I then set about installing the new holding tank for the head. Fortunately the rain had stopped, so I was able to install both the deck pump-out fitting and the though-hull vent fitting under dry conditions. I then started the unpleasant task of plumbing in the holding tank and replacing all of the hoses on the head. I finished that relaxing task at about 9:30 that night (1.5" marine grade sewage rated hose is incredibly hard to bend and push onto hose barbs - particularly in those spots where all you can touch the hose with is your finger tips). I celebrated by taking a long hot shower in the marina's shower room. I relaxed for the rest of the evening while splicing loops onto the new mooring lines and whipping the line ends.

Our second night on the boat was even windier than the first night and we were kept up by the unfamiliar sound of the rigging and masts vibrating in the wind. As it turned out, we were lucky to have spent the night at the marina. During the night a 60+ foot fishing boat came off of its mooring and drifted right through the area where our mooring is located before it ended up on the beach. Given the location of the fishing boat's mooring and where it ended up, its track had to pass within 50 feet of our mooring. We would probably been hit if we had been on the mooring.

The next day I assembled our new inflatable and went over to pick up the outboard motor that came with the boat (a 2 horse Johnson). When I got back, I put the motor on the dinghy and discovered that it was completely seized (the starter cord wouldn't move). After lots of trying to free the motor up, I decided it would have to go into the shop. By that time we were ready to head home. The wind was still blowing a gale and doubting my ability to row the dinghy 300 yards across the 35-40 knot wind I asked for help getting back from the mooring. I found a willing volunteer with an inflatable equipped with a 10 horse outboard and we went out to pick up the mooring. Despite the fact that this was the first time I had picked up a mooring with the Seaquestor, we got it on the first try and headed to shore.

Well, that is the story of our initial outfitting and first weekend on the boat. While the weather conditions were terrible and we didn't get to sail our new boat, I did at least build my confidence in my ability to handle the boat under power in adverse conditions. I also found that Seaquestor, with her Westerbeke 46 diesel, had absolutely no trouble motoring into 35 knot winds and 3 foot seas. She handled easily despite her high freeboard forward and I never had any trouble controlling the boat.

This page posted 12 December 1997 by Todd Dunn expet@unb.ca

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