To arrive at Marco Island at a decent time we set our alarm for 4 a.m. and trepared to leave the anchorage after a first cup of coffee. It was pitch dark and finding the way out of the mouth of the river was not easy. it was very low tide and we did not want to get stuck in the mud without seeing where we went. GPS did not help much, neither did the search light. Any way, we got out, probably waking all the other boaters in the anchorage... but they still had 3 more hours until daybreak to go back to sleep.
The autopilot followed the route that was programmed the night before, avoiding the Cape Romano Shoals in a wide circle. We had ample time to tidy up the boat and wash all the dirt and salt off with what was left in our fresh water tank. No need to save water any longer.
So we arrived at Marco with a clean boat and hoped to make a good impression to our arrival committee. We came up the waterway at 1417h, as predicted and ... What a surprise! A Swiss flag was flying on our dock and all our friends were there, expecting us with 2 bottles of Champagne.
A great end of our first big voyage from Savannah, GA to our final destination and home on Marco Island.
About 600 nautical miles in 8 days with an average fuel consumption of just over 2 miles per Gallon.
Average cruise speed 5.8 kts.
300 Gallons of Diesel used ( close to 1200 liters ). This includes about 50 hours of Generator ops to charge house batteries.
Cost of the trip: 300 G of Diesel = $ 1125.00
Anchorages: $ 0.00
Food / Drink: same as when home
The rest of our vacation will be reserved for maintenance on the boat, varnishing the caprails etc. Hopefully there will be enough time to go out for a small day cruise or two before we head home on April 1st.
Great to see you arrived home savely!!
ReplyDeletenice mileage, but "food/drink same as when home"?
I suppose consumption had to be considerably higher with all this sitting around, having nothing to do but gettin' tipsy! :-P
regs from Winti