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Last week I finished reading Sensible Cruising: The Thoreau Approach by Don Casey and Lew Hackler (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071580255/002-5645865-2735251?v=glance&n=283155). This is a book about cruising small sailboats in the 25-35 foot range, and its filled with quotes from Thoreau. Their point is that thousands of these boats sit and rot at the docks, as the owners dream of cruising “as soon as” they had larger boats. Meanwhile, sensible cruisers cruise for years on smaller boats, instead of just dreaming about it.
Inspired by the book, we decided on noon Saturday to toss the kids in the car (and some bagels and sleeping bags) and do our first overnight trip on our C&C 27, Bailiwick. The forecast was terrible– no wind, but an inch of rain. But hey, we were sick of waiting for the weather to get better. It’s been raining on and off for the last several weeks.
We went, and we had a fantastic time. We motored the whole 10 nautical miles to Government Island on the Columbia River. There, we hiked on the island and my son caught a nice 10 inch fish and released it. Saturday evening, we joined the crews of three other boats for an impromptu evening dinner-on-the-dock and fun cruising talk. At eight on Sunday morning, one of our dock neighbors delivered hot-from-the-oven cinnamon rolls. My son caught another fish, we hiked some more, and then motored home.
We’ve posted a picture gallery of the trip (http://photos.sailingvoyage.com/v/ThirdtriptoGovernmentIsland_FirstinBailiwick/), and basically it was fun to think about Thoreau as we got back to nature on the remote and lightly visited island. I wouldn’t mind doing this same trip every month, year-round.
Jim H
Bailiwick, a '73 Mark II
Portland, OR
Last edited by (2006-06-04 14:51:46)
I read that book years ago... it's great.
JD
'86 C&C 27 "Mofongo" - Rhode Island
You know you're correct. Lots of people have a 27 to 30 foot boat and long for a larger boat so they can go cruising. I know I have. I have a MKII with an Atomic 4, and love the boat, but wonder about cruising with the atomic rather than a diesel. I day sail often, overnight ocassionally, but long to go "cruising" but am concerned about the practicallity of going a long way on gas. I have concerns about getting in the doldrums, cranking up the A4, and wonder how far I will travel before I run out of gas. The long legs of a diesel make me think about a swap, but then I have never had one minute of trouble out of the A4. Anyone cruise with the Atomic 4?
>>Anyone cruise with the Atomic 4?
I think you've touched upon a tricky problem with the C&C 27. Like you, I have an Atomic 4 and a 12 gallon gas tank. I haven't been measuring, but I know that an Atomic 4 can drink as much as a gallon an hour, making a 5.5 knot cruising speed not a great distance, expecially when motoring against a significant current.
The previous owner did an off-shore hop from the Columbia River up to the Puget Sound area, and we has concerned enough about gas supply to have three additional gas containters on board, making the total fuel supply around 25 gallons. Even with that, they purposely sailed some distance to save gas and ended the trip without much reserve.
I wonder if anyone's found above or below deck tanks that could be used for this purpose. We wouldn't do this type of trip often enough to warrant installing new, additional tanks in the boat, but what would be the safest yet economical way to carry additional gas? The previous owner simply put the gas containers under the seats in the cockpit, likely balancing them out side by side, but obviously this may not be the safest route unless the tanks were really well sealed (and able to take the movement and jostling during the trip).
Jim H
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