As ever - a FABULOUS instalment!! You need to look at your project from OUR perspective - it's us who are lucky to have such a wonderful resourceful person like you to keep up with. Impressed as always ... Tom :)
Incredibly jealous - I haven't sailed for about 5 years and I miss it tremendously. People always said to me, "You're living the dream," and that's precisely what you've been doing. Looking forward to your full electric conversion.
My lessons from the trip: 1) Never leave the dock or weigh your anchor without the ability to shorten sail. I'm super glad that we sorted out the Dutchmen and the reefing lines before we left Grasonville. 2) The time to reef is the first moment when you think you might need to, and that goes double when you're going downwind, because the boat won't tell you the way it will on a beat or a reach. I figured we were overpowered I noticed that the steering was getting squirrelly; if we'd thought about it then, we could have avoided an uncomfortable experience taking in two reefs at once. 3) An autopilot -- or, better yet, *two* autopilots (one of them a vane) -- is essential on a cruising boat. Hand steering is fun for a few hours, but it will quickly exhaust your crew if you're shorthanded. 4) Crew management and a good watchkeeping schedule are mandatory whenever you're not stopping at anchor/on a ball/in a slip for the night. We got into some trouble with this. 5) Real route planning, with an eye on the weather, tides/currents, and charts, isn't something you can skip. We threw lines whenever we felt like it, without even a fixed destination in mind (other than "Catskill" and Matt's mooring ball), and spent some time bashing our way against multiple knots of head current as a result. 6) Sail with people who you've vetted and know won't flake on you. 7) Know that your boat is in good order, and that you have spares for everything. I'll shut up about this one, to avoid spoilers. 🙂 8) Say hi to folks on neighbouring boats, even if you're a hard introvert, and make friends along the way. 9) Actually get the hell out there! Cruising is really, really good, and it's too easy to let it slip.
Copying my reply from discord ^_^; 1. Absolutely, that was huge that we got that fixed. 2. I'd heard that saying many times, but living it brought it home 3. omg yes, if I can work a monitor windvane (or similar) with a stout hydraulic auto-pilot, I think that would be an ideal setup. 4. Yup, I pushed and shouldn't have, lesson learned there. 5. Another thing that came from that was realizing I needed to beef up my electric motor plans, too. Absolutely try to time/schedule tides/weather better, but having the power to push through if you get caught out is nothing to handwave. Before, I thought (and heard from several others) "oh, I just need the motor to get in/out of slips". No, no you need it for more than that. 6. This is something I still need to sort out... Having two people flake out on the trip was rough. At the same time, one of the things I wanted from the channel was a way to meet new people and go sailing. So I still need to figure out how to welcome people I don't know onto the boat, but vet them so that they don't leave me stranded or cause other issues. This is going to be the hardest part to figure out, I think 7. hahaha! omg... 8. Thankfully, I'm a massive extrovert, and I'll talk to anyone anytime. So that's never going to be a problem for me. haha 9. YAAAAS! 
10) Layers are essential. Pack your sea bag well, or suffer. When I was running around in shorts in the Chesapeake, I thought I had overpacked, but I wound up using every single layer I brought, and I packed for cold weather.
Fantastic! I know those places, but seeing them from the water rather than land was so cool! And I kayak and canoe, but the waves in the ocean were on a level I'm not familiar with. Way to go! And thank you for sharing the adventure. ❤
@@TheDigitalMermaid it looks amazing! I've been in whale watching tours, and ferries all over (Newfoundland, B.C., Australia, Orkney, etc etc) but never sailing like you do. It looks incredible. One day I hope to get a chance to try. 💜
@@ripplesandleaves This trip was my first ever "big" trip on a sailboat, so it's pretty new to me also. One easy way to get out is to just stop by your local marina or yacht club, and offer to crew for people. Many folks would jump at a chance to get out on the water with an extra set of helping hands!
Oh wow, each leg of this trip makes me wish more I had been able to go. Im with you, I dream of the views from the deck someday... Upstate NY is like a post card and those little towns are something special to walk around. My Aunt & Uncle live just outside of Poughkeepsie! Im glad you got to soak in the special on this leg :) Totally loving the music
HOWdy T-D-M, ... Thank you for the Beautiful VIDEO Reminds me of the Four Years I spent basically at SEA in the US Navy ( 1969 / 1973 ) Very peaceful times when outside the Territorial WATERS Fascinating how far WHITE LIGHT can travel at night on the OCEAN Thanks for POSTING ... I'm living practically OFF-GRID now = added another 6-panel ARRAY now I'm 6S / 5P configuration with SIX more panels yet to install Used 5 kWh last month Can't wait for the BATTERY Conversion & Electric Motor in your FUTURE ... I'm spending Thanksgiving in Southern ONTARIO ( INGERSOLL ) COOP the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA ...
Great video and fantastic seeing you so happy and touched, Madi. I like the free hand camera vlogging style😉 One question and thought: have you ever recorded how much diesel you have used for certain stages of your trip and what the equivalent kWh would be, you would have used when motoring? You will have around ~75kWh of usable energy in your batteries, right? That would make around 7.5l of diesel, give or take...
Thanks Andy! ^_^ - Yes, I tracked my fuel burn and engine hours, so I can calculate the range I could get on a tank + jerry cans in real life (compared to specs). Once I get the conversion done, I'm planning a series of tests to see what the real range I get it, and how it compares to what I think I'll get. I need to pull the logs, but if I remember right, I was burning about about 2.2 liters/hour at 2100rpm, but the specs on the engine say I should have been burning about 3.5 liters/hr at that speed (which is partly why I need to pull the numbers and graph it). I had about 170 liters of diesel onboard if I had a full tank and three jerry cans. I Would do about 9 km/h at the 2.2lt/hr burn (on flat calm water), so I would get about 700 km of range, _if_ 2.2 lt/hr is true. The specs say I should have been burning 3.5lt, so "book" range would be 437km, once I burned every last drop on the boat (and assuming clean hull, flat water, etc). I've been working under the assumption that I'll get that same speed at about 5kw of input power to the motor, but speaking to friends who've converted, it might be a lot lower (like, possibly half). Using the 5kw though, my current back of 86kwh would give 154km of range on one charge, but I am now seriously considering using 7 batteries, for 100.1kwh, which would be 180km/charge (or 360km, if the 2.5kw/9kmh is realistic). If I assume the "paper" numbers, if I can recharge the batteries 2.5x (assuming the 100kwh config), I'd match the absolute max range of the diesel. After that, I have effectively _more_ range, because you can't make diesel out at sea. Another number I am very much unsure of, and can't wait to test, is how much power I'll get from regen on the electric motor. I'm planning on a new propeller (from New Zealand!) that is designed specifically for electric boats with regen. Add on to that solar as well, and I think over a 3~4 week crossing, I might match the range. Soooo many experiments waiting to be done! ^_^
Yes way! It was such an amazing part of the trip home... If I had any doubt about sailing across oceans, they vanished that night on the Atlantic. It was magical...
I've been waiting to seed your journey up the Hudson and Erie Canal. It's one of the things I would like to do in the next years. Your commentary provides a nice informal tone, not an over-produced made for "tourists" film. I knew you had already made it home safely. Now I am curious about the less than perfect portions.
The less than perfect starts in the next video... Losing crew unexpectedly, and breaking down on the Hudson and getting towed... I'm really happy I got to have this episode though, one video with no drama, just joy. ^_^
Upstate is gorgeous, the city is exciting (in all the different ways that can mean). I don't think one is better in general (though personally I'm more for quiet country), Time Square at night can be a heck of an experience!
It was pretty great, but I think I was mostly relieved to be away from the insane boat traffic in NYC mostly. The ferries in NYC are everywhere, and they do not have time for pleasure craft, so get the hell out of their way. haha. Lots of freighters and barges, too.
just a quick question - given you seem to be so incredibly talented with getting electronics working, why is the alternator/rectifier not up and working? Seems like a simple thing compared to what you normally do .
That's kind of you to say. :) I was not familiar with the Heart Interface alternator regulator. I thought when I was setting up the Renogy DC/DC charger that it was charging (the engine lugged down when I turned it on). When I realized it wasn't working, and figured out how to charge off the house bank, I was really tired. The bodge of charging the starter bank off the house _worked_ (obviously not long term), and I wanted to get back on the move. In the end, I got home before I needed to fix the alternator regulator.
The flag up high is meant to show you've legally entered that nation's waters. When you first cross, before you clear customs, you fly the yellow "Q" flag (used to mean "quarantine"), and then switch to the country's flag for the rest of your time in that country. The flag off the transom is you country of register, so my boat is registered as a Canadian vessel, so I fly the Canadian flag.
@@dfhepner You're very welcome! If you want to learn more, search for "courtesy flags" (the US flag in my case) and "flag state" for the flag showing the vessel's registration country. Cheers!
oh dear, were you getting all emotional again, we're going to have to do something, get you some therapy hehe, maybe get you drunk a little, a lot, let it all out picture postcard, i remember, when i was 8 or 9, on the way home after school a man with a camera asked if we like to be in a photograph, my friends and i said yes (things were a little less suspicious back in those days) and then months later i was in the corner shop, getting sweets and looking at the postcards on display, i noticed one of the gardens across the road, and there in the centre of the card was me, you can barely see me, i must be about 5mm tall in the picture, my bag was next to me and since then, i have been captured in a couple of paintings that later went into competitions, been on front pages of newspapers, and featured in a couple of magazines, ah the fame and no fortune i bet there aren't many folk say they were on a postcard?
