Recent content by nquigley

I couldn’t find St George’s Is. on Navionics. I see Dog Is. just off Carrabelle (previously, I meant to write Carrabelle, not Carriacou)

I know the exact feeling. The area of the Gulf in the north east corner is very confused most of the time. A fisherman told me that one can avoid the worst of the short steep chop by either staying well up on the shallow shelf between the deep part of the Gulf and the shoreline, or, sail well...

That’s too bad! Was it the bad weather last night, or some sort of breakdown? Will you resume from there, or go on to Carriacou first via the GCW?

Hi Carl, From bow to battery bank … The solenoid was mounted near the top port side of the forward bulkhead (cables went through a hole to the windlass in the anchor well). I build a simple, easily removed, plywood box to go over to solenoid to protect it and the wires from stuff I might want to...

Regarding to swivel or not to swivel… There is an interesting recent post on YouTube by practical sailor regarding the pros and cons, necessity or otherwise, of anchor swivels.

Yeah, if your goal is to get further down the Florida coast, detouring to Apalachicola and Carrabelle doesn’t offer very much. But maybe you might like to go for just a day or two down to Port Saint Joe and, if necessary for repairs etc., pop back to Panama Beach after that. How does the full...

Congratulations! I hope you’ll have time to stop in Port St Joe. You can anchor just past the Marina breakwater, about 100 yards off the beach (a little further out at high tide) and dingy to the beach - it’s safe to leave it up on the shore for a couple hours. The marina people are very nice...

Hi Barbixy I actually think that ‘turnkey’ is in the eye of the beholder for anything but a nearly new boat. Some may consider a very well maintained and presented older boat as being turnkey, even if they also noted a number of minor things that they would want to do to the boat, but which...

I agree with Christian’s idea of occasionally running at max rpm for a while to see if engine temp remains in range. Otherwise, marine diesels actually prefer to run at about 80% of the engine’s ‘wide open throttle’ (WOT) spec, which should be in the manual. AI says the M25’s WOT is 3,000 rpm...

Was Clearwater particularly bad for the hyper surveillance you mentioned, or do you find that common throughout the Gulf Coast to Florida? Thanks for the advice about having a pump out log. I never would’ve thought of that.

I wonder, are you were in that wonderful little anchorage at Fort McRae? It’s a great jumping off point for leaving Pensacola and going out into the Gulf. I had no trouble on the intercoastal waterway between Carrabelle (via Apalachicola) and the cut that goes down to Mexico Beach and Port Saint...

I would suggest carefully measuring your own air draft. On my 32-3, I seem to recall my air draft was 47’, not including my VHF antenna. Before I sold her, I was closely calculating whether or not I could get under that bridge. However, my new boat has a 50’ air draft, so I am out of luck there...

Nice looking boat! I'm a bit biased, though - my 'new' boat is a 1977 Westsail 32, which is very similar in design and internal layout to yours, except that she has a full keel - not as nimble as your boat will be :)

Excellent video! Hauling out always seems to attract the attention of the yard's services people - like when you send your car in for a lube and oil change and the service manager calls you with a list of other things they think you should do at the same time - sometimes these are just upsells...

Just wondering ... do you really need a staysail boom? What do other E-36C owners say? I now have a (1977 - same as you!) Westsail 32, which originally was rigged with one, but lots of W32s are not using them any more - mainly because they get in the way of convenient foredeck use (e.g., dinghy...