Summer Shakedown

When we first saw Freedom, she was in an indoor storage shed, and she looked huge!

At 16,000 pounds, she has over twice the displacement of my last boat – Whistler – which was a 28′ Legacy. It’s weird: she is just 4′ longer than Whistler, but she has twice the interior space that Whistler has, and she has many more complicated systems that I’ve never had in a boat:

• Generator
• Inverter
• Air Conditioning
• Refrigerator
• Freezer
• Induction cooktop
• TV
• Fresh-water toilet
• Bow and stern thrusters
• 240 volt power
• Radar

The addition of 240-volt power means that this boat has three electrical systems:

• 12-volt (like your car)
• 120 volt (like your house)
• 240 volts to drive the AC
• The inverter converts the 240 to 120, and she has 5 batteries to provide the 12 volt
• No wonder these boats are so expensive!

To complete Freedom’s purchase, she had to pass a Marine Survey and a Sea Trial. Both took place towards the end of June, and she passed with flying colors. By month-end, the sale was complete, and we made plans to move aboard immediately after the Fourth of July weekend.

Our first task was to clean Freedom from top to bottom, and to ensure that she was properly fitted out with the proper gear. Since she was up in Massachusetts, we rented a truck from U-Haul, loaded it with cleaning supplies, charts, and other gear, and headed north.

Four backbreaking days later, the boat was clean to our satisfaction, and we were ready to set out on a weeklong shakedown cruise.

For our first trip we planned to head across Buzzard’s Bay to Wood’s Hole, the well-known passageway to Martha’s Vineyard. We learned from our cruising guide that there is a popular harbor (Hadley Harbor) just off the Wood’s Hole channel. The trip should take about an hour, Perfect for the first leg of our shakedown cruise.

Saturday we were totally fogged in!

On Sunday, July 12th [MY 76TH BIRTHDAY !!!!] we finally left.

It was blowing 15 knots, with 4-foot seas. Not unusual for Buzzard’s Bay, we’re told, but a tough test for Freedom. Spray crashing across the windshield. Towing a huge wake. We tried towing the dinghy, but it was impossible under these conditions, so w figured out how to use the stern davits to mount the dinghy on the swim platform.

Once in Hadley Harbor, everything was calm and peaceful. Played with the dinghy and the electric outboard. Generator working. Enjoyed some wine and a cigar. What a great birthday!

Tomorrow; Martha’s Vineyard!