Almost time, see trials and more equipment purchased

Sea trials are next Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, we're helping deliver the boat from Riverside Marina, NJ to Liberty Marina on the following Wednesday which is around a 3 day sail. We have a delivery captain during that trip so I'm treating it as a learning experience also.

I purchased a 6 man Viking RescPro life raft this week at a good price (3200 delivered). This will hold 9 people in a pinch and is tons of room for us. It's heavy though at 88lbs. It won't fit in the Jeanneau life raft locker though which is just too small by a half inch for the hard case to fit and the soft case is too wide in the other direction which is a shame, still it's more storage instead then. I purchased the duffel bag version instead which I'll keep in a lazarette or down below when not sailing and outside otherwise. Still, at 88lbs it's heavy to bring up the stairs from below.

Our EPIRB is a Global Fix Pro category II. Basically, the boat will be turned over to us and in our marina slip on Friday, May 5th.

Spinlock Deckvest 5D life jackets arrive

I ordered 4 Spinlock Deckvest 5D PFDs (380 bucks) with the optional AIS transmitters (250 on top of that). They aren't cheap (total cost of 700 USD per jacket) but given that we will be sailing as a couple or with just my daughter, if we have a man overboard or wife/daughter overboard then we have no spotter so being able to see them on the chartplotter immediately is essential to be able to sail the boat around to where they are. The AIS radios on the vests them selves basically transmit GPS coordinates over VHF as soon as they get wet and can also send a coast guard 400mhz signal also. The jackets arrived 2 days after ordering them.

We ordered the hammar hydrostatic inflation which is pressure based (10cm's of water) and it opens. These vest have lights built in as well as a head spray hood. Expensive but very comfortable to wear, they don't get in the way and have a 5 year warranty which seems related mostly to batteries and such for the lights and AIS units.

They also come with a nice nylon mesh bag for hanging them up.

Delivery date set to week of April 30th

Delivery captain is booked. We need to complete 2 days of trials before then to give them a chance to fix anything while the boat is local to the dealer. So, with any luck, we will be moving stuff onto the boat that weekend. Just need to arrange to have the power turned on at the slip before then also. The plan is to sail up with the captain. It's 2 days with a stop at cape May or Atlantic city.