We are ready - Fort Pierce to Moorehead City, NC OUTSIDE

 FLASHBACK to February Sunrise Labs party for its 25th anniversary in Bedford, NH.

We went out with friends a few times before we left Fort Pierce, Harbor Town Marina. This is the last pot luck of the season.

Today, last grocery shopping to get food items.  I keep a menu of items on paper in the galley so we can read, choose, grab n go when we are under way.  String cheese, yogurt, tuna salad, apples, oranges, crackers, iced tea, cold cuts, nuts, ginger, chocolate, power bars, carrots, my daughter said I should make brownies so brownies, and if I "cook" canned soups, Dinty More Stew, and eggs.
Getting ready includes:
PFDs - life jackets - near at hand,
Epirb ready -emergency communication-,
Paper charts, Navionics on the Ipad and a chart plotted route set into the boat navigation system,
Dinghy secured
Motor mounted on the stern rail 
New yellow polyester ( stronger than the stretchy nylon)  46' Jack lines along port and starboard from bow to stern.  We hook on from our life jackets if we have to leave the cockpit or if it gets rough.  Drew did the knots to tie them in securely.
New filters in the water maker
Stow everything from falling off the shelves
Set up lee cloths - hammock to sleep in so it swings with the motion of the boat

 This year we have added a new feature so readers and friends can follow along where we go. 

https://share.garmin.com/DrewSunstein 

This should show you a map of where Shawnee is at any point in time.  It also is another point of safety since it allows us to contact people by phone if need be through the InReach gadget and a Garmin subscription.

Even if it's smooth sailing without a lot of tossing and turning there is wave action every minute that requires hand holding something at ALL times.  One of us is at the helm at all times, 24 hours a day, even with auto pilot that steers the boat along a course we have set into the navigation system.  No hands need be on the wheel.  Even with radar we must look around for other boats, ships, cargo barges, cruise ships especially when we cross shipping lanes leading into harbors.  They can't stop - we have to be out of their way.
    We usually take 4 hour shifts, that's pretty loose, "Are you tired?  If so I can take the helm." 
"No, I'm fine."
or "It's my turn now." 
"That's okay I'm not tired.  I'll stay." 
In other words, no one is at the helm if they're really sleepy.  We keep a sleeping bag up in the cockpit, a neck pillow, I have an audio book for the trip, and music by earphones or speakers.  The three days just roll into each other where I have to rethink, how many hours have we been out here?  The sun comes up on the east side and sets on the west as the moon rises on the east.  It's pretty cool.  So many stars.  The deep blue of the ocean stops on a line where the blue black of the night on one side carries over to an afterglow blue on the other side from the sunrise or sunset/ moonrise or moonset.  We have a constellation app that names everything in the sky, planets and satellites that we pass by as the earth turns.
  
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A few questions from a reader about the engine mounts: "...would love to hear someday how you noticed the problem, how you diagnosed it and most importantly how you got the mounts out to fix them."
  Drew noticed the problem when he was looking around the engine and saw a rusted clamp that was shooting out a very fine spray of salt water causing some rust.  He replaced the clamp and then saw the aft foot that attaches a mount to the boat was broken, cracked through (pictures in earlier blogs).   He removed the foot by unbolting the entire engine mount and taking it to a local welder.  We knew the mounts were almost 10 years old so decided maybe it would be good to replace all four.  Some bolts and nuts were rusted.  He soaked the bolts in  CRC 6 56 for days to loosen them and cleaned up the bolts.  He saw that the port mount said 150 rather than 200.  150 was supposed to be on starboard side and 200 on port side, but the aft ones were reversed, and the forward ones were correct.  Maybe that caused the aft foot to break.  After he found the mounts in Miami (see earlier blogs for more detail on finding mounts) he ordered them.  With a mechanics help Drew lifted the front and rear of the engine (see pictures in earlier blogs) to slide out the old mounts and slide in the new ones and bolt them into the same holes.  After a few days of preparation with wood supports and setting up it took 3 hours to replace all four with a mechanic's help and tools.