First Visit to the Boat (and Videos!)
Yesterday we made our first visit to the boat that will take us 10,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean! Once we get underway and have more time on the boat, we will put together a video tour, but we took a couple pictures to show everyone. In the top picture you get a good look of the entire boat. With the guy standing up front, you get some perspective of how big the vessel is.
JustDucky is a 55 foot performance catamaran built by Max Cruise Marine. She is the 2nd hull number for this model. The owner and builder intend to sail it all the way to Annapolis to introduce the boat to the buying community at the boat show.
Our first impression was great! She's very roomy with great visibility, and we're told she is easy to sail and fast!
In this picture we're with Terry (not shown) who is the builder and owner of Max Cruise. Neal is a fellow crew member from Texas who will be crewing with us. They are standing in the galley (nautical talk for kitchen!) Behind Jennifer and covered with cushions is the dining table. In the background to the right is the navigation station where all the systems are monitored and controlled.
Jen and I will have a king-sized bed in our cabin. We will be in the port-side hull up forward. The right side of the picture is a door and the passage to the aft part of the hull and another cabin for other crew. Behind me in the picture is our bathroom and shower. Hard to believe that all of this fits into one of the hulls of the catamaran. The other hull is the "owner's cabin".
Joe (owner) gave us a nice preliminary tour of the spaces and locations of all the major equipment. I'm looking forward to geeking out during the voyage and learning about all the systems.
Before we got to the boat, we went to the Max Cruise Marine boatyard where the boat was built. As a manufacturing guy, I'm always interested in seeing how things are built.
While not as fancy and modern looking as a factory in the US, it's still impressive to see how these boats are built. Lots of fiberglass work!
Today (Sunday) we are taking it easy and sticking around the hotel. Jen has taken the lead on menu and provision planning so we know what we need to buy. We need enough food for five people for at least two weeks for the first leg to Okinawa.
Finally, I've got some videos! I set up a YouTube channel to post videos. For now, I'm keeping them "unlisted" so you can see them by using the following links. We tried to shoot some short little snippets to get a better feel of Saigon.
Here is a video of our night landing in Saigon. The plane had a forward-looking camera that you could watch from your seat. So I shot a video of the landing. https://youtu.be/0niVDft1GNY
We've mentioned how chaotic traffic is with all the scooters. We learned yesterday that foreigners should not drive here because if you are in an accident with a Vietnamese citizen, the foreigner is automatically at fault. So visitors always get drivers. Here is a short video near our hotel of the typical chaos. https://youtu.be/UJR7cUSM0KE
Here is a video showing the Vietnamese restaurant that our friend Thaison took us to. https://youtu.be/h7fb26g3JXI
And finally, a video of the drinks we ordered from the rooftop bar of the Hotel Majestic overlooking the Saigon River. https://youtu.be/rxbkaeKDPKA
The next couple days we intend to do a little more exploring of Saigon, and hopefully start moving onto the boat and getting final provisions. That's all for now.
