We finally left the boat yard for our shakedown run!

Our boat was at the boat yard for 506 days, when we had originally planned on (and budgeted for) a three month stay. But today, we finally left dirt life and became full time cruisin’ liveaboards. We decided on a shakedown run, rather than immediately starting out Great Loop.

We planned to leave at safe light, around 7:30 AM, but left about an hour later at 8:30 AM for many small reasons. It didn’t really matter how far we went, so long as we left Fort Pierce, Florida. We’d been there for far too long.

With nervous minds, we checked over the engines and new V-drives. We ate coffee-soaked overnight oats, undid the lines, and set off.

Overall the cruise went well! Currently, our dinghy sits too low in the water and when the engines climb above 1100 RPM, the prop wash starts hitting the bottom of the dinghy causing it to bounce. For today, we just cruised slower and took a little longer. At 1100 RPM we cruise at about 6 knots / 7 mph. After over 120,000 miles of campervan & RV travels, we knew something wouldn’t work quite right. That’s why we started with a shorter day!