[unomio]

OK--taking advice in that I'm modifying the bags so that they can be removed from the lifelines and taken below, where they'll simply have to live on the cabin floor during a blow. The good news is that they'll cushion the outboard, which will also have to live on the cabin floor during a blow. The bad news, of course, is that the outboard is going to be tough to get over and there's always the possibility of leaking gasoline. Does anyone else have an idea of where to put the outboard? The genset blocks the opening to the big lazarette, so that we can only stow smaller things in it.

The RIB dinghy will have to live (mostly deflated) on the foredeck just forward of the mast, but it's lashed to eyes on the deck installed specifically for that purpose. Interestingly, another boat in the marina where we're holed up ran into some steep seas coming from Catalina to Ventura, and his RIB, also lashed to the foredeck, broke free to break the cabin windows (I use the term advisedly, since his mid-cockpit boat has large "picture" windows around the main cabin. His boat is much bigger and has about 20" more freeboard than our PSC 40--it's a good lesson.

That leaves the question of how to deal with any extra fuel beyond that carried in the installed tanks--or have cruisers in faraway places found that they don't have a problem with running low? What about gasoline for the dinghy? We originally planned to cruise with only a peanut-butter powered dink, but age and decrepitude caught up with us and we find that rowing any distance, especially with a load (people, groceries) is getting beyond us. Hence the complexity of the boat and outboard.

Thanks,

Sue