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Note: If the davit motor stops while lifting the dinghy, check the Davit Breaker on
the Master Battery Panel by the salon door. Pausing a couple of times while raising
will let the motor cool and prevent this from happening. If it is tripped, reset and
continue.
OTHER NOTES
Safety should be paramount to your daily cruising. A person overboard drill should
be discussed and practiced with an unlucky PFD as the victim (please rinse and dry
afterward before stowing). Remember that your lifejackets are stowed under the
starboard lounger on the bridge. A few should always be readily available. Flares and
other safety equipment are located in the same place.
Always have a sharp lookout posted for logs, deadheads, or other possible hazards.
A log hitting your prop can ruin your vacation. As you are traveling, the debris does
seem to gather along current lines. It is sometimes best to go around these areas
and miss the “mine fields”.
“Desire” is equipped with numerous automatic bilges pumps that can be manually
activated from either helm control panel. If you continually hear the bilge pump
running, check your bilge! You may have a serious problem or you may have just
accidentally hit the manual bilge pump switch to ON. Lights indicate operation.
An auxiliary hand-operated bilge pump is located in the starboard lazarette. This is
more for pumping small amounts of water and probably not adequate for an
emergency situation. However, it does come in handy for a variety of uses. There are
wood plugs located under the starboard lounger on the bridge.
The spare parts are located in a box in the aft engine compartment. They include
extra oil filters, impellers, belts, etc. Extra oil, transmission fluid, and coolant are
located in the same box. There are also spare parts for the vacuflush toilets in the
box. Spare macerator and water pumps are located under the pilot house seating.
Crabbing is fun but requires the correct license and season. Please be sure not to
crab off the stern as the crab line can easily get dangled in your prop as you swing
with wind or current. You certainly don’t want to be the person who has to dive over
and cut the line out of the propeller. It is best to use the dinghy to set your crab pot
away from the boat (take care not to foul the dinghy prop also). Please clean up any
seaweed or crab shells afterwards to keep the boat neat and tidy.