To head on a long trip to a remote location such as Princess Charlotte Bay, requires a ton of boat trip planning and preparation.
In fact we bought the boat in 2016 for this very trip.
But for those of you who are new to our blog and community, a few things have happened.
The boat was damaged by a bodgy repairer and took a year to fix.
At the same time our fishing courses business took off and it has taken ages to create a team to handle things when we go for long periods.
Plus we tend to procrastinate and put things off – hence we don’t go when we could then the weather comes up bla bla.
But seriously, as you get older you realise that time is passing and if we don’t go soon – we will never get to go at all!
So our new motto is RMF GO!
Boat trip planning and preparation.
First thing we had to do was set a date!
We have so many things come up that we kept delaying as we have never set an exact date.
Earlier this year I said to our lovely online business manager Galia, I want to have October off to do our big boat trip. She said YES! Let’s prepare the business and make it happen.
Then we had to spend some coin and do some long put of maintenance on Mood Swings. Here is a short series on how we went when we slipped it.
But of course, slipping is only one aspect to boat trip planning and preparation.
We also did a recon trip to Cape Melville to see if we could drop off crew there without having to run all the way back to Cooktown.
Planning the trip
We have had the boat for a while now and regularly do short trips. Like this one to Lizard Island.
These have been a great gauge for boat trip planning and preparation.
We already know approximate fuel burn and that travelling at 8 knots is the most efficient speed.
So we can then plan how long it will take us to get places.
Ensuring we arrive at safe anchorages with plenty of daylight to negotiate bommies is critical when travelling the reef.
Plus choosing anchorages that have a few options – so if BOM gets the wind direction wrong – we have a second option.
Provisioning the boat.
Part of boat trip planning and preparation is making sure we have enough food.
Eating the fresh stuff first before resorting to frozen worked well for us.
Of course we ate a ton of fish.
Evatt (our mate from Darwin) became the chief cook and conjured up some great meals.
We have a water maker on board so that makes water consumption easy.
Although we had a few issues as you’ll see in upcoming episodes – and it nearly sent us home.
Power and water are the two criticals and both nearly sent us home.
Spare parts
Impellers, pumps, all the things that wear out are essential spares. Turns out we needed a few of them!
Desalination filters for the water maker.
And of course about three hundred lures (no I’m not kidding).
To see the lead up to the trip, watch our boat trip planning and preparation video below.
Boat trip planning and preparation takes time.
So stay tuned as over the next 10 weeks as we take you along on our adventure.
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Fish Finder Fundamentals
Having a productive trip when going remote is easier with a good understanding of your sounder.
Sounder Skills is only $20 Australian at the moment and well worth a look.
If you don’t learn anything let me know and I’ll give you your money back.
Alternatively, there are a multitude of free resources in past blogs and free trainings.
