On Feb 28, I completed a 3-day, 135 mile trip from Kalama WA to Astoria OR and back. Besides being a very enjoyable trip, it was a chance to for me to use my new Garmin Fantom radar and Suzuki 2.5 kicker. It was also a dry run for the upcoming April 3 get-together at Cathlamet.
I am happy as a clam with the radar. On 2 days of the trip, there were several hours of patchy fog, and the radar helped me dodge some ships in the channel while I was in the fog. It also popped up a green target which turned out to be a cement truck on the highway parallel to me. It was able to differentiate that moving target among the returns from the shoreline cliffs!
My primary intent for the kicker is in case of a main engine failure. I wanted something lightweight, and with just enough power to get me out of the navigation channel and headed toward the nearest shore. Since the Suzuki only has a few hours on it, I limited the throttle to about one third for my testing. With a wind of 6 mph from the west, and a current of about 1.5 mph from the east, Suzi could push Zenith along at about 3.5 mph, into the current or wind. Suzi pushed straight while I steered using the main as a rudder. I could easily steer in any direction, with a small turning radius.
I cruise Zenith at 4,000 rpm, which yields about 20 mph. Over the entire trip, I got 4.9 mpg!
I am looking forward to the Cathlamet event, and to many more cruises with Zenith.
I created a new album with some photos for this trip. The new album is currently “untitled”, as I was unable to give it a new name for some reason.