First, anyone who ever says that Bayliner Motoryachts are not offshore capable is lying or has no experience in the matter. My 47 performed so very well in some strong conditions. I heard the fisherman complaining about some of the stuff that we rode in in style and this is without any sort of stabilization or hull modification. Anyone planning to venture offshore in their Bayliner should feel confident about the boat. Plan ahead from a weather and gear perspective, but know that the overall design of the boat is completely capable.

Second, Dial a Buoy is the coastal cruisers absolute best friend. Shore conditions rarely gave an accurate picture of how things were out there, and being able to see ahead into our course allowed me to make very accurate predictions of the ride and whether we should attempt further ports.

Elrod has much larger umm - well you know - than I do for jumping into 53 degree water. Actually they may be much smaller come to think of it. However, he did forever earn the nick name "floaty." I refer you to him to explain it.

Brett got a big exposure to blue water sailing and did pretty well for his first time out. I honestly think the dramamine was worse than the sea sickness.

Spencer, who rarely gets sick but does get a little green, now swears by the electronic wrist stimulator. I like them too, so if both of us are fans they must be working - or at least creating the placebo effect. Spencer continued to earn Heather's moniker of, "I'm glad you're not my child" with spectacular deck to dock leaps and other amazing feats.

Gary was a huge asset. Thanks man! Other than bitching about how good the Puget Sound weather was and not asking the guy about fuel in Fort Bragg, he was great! Seriously though - it was very nice to have a very competent skipper that allowed me to nap underway knowing the boat was in good hands.

We broke the usual amount of stuff you break on a trip like this. Gary broke a drink holder on the flybridge that was in-artfully installed by the previous owner. Spencer broke and fixed the air intake for the AC in the pilothouse. Almost every grate for the electric heat fell out. As predicted, the Bayliner cabinets suck at staying closed in heavy seas. I will be addressing that. We broke every stereo on board due to water intrusion or salt spray, though I have a hunch that the marinized DC stereo on the flybridge was just faulty. We broke the battery charger too. All in all, to be expected and the only one that peeves me is the battery charger - mostly because it is in a rather difficult place to remove and it should never have been installed there in the first place.

It was an awesome adventure and I would do it again. I admit that after having done it, cruising the bay seems very limiting. We will be heading to Monterey and back to Fort Bragg once I get the Admiral more comfortable or install stabilizers.

hat really blows my mind is that the boat is 15 minutes away from me as I type. All thats left is cleaning up and repairing stuff for Kaboom this weekend. Much of the stereo repair is already done!

I don't have final fuel numbers yet as I haven't been able to get over to my marina's fuel dock and fill up to see what the last leg took from a total gallons perspective. Gary and I are estimating around .8 nautical miles per gallon. I think thats pretty good for as hard as we pushed her and the size of the following seas we were in.

We used Soltron the whole way and I was quite impressed. Also, port now comes up to 3000 RPMs loaded. I think the final step was to run her hard.

Now to enjoy crusing the bay and delta.