On September 20, we packed our bags and flew away from Lulu, leaving her at the Varadero Caribe Marina on Aruba (pictured above, taken from our plane on the way out). It was our first time away from Lulu since we left Sweden, and we headed to the US to see Jodi’s family and friends. It’s always an adventure to leave the boat for an extended time, you never know what you will find when you return. In our case, we had no unpleasant surprises upon return, Lulu managed two weeks in the water just fine. Yay!
When you leave a boat for any length of time, there are always considerations of how you are going to leave it. Will someone have a key in case the boat needs to be moved, so they can start the engine? Will we leave the main power on? Have we shut off everything we need to shut off? Here are some of the things that we think of when we leave:
- Empty the fridge and clean / shut off. If it will remain on, how will it be powered? What if the power fails?
- Remove all opened food packages or double seal / double bag. Many items still get “boat soggy” even in their original wrappers, and insects can find their way into packages from holes you didn’t think were there.
- Turn off the propane and any unnecessary electrical switches. Consider if the main power can be shut off, or if there are items that still need to run (bilge pumps? alarms?)
- Consider battery care, if they will continue to charge but be unused. Should the charging be shut off, or will some support systems run and require electricity?
- We leave about 1/4 – 1/8 of a tank of water in our water tanks. They are not completely empty, but we don’t come back to (much) old standing water. The water in the tanks can be used to clean / prep the boat, then filled with fresh new water.
- Are there storage areas that will benefit from more air? We opened the cabinet where our fridge compressor is located, so it wouldn’t get as hot. We also leave our clothes closets open. All our unused linnens / bedding are stored in vacuum bags.
- We lift up the mattress so there is air underneath it, good for it to get an airing while we are gone.
- Is there any ventilation? We have dorade vents, which provide some airflow without any risk for leaks.
- Is there someone who knows how to get ahold of you if necessary? It is good to leave a couple of forms of communication. For example, the really expensive roaming package I bought to work in the US didn’t work, so I couldn’t make any phone calls in the US nor be called. Also difficult because some forms of travel require a phone number to make the registration and want to send text messages.
- Run fresh water through the toilet until you are sure there is only fresh water in the hoses. It will smell so much better when you return!
- Always leave your boat tied and fendered as if you are expecting a hurricane. If possible, back the boat away from the dock a bit and have it hanging with a bit more space between the boat and dock.
- Test your automatic bilge pumps and check your bilge before you leave. We once tested and discovered that the pump didn’t work. Not something you want to find out about after the fact.
- If you are leaving the country where your boat is berthed, bring along all the paperwork you received when you cleared in. Had we not had our paperwork with us, we might have had a lot more difficulty confirming Lulu’s yacht-in-transit status upon our return to Aruba. As it was, they opened our bags and inspected them, but accepted the yacht-in-transit status.
You can of course haul out completely, but since we were leaving for a relatively short period of time, we left Lulu in the water. It actually keeps the boat cooler in the Caribbean, as the air temperature is hotter than the water temperature.
These are our thoughts on leaving Lulu on 5 October 2024. We are now back on Lulu in Aruba!