Ocean Mist,Our Previous Boat. Ocean Mist was a Moody S38, one of (we think) 49 built.
She was built in 1997 and has the deep fin keel, masthead rig and twin aft cabin options.
We bought her in 2005 from her original owner, which whom she’d been down to the Med, so she has some long distance experience.
She's proved to be a fast and comfortable offshore cruising boat, easily making 8 knots in on a reach with a decent breeze. When the weather takes a turn for the worse we've felt perfectly safe, and everything seems to be well screwed together so even falling off the odd wave has done no more than shake the cover off one of the saloon lights. We’re confident that she’ll look after us.
At anchor (or alongside if you’re into that sort of thing) the twin aft cabin, twin heads layout means that she can comfortably sleep 8 people (6 in the cabins and two in the saloon), the cabins are genuine double size as well. When we’ve got lots of guests on board we tend to use the forward cabin with the privacy of en-suite heads but when we’re on our own the starboard aft is our favorite, with a nice wide bed and a big hatch into the cockpit (this is the aft escape hatch, there’s a kick through panel so whoever is in the port aft cabin can get to it in an emergency).
Specification
| Length Overall | 39'0'' | 11.89m |  |
| Length on the Waterline | 32'6" | 9.91m | |
| Beam | 12'11" | 3.95m | |
| Draft | 6'3" | 1.91m | |
| Displacement | 19,064 lbs | 8,650 kg | |
| Water Tankage | 80 gal | 364 ltr | |
| Fuel | 40 gal | 182 ltr | |
| Sail Area (main and genoa) | 798 sq ft | 74.2 m 2 | |
| Engine | 40 bhp |
Equipment
All boats collect equipment over and above the basic spec. Here are some of the upgrades:
In 2007 we replaced a couple of items:
- Spray Hood : A new spray hood made for us by Dolphin Sails.
- Main Sail : Also made for us by Dolphin Sails.
In 2006 we made a few upgrades:
- Cruising Chute : To add a bit of excitement to light wind days we bought a cruising chite from Jeckells. This has proved a great success. The snuffer makes it easy to manage with just two of us on the boat, and we hope that the colour scheme that we spent ages deliberating over means that people can see us coming! We took the boat out for a photo shoot with the cruising chute.
- Chart Plotter : We replaced the separate monochrome chart plotter and radar displays with a combined colour chart plotter and radar display. Being able to overlay the radar display on top of the chart has proved to be a really useful feature, both as a means of double checking the GPS position and, in the Thames Estuary, to check out whether shipping is in the same spitway (a possible collision risk) or on the other side of a sandbank (not a worry). We always run a plot on paper charts on passage, but the plotter has been great for a quick check an for passage planning.
- Stereo : The new chart plotter takes up more space that its predecessor which meant that we had to remove the separate CD auto-changer from the stereo. To bring the boat up to date we decided to replace the old unit with a new stereo that can play CDs, MP3 CDs and has a socket to plug in an MP3 player, as well as the FM/MW/LW radio. There are speakers in the saloon and in the cockpit.
Ocean mist came with a few bits of extra gear that we've found useful.
- Radar : A Raytheon SL70 scanner mounted on a substantial pole on the stern. A nice thing to have when the visibility deteriorates.
- Autopilot : An electric ram permanently connected so that it's available at the push of a button. It's very handy for getting the boat sorted out when we're sailing short handed and takes the drudgery out of motoring on flat days. When the wind's up I'd much rather be hand steering, after all we're out to sail. The auto-tack feature, where it turns the boat through 100 degrees, is handy when we're short handed on deck.
- Wind Generator: The boat came with an AirX wind generator, handy for keeping the batteries topped up when we’re away from marinas.
The Rest of our Fleet
We’ve got a couple of Perception Carolina touring Kayaks, that just fit on the top of the car and also fit on the foredeck. They’re a great way to explore rivers and get to places that you can’t in a yacht. In 2005 we took them with us to the River Alde and used them for a paddle while the rest of the crew went off shopping for gin.