tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57202291591326309242024-03-04T20:33:18.757-08:00Swing SetCruising Part TimeSwing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.comBlogger309125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-58222069463569956502022-12-20T12:36:00.001-08:002022-12-20T12:36:30.067-08:00<p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">End of an Era?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Even though I had meant to continue publishing blogs again after a long lapse, I was surprised to see the that last entry was in June. Where has this year gone?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Faithful followers of this blog may recall the bird problem we had at Clearwater Harbor Marina and that for no apparent reason, the Gackles that had been plaguing us just decided to go somewhere else. As a result, we quit flying our decoy goose that was very effective in keeping the birds away that flew in at first light and left right at sunrise, and conversely, came in a horde at sunset and made their departure at last light. It was like clockwork, and they made a hell of a mess. I also employed a predatory bird call recording that was played at those times that I felt worked to a degree but annoyed the residents of a condo complex nearby, so I was considerate and eliminated the use of the recordings which appeared to not make much of a difference at the time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> However, Hurricane Ian made an appearance this fall and although we had no ill affects after that storm passed to the south of us, the birds came back in droves.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> We had already been going to Swing Set less and less over the summer due to the fact that we were enjoying our new home, but red tide in the area put a damper on boating as well, so we found ourselves just going to the boat to wash it and come back home.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> I began toying with the idea of selling Swing Set. The construction at Coachman's Park in Clearwater was in full swing and left the parking situation less than to be desired, and having guests out required a complex regimen of instructions as to where to park and I'm less than forgiving when it comes to insisting guests to be on time for departure, as I rely on tide and current tables to determine when we leave the dock. The indicators that I started focusing on were telling us it was time to put our boat on the market.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Another event was Hurricane Ian itself. The boat manufacturing industry was just getting back from the Covid shutdown, and now Ian had just destroyed thousands of boats in southern Florida. I felt like there would be an increase in demand for vessels in good shape, which we know Swing Set to be one of those vessels.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> I threw an ad on Boat Trader at an embarrassingly high price and immediately got a call from a guy whose father had a boat on our dock. He was apparently interested in our boat and be came down with his dad to take a look. He didn't appear to be asking the right questions as far as my experience was concerned, and before he left he said he liked the boat, but his wife would really want two staterooms. I thanked him for coming and wondered if his wifes opinion mattered (and it does) why didn't he bring her instead of his father? Soon after that we listed our boat with a broker.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> The proprietor of Tierra Verde Yacht Sales came to our boat soon after and really liked our boat. We decided on a more realistic price to offer her at, and within two days I got a call from the broker with an offer, albeit a low one. We countered with a nudge up in price just a bit, but they were pretty firm, but I got the broker to lower his fee and we reached an agreement pending on a sea trial and survey.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> It turned out that the purchaser was a multi-millionaire from Africa and he was having his "agent" do the purchasing and handling the inspection. At first I was miffed by the low offer, but then decided to not let those type of things bother me, so we scheduled a date for survey and a haul out at our chosen boat yard for an out of water inspection.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> The night before we were all to meet at our marina, we get a message at 9:30P.M. that the sea trial was off. The surveyor was "ill" and was not going to make it. I sent our broker a one word response, "Bullshit".</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> It turns out that the purchaser was not happy either, and he told his agent to fire the surveyor and use one that our broker would recommend. We were back in business and scheduled the sea trial for the week after Thanksgiving.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> In the meantime, we were so certain that all would go well that we started looking at a replacement for Swing Set that we could leave on a high and dry storage rack and eliminate all the cleaning and maintenance of having a boat in the water. We found one all too easily and unwisely put a deposit on a smaller center console, contingent on us selling our Sea Ray. I'm not entirely ignorant of winding up with two boats, or three, if you count the dinghy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> On the morning of the sea trial and haul out, our broker and the surveyor was late in getting to our marina, then he tells me the haul out is to take place in just over an hour, which was two hours before what he had initially told me. Not only that, but the all important agent wasn't even going to ride along, but meet us in Tarpon Springs as he was running late. This development required us to run at our cruising speed of 24 M.P.H. up to the boat yard, something we hadn't done for over an hour in some time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But Swing Set was up to the task and ran like a top. One thing that helped is that while we adjusted to the new sea trial date, Rosie and I removed about four carloads of stuff from the boat that we had accumulated in the 18 years we've owned her. I had also left the dinghy at the dock, and didn't leave room for argument when I told the broker that we were marketing the boat as a trawler, and if I was being asked to run it like an express cruiser, the dinghy was coming off.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> The sea trial and inspection seemed like it went off without a hitch. The surveyor said he saw nothing to indicate that the sale would fall through, and as we waiting for word from the buyer, based on the surveyor report, our excitement grew in regard to the purchase of a new center console, but we had reservations about where we were going to have to keep it. The nicer facilities were all full up, with as long as a year waiting list. Still, our enthusiasm grew.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Then the bottom dropped out.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> The oil analysis came back "bad". We were not privileged to the data, but had to take the word of the agent. Our surveyor also mentioned that the engine blocks for some 1996 3116 Caterpillar engines were also "bad" and there was a recall that according to him was never done on our engines and the serial numbers indicated that those in that series were part of the recall.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> We have heard this all before over the years, and the reality is that those blocks that failed all had less than 1000 hours on them, most failed within 300 hours. Our engines have 3000 hours on them and we just proved they could run like new.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Our broker was undeterred. He suggested the sampling method was suspect. Even though we had only 20 hours since the last oil change, he suggested we change the oil and resample after running 10-15 hours on the new oil. At first I balked at his advice, which is typical for me, but then part of his reasoning made sense.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Our oil changing system is a pump with a manifold. A hydraulic line runs from each main engine as well as the generator. That line never gets completely empty, and residual oil is always in there, and any metal traces are condensed in that line over time and can find their way into the circulating oil. As an aside, the generator oil analysis came back good, as did the transmission oil samples.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> I agreed to change the oil the next day and told our broker to be ready to take oil samples on the day after that, in order to give us time to put the hours on the boat for a resample.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXNTokUAhSILjJo5mzE_2G8FeZ3s_ELuRXAmK18gxFajvkYPvyKgSMQu5WTzzs_2o1t16WqFRE1tP9HY2eVxYUfIbXWYI4_H87iP-0d3iKZGtUjYyGIROUt0LNwFF4HZ64BkFRs8iCaaGKJNORctShcpURK9HPRtG6nTTLLcqCjbi2jYwobG99j5SicQ/s4032/IMG_5124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXNTokUAhSILjJo5mzE_2G8FeZ3s_ELuRXAmK18gxFajvkYPvyKgSMQu5WTzzs_2o1t16WqFRE1tP9HY2eVxYUfIbXWYI4_H87iP-0d3iKZGtUjYyGIROUt0LNwFF4HZ64BkFRs8iCaaGKJNORctShcpURK9HPRtG6nTTLLcqCjbi2jYwobG99j5SicQ/s320/IMG_5124.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> We spent the night in Tampa Bay after running the boat until dark. We had put a good eight hours on Swing Set and just got set on the hook. We started wondering if we were doing the right thing in selling the boat in the first place.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELy88vtAq1yCYrIDUYDFaeC6bAsMHvLU9RZbhrswc8aq4AR0dtdia9OkvYHEglwvc9EWEET0kizmF8NbOf5H42GTZON6EUGuT0rjV51NMgccdSagxpIFoM5Vy3bz0kdZP0K3wIU-WuVLwu57kx4twmvJc7MpOD6iRhBEbB1RcQFQyxgDqsqlf0Sinag/s4032/IMG_5125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELy88vtAq1yCYrIDUYDFaeC6bAsMHvLU9RZbhrswc8aq4AR0dtdia9OkvYHEglwvc9EWEET0kizmF8NbOf5H42GTZON6EUGuT0rjV51NMgccdSagxpIFoM5Vy3bz0kdZP0K3wIU-WuVLwu57kx4twmvJc7MpOD6iRhBEbB1RcQFQyxgDqsqlf0Sinag/s320/IMG_5125.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn. When the brokerage opened I called our broker and told him we would meet him that afternoon and resample our oil and it was his intention on getting an analysis from the same lab, but he was paying for it so we could get the results.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> In the meantime we cruised by the marina where we had intended to keep the center console we had a deposit on. We hated it. It was in an area far from the Gulf of Mexico, a bit of a ride up into Tampa Bay, and the marina was just a bit too industrial for our tastes. But we adjusted our mindset to consider the aforementioned marina as a temporary location until we could get into one closer to our home that was a nicer facility, Marker 1 in Dunedin. We had berthed Swing Set there when we first came up to this area in 2016. But I'm getting ahead of myself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> We met our broker at the marina near his brokerage and he took oil samples. That was on a Friday. On the next Wednesday, our broker called with the news that the lab saw nothing to indicate abnormal wear on our engines, and that at the age of our boat, the advice was just to monitor each subsequent oil change. No kidding.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> At any rate, the buyer has moved on. He has a contract on another boat, and the $800 we spent on an oil change that we didn't need, as well as the fuel burned in order to resample just bought us some experience.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> We did get to spend a couple nights on the hook that we enjoyed, and we cancelled the purchase of the center console. We feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Swing Set received the benefit of a weight reducing regimen and we've re-instituted our bird thwarting tactics and it's working. Swing Set remains for sale, but we've adjusted our thinking in regard to just giving it away at a reduced price. In the search for insurance for the smaller boat, we found a broker for a well known company that will insure our boat for ONE THIRD of what we were paying! We also found out during this process that what we are paying for a slip at a floating dock in Clearwater is a bargain compared to other places further from our home, and the construction at Coachman's Park where our marina is seems to be getting close to being finished.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> So, are we still selling? Not sure.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> </div><br /><br /></span></div><p></p>Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-3779146925845705592022-06-06T04:56:00.001-07:002022-06-06T04:56:35.207-07:00You Know What They Say About Advice<p> In order to provide some motivation to keep our boat instead of placing it on the current sellers market, I joined two Facebook groups, and you might have found this post by being a member of one of those groups.</p><p> I'm encouraged by many of the nice comments in regard to the pictures I always like to post to accompany any post. I feel like a picture draws a reader into the story if the total alone doesn't do it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lNBBHYlCeV629ogoWSWT-f89ybVemozoPO6nx2o4IsSa6uwmvFI7PaNCTi6GiyDaNymUKVLfO-KrDYJVnZo8ev5MFBfaevgJmG_HAIGQVyfwj2uK1uQ___897w6t6NzK7rnfR0rDGfYm-0m66C5yvAI_bkiAYn1jHOaj-5HGyFf3OLsLdvQC41KCCw/s4032/IMG_4379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-lNBBHYlCeV629ogoWSWT-f89ybVemozoPO6nx2o4IsSa6uwmvFI7PaNCTi6GiyDaNymUKVLfO-KrDYJVnZo8ev5MFBfaevgJmG_HAIGQVyfwj2uK1uQ___897w6t6NzK7rnfR0rDGfYm-0m66C5yvAI_bkiAYn1jHOaj-5HGyFf3OLsLdvQC41KCCw/s320/IMG_4379.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p> It would be a great stretch of the imagination for anyone to think that this photo would encourage anyone to to anything except run like hell, but our small engine room housing two Caterpillar 3116's, a Westerbeke 8KW generator, two fuel tanks, one water tank, a bunch of batteries, a holding tank, and all of the other stuff that goes along with it to make it all operate has been the impetus for many of my stories. If you stay until the end, you may enjoy the reward.</p><p> But first, the subject at hand is advice. On both Facebook groups I belong to, many members will ask the advice of other members in regard to mechanical issues that they might be experiencing. I'm finding this highly entertaining.</p><p> If it's not the first time I have admitted this, let me state here again that I am not a mechanic. I don't pretend to be a mechanic, nor do I play one of T.V. But, boy I've sure had a lot of experiencing trying to fix stuff that break on Swing Set. That's where you'll find the search engine on this blog to be helpful, in terms of how to fix stuff, or also in terms of what NOT to do. Both methods have their value.</p><p> Entering the engine room of our boat is similar to stepping down into a viper pit. I don't want to do it, but ya do what ya gotta do. As if our dog Holly somehow found herself stuck in a viper pit somewhere, someone has to go in there to rescue her, and if Crocodile Dundee isn't readily available, be assured that I'll jump in. This is sort of how I view most repair issues on the boat, although if it's standard stuff, I'll get in there more readily, like if the vipers were asleep and I can get in and out in quick order.</p><p> Anyway, what I have never done in this age of social media, is ask anyone on a Facebook page on how to fix anything, and I've been at this blog thing for a long time.</p><p> I understand it if a neophyte will ask a question to complete strangers, and by neophyte, I mean someone who barely has an understanding of where the wheel and throttle are, let alone the rest of the components that make the boat go.</p><p> But folks, if a guy asks why his "bilge" isn't working, you have to consider what you tell him, or her. If someone says their boat is acting like it's "starving for fuel", you give him the easiest answer possible, you don't have him rebuilding carburetors and adjusting timing. That guy needs a mechanic.</p><p> What I'll never do is disagree with someone else's mechanical advice that is given to someone else, even if it is in opposition to an answer I've given already. The 27 different opinions that an author will receive in answer to a simple question will all be sat aside as evidence under the label "stuff to check next time this happens".</p><p> I've been places, The Bahamas for one, where finding a mechanic was a story in itself, and I have some doozies, so I've fixes some things that otherwise I wouldn't have attempted. But listen, you might be trying to save a buck by asking complete strangers on a social media site on how to fix what ails your boat, but if you don't understand most of the answers, get a professional to your boat ASAP, and try to be there when the work is done. You'll be paying for the expertise and you might just pick up some knowledge for yourself.</p><p> The photo I posted at the top of this blog was taken just after I painted the floor of the engine room, and I mean only the areas I could reach easily. The rest you can't see anyway. Why I wound up painting the floor of the engine room in the first place was because a couple of years ago a part fell off of our fairly new generator which was installed in late 2013. I called Pitman Yacht services, the local yard we had used for a haul out when we first arrived here in the Clearwater area. They told me to call their mobil mechanic, Alan Pitman himself, who agreed to meet me a a marine nearby where he was currently working on a boat.</p><p> We arrived at the marina and Alan came down to our boat, and all the pride in ownership that I had in what I thought was a shipshape vessel evaporated when Alan not only told me the part in question not only had fallen off due to rust, he began to point out various other things that I had been overlooking in regard to the basic care of Swing Set. I was mortified.</p><p> We set up a date for him to come to our marina to replace the part that had to be ordered, but I was intent on getting all of the things he pointed out back in order before he came back. One big item was the fact that the handle for the cockpit hatch into our engine room was the source of water entering the engine room and dripping on the generator where rust was thriving. So I made a shield out of isinglass that covers the front of the generator that roles up easily for quick oil checks, but I could see through to note the information of the generator control panel. The isinglass doesn't touch the generator, so melting is not an issue. I also replaced the soundproofing on the undersides of not only the cockpit hatch, but also the main hatches in the salon. I scrubbed all the areas I could reach, scoured the bilges, and I installed oil socks under each engine and oil pads under the shaft seals so I could detect how much water was leaking through those "dripless" shaft seals.</p><p> I touched up a lot of white paint on the Cats, and some red paint on the Westerbeke, and I sanded some areas on the inside of the hull where paint was flaking, and otherwise prepared the inside of the hull for some epoxy paint where I could reach.</p><p> It was a bright sunny day when I decided to paint the floor of the engine room. I decided to use a small roller, and also a small brush for where the roller couldn't reach and I got to work. I had put the paint in a small tray and kept refilling the tray as needed, placing the can aside in a place where it couldn't be tipped over if I bumped it. </p><p>Do you see the train coming?</p><p> As I painted, and this I will state unequivocally, the fumes from the epoxy paint clouded my judgement, and I reached for the paint and gave it a quick shake before dumping some of it into the tray. </p><p>The train is now about to run me over.</p><p> Of course the lid flew off and gray epoxy paint coated the whole front of my near naked body, as I only had on a pair of gym shorts, and what didn't go on my chest and shorts, wound up inside my shorts, over EVERYTHING.</p><p> The timeline here gets fuzzy, but epoxy paint burns like hell. I found myself out on the boat dock hollering for Rosie to bring me the acetone, the paint thinner, and the turpentine. They all burn too. I peeled off the shorts immediately, not too concerned that it was in the middle of the day and other boat owners were present, arriving to their boats with wife and kiddies in tow for some wholesome fun.</p><p> I'm not sure how long it took to remove enough paint to begin scrubbing down with the hose and enough Dawn dishwashing liquid to do the job, but it took days for Rosie to completely remove all of the paint from every nook and cranny of my body, and I've got a few nooks and crannies.</p><p> I will say that the floor of the engine room looks pretty nice.</p><p> Not sure what to think of the fact that I was naked on a public dock for at least an hour and no one complained. If you think about it, no one is too upset when mosquitoes fly around naked all the time and no one says a word about that fact that they're not even wearing gym shorts.</p>Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-1256593784919566602022-06-01T05:37:00.000-07:002022-06-01T05:37:03.377-07:00Put the Cart Before the Horse Sometimes <p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaGPytEJCDCRAgS4c3zsLQjNGLGFTKmc-05tlxAfGxoK5N2b5RbOKHNL9y9M_RdNyhZaSks9cNFAHCrX7yyOXLCcmFYs7ejCXh_EfpfvQdR5wBGLMZ-Wua0bXauUsDC_bnxsntZDbx3tSIt3_Um9sdiOMbBqiAMZwTQKA9W0tcLql7ptpBZrI6cBOSPA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaGPytEJCDCRAgS4c3zsLQjNGLGFTKmc-05tlxAfGxoK5N2b5RbOKHNL9y9M_RdNyhZaSks9cNFAHCrX7yyOXLCcmFYs7ejCXh_EfpfvQdR5wBGLMZ-Wua0bXauUsDC_bnxsntZDbx3tSIt3_Um9sdiOMbBqiAMZwTQKA9W0tcLql7ptpBZrI6cBOSPA" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"> My first post on this blog was in 2011. A lot has happened in over ten years and since I've recently decided to start posting again, I might repeat some things I've written before. Let's face it, I frequently find myself reading books almost all the way through before I realize I've read it before. Same with movies.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> But this next subject might be a new one.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Pictured above is Swing Set shortly after we bought her in 2003, snuggled into her slip up on the Mississippi River, in a "dockominium" at the Duck Club Yacht Club. We bought Swing Set (called Lady J at the time) from some folks who were renting the slip, but I was interested in buying the slip as much as I was in buying the boat.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> We joined the Facebook Group, Sea Ray Owners Club because we started considering selling Swing Set after 19 years of ownership. Inspired by other owners and the networking on the Owners Club, we've decided to go for at least 20 years, for now anyway.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> But back to why this post. When most people start thinking about getting a boat, they go to a dealer nearby (if they have deep pockets), or they start perusing online to see what is available. What I did when we bought our current boat was decide where we wanted to keep a boat and look for one that was already there. It turned out that the owners of the slip our boat was in was interested in selling the slip too, so we made two separate deals and closed within days of each other.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> In our travels, we've found that slips are hard to come by, and so is rack storage, especially in the really desirable locations. Price dockage in Key West sometime.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> So, you might try "putting the cart before the horse" and look into places to keep your boat that are in your area or price range, and go from there. You might not hit your target on the model of boat you most desire, but even with rack storage, or slip rental, most businesses don't care if you switch boats if you are a good customer.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Our current slip at Clearwater Downtown Harbor has it's advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that we are on not at the beach, so we don't have to sit in traffic going over the causeway to the beach marina, but we still have restaurants within easy walking distance. The sunsets are good too, as we have a nice view of the Sand Key Bridge and Gulf beyond. We do get a pretty good current as the inlet is right there, but because of that, the water is not stagnant at any time. The floating dock is the best thing, though.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Right now, the Clearwater waterfront is undergoing major construction. A project called "Imagine Clearwater" is transforming the whole area and it's really torn up. This means our easy parking is now blocks away, and the dirt from construction blows onto our boat on days when the wind is coming from the east. Luckily, the wind doesn't typically blow from the east, but we drive the 35 miles from our home to the marina once a week just to give Swing Set a scrubbing no matter what.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Our 400 Sedan Bridge was not the first boat we looked at when we decided to begin our search, but it was the closest to what we thought we would like. A couple of items of importance were diesel engines, a flybridge with stairs for easy access, showers in the head that was separate from the toilet and sink. We didn't do too much to the boat until we made the decision to move onto it in 2011. You can read about that stuff in the earlier blogs.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> Since we aren't living aboard full time, or traveling, most of what I post will be experiences in basic maintenance and ownership, but like the Clint Eastwood character says in the movie, A Perfect World, </p><p style="text-align: left;">"I don't know a damn thing."</p>Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-84269177101087107662022-05-31T13:03:00.017-07:002022-06-01T02:23:29.365-07:00Let's Get Back In the Saddle<p> We have lots of catching up to do since my last post, and we've been busy.</p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKmdLB4DdXB4L7ykmJJo_zAIE7Ght6lDEojPiaZE4zTMR4lunV3h5zdxuXsCBfaaypAEzCRuXPpzzKdTqYbLtrpX7cm3cq7VuVVztFfHkXrSEL89k_i19R37k9UW1EdKMhykwzEi1kPdjHn5AKCgT64lPYRRx8mbQ7PgdjPEgJXYRWDfsl9t51xHglpA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKmdLB4DdXB4L7ykmJJo_zAIE7Ght6lDEojPiaZE4zTMR4lunV3h5zdxuXsCBfaaypAEzCRuXPpzzKdTqYbLtrpX7cm3cq7VuVVztFfHkXrSEL89k_i19R37k9UW1EdKMhykwzEi1kPdjHn5AKCgT64lPYRRx8mbQ7PgdjPEgJXYRWDfsl9t51xHglpA" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> We're still berthed at Clearwater Downtown Harbor where we've been since Hurricane Irma came through this area. We still highly recommend a floating dock if you can find one. As in the photo above, anchoring out is our favorite activity and getting a sunrise photo is something we always look forward to.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> On a personal level, my father passed away since I last posted. His care and health management took a lot of my time, and posting trivial things in regard to Swing Set just didn't seem like a priority to me. </div><div style="text-align: left;">Recently, Rosie and I have been kicking around the idea of selling the boat, mainly because it's a sellers market, and to be honest, we've moved into a new neighborhood north of Tampa and are enjoying time at home more than time on the boat. But we know it's only because it's new.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> When Covid first hit, we devoted a great deal of attention to making some much needed changes to Swing Set, so back in 2020 I contacted a local upholstery shoppe and made a plan to install all new upholstery to the outside seating on the boat.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi5tms20Bn0cIDLRfo13N5pLgDq9daOBVMfIEHLKf-QG2ZH0Bxzx_bSUuHc7iSR_uxGykmcZq_2jIWZkpY0Kw-t24w3lFMQ6OHn3e6CR8rN7erZ94rydLk2SaF5iXhQJ1scftXspaSShy0zxUFlhyn-GodzzDzrVP9nLAdiqMdL6VfIy8X3WSN7cCKABQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi5tms20Bn0cIDLRfo13N5pLgDq9daOBVMfIEHLKf-QG2ZH0Bxzx_bSUuHc7iSR_uxGykmcZq_2jIWZkpY0Kw-t24w3lFMQ6OHn3e6CR8rN7erZ94rydLk2SaF5iXhQJ1scftXspaSShy0zxUFlhyn-GodzzDzrVP9nLAdiqMdL6VfIy8X3WSN7cCKABQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidNWhH7OgbUIXiqCfhzIsvCoRk-JHoidjRuHVCo-xbNmUnUpuYM19ousOabWYmQpwHZ6YF-aMXpbu1Nl4lQDzY7e_UGA-znPMPlvB_00kSAQfCiTdParp3tzhleVWwEj6XsojER4zyjWAInn5XCtqZMHkUTiqBsZc-fNocWZXFWf0Ep7kg2qPmoYYPJQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidNWhH7OgbUIXiqCfhzIsvCoRk-JHoidjRuHVCo-xbNmUnUpuYM19ousOabWYmQpwHZ6YF-aMXpbu1Nl4lQDzY7e_UGA-znPMPlvB_00kSAQfCiTdParp3tzhleVWwEj6XsojER4zyjWAInn5XCtqZMHkUTiqBsZc-fNocWZXFWf0Ep7kg2qPmoYYPJQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZaOu2XukPJ-uV0VlNjB5OFb9q1hP05efXs3kSbuIpoWLl4uAgUWy9UN_wYBSJHtbx3jbOc0s-Fvv1s0jzNX1ivKprLwtKu_p15vdld2C_gCUyQQXG39r4FGJza9JQgvdHS6SPVt7XxZrXam1OB8h87E5Sb5GLuOhAmbeKUTLdQ1rXw-PD6kKHNeqUeA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZaOu2XukPJ-uV0VlNjB5OFb9q1hP05efXs3kSbuIpoWLl4uAgUWy9UN_wYBSJHtbx3jbOc0s-Fvv1s0jzNX1ivKprLwtKu_p15vdld2C_gCUyQQXG39r4FGJza9JQgvdHS6SPVt7XxZrXam1OB8h87E5Sb5GLuOhAmbeKUTLdQ1rXw-PD6kKHNeqUeA" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> As you can see, we matched the factory design, except I felt no need for the gold piping, and we didn't have the nerve to ask the shoppe to match the Sea Ray logo on the seat backs. One thing we did that other owners might like, and you can see it plainly in the last photo, is that I made a seat back from starboard and hinged it at the base and the cushion for the seat back has a sleeve that goes over the attachment, and part of the back swings out and holds the seat back up for a more upright position. It makes all the difference in the world when sitting on the lounger. For naps the seat back lays back against the dash like the designers intended.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> I was able to take the seat parts in two batches at a time after taking everything out. The whole process only took a couple of weeks, but matching the seats was the most time consuming for them, but it was worth having the look of factory seating instead of something resembling an add-on after the fact.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMtCoZhYVWsi5-54NgSsQ-7ebXhNINx8Hy4zZfGgCdtwRqVHQ1EKp9iUn37vJsVh7x5IXWbQOCLcTe8qrxOlf8K8hZry-MvGGRxWLsnVmd0o7KHDP6HSTv5baatIPd4sGGvK0dDF90HJLmdn5fkq0RbOJibVzKAC11-mM3NOGpYFy4s_x6XiC2V5ejFg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjMtCoZhYVWsi5-54NgSsQ-7ebXhNINx8Hy4zZfGgCdtwRqVHQ1EKp9iUn37vJsVh7x5IXWbQOCLcTe8qrxOlf8K8hZry-MvGGRxWLsnVmd0o7KHDP6HSTv5baatIPd4sGGvK0dDF90HJLmdn5fkq0RbOJibVzKAC11-mM3NOGpYFy4s_x6XiC2V5ejFg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Our radar shot craps too, and even had it not, an update was definitely in order. We decided to bite the bullet and install a 16" Garmin unit on our dash, which incorporates a depth finder, so the screen was placed where four other instruments were originally. A new dome sits atop the post on the radar arch, and it looks like it belongs there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> To the right of the helm, a starboard panel was installed in place of the old radar unit and that's where we placed the VHF radio, a mount for the iPhone, as well as a bracket for the iPad. I'll use the iPad for redundancy if we do some long distance traveling again, but I'm so happy with the Garmin display, the iPad is not getting much use these days.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Since my last post, our inverter quit working, but it was able to be repaired, and I've replaced all eleven Group 31 batteries, but that is to expected every 4-5 years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> On a major note, two years ago we had to haul Swing Set out at Pitman's Yacht Services in Tarpon Springs. The bottom paint that I had applied when we were in Marathon was about gone, and our boat hull cleaning crew was grumbling about the additional effort it was taking to keep the bottom clean, even at a twice per month interval.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Since the bottom had to be painted, I had the yard raise the bottom decal by two inches, so that the bottom paint line was well above the waterline and we now avoid any brown dingy stains, keeping the hull sides looking nice and clean. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Not a week after splashing Swing Set back in, we were cruising out Hurricane Pass out into the Gulf and I got tangled in a boat that was sunk in the channel and we scraped up our new bottom paint some. I dove under the boat and determined that I wasn't going to haul the boat out again, but promised the hull cleaners that I'd do it again on the following year, knowing that we'd be due for another buff and wax in a years time anyway. So last year, we hauled Swing Set out again at Pitman's and did a "half bottom job", replaces the dripless shaft logs (one had split) and had all new decals replaced on the upper structure, omitting the gold pin striping that doesn't last in the sun anyway. We used all black and also left off the script that tells everyone that the boat is a 400 Sedan Bridge. We wound up with a nice clean look, and if someone doesn't know what model we're cruising down the waterways with, well, who cares?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOHjhKGym6KrVWoeeALdgp1DAoGsjg9Cya6_XOis1PyKeOkH17QhYMQquE0BHkH0bFh_tkuFxcNOVhm6me8sTK6VLYQLy3rT7cJ4WO1H6zKE8mvtn3SiULtgaRFRBzNvsGp4N3OYv2exLj2Khbdd4buPX5t1MJa5gLIehJonGZNZXgugAJJojwpsbv_g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhOHjhKGym6KrVWoeeALdgp1DAoGsjg9Cya6_XOis1PyKeOkH17QhYMQquE0BHkH0bFh_tkuFxcNOVhm6me8sTK6VLYQLy3rT7cJ4WO1H6zKE8mvtn3SiULtgaRFRBzNvsGp4N3OYv2exLj2Khbdd4buPX5t1MJa5gLIehJonGZNZXgugAJJojwpsbv_g" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"> Not two weeks back into the water we were anchored off our favorite spot at Three Rookers, and the wind, which the forecast promised to blow out of the northwest all night, decided to change its mind and nudged us into the shore and the picture above is what I found in the morning at sunrise when I felt the hull bump the bottom. I had to make a call to Towboat U.S. and get a guy out of bed on a weekday to come and pull us off as the tide was going out. I have no compunction admitting to such a dumb mistake, as well as saying I didn't have the anchor alarm set either. If you've kept up with this blog, you know that if it wasn't for dumb stuff I've done over the years, there wouldn't be much to write about.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Lessons were learned, but the next time the boat bottom got cleaned, the boat report stated that there was paint missing along the centerline on the hull. Once again, the divers were informed that they would have to work around the damage until the next year, which was just a couple of weeks ago when we were customers of Pitman's again. We're on a first name basis at this point.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> We got another "half bottom job", as well as a thorough buff and waxing. Before we left the boat in the yard, I had removed the sunscreen around the salon windows and painted it. Yes, painted it. That sunscreen was over $2000 several years ago and the vinyl was wearing thin on it. For the last three years I've removed it and spray painted it with fabric spray in a can. It looks pretty good, no?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhASOK3M6zjBF2ivI8lkiYCq_vKdoLiyfvFQYo-6hJJMDJ5vINacbCPBHGVFySTS5wWkwoN4_Za8J0AoVlVxkhPqxS37ktNtVvVIMaUvuYFRWn4hf_LwagXBqvQr1LIe7PGglxChHZ9gc-1MVaasmz06FWpzm23D2pkm3Gb8zHzdAUP2kcmvTqMgPbiw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2826" data-original-width="3144" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhASOK3M6zjBF2ivI8lkiYCq_vKdoLiyfvFQYo-6hJJMDJ5vINacbCPBHGVFySTS5wWkwoN4_Za8J0AoVlVxkhPqxS37ktNtVvVIMaUvuYFRWn4hf_LwagXBqvQr1LIe7PGglxChHZ9gc-1MVaasmz06FWpzm23D2pkm3Gb8zHzdAUP2kcmvTqMgPbiw" width="267" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Not to waste the chance, I had Pitman replace the two belts on each engine (I've done it, it's a pain in the butt.) I also had them replace the impellers on each main engine. (I've done that two, another pain in the butt.) They did a look see in the rest of the engine room and pronounced Swing Set to be in perfect health otherwise. The picture above is the day we returned to our slip.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Earlier this spring, I called Boatswain's Locker and got on their list to make a flybridge cover to replace the original one that had a three inch rip in it. There is no sense in repairing rips that start, the fabric is shot and you're just throwing money away. Now all of the canvas matches. I had them modify the design for a better fit around the bimini frame, as well as add some flaps to cover the scuppers on the rear overhang so birds can't get into the upper deck and nest.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> Since my last post we had to replace our tachometers too. The original instruments are no longer in production but we found a pretty good match by another manufacturer. Only one tach was bad, (the needle fell off.) but for appearances sake, I replaced both of them. Tachs with a mechanical hour meter are nearly impossible to find anymore, so I had to add a digital unit to the instrument panel and there was room between the tachs. I kept an old one to verify our total hours which I add to the digital total when figuring out maintenance intervals. I'll send along more info if anyone needs it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> I better save something else to post in a few days, or else it will be another two years before you hear from me again. Use the search engine on this blog to find items in regard to maintenance issues, or information regarding our time in The Bahamas. Wow, that was nine years ago!</div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><p></p>Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-43045118006121897082019-10-07T06:09:00.001-07:002019-10-07T06:10:10.427-07:00Power or Sail? Wow. I know it's been a long time, but I see that this January will be two years since I've posted a new blog. I have reasons.<br />
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I guess the primary reason is that outside of our last trip to Marco Island, we haven't "been anywhere", except anchoring out on weekends and poking around in our dinghy occasionally.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-f_z8fkiOIDN1LgmLQLESig08l3LWsNTZK4qNeAvK_ymrae9kw17eGgnemW8_cjEH-icfJ947vBU9xHEH2LyLKP5j98x60hGT_FQXatEbOP8hR-0scgkPO0oqdVeCMSHCT0vSc-61c9R/s1600/IMG_3394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-f_z8fkiOIDN1LgmLQLESig08l3LWsNTZK4qNeAvK_ymrae9kw17eGgnemW8_cjEH-icfJ947vBU9xHEH2LyLKP5j98x60hGT_FQXatEbOP8hR-0scgkPO0oqdVeCMSHCT0vSc-61c9R/s320/IMG_3394.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Last month we logged two years at the Clearwater Harbor Marina, and we are happy with Swing Set being berthed at that marina, mostly for the floating docks, but the rent is reasonable and there are things to do within walking distance of the boat.<br />
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We have quick access to open water, so when we venture out in the "big boat" or in the dinghy, we can set a course to just about anywhere no matter which way the wind is blowing from.<br />
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Maintenance issues continue with Swing Set, as they will with all boats, especially ones that are nearing 24 years old. This year we installed all new AGM batteries (eleven of them), had our inverter rebuilt, and installed a new de-humidifier. I did manage to learn how to control our power usage to avoid heating up our shore power cords due to the long run we have from the pedestal to our shore power inlet on the boat. We are using three sets of cords to allow docking bow in, so if we don't lower the power demand, we can heat up the plugs and melt them. The plugs can heat up without tripping the breakers, so it's a matter of turning off one air conditioner unit if we use the convection microwave, or electric cooktop.<br />
I could go to a single 50 amp cord, but I'm using what we have with a large degree of success, and when I say "melting the plugs", I mean over a period of time. There is no fire hazard. Check your shore power plugs. If you see evidence of heat it's because you're carrying too much electric for a long distance.<br />
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Otherwise, we're keeping Swing Set shined up, oil changed, zincs replaced, and most troublesome, keeping the bird poop off of it.<br />
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I've been flying a Canadian Goose decoy on the dock. An outfit called Jackkite sells various bird decoy "kites", but the goose flys the best. This kite does a decent job of warding off the hordes of gackles that gather on all the boats at dawn and at dusk. It also scares off most of the pelicans and gulls and pigeons too, to a degree. Can't do anything about the flyovers though.<br />
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One thing that has kept us from any extended cruising is that I've taken over the management of my fathers health related appointments and paying his bills. A year ago he moved into an assisted living facility back in St. Louis and he has a lot of issues to manage. Rosie has been a great deal of help, and we don't mind missing out on extended cruising at this time because we are helping my dad.<br />
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So, power or sail?<br />
Last weekend we were heading back home and another resident of the marina saw us packing up at the parking lot and said, "Power or sail?"<br />
I thought to myself for a few seconds, and couldn't help myself when I said, "We have a powerboat, but what difference does that make to you?"<br />
The fella went on to remark as to how he never had much use for powerboats, that he liked "messing with the sails and such", among other things. It's not like I asked him anything.<br />
I told him that in all my years of boating, I never asked anyone whether they had a power boat or sailboat, that I was just happy that they had a boat at all.<br />
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This apparently nice man probably won't engage me in further conversation, and maybe I was too short with him, but we occasionally get the feeling that we are looked down upon by the sailboaters, and that is probably an unfair assumption too.<br />
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I can tell you this; Swing Set or the dinghy is out of the slip two or three days out of the week, and there are plenty of sailboats at our marina that have never left their slip since we've been here.<br />
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Whatever you have that floats, big yacht or paddleboard, get out and use it. Time is waiting for no one, as they say. I know we are not being cheated by it.<br />
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<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-52283343528441071272018-01-23T15:21:00.000-08:002018-01-25T03:53:55.488-08:00Time For An Adventure We know that trading for a home in the Florida Keys for one in Tampa would mean some compromises, one of those being the fantastic weather in winter that we enjoyed for a few years down there, and we're OK with it, but boy, this January has been unusually cold. But then again, no one further up north has been having a picnic either. We had some time free up a couple of weeks ago and I began eyeing the weather a bit further south, particularly in Marco Island.<br />
The forecast here in Tampa was a dismal one for last week, and Marco Island had some predictions that were running about ten degrees warmer than us. We didn't have time for a trip all the way down to the Keys, and the budget didn't warrant a trip all the way there either, so we thought that the 160 mile run to Marco Island would fit the bill.<br />
I like to think we keep Swing Set ready to go on a long trip at any time, so outside of a usual trip to the grocery store on a Thursday morning a couple of weeks ago, it was just a matter of topping off our water tank and taking the covers off of the boat and the dinghy and we were ready to head out.<br />
Naturally I checked the wind forecast, I do that any time we plan on leaving protected waters, and if we're in the dinghy we check the wind forecast every time. We had to be home in no more than 14 days, so I checked Windfinder for a window to return north and there was a small one in 12 days, so I decided it was good enough to head out. Really, staying in the Intracoastal wouldn't be an issue, but there is about a 45 mile run from<br />
Ft. Myers to Marco Island that in a head sea can be nasty, but our current forecast showed northern winds for the trip down, and a turn for southern winds for a short period for the trip back. What we didn't concern ourselves with was the fog.<br />
We had nothing but time, so we wanted a nice relaxing cruise down on the inside, and initially it was, but I kept noting the fog out on the Gulf as we made our way down to Pass A Grille at Shell Key, where we normally venture out to cross Tampa Bay. When we passed<br />
St. Johns Pass, I could see the fog was thick out there and it was coming inland.<br />
Now, of course we've had fog before, but not really since we've been near the ocean, so there was some things I wasn't aware of. One of those things was that I have been under the assumption that fog will dissipate once the sun warms the air temperature up by mid-day, but the one thing to consider is that the ocean stays cold this time of year no matter what the sun is doing. The other thing is that the weather people don't have a real handle on where there is going to be fog. They just say it's going to be "spotty", and it may or may not be where you are. No kidding.<br />
The fog settled in around us like a blanket as we started making way out Pass A Grille, and I started considering anchoring somewhere and waiting it out, but I thought maybe once we got out passed the warmer land mass the fog would lighten up so we went ahead.<br />
Now, I gotta say here that we weren't totally prepared for fog, as I discovered earlier last fall that our radar was not working. I don't use radar. The last time I used it was when we were returning from The Bahamas in 2013, and that was to see a rain storm so we could avoid it. I also rarely run at night, so the radar didn't seem so necessary.<br />
There was a boat following us, thinking we knew what we were doing, but he turned off and started calling marinas on his radio. I probably should have turned around too, but I trusted my instruments and I considered crossing the ship channel into Tampa Bay as our only dangerous point, and the ship channel is actually very narrow where we were going to cross. As it turned out, by the time we got to the crossing, the fog there wasn't too bad, we could see the Sunshine Skyway off to our east, and although it was worse out to the west, I was sure I could see a ship if it was coming our way. They go pretty slow through there anyway.<br />
I was feeling pretty good about our situation once we crossed the ship channel, but once we got behind Egmont Key and on to the east of Passage Key, the fog shrouded us again as I made way back into the Intracoastal for an intended anchorage on the inside of Longboat Key, between it and Jewfish Key, where we stayed for a few days when we first came through there in 2012.<br />
We inched along through Bradenton, twice coming across local fishermen running along at plane, one without running lights on. We had ours on and they saw us first and we didn't have a collision, but I was wondering about the intelligence of them not having their lights on, and us being out there in the first place.<br />
Once we reached the southern tip of Jewfish Key, a check of our chart showed some deep water out to the east of Jewfish Key, so I decided to check it out, remembering how tight it was in the anchorage we had been in before. We did't get too far when our depth gauge didn't agree with what I saw on the chart, but that's no surprise because the info on most charts are years old. I scrapped that plan and backed out to what I at least was vaguely familiar with. I did the best I could do with the visibility I had and dropped anchor as we lost the last of our light.<br />
I don't mind learning lessons, and when you're not as smart as you think you are, you're always learning lessons or paying to have your mistakes fixed. Right then I learned that I should have updated my anchoring application for our iPhone before we left port. Oops.<br />
Neither of my two "go to" anchoring apps would work, and I couldn't update them, but I was able to purchase a new app, and I had a choice between a 99 cent one and a $5.00 one, and since I've been programmed to think that more expensive means better, I chose the more expensive one. It's called, appropriately enough, Anchor Alarm.<br />
It works differently than the other apps I've used, and I think it's simpler. Simple is good for me. Once you acknowledge the disclaimer, your GPS is fixed, you check five boxes that apply to your situation, and you draw a line around the dot that is your position where you want to alarm to sound if you drift into the area where the line is. On an iPad, your position is in the shape of a boat. For five bucks, I want our boat to look like more than a dot, but I was using the phone, so I drew a shape that was similar to the deep water that we were setting in, only allowing about a hundred feet to drift in the longest direction.<br />
Last month I installed a Shakespeare T.V. antenna on Swing Set, so I turned on the T.V. and searched for channels and found a ton of them, but mainly we're only interested in CBS or NBC and both came in with phenomenal pictures. Rosie had been cooking a chuck roast in the crock pot on the way down, so we had a great dinner while watching the news and monitoring our anchor alarm. The alarm sounded once in the middle of the night when the boats swung around with the tide. I got up to check our position and reset the alarm. Nighty night.<br />
The next morning we were still socked in with fog and the wind had really picked up. By mid day, the fog was still thick, and I didn't want a replay of the previous day, and we had Sarasota Bay to negotiate with it's twist and turns, so as time was on our side and it was cold, we snuggled in and read our Kindles.<br />
Between reading one of the countless Robert Crais books, and thinking of other things, the sun peeked out late in the afternoon and I decided to address an issue with the dinghy davit that had been troubling me. In the last blog, I mentioned my satisfaction with the rig I had come up with for the new dinghy, but the little bit that our dinghy was swinging as we crossed some boat wakes on our way down had me rethinking my tie down method.<br />
Before we took delivery of the dinghy back in November, I had purchased some stainless steel ratcheting tie down straps, but I didn't come up with a good way to use them without causing stress on my davit arms and winch system. While reading "L.A. Detective", I thought that maybe I could still use the tie downs to keep the dinghy from swinging from side to side in rough water. When the sun popped out, I got out my drill and installed two stainless eye bolts on each davit, each into a bracket that was located just below where the bottom of the dinghy tubes rested against the davit arms. I ran one strap from the back lifting ring on the outside of the dinghy transom, under the starboard tube without it touching, and up to the davit support opposite it. Then I ran another strap under the dinghy from the bow eye back toward the stern to the rear davit support. They wouldn't be pulling the dinghy down, causing stress on the davit arms, but if I just snugged them up, they'd just be pulling against each other, keeping the dinghy from swinging side to side on the stern of Swing Set. I felt pretty confident that it would work, and it was simple. Later we got a chance to test the system in earnest.<br />
On Saturday morning the fog was lifted and we pulled up anchor at first light. It was cold and blustery and we dressed for it, but even though we had a full day of running down to Sanibel, it was less than pleasant. When we crossed Charlotte Harbor the wind had really picked up, but as predicted, it was on our stern, and it was a good thing. We had a three foot chop in the Bay and we ran Swing Set at cruise to smooth out our ride. Not many other boaters were out even though it was a Saturday. We pulled into Sanibel Marina and got fuel with the intention of putting out a hook on the southern end of Sanibel Island for a run down to Marco the next day, or at least to Naples, but conditions out in San Carlos Bay just west of Ft. Myers beach were not suitable for anchoring and it was getting late.<br />
We had spent about three weeks in the area back in 2012 visiting friends, so we knew the area some. I had ideas about where we could put a hook, but the winds were blowing in gusts over 25 miles per hour from the north. The lee side of most of those land masses were nothing but shallow water. Even though some folks we knew in the area were out of town at the time, we decided to head up the Caloosahatchee River to Bimini Basin where we spent most of our time in Cape Coral over five years ago.<br />
The channel into Bimini Basin is narrow, and we were at low tide, and even thought we had no issue using that channel five years ago, we were having an unusually extreme tide and we bumped going in just from the river. Had I remembered my local knowledge from those many years ago, I could have used another channel just to the east that would have gotten me to the same place, but alas, my memory just doesn't serve me as well as I would like.<br />
We eventually pulled into a crowded Bimini Basin, but found a spot with plenty of room and again dropped our hook just as the sun was going down. Once again we monitored our anchor app and located channels on our T.V. while noshing on a pork roast that had been cooking in the crock pot. Another full day.<br />
I was anxious to get going on Sunday morning and I knew the tide was low, but I've always thought that if you can get in, you can get out, so we pulled anchor and made way back out to the river to see if it was too rough for a run down to Marco Island. We never found out.<br />
In the channel out to the river proper I was trying to avoid the spot where I had bumped the bottom on the night before when a hellacious noise emanated from the bottom of the boat. It sounded like we had run up on some rocks, but even though I would have liked to see a bit more depth on the depth gauge, it wasn't shallow enough to be on rocks. But before figuring all that out, I had pulled the throttle back and put both transmissions in neutral.<br />
We had drifted into deeper water, but I didn't want to drift out of what was anyway a narrow channel anyway, so I put the starboard engine in gear, but only for a second as a noise somewhat like what you'd hear if you dragged a chain across a fence pipe caused me to quickly shut down that engine. A test of the port engine was good, so I began to make way out to the river and deeper what with one engine.<br />
Here is where I interject about something that has crossed my mind for several years about people wanting two engines in case one craps out. It doesn't always work.<br />
For our boat anyway, it was nearly impossible to steer, especially with the wind and current working against me. I kept spinning the wheel and feathering the transmission to get us out to the river. Once I somehow got us out there I couldn't turn the boat into the wind which was upriver and toward a marina that I knew had a travel lift. Before I could decide to drop a hook before we blew out of the channel and into a shoal, the same noise that caused me to shut down the starboard engine started coming from the running gear on the port side. I calmly shut down the port engine and was able to deploy a hook in a narrow channel of the Caloosahatchie.<br />
I can't say I didn't have a great sense of foreboding at that point, because I did. In fact the feeling I had was similar to the one I had a few months after we bought Swing Set. It was in late October on a nasty and blustery day in a slough off the channel of the Mississippi River when we ran aground. I don't think I knew about Towboat U.S. back then, but even so, I hate to ask for help from anyone, and I made two dips into the frigid Mississippi in my birthday suit to get us shoved off into deeper water. Two, because when I first got us off the sand, the wind blew us into another sandbar before I could get underway, and in my birthday suit because I didn't have a wetsuit onboard, or any dry clothes to put on if I got them wet. But I digress.<br />
The hook was out on the Caloosahatchie and I called Towboat U.S. There was a guy there in about twenty minutes since no one in their right mind was out on the water in the cold and wind. After considering taking us to the Marine Max up the river where I was thinking about going, the captain of the towboat suggested he tow our boat to Tarpon Point marina just downriver where we could get along a dock and he could dive on our running gear and take a look. Sounded good to us and Marine Max wasn't open on a Sunday as far as using the travel lift, and Monday was a holiday too.<br />
It just so happens that we had let our Gold Membership expire on Towboat U.S. and we only had basic coverage amounting to $300 when you add our boat insurance coverage with our basic $50 coverage on our Boat U.S. membership. We had intentions of increasing our coverage to the Gold Membership when our policy became due again at the end of the month. Two weeks away.<br />
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Here we are along a nice transient dock at Tarpon Point. Yes, there are two Towboat U.S. vessels in the picture. Next, I'll tell you why.<br />
Ed, the first towboat operator, made a quick look under our boat without an air supply just to see what we had. He came up and told us we had a crab trap wrapped around the starboard shaft and prop, and the line for it had become tangled around the port shaft. I knew we hadn't seen a buoy for the trap, so we apparently drug it off the bottom in the shallow water. That's what you call "lucky".<br />
We have never used Towboat U.S. before even though, as I've mentioned, we've run aground and even picked up our share of crab pots, but this is January in Cape Coral, not the warm waters of Key West, so I had it in my mind to let Ed fix our problem if he could, but I also didn't know that Towboat U.S. operates on an hourly basis and Ed was the king of dragging his feet. I am also smart enough to not try to rush anyone who is doing you a favor even if you are paying for it.<br />
Ed took his good 'ole time getting tools and his air supply hooked up. When we got serious about untangling the crab pot from our running gear, he kept coming up to remind me of just how hard the job was going to be. He got the line untangled from the port side shaft, but came aboard to rest and tell me that the rebar from the crab pot on the starboard side was "wrapped tight" around the starboard shaft. He didn't know if he could get it off.<br />
At this point, mustering up as much tact as I am capable of mustering up, I told Ed that whatever he wanted to do was up to him, but if he left us there without a complete resolution of our problem, I was going to don my wetsuit and fire up our Hookamax and take that crab pot off of our prop and shaft if I had to, cold water or not. I think he believed me, so he came up with a plan.<br />
He said he would need a hand, and that there was liability issues if I got under the boat with him, so he would call a buddy that worked with him to help bend that pesky rebar wrapped around the shaft. I decided that "in for a penny, in for a pound", and told him to call his buddy. Billy arrived in the second boat in fairly short order.<br />
Of course we had to wait for Billy to don his gear (I didn't know Towboat U.S. was even prepared to dive under a boat needing assistance) and take his time acclimating himself to the water before getting down to business with Ed under our boat. In very short order they pulled up the crab pot that was twisted into a ball, and then the rebar that I thought was curled up like an elevator spring, but only slightly out of whack. But we were good to go with no collateral damage to the shaft or props. Ed did report a gouge in the tunnel where the rebar had tried to poke a hole in our bottom, but didn't. The only water coming into our bilge was from the port side dripless seal. I suspected a torqued seal and I knew I could deal with that on my own.<br />
The bill wasn't so bad after all. We let Ed swipe our VISA card for the $157 over what our insurance was going to cover, and we gave both Ed and Billy $50 each, not knowing what the protocol was. They seemed happy to get it as it was a slow day for them.<br />
It was too late to head to Marco, and too windy anyway, so we decided to treat ourselves after a disappointing day, so we called the harbormaster and booked our slip for the night and went up to one of the several restaurants there at Tarpon Point and had a nice dinner.<br />
The next morning the wind was forecasted to be on our stern if we headed for Marco Island, but we were both apprehensive about going on with our trip. We had had to spend some money we didn't plan on spending, but ultimately we figured we came this far and there was still a window to return on the following weekend if we did make it to Marco. We both agreed that if the Gulf was too rough once we got out past Ft. Myers, we'd turn around and head home on the Intracoastal. As it turned out we ran down to Marco on plane at least until we got to Naples, there we had to slow down for a multitude of crab pot buoys.<br />
Hurricane Irma tore up Marco Island, not as bad as the Keys, but we could see damage as we came slowly into the pass. I had never used this pass before and even though the chart looked OK, I didn't know what the hurricane had done to it. There was no other boats going in to follow. After a tense transit into the channel of the Marco River, I called the harbormaster at the Esplanade Marina to get a line of the channel into Collier Bay. I asked if the big boats in his marina were still going in and out and he said they were, but only at high tide. We just happened to be at high tide so in we went, through Collier Bay and then into Esplanade Bay.<br />
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That's Swing Set in the upper center of the photo, safely on the hook in Smokehouse Bay where we spent seven nights in what turned out to be just about as cold as weather as Tampa was having.<br />
Our weather window to leave was holding up, but there was a fly in the ointment. We had to leave at high tide and high tide on the day we wanted to leave wasn't in the morning, which was our preference, but not until late in the afternoon. We would plan on leaving our anchorage on Sunday, get fuel and water, get a hook in Factory Bay and then leave to go north on Monday.<br />
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We did have some warmer temperatures on our first day in Marco Island. We ran the dinghy up to Naples for lunch, and then came back to Keewaydin Island, where we spent about a week on the hook back in 2012.<br />
We touched base with some friends who snowbird in Marco, and met up with a chum from up on the Mississippi River. We spent some time at the Esplanade Marina and also was able to spend another day at the beach even though it was too cold to enjoy it.<br />
On Sunday we waited for high tide, but left on a rising tide when I saw a 59 footer leave the marina and head out to the river. We followed him with his five foot draft and neither one of us had a problem. Once we got out to the river, he headed to sea and we headed to Rose Marina for fuel. I was filling our port side tank when a familiar voice called out to Rosie.<br />
A friend from Fenton was having a beer at Jacks Lookout when someone mentioned that there was a woman in a thong on some Sea Ray at the fuel dock. He looked out and recognized Rosie and the boat and came out to say hello. It was a nice surprise to see him and we were sorry we didn't remember his family had a place down there. We had a quick chat and then we went out to Factory Bay to get an anchoring spot and relax with a beer or two and watch the sunset.<br />
I was up at five A.M. the next morning thinking it was six. Rosie got up too since if I ain't sleeping, she isn't either. We had a nice breakfast, checked weather again, and pulled anchor before sunrise at 6:45. There was enough light to see our way to the pass and we exited into the Gulf of Mexico at 7 A.M. As soon as we got into deep water I put Swing Set on plane with intentions of running straight to Clearwater with the boat. That almost happened.<br />
As we approached Sanibel Island I could see fog in the distance. The weather people were forecasting it to burn off by 9 A.M. but it was past that. It was calm enough to stop at anchor if we had to, but we could see the crab pot buoys good enough to press on, but once we got up around Captiva, we were so socked in I had to slow down to idle speed.<br />
It was soup. I was nervous as we passed the entrance to Charlotte Harbor, as that would be the last point where any bigger ships would be going, but we got passed that point and visibility improved to where I put Swing Set up to just on plane, about 20 miles per hour.<br />
We ran along with our running lights on, nervous as cats, but we were able to spot the crab pot buoys in time to avoid them. At one point we came upon a small fishing boat sitting there in the fog with no lights on. I'm pretty sure we scared the crappie out of them.<br />
By the time we got up to about Englewood, the sky cleared and we ran at our cruising speed of 25 MPH. I never ran our boat for so many miles at that speed and wasn't sure if we had enough fuel. At the midpoint we had more than twice our fuel left over so I relaxed a little. A back up plan would have been to pop in somewhere and fuel up but we didn't have to. It was a smooth ride all the way albeit a cold one. The winds picked up by the time we got to St. Petersburg, but they were on our stern quarter and weren't unpleasant. At a little less than seven hours after we left Marco Island we were entering Clearwater Pass.<br />
We fueled up at the Clearwater Beach Marina and learned that we had gotten .8 miles per gallon. I thought we could get a mile per gallon, but at least I know our range at cruising speed.<br />
After we pulled into the dock we rinsed the salt off of Swing Set and the dinghy and turned in early. The next morning I flushed all of the engines and fixed the leaking port side shaft seal. We headed home with a mini adventure behind us, not a big trip but considering not many boats even leave our harbor, we could be proud of ourselves for attempting it.<br />
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<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-5560707013031548342018-01-03T09:27:00.001-08:002018-01-03T09:27:37.800-08:00It's All About The Dinghy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hurricane Irma was devastating to so many people but a silver lining for us was our move to Clearwater Harbor Marina. We've adjusted to our new home for Swing Set and have settled in nicely.</div>
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In the middle left in the posted photo is the Sand Key Bridge which leads from Clearwater Harbor out to the Gulf of Mexico. Being in close proximity to an inlet means dealing with a current, at times up to three miles per hour, that will affect us when we dock, but when you spend years boating on the Mississippi River, a little current can be dealt with.</div>
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One way we deal with the current is that we turned the boat around (which was our intent in the first place) so that we are berthed bow in. Of course, pulling bow in to any slip should be easier for anyone, and backing out into the fairway is a piece of cake too. Our slip was not provided with one of those dock wheels on the outer corner, and we were told that the city would provide one simply if we would ask, but I could see how other wheels were installed in the other slips, so I decided to buy our own and install it the way I wanted to.</div>
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I also ran our utilities from the post to a spot on the end of the finger next to Swing Set. I made the installation nice and neat, bunching the two 30 amp cords together with the water hose laying along the top, making a pyramid of the three lines. I used cable ties every eight inches, screwing them into the band board that runs along the side of concrete floating docks. I installed one of those boxes at the end of the finger to house a hose roller so I had access to our wash down hose without dragging it over the bow of the boat from the pedestal every time I wanted to use it. We decided to forgo the cable, which is not free at Clearwater Harbor Marina. One less thing every time we unhooked services for a boat ride, but more on that later.</div>
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Since we share our double slip with another boat, I ran some of our old anchor line from the piling in the middle of the two slips over to the middle point of the dock, making it as tight as possible. This line provides a "guide", not only for us, but for our dock neighbor as well, so we have some room for error when entering or exiting the slip in any wind or current.</div>
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I installed two big round inflatable fenders along the finger to keep our hull from constantly rubbing on the black dock edging when the wind or current is extreme from the south.</div>
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We're happy with the result, and have received compliments from our boat neighbors as well as marina staff on the job. It's good to have marina staff like any "improvements" to a slip, especially when you don't ask for permission.</div>
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Some folks like to be on the outer finger at this marina, for the view, but as you can see in the photo, to capitalize on the view you not only have to back into the slip, sometimes the harbormaster puts a transient vessel on the outer side of the pier which impedes the view, plus that outer pier gets the brunt of any wind or waves that blow in from the west, which is most of the time. We couldn't have hand picked a better slip to be in, and we still get a pretty good view of the sunsets.</div>
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Previous posts have mentioned some mechanical problems we were having with the Mercury outboard on our dinghy. We thought we were on our way to getting them resolved until Hurricane Irma interfered. What started out as a simple carburetor rebuild turned into finding out we needed a new carburetor and throttle cables. When the mechanic we were dealing with suggested that getting a whole new engine would probably be the best way to go, I balked. It made no sense to me to discard what was a perfectly good running engine just because it needed a carburetor rebuild.</div>
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I pulled the plug on the mechanic that we thought would fix us up, and after several calls to local Mercury mechanics, I settled on a local repair shop, and with some help, got the motor off the dinghy and to the shop, expecting to have it back in a few weeks. That was back in September.</div>
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Meanwhile, we spent time on the water on Swing Set without the benefit of our dinghy and we were constantly reminded of how much we used the dinghy in the first place, which was a lot. As time wore on, and calls to the repair shop resulted in "we should be able to get to your motor next week", the seed was planted to just sell our motor and dinghy and get a whole new rig.</div>
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Just like Irma, opportunity presents itself in some of the most inopportune moments, and acting on those moments can be a good thing if they're recognized. It came to be that we were able to recognize just one of those moments.</div>
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In our nearly two years in the area we've met a handful of folks out on the water, and one couple in particular happened by our boat one day and tied up. Now, we had known that Brad, the male half of the couple, said he was in the business of "building boats", but I don't make it my business to probe too much into the business of others, so I really didn't know to what extent his "boat building" experience was made of, but I was telling Brad about our trouble getting the Mercury repaired on the dinghy and his girlfriend mentioned to Brad that maybe we were in the market for a new dinghy.</div>
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Brad, not being a pushy sort, rather dismissed the idea until I pressed for details and we found out that he was the owner of one of the largest inflatable dealers in the Tampa/St. Pete area, Suncoast Inflatables. The seed was not only planted, but started taking root, especially after I went home and researched their website and saw what kind of boats that they offered.</div>
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We played email tag and instant messaged a few times regarding what would be a good choice for us, given our specific davit requirements, and between what I knew about what I thought our davit would hold, and what Brad knew what was available, we decided on what dinghy was best for our needs, and Brad whole heartedly agreed.</div>
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On a visit to his shop in Pinellas Park, there was a model similar to the one we were interested in on his showroom floor and Rosie and I both liked what we saw, but it was rated for a smaller engine than I wanted, and it had a Tohatsu engine on it. The 15 H.P. Mercury we had in the shop is essentially a Tohatsu motor, and from what I have learned about our own motor over the last six or seven years, I didn't want any part of a Tohatsu motor, I wanted a Yamaha outboard.</div>
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Yamaha has recently come out with the lightest 25 H.P. motor in the industry, and it's a four stroke. The AB Mares 10 dinghy was rated for a 30 H.P. motor, but the suggestion was to install a 25 on that particular model. It was just our luck that Brad's extensive inventory included not only the Mares 10 with the 20" transom necessary for the bigger motor, he also had the Yamaha with power trim and tilt in stock. Not only was the seed planted and the tree was growing rapidly, once Brad gave us a price on a whole new rig, I could envision the tree all grown and falling leaves were blocking up our gutters.</div>
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By this time the repair shop came back with an estimate for the repair of our Mercury, but still hadn't even ordered the carb. I told them to order the carburetor and install it. I told them I had a buyer for our motor and dinghy and I needed it in a week. Then I set out to find a buyer.</div>
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One of our boat neighbors said that a guy on our dock was looking for a dinghy, so when I saw him the next day I went to him and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He didn't even have a davit for a dinghy on his boat, but I also knew that if I was forced to trade our dinghy in, the offer I made to our dock neighbor was good for him, and good for us, and I told him that Suncoast Inflatables would store his dinghy for him until he could get a davit installed. He agreed on the price without countering, realizing the opportunity offered to him.</div>
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We called Brad, told him we had made the deal with our boat neighbor on our old dinghy and set up a time to finalize the deal on the new rig for us. The Fort Lauderdale boat show had taken place the previous weekend and Brad gave us the "boat show price", plus a "friend of Brad" discount, and we used the savings to outfit our new rig with everything we needed in options so the result was exactly what we wanted given the parameters of a custom made davit made for a much lighter rig.</div>
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We visited Suncoast Inflatables twice while our new dinghy was being rigged. I was impressed with the attention that was given to our purchase. The staff was in complete agreement with a couple of minor suggestions I made about how they rigged the boat, which was slated for delivery on the day before Thanksgiving.</div>
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In the meantime, our Mercury was ready for pickup. I had sold it without even knowing how much the final cost was going to be, and was disappointed to find out that the bill was twice the estimate. When I went to pick up the motor I negotiated a lower price, but not by much. Still, the sale meant we didn't have to wait to find another buyer, or find a place to put our old dinghy if we didn't want Suncoast to sell in on consignment. </div>
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Again, with some help, I got the dinghy motor installed back on our old dinghy and took it out to make sure it ran right. After a call back to the technician who did the carb install, I made a quick minor adjustment to the idle and was satisfied with the operation so that I could sell the rig to a neighbor without regret. We spent a few hundred dollars more on the repair, but at the end of the day, we were very happy to be getting a new dinghy and motor, and our boat neighbor was happy to be getting his first dinghy.</div>
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Here's a photo of our new dinghy, secure in a new harness on the stern of Swing Set after I spent of few sleepless nights figuring out how I was going to adapt a dinghy weighing about two hundred pounds more than our old one, plus with a console that was preventing me from winching up the dinghy as high as the last one.</div>
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Faithfull blog readers may remember issues we had with our davit, going back to our trip to The Bahamas in 2013. The davit had broken at welds twice while we were over there. Since then we hadn't had any problems, and once I forgot to pull the plug on the bilge drain and rain filled the boat up with water and we took off from an anchorage with over two hundred pounds of extra weight in the dinghy. I only noticed this when we went on plane out in the Gulf and I saw the transom flexing from the extra weight. While that was not good, and I quickly drained the bilge on the dinghy at that point, at least I knew that the davit itself was strong enough to hold more weight. But I wanted some insurance.</div>
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Bear with me while I convey to you how I approached housing our new boat on our old davit.</div>
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In the photo, the boat is lifted and stored in "traveling mode". That's a new term for me as my approach with the old dinghy was pretty much either "up" or "down". In the up mode, the old dinghy was raised until the tubes made contact with the davit itself, on the arms that extend out over the swim platform. The console on the new dinghy prevented me from using that method, and I was opposed to cut anything supportive away from the davit, which was an option. But what I realized was that my method of securing the old dinghy used "opposing forces" to prevent the dinghy from swinging while underway. The cables on the winch were under stress just holding the dinghy up, and were under more when tightened against the force of the dinghy tubes when in contact with the davit.</div>
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At first I thought of using ratcheting straps to hold the new dinghy in place, but again, that required an "opposing force" which I could quickly see was putting too much leverage on the davit arms, especially at the motor end.</div>
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After first replacing the 3/16" cables with 1/4" polished stainless cables on each winch, I bought some small bow pulpit rollers that you can see in the previous picture. I rigged an auxiliary harness to run from the rollers to the attachment points on the dinghy harness. How this works is that I utilize the existing lifting pulleys on the davit, which is necessary otherwise the dinghy can't easily be pulled up due to how much the swim platform sticks out. I crank up the winches as high as possible and I run the auxiliary harness out to the end of the davit arms and then attach the carabiner to the dinghy harness. Then, I lower the winches and the rollers allow the harness to roll back until the dinghy rests against the upright supports of the davit. Some tension is left on the winch cables, but the majority of the weight is hanging from a point on the davit arms closer to the upright supports, and the weight of the dinghy against the davit supports, plus the angle of the cables, are instrumental in keeping the dinghy from swinging while underway. No, I don't know how this will work in extremes seas, but we have been able to avoid extreme conditions for several years and I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to continue to do so.</div>
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Everyone knows a nice dinghy is necessary to keep most women happy, and Rosie and Holly both love the new rig. The seating position, power trim and tilt, plus electric start, are new additions to this dinghy that I'm not sure how we lived without for years. I highly recommend those features. We also have a depth finder, and I use the Navionics app on our phone to navigate. A Bluetooth speaker provides some tunes while we're underway and at anchor.</div>
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We've taken the new boat down to Passage Key which is about 80 miles round trip. We cruise at 25 M.P.H. and get 12 M.P.G. doing it. Beats the 1 M.P.G. we get on the "big boat" and we keep it free hanging from the davits from our floating condo in the form of Swing Set at the marina in Clearwater.</div>
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We're very happy we decided to buy this new boat. We know we'll get lots of use out of it on the beautiful beaches in our area, and we were really happy with the owner and staff at Suncoast Inflatables. By the way, within a couple of days of our boat neighbor taking possession of our old dinghy, Suncoast had him set up with a davit on the back of his boat.</div>
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I can't go without relaying to you the one bad experience we've had at our new marina, but I hope how we've dealt with it can help someone else with a similar problem.</div>
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We didn't have issues with birds too much at Marker 1 Marina, but for some reason the bird issue at Clearwater Harbor Marina is unbelievable. Twice a day, right at dawn, and then again at dusk, thousands of grackles, a member of the blackbird family, swarm in from the barrier islands and invade every boat in the harbor, lining bow rails, yardarms, bimini tops, and every other surface they can find, and for about a half an hour they appear to crap out everything they've ingested since their previous visit.</div>
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There is little as disheartening to us other than leaving Swing Set all clean and shiny on a Monday and come back on a Friday to have it covered in bird poop. Other boats in the harbor were using Gull Sweeps, ribbons, wires, and other assorted methods to ward off those birds, along with pigeons and of course the pelicans. Anyone on board when the flying hoards would arrive can be seen out on deck clapping hands, or shining lights in an effort to keep them away.</div>
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I declared war.</div>
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We are taking a three pronged aggressive approach, and it seems that two prongs are working. First I found an app on the trusty iPhone called Pest Control for Birds for 99 cents.</div>
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I connected that to our Bluetooth speakers as the birds approached and sure enough, the eagle in distress sounds would keep the birds from roosting on our boat. That's great for when we're there, but the issue remained as far as when we weren't at the boat. To Amazon I went.</div>
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I bought a gizmo that is motion activated that I installed on the top of the radar dome. The theory is that if birds landed on the bimini top, a light would flash and an ultrasonic sound would emit from the solar powered device. OK. The one thing about ultrasonic sounds is that I sure as hell can't tell if they are emitting or not, and the solar charging capability is great for the birds at dusk, but after sitting all night in the dark the device isn't up to scaring away much of anything as the batteries are dead by morning. Hence, prong number two.</div>
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I was mentioning my dilemma to our neighbor here at our condo, and he suggested a decoy bird that flies from a pole. An outfit called "Jackite" sells various decoy birds such as eagles, ospreys, and Canadian Geese. He said that I wouldn't believe it, but the Canadian Goose decoy would work best. I had my doubts, but installed one anyway, and it works! </div>
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I would think the eagle or osprey would be best for around the water, but the eagles is big and doesn't fly without a whole lot of wind, and the osprey is too small.</div>
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Yes, the wind does not blow all the time, but the tackles are birds of habit, as most birds are, and apparently if the birds have seen the goose flying once, they avoid it whether it's flying or hanging there looking dead. But there is still prong number three.</div>
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From Birdbusters.com I bought a CD that has a 30 minute loop of various bird sounds that claim to keep crows and other birds away. For ten bucks, and another ten for shipping, I ordered one and play it on our outside speakers while we are gone. It's not loud enough to annoy our neighbors, but even if they can hear it while sitting on their deck, they are getting some residual benefits from my war on the birds, as not only is our boat clean when we get to it every week, theirs is too.</div>
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Now, we do get some flyover bombs, you can hardly avoid that, but another thing I did was coat our bimini canvas with new waterproofing so that any new deposits will easily hose off. Bird poop, especially pelican poop, will eat through canvas if left on there, so we don't.</div>
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Some boat neighbors have taken notice and I've delivered two of the decoy geese to them, thinking I could start a franchise. Just one of those opportunities.</div>
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Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-87508536169070481692017-09-11T09:12:00.000-07:002017-09-11T09:12:26.027-07:00Hurricane Irma We are always cognizant of impending hurricanes during this time of the year. We get instant alerts on our phone from two apps, BoatUS and Hurricane Tracker. Over a week ago we began monitoring Hurricane Irma.<br />
We spent most of Labor Day weekend on the hook anchored off of Three Rookers Bar just north of our Marina in Dunedin and headed back to Marker 1 Marina late on the afternoon of Labor Day and saw that Irma was going to be something to contend with, and decisions were going to have to be made.<br />
Our first order of business on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, was to get topped off with fuel, as we didn't know if we were going to stay put at our marina, or try to avoid the storm by traveling to another location.<br />
I know from experience that our fixed dock slip at Marker 1 Marina would not be our first choice as a place to have Swing Set during a major storm, much less a Category 4 hurricane. Clearwater Harbor Marina is the closest marina with floating docks, and the very early predictions for the path of Irma took it up either the entire east coast or the west coast of Florida, so trying to outguess the path was going to be problematic to say the least. I made a call to the harbormaster at Clearwater Harbor Marina, Brooke Cunningham. Brooke told us to make an online reservation on their website ASAP to "get in the system", but he had a handful of slips still available, but we needed to make up our minds quickly, and he also suggested that instead of making a reservation for the upcoming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I should make it Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, as he thought Irma was going to be on top of us on Monday and Tuesday. That turned out to be very good advice.<br />
Next, I visited the office of Marker 1 Marina to determine if we could possibly move to an adjoining slip that was wider which allows for scope for tie off lines to increase the chances of surviving the fluctuating levels that come with storm surge. Kyle Huff, the dockmaster, and the dock administration manager, Caitlin, was in the office when I asked if I could move to, if possible, to the adjoining slip. I was just "checking my options".<br />
I got blank stares for one thing, they probably weren't use to anyone coming in that early to discuss a hurricane plan. I was told that someone was expected to arrive for that slip by the weekend, so I was not encouraged to make that particular option a part of my plan. On my way out of the office, I received an affirmative nod from Kyle when I mentioned a possible move to the floating docks at Clearwater Harbor Marina. "That would be a good move", he said.<br />
Rosie and I walked across the street so I could get a haircut, and while I was getting clipped, Rosie went to the online reservation form for Clearwater Harbor Marina and made a reservation online for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the 10th, 11th, and 12th of September.<br />
To follow-up, I called Brooke again when my haircut was finished and after considering the logistics of preparing our home for the hurricane, and getting to the marina in time to prepare the boat, we decided to add Saturday the 9th to our stay and book four nights in Clearwater. Brooke had our online paperwork and told us we were good to go.<br />
Meanwhile, some friends and former dock mates from Marathon Marina , Tim and Christie Ayers, contacted us and asked me what I thought of floating docks, as he was in the fixed docks at the Clearwater Beach Marina and he had a chance to go over to Clearwater Harbor which is on the other side of the bay on the mainland. The Beach Marina is on the barrier island at Clearwater Beach. I told him what our plans were, so we began co-ordinating efforts to get into adjoining slips at Clearwater Harbor Marina so we could "spider web" our boats together in the double slips. Brooke was very accommodating, recognizing our desire to do the responsible thing to protect not only our vessels, but he also knew he had two "captains" coming in who at least pretended to know what they were doing.<br />
We headed home to our condo, feeling very confident of our plan, with intentions of preparing our home for the hurricane and then going back to Swing Set on Friday to strip the canvas and make other preparations, and then get to the Clearwater Harbor Marina just after daylight on Saturday the 9th.<br />
It didn't take long to get our home in order and on Thursday, we were relaxing at the pool after our work, taking it easy, but not looking forward to the work we had to do on Friday.<br />
But I had this nagging feeling that I was wasting time. My intuition was not unfounded.<br />
Late Thursday afternoon we received an email from Marker 1 Marina. We were being told that they were expecting major damage from the hurricane at the marina, especially in the wet slips, and that if we could move our boats from the wet slips, that was being advised, and that the marina was officially closing that evening by 6 P.M., electric was being turned off, and that access to the marina would be denied on the causeway leading to it by 6 A.M. the next morning, Friday the 8th, four days before Irma was due to arrive, if at all!<br />
Phone tag started. We had to contact Brooke at Clearwater Harbor Marina to see what the status was of the slip we were to occupy, thinking we were going to anchor out until we could get into it. He said the slip was open, and it was ours if we wanted to come early.<br />
Then I called Tim Ayers and he also had learned of the news, and he was told to come early too, and he also heard that the city of Clearwater was going to deny access to the marina after Friday morning. I also wanted to make sure he was going to move their boat to Clearwater Harbor, because I was actually having thoughts of taking Swing Set to the "armpit of Florida" and into Steinhatchee, as the path of Irma wasn't predicted to go there.<br />
No, he still intended to meet us there, and again, it turned out to be fortunate that we didn't decide to head to Steinhatchee.<br />
It turns out that the denied access in Clearwater was only to the beach marina, not the mainland marina, but we didn't know that. We grabbed our things and made the drive to Marker 1 Marina and got there around 5 P.M. on Thursday afternoon. On the way over, our friends Brett and Christine Thompson had called and offered any assistance we may need, and at first thinking I was going to have to take the boat alone down to Clearwater, and Rosie would meet me there with the car, they agreed to come to the boat and then take our car to Clearwater, about five miles away, but this was a BIG help.<br />
When we got to Marker 1, I saw Kyle and he said "Hi, how's it going?" and I answered, "You're kidding, right?" but with a smile of course.<br />
I made quick work of stripping the canvas enclosure for the flybridge, stowing the window panels just below our windshield in the salon. We used a ton of beach towels to place between each panel to protect the Stratoglass windows.<br />
The zippers were really hard to operate and I was kicking myself for reneging on the promise to myself to keep them lubricated after installing the top three years ago. Even though the zippers are plastic, had it not been for the panels having zippers pulls on both sides, inside and outside of each panel, I may have broken a few zippers in removing them. As it was, everything came off intact. Brett showed up just in time to help remove the bimini top and also to help me remove the propellers from both wind generators.<br />
Brett and Christine took the car and we took the boat and got down to Clearwater before 7 P.M., and had it secure in the slip by the time Tim and Christie showed up with their 40 foot Mainship. We helped them in, got them tied up, and Tim and I lashed the two boats together.<br />
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I took this the following morning because when we got done the night before it was way past dark. I didn't show Tim's boat. Let him publish his own blog. Hahahaha.<br />
We sat out with Tim and Christie and toasted our success with a couple of beers before the rain started. We were all beat and had no trouble turning in by 10 o'clock. At 3 A.M. I woke up realizing that we had left our cargo bicycle at Marker 1 Marina, also remembering that we were told that we would be unable to access Marker 1 Marina after 6 A.M.! I laid awake trying to decide whether or not we should go get the bike. It was locked to a post under the main building, but I was also certain that even though the bike wasn't going anywhere, surge would inundate the bike and the saltwater would ruin it. We had a considerable amount of money invested in that bike and the custom cover for it, so I really wanted to go get it.<br />
Rosie stirred and sensed that I was awake. She sensed that when she heard me muttering to myself. "What's the matter?", she said.<br />
"We have to go get the damn bike. I forgot we left it at Marker 1."<br />
We stuffed Holly in her carrier and drove up to Marker 1. No one was around and it was pitch black. I felt my way to the bike and unlocked it in the dark and rolled it out to our car where Rosie was waiting. I had no allusions about trying to fit this two person bike into our little Ford Escape, so I told Rosie to meet me at the filling station up the street so I could put air in the tires. The bike hadn't been ridden since we moved to Dunedin 20 months ago, although I had kept the tires inflated. Well, to a degree.<br />
Once I had some success at filling the tires, I told Rosie to meet me at Brett and Christine's condo in Dunedin, and I pedaled the five miles to their place in the dark, the chain squeaking all the way. By the time I got there I thought I was gonna die. It was too early to wake them, so I locked the bike behind their garage and we went to eat breakfast. By 6 A.M. we texted them and asked if we could keep our bike in their garage until after the storm and they said we could. On the way over there I told Rosie that I was going to make our friends an offer that they couldn't refuse.<br />
We got to Brett and Christine's just as they were staggering out of bed, probably not too happy about being up so early, but I suggested to them that the two person cargo bike would be a great addition to their garage full of toys and they could keep it indefinitely if they would agree to let us use it when or if we even took Swing Set on an extended trip. We think that's a pretty good deal and hope they do too. We headed back to Clearwater.<br />
We tied up some loose ends on the boat, and on our way out we stopped into the Harbormaster's office to talk to Brooke. We had discussed our dissatisfaction with ourselves about the fact that Marker 1 Marina was not really able to satisfy our needs as a harbor for Swing Set. The pilings and docks are too short for a high tide, much less a hurricane. We asked Brooke about the possibility of getting the slip we were in permanently and he told us that it was ours if we wanted it, but to make our decision after the storm passed. There was always the possibility of not having a boat left to put anywhere. How true.<br />
We went back to the boat to defrost the refrigerator, now knowing that the electric was going to be turned off late on Sunday night. That made more sense than doing it on Thursday, three days prior.<br />
We had groceries to get home to the refrigerator, not knowing if the electric there would stay on past Sunday night, but one thing at a time. As we drove past the causeway to Marker 1 Marina, I was a little miffed that Causeway Blvd. was not closed off like we were led to believe it would be.<br />
Swing Set was as secure as we could make it, and everything at home was secure too, so we spent the afternoon at the pool and then engaged ourselves at a hurricane party with some neighbors into the evening on Saturday, not knowing how bad this forecasted category 5 hurricane was going to be. We tried our best to empty our neighbor's keg of Budweiser before the hurricane knocked out the electric for the cooling, but we failed.<br />
Sunday we spent watching Irma make her appearance and believe it or not, I learned something I didn't know before. Of course, living in Missouri, we hadn't much experience with hurricanes, but blog readers might remember how we holed up at Bobby's Fish Camp on the Tombigbee Waterway on our way down here in 2012. We were warned about "storm surged" and was advised to stay put there until the threat had passed.<br />
Watching the news on Sunday, I learned that the term "storm surge" should actually be called "storm <i>retraction</i> and surge" because the strength of an approaching hurricane sucks the water from the ocean and the bays, leaving the shallows around them in a field of sand or mud. Had we left Swing Set at Marker 1 Marina, she would have been setting on the ground. Water under the boat at low tide only leaves about a foot of water beneath it.<br />
I mentioned our fortuitous decision to not head for Steinhatchee, and the predicted path of Irma was not heading directly for the armpit of Florida. I did fail to mention that my desire to take Swing Set to the hook was tempered by the fact that our dinghy motor is still waiting for a new carburetor. I don't like being on the hook without a way to get to shore.<br />
I'll not rehash our Irma experience here at home. I'll just say that we had our "safe place" inside the condo. I inflated a double size airbed and wedged it over our heads in a landing of our stairway. We lined the floor with camping pads and sleeping bags, had our "go bag" with essential items nearby, and battery powered lamps and flashlights handy. Holly was on her leash and close by our sides the whole time, and we even had our motorcycle helmets at the ready. Neither one of us can take a chance on further brain damage.<br />
By the time Irma reached us, she was tired out, sort of like trying to find new love at an old age, but it appears we can survive a Cat One hurricane here at home with no trouble at all. I think half the state of Florida lost electrical power except us, and here I was looking forward to eating bacon all day so it wouldn't go bad. That, and drink the rest of the neighbors Bud.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-91021881957603491172017-08-06T03:10:00.000-07:002017-08-06T03:10:51.308-07:00The Care and Feeding of THE BOAT Let me start by stating the obvious, that it's been nearly a year since my last post, which was number 300 since I started this blog. If this was to be my last post, I like the sound of number 301, and there's a lot to tell about.<br />
Touching on some of the mechanical issues mentioned in my last post seems to make the most sense, so that's where I'll start, but wandering through the timeline is a promise.<br />
We did wind up replacing our dedicated generator battery last August, and then the four house batteries in September of last year. The six inverter batteries are hanging in there, mainly because they "cut out" automatically when the voltage drops to a set level, something the house batteries don't do. We don't get the performance out of them like we would do fresh ones, but they have enough life in them to allow the inverter to do it's job, which is make AC current without the generator running. Having that capability is nice when we are running, as the fridge is running on AC, and we can cook too, using the crock pot, coffee pot or microwave oven. The inverter bank will be replaced before winter if it gets into the budget.<br />
I mentioned de-scaling the engines last summer, but somehow I think I've hit on the reason those 3116 Cats have been so easy to overheat, and that's because I neglected the air cleaners as being a culprit in my ongoing mystery of keeping the mains running cool. I cleaned the K&N air filters last summer, using OxyClean in a bucket filled partially with club soda. I let 'em soak until the grease rose to the top of the bucket, brought to the surface with the carbonation in the club soda. A liter is less than a buck in most stores, and you only need enough to cover the filters in a five gallon bucket. The filter elements come pearly white, get rinsed with fresh water, air dried, and then coated with filter oil. A year later the mains have not exceeded 195 degrees on any outing. That's a winner, folks, even with the heat and high ocean temperatures we are having.<br />
Another small habit that I've adhered to, and this is going to sound silly, is to run the blowers whenever we're running at cruise. Now, you folks with gas motors should already know how important it is to run blowers with gas engines, but us diesel motor owners get lax in that department, at least I did, because the explosion hazard is all but eliminated with diesels, so one starts to neglect those blower motors. No more.<br />
Recently, I had forgotten to turn on those blower motors when we raised the hook at a Tampa Bay anchorage and headed for home. The starboard engine started running a bit hot which hadn't been happening since I cleaned the air filters. It was a very hot, and humid day, and I'd remembered something Celeste at Key West Engines told me a couple of years ago. She said that even though the water temperature plays a part in engine temperature during the warm months, the ambient air temperature was just as important, if not more important. Somehow I had forgotten that little morsel of information.<br />
I flipped on the blowers, but apparently the engine room temperature was already too great for my two 4 inch blowers to overcome. What we did was stop the motors, set on the hook with a cold beer or two with the cockpit hatch open and the blowers on. When we took off again, both engines ran at their prescribed 195 degrees all the way home. Wee wee wee!<br />
Over last winter the air horns on Swing Set started sounding like a sick duck. The compressor is mounted along with the horns up at the bow in the anchor locker, not an easy place to get to, but I could reach in with one arm and remove the compressor. It was corroded but still spun when hooked up to 12 volts, but it wasn't spinning enough to get the amount of air through the horns for them to emit enough volume to chase a seagull off the bow railing, much less announce a "slow pass", or "get on your side of the channel" to other boaters on our behalf.<br />
After messing around ordering and trying a couple of aftermarket compressors from our favorite mail order place, I took a different tack and mounted electric horns on the flybridge on the starboard side of the bridge. They're loud, they were cheap, (even stainless), and wiring them was a snap. WoLo is the brand. (I had also had a cheap moment and bought an electric "car horn", but realized how lame that was. I wound up mounting it on our golf cart.)<br />
While I was in the mood to replace stuff that didn't work, our remote spotlight was next in my sights. The original equipment is an aluminum housed monstrosity that had stopped rotating years ago, and recently the light wouldn't even go on. The aluminum housing had been scraped and painted at least once, and the possibility of doing that again with a dead spotlight was, well, remote. A new one like the old one is $1200!<br />
Amazon came to the rescue in the form of a plastic housed Jabsco unit for less than $200. The base of the unit just fit on the little raised portion of the flybridge where the original one sat. If it hadn't, I was prepared to make a base from Starboard, but I didn't have to. The hardest thing was cutting out a hole in the dash to mount the toggle to control the light, but using care that I normally do in those sticky situations, I was able to replace the touch pad for the original light (no toggle, just buttons. Hated it.) even though it is much smaller. I used quick disconnects on the seven wires coming from the light to the controller so when it comes to replacing it in a few years, it'll be a "plug and play" operation. No, the light put out by the Jabsco is not as bright as the original, but I can count on one hand as to how many times I used the old spot, but they come standard on many brands. We also carry a hand-held unit.<br />
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In this picture you can see where I mounted the electric horns, as well as the spotlight. You won't notice that the sunshade is new too, but it is.<br />
When we replaced the bimini back in Key West, a new screen was ordered from Boatswain's Locker, but marrying it to the side curtains posed a problem, and we "made do" until a better solution was found, and that came in the form of Chuck Henry of Suncoast Marine Canvas based in Palm Harbor, Fl.<br />
I had gotten two bids for a new wrap around sunshade from a couple of vendors recommended from some other boat owners at the marina, but then I called Chuck and he came by within a couple of days to give me a bid, which we did in another couple of days. He beat the other two bids by hundreds of dollars, and he had the job done in the promised time. He pulls a trailer and does the work on site, and he is meticulous. He was a pleasure to work with for sure. The screen is now all one piece and it tucks nicely up under the overhang of the forepeak, hiding those unsightly black streaks that appear after rain rolls off of that part of the boat.<br />
This was last spring, and about the same time our attention was directed again to the SeaDek that covered our steps in the cockpit. Two of the pads began "melting" within days of installation, (after much tribulations dealing with SeaDek and the vendor) and since we were on a roll with improvements to Swing Set, Rosie found a vendor in the area who installed PlasDeck, a faux teak product that we've been considering for years. We called them.<br />
Jonathan Bigalow was the "them", a one man show who does marine flooring in the Tampa/St.Pete area, helming a company named Underway Custom Marine Flooring. In March of this year, Jonathan came to Marker 1 Marina with some ideas and some samples, and we arrived at a plan to improve the looks of Swing Set, outside and inside.<br />
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The PlasDeck is installed on the steps into the cockpit and leading to the flybridge in this photo. The product is a dense plastic composite that is installed in strips, glued down with 3M 5200, and the "caulking" is molded into the strips at the appropriate intervals. The trim is applied and gaps are caulked with the 3M 5200, and everything is sanded with a belt sander. It looks and feels like real wood and we don't expect any "melting" issues.</div>
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Look here, we had Jonathan install the PlasDeck on the swim platform! There were a couple of reasons for pulling the trigger and springing for the $1600 to cover this area, one was because the seagulls were habitually leaving us presents. Marine bird poop is like concrete, and removing it every weekend was getting tedious, not only that, but the hardware on the platform was continually rusting. We removed the offending hardware and installed a new handrail for the swim ladder. Any bird poop now cleans right off, usually with just a hose, and we think it looks nifty as hell.<br />
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While we were at it, we had Jonathan install new carpet in the salon. We helped some by first removing the carpet wrapped trim around the parameter and replacing it with oak trim matching the rest of the interior. We did the dinette area too, and seams were put in to allow me to roll up just the center section of the carpet to allow the opening of the salon hatches to the engine compartment.<br />
One item that was time consuming was covering some holes in the salon deck that were made at the factory for the hi-lo table that we immediately removed as it took up too much room in our small salon. Originally, I took a piece of 1/4" aluminum plating and just bolted it over the section where the two 5" holes where that housed the bases for the table. That left a "bump", and I dealt with that by cutting a section of the carpet pad out where the aluminum plate was, and that quick fix served us well for over seven years but was a pain in the butt when it came time to install the carpet after rolling it up to access the engine room hatches. Since we were getting some nice new carpet, and we took the time to replace the nasty carpeted trim with stained oak, I wanted to do a proper job of filling in those two holes from the hi-lo table.<br />
The holes were located in the port engine hatch which has a thick foam and rubber insulating material on the underside of it. I had planned to bolt the same aluminum plate I already had to the underside of the hatch, so I cut out a section of the insulation on the underside to match the size of the plate. That's when I found that the fiberglass comprising the underside of both hatches has some structural "tunnels" and one was right where I wanted the plate to be. I used my Dremel tool to cut out part of one "tunnel" to allow the aluminum plate to be bolted flush against the bottom side of the hatch. The hatch itself is constructed of two layers of fiberglass sandwiching a closed cell foam core, making the hatch itself exactly one inch thick. I used a five inch hole saw to cut two disks from 1/2" thick starboard for each hole, and cemented them into each hole after through bolting the plate to the hatch. I finished off the topside by caulking the tops of the counter-sunk bolt heads, along with the gap around the starboard disks inset into the hatch. The result was a flat floor which is stronger or as strong as the original. Jonathan was impressed.<br />
Jonathan wasn't as timely in completing the work as we had first discussed, and we had to cancel some possible out of town plans, but eventually, with some diplomatic efforts on my part, we were able to get the job done by the end of June. We like Jonathan and hope to have him do some additional work at a later date, so I was careful not to upset his apparent fragile sensitivities.<br />
In the course of the last year, we've been busy just enjoying the barrier islands and beaches in the area. Some friends from our boating days up on the Alton Pool of the Mississippi moved down here and we've been seeing them when we can, along with some visitors from "up north" who were nice enough to come visit us in the last year.<br />
But mechanical issues still regularly rear their ugly heads, along with some additional improvements to some components.<br />
Along the way, the anchor windlass motor quit working. I called Good Windlass and ordered a new motor after discussing the problem and some possible other reasons for the fault with Tom Ring at the company there. After trying some fixes prescribed by him, we went ahead with getting a new motor shipped to us. The new motor came in record time, and I realized that I should have told Tom to ship the new motor at standard rates, there was no need to overnight the new motor to us. As it was, the new motor came and I immediately saw it was the wrong one. Had I been able to install it, it wouldn't have worked, but a call to the company quickly put things right. Our motor was sent to another guy somewhere, and his was sent to us. I don't know if he tried to install the wrong motor in his boat. When we got the right motor, we sent our defective one back to Good Windlass to be rebuilt by them and they sent it back. Now we have a spare, and will probably never need it.<br />
We also replaced the covers on the windlass switches on the foredeck. The original equipment is two plastic switch covers that had already been replaced years ago. They were painted before installing to prevent the U.V. damage that attacks most plastics, but they were also painted again at least once. I found some really nice stainless steel covers online and debated whether to spring for them, but eventually did and was happy with the exact fit and finish they provided.<br />
The windlass rollers on the bow pulpit were in need of replacing too, as the original black plastic rollers were cracking badly and I was waiting for the day that they would break outright. I called my "go to" Sea Ray parts guy at Marine Max at Lake of the Ozarks, Morgan. He contacted Sea Ray directly and inquired on our behalf about getting some new rollers, as they were not to be found anywhere in the size we needed from anywhere we normally find hard to find items.<br />
After about two months of waiting to hear back from Sea Ray, I called Morgan and pulled the plug on the search, not wanting to waste any more of his time. I'm certain he was relieved. I went to a Marine Salvage yard here in St. Petersburg, Don's Marine Salvage, recommended to us by the local Marine Max dealer in Clearwater. Don's had no salvaged rollers, but did have some nice sturdy nylon rollers that I had seen online for half the money, but they were too wide to fit our pulpit. I bought the cheaper rollers online and cut them down, 1/16" on each side with my circular saw, and then sanded them down to an exact fit with my orbital sander. It was time consuming, but now we have new rollers in white that look "mahvelous dahling".<br />
Speaking of anchors...blog readers may remember when, back in 2012, I "lost" our bow anchor while in Cape Coral, having run over my own anchor line while deploying our hook on the Caloosahatchee River one afternoon. Well, I did it again. I plead "guilty with an explanation", your Honor.<br />
We were anchored off the beach at Three Rookers Bar one afternoon, and since I have learned to greatly respect the tidal swings here along the Florida coast, we have avoided backing into the beach with Swing Set, like all the other boaters do, instead, just using our dinghy to mingle with the multitude of "sand boaters". That particular afternoon, having apparently lost my mind, having already had our hook in close proximity to the beach, I backed us around with the stern toward the shallower water and, after backing as far as I safely could, dropped one of our Danforth anchors off the swim platform, and then tightened the bow line to bring us back out to safer, deeper, water, albeit closer to the "action" on the beach which was lined up like sardines with various vessels. Mistake.<br />
In the course of the afternoon, having consumed our share of barley pops, a nap seemed to be in order. Wind was out of the southwest, blowing toward the beach at a modest rate, but we were hooked in solidly and we were only looking for a short respite, maybe 30 minutes at most. Adhering to the adage we learned from an old friend a while back, "a nap is on top of the covers, <i>under</i> the covers is outright goin' to bed!", we laid down on top of the covers for a quick battery charge.<br />
I woke to the bow slapping against some waves, and they weren't from a passing Jet Ski. I looked outside and found a gray threatening sky, and NO other boats on the beach. Everyone else had wisely vacated the area due to an approaching storm. In retrospect, I should have stayed put with our bow anchor entrenched into the sea bottom, holding us safely off of the beach, and since most storms don't last long in these cases, we probably could have ridden it out. But, no.<br />
Rosie and I worked together to get the stern anchor retrieved, which again, I should have tied a buoy to and cut loose. But, no. We had great difficulty retrieving the stern anchor as the wind was strong on our bow and we were in danger of grounding when we got right over the anchor in order to pull it straight up as the tide had receded. I was maneuvering the boat without much success, given the wind and was about to punt when Rosie yelled that she had the anchor up and on the swim platform. The shaft on the anchor was bent at a 90 degree angle at the flukes. That 18 pound anchor was ruined.<br />
Our next focus was getting the bow anchor up, and the wind had increased to a great extent. The inline fuse on the windlass kept kicking out due to the stress put on the system given the wind and my desire to keep us off the beach. As it was, I couldn't overcome the wind and was dangerously close to grounding us. At one point I was able to spin us around, not a good thing to do with waves pounding the stern, but I appeared to have gotten the bow anchor lifted off the bottom. The windlass was winding up with no problem and soon the line was completely on deck and into the anchor locker, however, our chain and anchor was still on the bottom. I had run over the anchor line and sliced it into with the port prop, and at that point didn't know that several feet of 9/19" anchor line was wrapped around the port prop. But we were free and we headed to the barn.<br />
On the way home the sky cleared up, and having attempted to get on plane, I could feel vibration and I was able to isolate it to the port side and I did suspect I had line wrapped around something. Once back in our slip, my mind raced with the various solutions to our problem of having lost our expensive bow anchor. But first Rosie noticed that the stern bilge pump was on. I expected to see a hole in the hull when I opened the cockpit hatch to inspect for damage, but all I found was the pump running with no water coming in. I tried to get the pump to stop by tapping the float switch and then disconnecting it entirely, but was unable to do so. I wound up switching the pump off at the cockpit fuse panel, with plans to attack that issue later. We went to bed eventually and I could think of little else but how to get our bow anchor back.<br />
At the crack of dawn, I was up and rigging up the Hookah Max after a quick dive under the boat to ascertain my suspicion that there was line wrapped around our port side running gear. With my air supply in place, I was able to quickly get the line off the prop and prepared to go back to the beach and get our anchor.<br />
I was going to just use the dinghy to head up to Three Rookers, but the sky was overcast and the wind was a bit brisk for the ride, plus I realized that if we even found the anchor, it was sure to be stuck deep into the sand and I'd need the horsepower of Swing Set to break it free. One thing we do when setting a hook is to put a "floaty" on our ground tackle at the juncture of the rope and chain, to keep the splice from chaffing on the bottom. I was counting on locating the float, but wasn't sure about how high it would be floating with 25 feet of chain pulling it down.<br />
Using the track of our movements on the previous day, I was able to make a good guess as to where the anchor was, and in spite of the gray sky, was able to see our anchor float bobbing just about a foot under the surface. Rosie grabbed the boat hook and made a valiant attempt to snare the float and chain.<br />
Now, I don't think it would be cruel to guess that Rosie may have trouble snagging a plastic duck from the duck pond attraction at the local school carnival, but it's a reality folks. She was able to finally grab the stainless rigging running from the float to the anchor line, but the harness broke and she only came up with the float, leaving the anchor and chain in about 9 feet of water. I "ain't as young as I used to be", so free diving in even nine feet of water could pose a serious problem for me, but the Hookah Max is the great equalizer, but even better is the "man overboard" button on our GPS, and I hit it as soon as the harness on the float broke.<br />
We stuck Swing Set in place with our 22 pound Danforth that is also kept on deck at the bow, (Yes, that's THREE anchors we have at our disposal.) and I deployed the dinghy to go look for our ground tackle. I took my portable Garmin with me from the helm, the one I had hit the man overboard button on, and was able to approximate the location, dropped the small Danforth housed in the dinghy anchor locker and started a free dive search for the anchor line. After about ten tries, my foot felt rope and I snatched up what was left of our anchor line and triumphantly waved it over my head to show Rosie that success was in my grasp. Our 45 pound bow anchor had other ideas.<br />
Nearly 24 hours of shifting sand and pounding waves had all but completely buried what was already a heaving anchor, and I only had the small unstable dinghy to use as a base to pull up all that weight. Right there I should have tied another float to what I had in hand and went to get the big hardware in the form of a 40 foot boat to drag up our anchor, but I was on a mission and wasn't wanting to risk another "entanglement" with our anchor line and running gear. I used the power of the waves at my disposal, tying the line as tight as I could to the handles on the dinghy, and eventually the bouncing of me and the dinghy pulled the anchor from the deep sand.<br />
We gathered up our assorted belongings, having only lost about 25 feet of anchor line in the process, plus our 18 pound Danforth anchor. In the course of the next couple of weeks, finding another 18 pound anchor that fit exactly in the bow anchor chocks proved to be the hardest puzzle to solve, even with a visit back to Dan's Marine Salvage. He must have a thousand used anchors there, none of them being the right size. I finally found one at the right price from Walmart. I hate shopping at Walmart, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.<br />
I got new anchor line from Miami Cordage, saving over $100 dollars from just about anyone else locally or online. We could have used the old line, but it was now five years old and taking a chance with anchor line is foolish enough. I make enough mistakes by accident without making them on purpose, so we sprung for new line. Finding a rigger to splice the line to our chain was harder to do.<br />
Now, I can splice a three strand line, and our 22 pound Danforth has such a splice, but this splice has got to get through the windlass gypsy, and my splices wind up being about the size of a baseball. I found a rigger in St. Pete who was willing to do the trick for $25, but even though he admitted it was about a 30 minute job, we had to drop it off on a Friday and pick it up the next day, as per his explicit instructions. That's about an hour drive each way from our marina. Do the math, four hours of driving to get a $25 splice done. but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.<br />
With the expense of the 18 pound Danforth and new 9/16" line and having it spliced, my mistake of anchoring near the beach cost us around $250. Ask me if we'll do <i>that </i>again.<br />
The upside of all that calamity was my decision to make our 22 pound Danforth easier to deploy. For years I've had it mounted on the bow rail on a hangar, leaving the shaft sticking up about six inches from the top of the rail. I always thought it was tacky, but readily available trumps tacky when it comes to anchors, but having the time to reflect on the issue some, I arrived at a better solution. I obtained a 90 degree bow rail stanchion and mounted it on the deck, just forward of our fender holders, then I used one half of the hangar I had been using, mounting it sideways on the bow rail. This setup allowed me to insert the anchor rod into the stanchion, and hook the other end of the rod into the hangar. The shaft and flukes of the anchor are lashed to the horizontal bar on the bow rail along with the 200 feet of line. I should post a picture, but don't have one at this writing, but it's a neat application and I wish I would have thought of it years ago, but didn't place the issue high on my priority list.<br />
What else?<br />
On one of our outings with some friends, the port engine started running poorly. I suspected a fuel issue, which was what it turned out to be, but I wasn't a clogged Racor filter like I first thought, but the secondary filter at the port engine was leaking at the seal rather profusely, to put it mildly. I tightened the filter and we got home with no issue. Once safely in our slip, I used a wrench to really tighten that screw on filter and that was a mistake. If a mistake is available, I keep making them.<br />
The next time we left the dock, we weren't even out to the channel and the port engine quick after giving up a couple of short complaints. Down below I went to find not only the port side secondly filter leaking, it was laying in the forward bilge, having divested itself from the confines of the port engine filter mount. I reinstalled it and away we went, but I wasn't done with it yet. The rubber seal on the filter was apparently all twisted up and it took a new filter to fix the problem. Good thing I keep spares onboard. One of them was installed before the next hiccup and that one then was awarded a substitute when one was needed. The fuel was pumped from the bilge with my vacuum pump and we were back to square one.<br />
Hey, what happened to the stern bilge pump issue, you may ask? After obtaining a new float switch, a new pump, and rewiring it, taking several hours over a couple of weekends, I got it to work, but I didn't have it wired the way it was supposed to be. Instead of having the switch breaking the ground wire, the only way I could get it to go off was by splicing into the hot wire. I knew it wasn't right, but it was the only way I could get it to work. The whole time I was working on that, we never went up to the instrument panel to see what was what. I was somewhat around of myself for "fixing" the pump without using the new switch or pump, when Rosie remarked, from the helm, that "hey, this light is on for the bilge pump on the test panel". The dim light began to flicker in the remote corners of my brainpan, and then it came on with full intensity. In the ensuing drama of our anchor retrieval weeks ago, I had apparently hit the "on" button for our stern bilge pump. The switch has an "auto", "off", and "on" position, and it had been years since I had to turn that switch to the "on" position and I had forgotten it even had one. Better late than never, I'd say. I wired the float switch back on the ground side. Hours of work could have been avoided by just stepping back and using my head. Boy, do I wish I had all those times back when <i>that </i>happened!<br />
On my last post I mentioned the fact that the aluminum motor mounts on the dinghy motor were dissolving. I finally got around to doing something about it, I guess I was having too much fun with everything else to give it much thought, but during a slack moment I tackled the issue.<br />
I wrapped a fabricated harness made from a dock line around the engine and lifted it off the dinghy with the winch on the dinghy davit. I cut new mounts from starboard, using a template made from both aluminum engine mounts, each barely intact after removing them.<br />
In no time at all, the Mercury was back on the new motor mounts, bolted snugly in place with some long winded bolts. I would defy anyone to steal our dingy motor in any quick order. In the midst of my celebration, (all completed tasks on a boat made by oneself, should always be accompanied by a thorough celebration) I noticed that a hose clamp on our inline fuel filter going from our outboard gas tank to the engine was missing. We can't have that can we?<br />
The filter was put in place while we were in The Bahamas, back in 2013. Having made the trip back to the U.S. and joining us faithfully during our exploits in the Florida Keys, our dinghy motor filter was firmly in place, hose clamp or not, so when I went to loosen the hose from the one end of the plastic filter, the nipple on the filter end just broke off completely. And there you have the beginnings of my next calamity of events.<br />
It was late in the day, but I was "lucky" to find someone to sell me an overpriced fuel filter from the parts department at our marina. I installed it properly and our Mercury started up with no issue, but in the weeks to come, each starting process seemed to get harder and harder. At least that's how it seems to me in reflecting on it.<br />
One weekend we made the trip down to a favorite island at the mouth of Tampa Bay. It's easily a 40 mile trip one way to Passage Key, but it's a pleasant ride on the inside, or the outside, as it were, and we found ourselves on the hook by three in the afternoon one Friday. Swing Set needs to be anchored quite a bit off the beach down there at Passage Key due to the shallows surrounding it, so I dropped the dinghy and cranked up the Merc to warm up. As the motor was warming, happily it seemed, it came to a sputtering stop, sounding like it had run out of fuel. I know the sound, trust me.<br />
I must have pulled on that starting rope a hundred times trying to start that engine again. Bulb on the fuel line was hard, kill switch was on, nothing seemed to be preventing our trusty Mercury from starting, but both of my arms gave out, and the waves made from passing boaters and tankers entering Tampa Bay were not adding to my "consternation".<br />
"Let's go", I said. "We're heading home. No sense being here with no way to get to the beach, and these waves are really pissing me off." Earlier I mentioned a time this year when I attempted to run our engines at cruise without flipping on the blower motors in the engine room. This was that time, by the way.<br />
In the past, certainly during my tenure at the beer factory, I've been able to solve problems, and I'm also a believer in coincidental occurrences being the reason for something not working. I've seen it happen that more than the failure of one component can happen at the same time, or nearly at the same time. In the course of the following weeks, I devoted at least the first several hours of our boating weekends looking into the problem of the Mercury not starting. First, I thought, "What did I do different that has made a normally reliable engine start giving me problems?" Sure, I'd replaced that fuel filter. Maybe the filter I installed was the wrong one, the microns being too tight and the element quickly clogged up. In fact, the filter was found to be an "under cowling" filter, not suited for the crap that comes straight from a grungy outboard motor tank. Before deciding to go purchase a "regular" inline fuel filter, I was messing with the lanyard kill switch on the motor handle and the red toggle came off in my hand. At this point is where my notion of coincidental issues being the reason for the motor not starting.<br />
I tried to bypass the kill switch to no success. I verified that I was getting no spark, so I ordered a new harness and also picked up a new inline fuel filter. The new harness gave me my spark back, but I had blockage in the fuel line, and while I was at it, I checked the fuel in the tank and yes, it had water in it.<br />
I put the offending fuel in a suitable container and went and bought a new fuel line, which was the new kind without the plastic liner that keeps the hose from disintegrating from the ethanol in the fuel. New line is also ethanol resistant, but doesn't have the liner that is susceptible to collapsing. I ascertained that I was getting fuel to the carburetor bowl, had spark, but nearly tore a rotator cup on my arm trying to get the engine to fire, but an application of starting fluid enabled the engine to fire right up immediately. I had carburetor problems for sure.<br />
I hadn't worked on a carburetor for years, not since my motorcycle riding days way back when, and I'd say I was "rusty", so I called a young guy at our marina that is trying to start a business doing mechanical and detailing work. I talked to his "mechanic" who suggested a replacement of the whole carburetor, as his charge of $100 per hour would soon exceed the cost of new carb if he had to rebuild it. I had to chew on that for a bit.<br />
I know that the littlest bit of anything can clog the jets in a small carburetor, so I figure it's just a matter of looking into the carb before ordering a $400 carb and paying someone to install it on my dime. So that's where I am now and I have more time than money.<br />
I ordered a service manual for our Mercury outboard, I viewed a few U-Tube videos addressing the servicing and adjusting a Mercury carburetor such as ours, and I've spent a couple of bucks buying some tools in order to do the job myself. I'll be way ahead if I can clean the carb myself and get the Mercury started.<br />
On my next post, I'll let you know if I was successful, but in the meantime, you might be able to hear my cheering in the next few days from where you sit.<br />
So that's a lot of stuff, right? In the course of a year it adds up, and if there's one thing I've learned, we need to always be prepared for something to go wrong each and every time we take the boat out. It happens even with new ones, we see it every weekend, and some of the new boats leave the factory with absolutely no way for the typical owner to do any work on them. We met someone just a couple of weeks ago with a new Regal pocket cruiser that had a generator mounted so far in an out of the way place, removing it was the only way to do the 100 hour servicing.<br />
At any rate, when these things happen, naturally I'm not happy. But I don't panic. Never panic. We both are of the mind that if it only takes money to solve a problem, it ain't a problem.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-77151037948479620722016-08-23T07:20:00.001-07:002016-08-23T07:28:51.114-07:00Long Hot Summer We can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. I didn't realize how long it's been between posts so here's a little of what's been going on with Swing Set.<br />
First, Holly has mended up nicely, having had her last visit with the surgeon for a final check up. She got a big thumbs up from him and now we'll see him again after the first of the year to probably schedule surgery on her other knee to avoid problems when she gets older. We hate to put her through another surgery, but she has mended up so well and seems so much happier now that we think the responsible thing to do is bite the bullet and get it past us and, more importantly, her.<br />
I've been really busy with maintenance on Swing Set this summer! With the water temperature heating up to about 90 degrees, a rise in operating temperature became evident. Engine blocks in salt water need to be descaled annually, and when I checked, it had been a year since I last descaled when we were in Marathon, so even though we flush the engines each time before we leave the boat, a rise in operating temperature on the port engine specifically made it obvious it was time to get to work.<br />
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One good thing about the design of our Sea Ray is that if more than minor engine room checks are necessary, we can pull up the salon carpet and open the hatches for stand up access to the main engines. In hot weather like we have here in Florida, I can crank up the air conditioning and work in relative comfort.<br />
If you've been reading this blog all along, you'll know that each time I descale the engines, I find a way to improve the process and this time was no different. Again, I removed all the pencil zincs from the block and installed plugs so that the acid works on the scale and not on the zincs. I routed the hose from my circulating pump for the acid into a three way valve so that I could rinse with fresh water by simply turning valves instead of disconnecting hoses filled with acid, making the job a whole lot cleaner. I circulated acid in each block for about 90 minutes, and then made use of the acid before discarding it by circulating it through our A/C systems.<br />
To circulate through the air conditioners, I used the hose I have in place in the engine room to flush the A/C with fresh water before we leave for home to supply the acid. I then used an old garden hose and routed the hose on the outside of the boat via some 1/2 inch PVC pipe inserted into the through hull outlets, using an elbow and a tee fitting, and then back through the salon doors into the cooler I use to hold my acid bath. (It took me a minute to remember to close the sea water inlet first.) This way I didn't have to route return hoses through the interior of the boat and I avoided a potential acid spill. Worked like a champ.<br />
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It seems like the whole United States has had its share of rain this summer and the Tampa area has been no exception. This shot is from our slip at Maker 1 Marina as a summer squall moved in on day while I was working on another malfunction.<br />
I had noticed the water in the sink not draining properly one day, and was thinking it was a clogged "P" trap, but a subsequent shower revealed water in the shower pan not draining either. A check of the sump box revealed that the pump was not pumping the grey water out.<br />
Now, any time there is a problem that needs to be solved, it's better when the root cause is a singular item, but when the cause is multiplied, fixing the problem becomes complicated, and a simple sump pump issue became a three week fix.<br />
I've had float switches go bad in the past, (at this time I was on the third switch in 12 years) so I honed in on the switch. I had a new one in the package, so went about installing it, but also noticed the wires were getting hot when the pump kicked on and it was tripping the circuit breaker, something that was not happening before. I removed the pump and cleaned out some gunk in the impeller, checked operation of the pump, and then reinstalled the pump, thinking I had solved that issue. I then figured that the problem was not the switch, so I reinstalled the switch that was in place because I didn't like the flimsy new switch I had bought at the Big Box Store.<br />
A system check was made and everything worked, so I buttoned up the sump lid with the 20 or so screws and wing nuts that hold it all together. (I do have a 6 inch access port in the sump lid cover, but it's only good for rinsing out the sump box occasionally.)<br />
All was good until one of us took another shower and the pump tripped the circuit breaker again. I realized that the amount of water needed for a shower caused the pump to work long enough to heat up, probably just due to age, so the next weekend I removed the pump and installed a new pump I already had onboard. Another systems check was made and I found that the old switch was not engaging until the water in the sump box got deep enough to practically fill the box, causing water to leak out the top even though there is a gasket.<br />
Jeeze. So we went home after ordering a better switch and then came back and installed the better switch, and also used some aquarium grade silicon material to seal the holes were the pump hose and wires go through the sump box. Finally everything worked, no leaks, and the switch engages the pump long before the water gets too deep in the box.<br />
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Meanwhile we've been spending weekends anchored just off of Three Rookers Bar, a small barrier island between St. Joseph's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.<br />
On one of our trips out to the island, I discovered that Swing Set would not go on plane and I determined that we weren't getting fuel to the engines. We had just recently taken on fuel, and debris in the fuel tanks had gotten "stirred up", so I suspected dirty fuel. The first reaction is to switch out the primary Racor filters and this was done, but performance didn't improve. When we got to the anchorage I switched out the secondary filters on both engines (again thankful I keep spares ready to go) and I also saw that those secondary filters had been in place for a year, so it was time to change them anyway. When we returned home the next day, Swing Set jumped on plane and ran like it was supposed to.<br />
Normally we run the boat every week or ten days, but late July and early August kept us busy with some other activities. Last weekend we decided to run down to Passage Key again for a long weekend. As soon as we got out on the Intercoastal Waterway, I applied the throttles and looked to make better time. Swing Set would not go on plane again and black smoke billowed out of the exhausts.<br />
I suspected bottom growth, and when we got to Passage Key I grabbed my snorkel gear and a quick check revealed enough barnacles on both props to render them useless in anything other than idle speed, although the hull was relatively clean. We had been avoiding getting the bottom scraped twice a month by running the boat more often, but as I've said, we didn't get out to the boat enough and it had been over three weeks since we had run it. The next morning before heading over to the island in the dinghy, I used our Hooka Max scuba system and cleaned both props with a putty knife. We're now going on a two week cleaning schedule until the water cools down. (Barnacles like warm water.)<br />
It was so hot over last weekend, we had to run the generator the whole time to keep the salon cool for Holly as it was also too hot to take her to the beach. Lucky dog. Anyhow, I knew we had enough fuel to get us home on Monday, but the trip down and the generator use got us close enough to the bottom of each tank to cause me some concern.<br />
Sure enough, the prop cleaning did the job and on our way home we were running at Swing Sets cruising speed of 25 miles per hour, but two things happened. One, the port engine began to rise in temperature while the starboard engine ran at a cool 195 degrees. I suspect a raw water impeller to be the culprit on that issue, but then the R.P.M.s on both engines began to drop off too. I then suspected that the low fuel tank volume contributed to another set of clogged filters.<br />
I decided to leave the Gulf and run inside in order to get fuel, or help, as the case may be, if more trouble developed. St. John's Pass was coming up, so we ducked in and also decided to take on fuel at St. John's Pass Marina where diesel was cheaper than at our home marina, even with our discount. We took on 200 gallons of diesel, so we had plenty of fuel left to get us home, but I like the old "better safe than sorry" motto. Still, I think we picked up debris off the bottom of our fuel tanks.<br />
On an overcast day, we cruised home at 8.5 M.P.H. until we got past the Clearwater inlet and then I applied the throttles to Swing Set again after switching out the Racor primary filters. Swing Set responded and I was again happy until the starboard engine began to drop off in R.P.M. and was acting erratically. I switched off the engine synchronizer and the starboard engine responded in a positive manner. OK, the engine sync needs to be looked at next week. There is a cable that usually goes bad on our mechanical synchronizer, and I have an extra one in the parts bin.<br />
As we were heading into port, I was making a mental list of things I needed to check/fix on our next boating "outing". Normally I don't need to write down the list, but it was getting rather lengthy. It got longer.<br />
As I began to flush the outboard on the dinghy, I noticed that the aluminum transom bracket for the motor was corroded and split in two between the engine brackets. A replacement of the engine bracket is in order. I think I'll use starboard, a half inch plastic material, so an aluminum one won't give me any more problems. This will be an ordeal as our 15 H.P. Mercury is heavy, but I'll use the dinghy davit to lift the engine off and replace the bracket. Time consuming, but simple.<br />
Next, I began to flush the generator with fresh water and it would not start. The starter made an attempt, but was clicking, indicating low battery amperage. This was puzzling because the generator had run all weekend, but when I checked the alternator belt, it was loose. I'll need to tighten the belt and also change the generator oil on our next visit. An amperage check on the battery read the proper amperage, but I need to check it while I crank the starter. I'll also do that on the next visit, more stuff on the list.<br />
I've added that I have to check the raw water impeller on the port engine, and of course it's the one that I can't get to without opening the salon hatches, so that makes the job bigger and more complicated. One good thing, my smart phone allows me to take a picture of the impeller before deciding to remove the pump to replace the impeller as it's so hard to access.<br />
It might be time to replace most of the Group 31 gel cell batteries on the boat. Two were replaced last year, but we have 11 of them. The generator battery was replaced with the four other house batteries when we were in The Bahamas in 2013, so it's three years old. The four inverter batteries are nearly four years old, so they are due to be replaced too. I may need someone with better knowledge than me to check the viability of our batteries before I spend the money to replace 11 of them. First I'll tighten the alternator belt and go from there.<br />
On our way into the marina on Monday I did mention to Rosie that I was sick of boating.<br />
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But having a boat does have its upside, and the photo attached proves it. My first mate turns 58 years old this week and many of you have indicated that I just don't post enough pictures of Rosie. Well, here you go.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-17938657118531266562016-06-06T07:31:00.000-07:002016-06-06T07:31:37.218-07:00Mini Cruise A few weeks ago we decided to take Swing Set out for a mini-cruise, not sure really where we wanted to go, but headed south on St. Joseph's Bay to see where we would wind up.<br />
The wind was up a little on the "outside", so we stayed in the Intercostal and just glided along at our slow trawler speed of 8-9 miles per hour, sight seeing again the area from Clearwater down to Tampa Bay. We hadn't been on this route since first coming through it in 2012.<br />
We crossed the mouth of Tampa Bay towards Passage Key, a small island just off the northern end of Anna Maria Island. We anchored out to watch the sunset, but as it got closer to evening I decided to pull up anchor and find another anchorage a little more out of the wind. It was at this point that our windlass quit.<br />
Recently, the rocker switch for our engine sync had been acting up, and the switch for the windlass seemed to be acting intermittently as well, so I ordered two switches from Morgan at Marine Max at Lake of the Ozarks. You might wonder why I order parts from a Sea Ray dealer way up in Missouri, but a lot of parts are that we need for a 20 year old boat are not kept in stock, they're special ordered from Sea Ray and drop shipped to wherever they're needed anyway. When I call Morgan, he knows us and has never failed to deliver.<br />
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As the sun was close to setting, I didn't want to start taking the dashboard apart to replace the rocker switch for the windlass, but I did check the circuit breakers, and I also performed other checks I thought necessary to troubleshoot. Nothing I tried worked, so we just stayed put on the hook we had set. It wasn't the ideal situation, but the forecast for wind wasn't that bad, so instead of pulling up the anchor manually and risk not getting a good hook in another location, we chose the easiest path.<br />
The wind kicked up during the night and we spent a restless night. The anchor stayed where we had put it as there is very good holding just off of Passage Key in a sand bottom. After having a nice breakfast just after daybreak, I replaced the switch for the windlass, but it still wouldn't work. I began to suspect a bad motor on the windlass, so I called Tom Ring at the Good Windlass Company. Tom as been very helpful before, and has told me in the past to never hesitate to call if we have any problems.<br />
Tom gave me some advice on how to further troubleshoot the windlass. I tried a couple of things but then called him back and told him the motor was shot. I ordered another motor and he got the wheels turning to get a new windlass motor to us ASAP.<br />
Pulling up the anchor by hand was no treat, but I was able to pull out the tension arm on the windlass and feed the line and chain back into the anchor locker and stow the anchor back on the pulpit as it is supposed to be, secured with the cable and clip for it.<br />
The wind was coming from the south so we headed out to the Gulf for the run outside back to the Clearwater Inlet. Swing Set ran along at her cruising speed of 25 miles per hour with no issue. The sky was clear and the lobster trap markers were easy to see. Unlike in the Keys, there are less of these trap markers up here along the coast. I may start eating lobster again.<br />
About an hour and a half later we were entering the Clearwater Inlet. The run outside was very close to 35 miles, just a few tenths of a mile different from the inside route that we had taken the day before.<br />
Back at the dock, we secured Swing Set in her berth and dropped the dinghy for a ride down to the Dunedin City Dock where we tied up to the dinghy dock provided free by the Municipal marina there. It's a nice touch provided by the City and much appreciated. We stayed until after dark and motored back to Marker 1 Marina. Our running lights worked perfectly, as we have kept them housed inside the neat covers we had made to keep them dry and out of the weather.<br />
The next morning we went through our regular routine of flushing the main engines on Swing Set, as well as the generator and the air conditioning system. I pulled off the old motor on the windlass with the intention of sending it back to Good Windlass for a rebuild. It's a good thing I did.<br />
The new windlass motor came on the day before we had planned to return to Dunedin and the boat. I took one look at the new motor and knew there had been a mistake. Not only was the coupler the wrong one, the information on the motor as far as operation R.P.M.s and voltage was not the same as the old motor. A call back to Tom Ring was in order.<br />
As soon as I told Tom what I was seeing, he told me to hold on while he talked to someone he had left in charge of sending us our windlass motor. He came back on the line in a couple of minutes and told me that someone else out there also had the wrong motor because the fella he left in charge sent two motors out, each to the wrong place.<br />
It's a good thing I noticed that the motor was wrong, because it would have been "troubling" to get back to the boat and not only not be able to hook up the new motor. Had the couplings been the same, the motor wouldn't have worked properly had I been able to connect it.<br />
The new motor was on the way before I was able to get the wrong one back to UPS, and Tom had sent a shipping label so I didn't have to buy that.<br />
A few days later the new motor came and we went out to the boat and in about 15 minutes I had the new motor installed. An operations check at the dock told us that the replacement was a success, and when we motored out to Three Rookers Bar for the weekend, the windlass worked perfectly. Our old motor is being diagnosed for a possible rebuild so we have a spare.<br />
On another issue, the other day I pulled off the propellers on both of our wind generators and used my Dremel tool to remove the loose paint from both wind generator bodies. I had some trouble getting the propeller hub from the shaft because the shaft is stainless steel and the prop hub is aluminum. The hub had seized onto the shaft on the starboard wind generator. I used some WD-40 to loosen up the hub and was able to pry the hub off the wind generator body without damaging either. I'll use some anti-corrosion lubricant before I install the hubs back onto the housings.<br />
As it is, when I painted the housings the other day, I left the props off and the we came home. We are currently on a Tropical Storm advisory for Colin which is heading for the west coast of Florida as I write this. We don't expect much in the way of damaging wind, but having the props off the wind generators right now is not a bad thing. When the storm passes in a couple of days we'll go back to Dunedin to check on Swing Set and install the blades back onto the wind generator bodies. I'll also put some new "tails" on each one. The tails are strips of nylon webbing I decided to install when we first installed the generators. I think they help to keep the props facing the wind. Think of how a tail on a kite works. Nobody told me to do this, but when I talked to the Air-X people a few years ago, they agreed that it was a good idea. The key here is to make the tails long enough to be effective, but not too long where they would get tangled in the blades of the wind generator. Another thing I'd like to mention here is that the propeller blades are sharp enough when they come from the factory, but they tend to get even sharper over time as they turn. A blade can cut deep while not even turning. If you get mixed up with one turning, there is little doubt in my mind that serious damage would occur. I have used a boat hook in the past to grab the back fin on the wind generators to turn them away from the wind and stop the props. Usually though, I don't do any work near the wind generators in any wind at all.<br />
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We get notes from blog readers who remark to us about Holly, so I don't mind keeping those folks informed about our little buddy. In a week, Holly is going in for surgery to repair some torn tendons in her left knee, as well as repairing one of the patella laxations that she has on both hind legs. (This means her kneecaps rotate off the front of her knees.) If this surgery goes well, we'll plan on another surgery on her right knee so that she can return to taking long walks with us and running up and down the stairs on the boat and at home. We knew this day would come at some point and it's best for her recovery to get it done while she is young. She'll have to stay overnight at the "hospital" and we're not looking forward to it. I hope she doesn't hold it against us.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-90386736827761599032016-05-02T08:45:00.000-07:002016-05-02T08:45:30.420-07:00We Needed a Holly-Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've been really busy since the last blog post, but our focus has been more on our new digs than on Swing Set. We did have a couple of issues and I'll share them here for whoever it may apply to.<br />
The first thing was that even here in sunny Florida, pollen season manifests itself by way of a film of green "dirt" that builds up on the boat surface almost daily, making each visit to the boat a minor chore because we can't stand a dirty boat. The other boat owners in our marina who aren't bothered by filth, over time, will have a harder job of getting their boats clean because with the buildup of pollen comes mold that seems to attach to the gelcoat as a permanent fixture, requiring an acid to take it off. We wax too much and don't use acid unless absolutely necessary. But pollen season it over. When we visited Swing Set yesterday, it was as clean as it was when we left last Sunday. Happy.<br />
Another thing that had us stumped was that the sea gulls, and other birds of this region, like our swim platform, but they don't like it enough to refrain from crapping on it. I don't know what these birds eat, but their droppings are like concrete. Maybe that's what is in Super Glue. At any rate, the stuff is so hard to get off, hull cleaner hardly fazes it. I resorted to using Soft Scrub with bleach, and a green pad to remove it every time we came to the boat. I needed a solution, (a legal one), but one that didn't require placing netting over the stern every time we left. What's interesting is that the bow and the upper areas of Swing Set aren't as attractive to the avian life around our marina. I owe some of that to the wind generators on the radar arch, but those are an expensive deterrent.<br />
Now, when I say a "legal" method to discourage the birds in their desire to nest on the swim platform, I will admit that I considered getting a "soft pellet" pistol to ride herd over the feathered miscreants, and even browsed through a local Bass Pro Shop looking at "firearms", until Rosie sweetly reminded me of the water blaster I bought from Amazon while we were in Marathon, that had only been used one time to thwart the pelicans from a similar dastardly deed, and now sits in the bottom of one of the lockers on the flybridge. The seals are probably too dry to make the water cannon useful at this point. As usual, Rosie's reminder that I have a knack for "over engineering" some of my solutions made me give up using an offensive approach to a sea gull deterrent. I wanted a passive approach, one that required as little energy on our part as we could get by with.<br />
We were back in Missouri recently, and a visit with a good friend, one who spends lots of time in the country, came with the answer to our problem. Rubber snakes!<br />
When we returned to our home here in Florida, we visited a nearby big box store and bought two plastic snakes, rather realistic looking, but made of a substance that would hold up in a salt water environment. We spent all of two bucks. OK, $2.14 with tax. One snake was brown in color, and we bought a black and white one too. I wasn't sure what type of snakes the local birds were opposed to, so we took a diversified approach, placing one on each end of the swim platform and attaching them to our dinghy davit with some monofilament fishing line, which I have plenty of since I've pretty much given up on fishing,<br />
On our next visit to the boat, the end of the swim platform with the brown plastic snake was devoid of all bird droppings, but the one with the black and white snake had a couple of poop pools, still far less than we had been experiencing. We made another trip to the big box store to buy a similar brown snake but they were all out of the exact model that we had so much success with, but there was another brown striped one that we thought will do the trick, so when we went to the boat yesterday, I installed the new snake, and kept the black and white one posted at the stern access door for good measure. We'll see how it goes, but my solution is fairly passive, only requiring me to scoop up the three snakes and toss them into the stern trunk when I pull our shore power cords in when we go out for a ride. The monofilament is invisible, which is the nature of it in the first place, if you didn't know.<br />
We hadn't been out for a dinghy ride to the beach since we've been in the Dunedin area, and there are lots of beaches to choose from. We like "Three Rookers Bar" just north of the causeway where Marker 1 Marina is located, about three miles or so from our slip, so we went there yesterday and set up camp on the beach as is depicted on the opening photo. I took the shot early, but by mid-afternoon, the beach all around the island was packed with boats of all kinds since the weather is finally more suited to such activities. We are looking forward to an active summer around our local boating area. I think we're going to love it.<br />
One reason for our outing was for Holly, as I hinted at in the title to this post. We've been so busy at our condo, and at the pool where we now live, that Holly has been spending too much time alone. Yesterday was all about Holly.<br />
It doesn't take too much to amuse her, all that is required is some birds and little kids to bark at and she is happy as can be, although she chases off any would be friends that might be brave enough to approach us with a "can I pet your little puppy?" request. "Bark bark bark bark", and they usually make a muttering exit. But she sleeps good after an outing like yesterday, probably thinking she has done her duty as our much needed protector.<br />
Some friends have been posting pictures from Georgetown, and Elizabeth Harbour in the Exumas. The pictures of the crystal clear water have been making me yearn to visit there again soon, especially since fuel is about 1/3 the cost of what it was when we cruised through The Bahamas in 2013. However, the expense of our new home has put some extensive cruising on the back burner for the time being. But trust me, the lure of the open sea is too great to ignore for too long.<br />
<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-31615852435662979342016-03-19T10:01:00.000-07:002016-03-19T10:01:34.054-07:00Improvements To Swing Set Come In Small Increments One thing that has been a challenge at our new marina is dealing with a larger tidal swing than we had to contend with in the Keys. People with much larger tidal swings along the eastern coast will laugh, but everything is relative. Going from a one to two foot rise and fall at the dock twice a day to one of three feet or more meant some changes in the routing of our shore power cords. These were small things, but essential at a fixed dock.<br />
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One thing we learned from experience, (and should have learned from marina management) was that during a full lunar cycle, when the tides are at their greatest, the water in St. Joseph's Bay goes over our dock, sometimes by as much as a foot, depending on the wind.<br />
Since we are docked "bow in", we had to run shore power from the pedestal at the bow to our power connections at the stern of the boat. With 50 foot power cords, this meant a connection between the two sets of 30 amp cords.<br />
I used a short piece of PVC and attached a hook to the top of it to hold the connections up from the dock. The connection will rise up as the boat rises, and keep our shore power connection from getting wet and shorting out. I also bought a shore power holder from Defender Marine that sticks into a rod holder on the stern. Now there is enough slack in the power cords to account for a tidal swing without the cords ever laying in the water.<br />
As I'm on the subject, let me emphasize the importance of avoiding the habit of many a boater of leaving power cords dangling in the drink. Sure, the cords are rubber, but rubber is porous to an extent, and power can leech through the cord and cause stray current in the water. Wonder why your hull and running gear zincs are dissolving so quickly at your marina? There is a good chance that there's a stray electrical current running to your boat and most marinas won't do anything about it.<br />
We have pitting on one of our props from stray current running from a neighboring boat when we were at our home port at The Duck Club Yacht Club back on the Mississippi, and we couldn't pin down the source. I wound up installing a large sacrificial zinc running from the ground on our pedestal into the water at the end of our slip. This solved the problem in the short run, and stopped the corrosion of the prop, which we still use.<br />
If you suspect something similar happening at your dock, you can get an electrician with a tester to see if there is in fact stray current around your boat, but one no brainer is to make sure neighboring boats aren't leaving their electrical cords hanging in the water.<br />
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I'm a little slow on the uptake at times, and it took me all these years to learn how to properly connect our shore power cords. In the photo, you can see how our cords are connected to each other at the 50 amp adapter at our power pedestal. The collars we bought are screwed together at each side, not only making them pretty much sealed from the weather, they won't pull apart at the modest twist connections if they get tugged on. I like these and put them not only at this junction, but also where the two 50 foot 30 amp cords are connected in the first photo. I will say that the threads are very fine on these collars, and they are plastic, so be careful when threading them together or you'll render them useless.<br />
One of my brain storms resulted in my purchasing a "smart plug", which is a wifi device intended on being plugged into an outlet on the boat that can be controlled by our iPhone, or other smart phone. I figured I'd plug our dehumidifier into the smart plug so we could monitor it from home and know if the power went out at the dock. It's good to know if your batteries are not being charged like they are supposed to be. I like power at the boat at all times, because RAIN (or leaking shaft seals)-ALLOWING WATER INTO BOAT WITH DEAD BATTERIES=NO ABILITY FOR BILGE PUMP TO OPERATE=SUNK BOAT. The previous equation is pretty much foolproof. Did you know the leading cause of boats sinking are leaking shaft seals?<br />
But my brain storm hasn't lead to a solution yet, because the wifi at our marina is abysmal. The smart plug cannot stay connected to the poor wifi. I may try using a signal repeater, but even the smart plug manufacturer states that the plug is not effective in a wifi system that requires a "code" to be unlocked to use it. This has me a bit puzzled, as even our home router requires a passcode to access the internet. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be glad to try them and pass them along. Meanwhile, we'll use the smart plug at home so we can turn the T.V. on from the boat. Why I want to do this, I have no idea.<br />
Another thing we've been dealing with for several years is keeping running lights on the dinghy. I'm not sure how many sets of battery powered stern and bow lights we've purchased from Amazon, Defender, or the local marine supplier, but I finally got tired of the sun eating these things up, and the rain getting into them despite O-rings on the caps.<br />
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I asked my favorite canvas guy to make us some "envelopes" from Sunbrella material to place over the lights when they are not in use, which is most of the time. They are both the same size, but the stern light has the opening at one small end, and the bow light has the opening along the long end at the bottom. Velcro along each opening allows the covers to close pretty tightly along the seal. Since the seals are at the "bottom" of each opening, the lights will stay dry and will be impervious to the sun. Yes, we could stow the lights in the storage compartment on the dinghy, but both the forward locker in the dinghy, as well as the Igloo cooler we use for life jackets, spare fuel, and a small tool kit, also get water inside. For about a second, I did consider using those small bags that people use for pet waste. They are abundant around most marinas these days, or at city parks, but honestly we didn't want to pull up at a dinghy dock and have someone mistake us for sailboaters. (Oh, come on! You <i>know</i> that's funny.) Do what you want, but I like our new covers.<br />
Recently we asked some friends of ours, who we met in Marathon and who now have their boat at the Clearwater Beach Marina, to join us for an overnight on the hook at Three Rookers Bar, a nice anchorage near Dunedin, but also fairly close to them too. They had to decline because they now have a large puppy who needs to be walked twice a day and their dinghy has been on the bow of their boat since they left Marathon back in September. Do you see at least two things going on here that are in opposition to our thoughts on both dogs and dinghies?<br />
One, we obtained our small dog for a reason, so that we wouldn't be a slave to nature and need to walk Holly for her to use the "bathroom". Two, we tell everyone that a dinghy is no good if you can't deploy it readily. We went by their marina to say hello, but after a couple of hours, we casted off and went to our anchorage as we originally intended. If other folks want their lives to be complicated, that's their business, but we can't let it affect us.<br />
Which brings me to a point...we don't "buddy up" on any crossings with anyone, much less strangers. We see countless posts on the AGLCA website and other places, about people in transit requesting a "buddy boat" so they can all travel along together in a convoy. We have enough to keep our hands full making sure <i>our</i> boat is travel worthy. I don't want to take on the added responsibility of someone else's boat who may not be as particular about how they do things. We'll be glad to meet someone where we are going, but I don't want anyone worrying about us, and I sure as heck don't want to be worried about us <i>and</i> anyone else.<br />
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So this attitude means we spend a lot of time on the hook, alone. Pity. On the evening pictured in the photo, we were on the hook at Three Rookers Bar as the sun went down over the Gulf of Mexico. We had just grilled some steaks and were finishing up a bottle of wine to have with our dinner. We hadn't spent a night on the hook since New Years Eve, and we were long overdue. We stayed out even though the wind forecast was a bit on the sporty side, and we bounced around more than we like, but we didn't have to listen to any complaints from anyone the next morning about the choices we'd made concerning staying on the hook for the night. The topper the next morning was the hot coffee and steak and eggs we had for breakfast at daybreak, also not having to wait for someone else to get out of bed to join us.<br />
Call us independent. I consider it a compliment.<br />
Another compliment was one we received the other day from a long time blog reader who we ran into at our new home. He was telling me that their boat is at a marina in Stewart, Florida, and he in turn met a boat neighbor who started following this blog and winded up buying a boat just like Swing Set, due to the success we apparently had been having with our Sea Ray. Maybe he hasn't been reading this blog as carefully as he should have, but still I feel a little pride in the fact that <i>somebody</i> thinks we are doing it right.<br />
Send me a note, whoever you are.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-1763693087974993632016-02-17T05:22:00.001-08:002016-02-17T05:22:45.755-08:00Another Phase Of Our Lives Readers of my earlier posts may remember me telling about our time living on the Meramec River on the outskirts of St. Louis, MO. I told about our first home there and the floods we experienced in that house, and also the floods we endured while living in my parent's old house, after we eventually bought it from them, just up the street. We moved away from the river late in 1999 but those homes have always been on our minds and we kept tabs on both of them.<br />
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In December of last year, the Meramec River flooded to an extent that it had never flooded before, and the photo above is what is left of our first home there on Opps Lane. Our second home, which sat about two feet higher in elevation, is still standing, albeit with substantial damage. Knowing the present owner, it's doubtful that it would ever be rebuilt and put in an inhabitable condition again. My father and I both worked hard on that river home making it a nice place to live, but dwelling on the past isn't healthy for anyone and we move on.<br />
I've been reprimanded by a few of my regular blog readers in regard to being remiss on my posts, but I've got good reasons. In the first place, once we got the boat up to Dunedin from Marathon, the weather turned very cold, at least in comparison to the fantastic weather that we became used to in the Keys.<br />
On our first full day in our new marina, we got a visit from some friends we had met in Kentucky Lake on our way down the inland river system. Dave and Wendi were staying near where our new home is, and drove out to Dunedin for a short visit before heading to the airport. While the sun was out, the temperature was brisk, but we spent some time catching up as we sat in the cockpit of Swing Set. Dave and Wendi plan to follow our footsteps and bring their boat south when they both retire in about a year. We're happy to be a good influence on people, as well as what some folks call "an inspiration".<br />
The closing on the new land based home we bought was due to take place on the 1st of February, so we had a month to wait. We spent most of the time on the boat huddled inside with the heat on. Most of the nation was under a cold spell and Florida was not spared. Even our friends in the Keys were reporting some unusually cold weather for that area. I used some time to catch up on some boat waxing, and when we could, we got out and explored around Dunedin and our new surroundings which is always a fun thing.<br />
I have a new resolution, which is not a "New Years Resolution", but something intended to keep our boat in top shape. We intend to take Swing Set out of the slip at least weekly, or every ten days or so, to "keep the wheels greased", so to speak. I don't think there is anything worse that letting a boat sit idle for months in a slip, particularly in salt water. This practice should help in keeping the hull bottom clean, as well as making sure everything works when we need it to most. In the month we waited for the closing on our new home, we took the boat out twice for an afternoon ride, again exploring the area by water.<br />
As expected, we have some great beaches to anchor off of just a couple of miles from our marina, and if we want to, we can take the dinghy out to the same beaches, as well as run down to the Clearwater area for the activities to be had down there, or just up the coast a few miles is Tarpon Springs where there are things to do.<br />
In anticipation of having Swing Set uninhabited for days at a time, I began to consider some new problems that we might encounter, especially in regard to the tidal swings that we were not used to while living in the Keys.<br />
First, we had a month to live on the boat and monitor the mooring lines, checking to see that we had enough scope to let the boat run through the tidal range without having to adjust them. It's not a good idea to be thirty miles away while your boat is hanging by its neck in the slip like an unwanted cat. (I know this is not a pleasant view, but the analogy just came to me out of the blue.)<br />
The shore power is another consideration, and I do not like to have the shore power cords submerged in the water at any time. I wish our boat neighbors felt the same way. Shore power cords are made of rubber, but that doesn't mean that electrical current will not leach from them, affecting any surrounding submerged metal, not only on the offending boat, but on the surrounding boats as well. When I see a neighboring boat with submerged power lines, I adjust them, but you cannot be around to see this offense all the time.<br />
Anyhow, I've mounted the one splice we have in our power cords above the dock to insure we're above the highest tidal mark, using some PVC pipe, and I also used the collars for shore power connections to make sure the power cords don't become disconnected easily if they are tugged on. A post mounted in one of our rod holders will keep the cords up high enough to allow some slack in them so they can't touch the water. I'll show pictures of this setup later. At least I intend to.<br />
Another thing I had to reconsider is my setup to flush our air conditioning units. I have a hose running from a faucet in the engine room over to a T-fitting just after the sea strainer to the AC cooling water circulating pump. I had fully realized that a failure in any part of that fitting, or the hose (at least below the waterline) would lead to seawater entering the bilge if the seacock to the AC was open, which it is for the most part. Like I said, I wasn't too worried while living on the boat with this arrangement because I would have become aware of such a failure before a calamity occurred, but a few hours is one thing, a few days is another. I've installed a valve at the T-fitting to keep closed until I want to flush the system with fresh water from the faucet. It's simple things like this that can be overlooked, but are easily remedied.<br />
We run a de-humidifier in the cabin full time. The small unit we use requires the little tank to be emptied about every two or three days, so having it run while we are gone was going to be a problem. I looked into a larger unit that has a hose attachment that can be run to a drain, and we might wind up getting one of those, but space is limited to house a large de-humidifier when we aren't using it. I drilled a hole in the small plastic tank and installed a valve and small hose, so the little de-humidifier we had is setting on the sink in the master head, running it's little guts out and emptying into the sink drain. It's seems to be able to keep up with the humidity for now. This summer may tell a different story.<br />
We contracted with the marina to have the hull bottomed cleaned monthly. The marina administrates the process and bills us along with our monthly statement, giving us a report on the condition of the hull bottom as well as that of our zincs. I'll supplement that report with inspections of my own (when the water temperature improves) and I'll also monitor bottom growth for when I'm told we need to go to a twice a month schedule when summer comes. I'm hoping our practice of regular use of the boat will help keep the growth down to a level that will be rectified with a monthly cleaning only. Again, we will see.<br />
We had more visitors a couple of weeks ago. Mike and Sherri from our previous river port in Alton came through town and we spent a couple of days with them. It was too cold to take the boat out, but we got to see some more of the surrounding area, particularly Tampa Bay by land, and some more of downtown Dunedin. We liked what we saw.<br />
I don't usually report on personal issues, but while our visitors were in town, I experienced some bumps on my forehead, and my lymph nodes in my neck became swollen. Our friends left on a Saturday and by Sunday morning my forehead had broken out in a major way. I suspected Shingles, and a trip to a local Urgent Care Center in Clearwater confirmed it. The two weeks it took to clear up the condition was not a pleasant time, but eventually the medication worked its wonders.<br />
A filling in a tooth I had chipped about thirty years ago fell out and when I went to a dentist to get that fixed, he found a crown that had to be replaced. After having a dental plan at my place of employment for years and no longer have, I had no idea how much dental work costs. I do now.<br />
Speaking of medical care, we spent our time recently getting connected to the medical providers that we will need, and more importantly, we have Holly enrolled as a new patient at a veterinary clinic recommended to us. This makes the seventh doctor for Holly since we got her. Whatever it takes.<br />
In short order, we have our dentist, primary care physician, eye doctor, and Holly's doctor all lined up with a visit to each already. I even got a pretty good barber close by. (Who knew a haircut was more than $6 these days?)<br />
We closed on our new home a couple of days early and were awful busy getting our "stuff" off of the boat and moved into our home. It was unbelievable how much we had on the boat that could be moved to a location where there was more room. The computer and the printer is now off the boat, as well as a lot of our clothes, (which there isn't much of), and we don't have the need to keep months and months supply of canned goods onboard. Swing Set is now setting at least an inch higher in the water.<br />
The story of our new home is for another blog. I'll say it's in a resort community and part of the home is a separate lock out unit that is providing income for us. That, plus the extreme reduction in our dock rent, hopefully will provide us with the funds to keep Swing Set in prime condition for years to come, as well as the variety sharing time between the two places will keep our lives fresh, something that is hard to do when sitting at a dock most of the time.<br />
Our plan, since we don't feel compelled to stay at a dock we're paying a high monthly rent for, will allow us to take some occasional trips, maybe see more of the east coast of Florida and the U.S. For now we're content in getting settled into our new place, making some improvements and spending a ton of money at Home Depot and the local furniture store, in spite of buying the place furnished. We cannot believe we went from having two T.V.'s to having six, one refrigerator to having five, and having two air conditioners to having four. Tell me again how is our lives are simpler now?<br />
Last weekend we had some more friends from out of town on the boat. We took a nice afternoon cruise up to Tarpon Springs in some much improved and welcome weather, although is still wasn't bikini weather. Hence, no pictures! Next time. The only malfunction we had on the boat was that the horn didn't work. I was already mentally going over what I needed to do the next day to fix it when Rosie mentioned something about "I might have gotten water in it when I squirted the boat this morning". Sure enough, the next morning when we finished flushing our engines until next time, a quick check of the horn revealed that all was well. Sometimes time does heal all wounds.<br />
We have a weekend planned on the boat coming up. The weather and the wind should be conducive to taking the dinghy out, something we haven't done since December! I did flush the outboard, as well as run out the carburetor of fuel, so all systems on the dink should be good to go.<br />
I hope I have some good stories to tell.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-43598791328213932462016-01-03T07:52:00.001-08:002016-01-03T07:56:22.942-08:00The Move<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We saved Christmas dinner for the arrival of some friends from St. Louis on the 27th of December. They got in late due to some plane delays, and their stories confirmed our intention to never fly on an airplane again. The late dinner and the interesting conversation lasted until the wee hours while we formulated a loose plan for the next couple of days.<br />
A day long cruise was planned for the 28th and the weather held for us to enjoy a pleasant day on the hook. Swing Set ran great and we were presented with no new problems for our anticipated departure from Marathon on the 30th of December, the day our friends were due to leave back to the cold and flooding of Missouri. I had been watching the weather for a couple of weeks, and our best window was between the 31st of December and the 2nd of January, so getting a days jump on our trip was taking a bit of a chance, but we decided to plan on the 30th, but use another day for a backup if we needed it.<br />
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On the morning of the 29th we moved Swing Set over to a lower seawall at high tide to facilitate the loading of our scooter. Our new scooter is heavier and bigger than our older Zuma, and James and I were happy to acquire the assistance of another person at the pool where we found a good place at the seawall there to load up the bike.</div>
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The four of us did a "send off dinghy cruise" all afternoon, and said our goodbyes rather early. They had a long drive to Ft. Lauderdale ahead of them in the morning, and we had the start of our trip to Dunedin to look forward to as well. </div>
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We were up before dawn on the 30th and the picture below shows the Yamaha strapped down and covered for the 250 mile trip to Dunedin. Before the first light I removed all of our power cords, water lines, and cable from our slip at Marathon Marina and we creeped out of the harbor as the sun was coming up.</div>
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I knew the wind was going to be up a bit, but I also knew that it was to subside by the time we got closer to the mainland and the relative protection of the mainland from the easterly wind. As it was, instead of wallowing through some beam seas at trawler speed, I spooled up the Cats and ran at 25 M.P.H. for about three hours until the seas calmed and we took the rest of the day to slip into Indian Key Pass to spend a restful night on the hook near Everglades City, an anchorage we had stayed on our way down the coast over three years ago. Our faster cruise for three hours allowed us to happily bypass our previous anchorage on the Shark River back in 2012.</div>
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Before dawn on New Years Eve we were headed out of Indian Pass towards Fort Myers. Some friends in the area had plans for that evening, but even so, the weather window we had dictated that we get to Dunedin as quickly as possible. I was going to run outside as far as Charlotte Harbor, but I began to get concerned about fuel, not so much for how much we had onboard, but I was concerned that if we needed it on New Years Day, some marinas may be closed and fuel would be hard to find. I decided to enter the Intercoastal Waterway at the Caloosahatchie River and we took on 150 gallons of fuel at Sanibel Marina and was on our way again by mid afternoon, finishing out our day at our accustomed trawler speed.</div>
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Our choice of anchorages began to get pretty slim until we happened upon an excellent spot just off the waterway that was in a no wake zone. We were near Little Gasparilla Key when we dropped the hook and enjoyed a nice dinner and a movie before turning in before 8 P.M. Happy New Year!<br />
We cast off the next morning before the first light, relying on our iPad and Garmin to follow the narrow channel. We kept our speed at idle until we could actually see anything by 6:30 A.M., and then we ran at 8-9 M.P.H. until reaching the Venice Pass and outside we went.<br />
Swing Set ran for the next four hours at 25 M.P.H. without a hitch. The only issue, as it had been on the outside since leaving Marathon, was dodging crab pot markers. Some of those fishermen paint their markers dark green or black, making them almost impossible to see unit the last minute. Our luck held and we didn't hit any of them. I'll never eat crab or lobster again.<br />
We had to go <i>way</i> outside to avoid the shoaling at the entrance to Tampa Bay, but with plenty of fuel, and with the engines running so nicely, it was fun to get some wind in our hair for a change. When the boat is running good, it's nice to have the option of running at something other than trawler speed when we want to. I know that 25 M.P.H. is not much, but hours of 8-9 M.P.H. gets tedious.<br />
By early afternoon we were entering the Clearwater Pass. Plenty of other boaters were out enjoying the holiday and we passed lots of boats in the narrow channel running from Clearwater to Dunedin before we made the eastern turn into the channel to Marker 1 Marina.<br />
As we passed the fuel dock I hollered to a young attendant that I wanted to tie up alongside the fuel dock to unload our scooter. She welcomed us in and helped us tie up. Without insulting her, I asked if a more stout dockhand might be available to help unload our scooter from the boat. We needed some muscle.<br />
"Nicky" called for "Tony", a part-time personal trainer to come and assist us. When he arrived, I had both ramps in place and Tony almost single handedly removed the Yamaha from the confines of our cockpit. We were so happy to have the scooter off the boat, and not into the water, that we generously tipped both Nicky and Tony. I've decided that our current scooter is really too big to put aboard Swing Set.<br />
We motored over to our slip and spent the next couple of hours getting lines adjusted and installing our power cords, etc., while introducing ourselves to some of our new boat neighbors.<br />
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With fenders in place, hoses installed, and cable hooked up, we were really happy to have it all behind us. Really, <i>really</i> happy with our slip location and with the marina in general.<br />
That night we walked over to a newer bar/restaurant across the street, Frenchie's Outpost, where we had our own New Years celebration with a couple of beers.<br />
Yesterday, some folks we had met at Kentucky Lake drove over from Land O' Lakes to visit us before driving back home to Kentucky. We had a pleasant visit and were sad to see them go, but they'll be back in February, so saying goodbye wasn't so bad. They offered to take us back the way they came so that we could pick up our vehicle that we had left near the townhouse we are buying. Saved us a trip on the scooter in the approaching cold weather on Sunday.<br />
As expected, a cold front, along with some blustery wind, came in on Saturday night. Boy, were we happy to be snug in our new slip! We had our vehicles parked safely away, and Swing Set tied up nicely too. We both slept better than we had in several nights.<br />
This morning we kicked off our new digs with another walk across the causeway to a cozy restaurant called Brenda's Cafe where we had a good breakfast and met some locals. We got there at 7A.M. and by 8A.M. the place was packed. We both had a reasonably healthy meal for half the price we would have paid in the Keys, and the company was very enjoyable. This is <i>not</i> the home of $11 omelets.<br />
After posting this, we'll scrub down the boat and flush the engines as well as pickle the A/C system with fresh water. We won't be needing air conditioning for a while. The trade off for warm January weather is a healthier bank account and more services for the us and the boat.<br />
Once we get settled in here, and close on our new home purchase, cold weather relief is just a day long boat ride down the coast. As it is, a little variety never hurt anyone.<br />
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<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-24751982992018318842015-12-24T08:12:00.004-08:002015-12-24T08:12:57.421-08:00Changes On The Horizon<div style="text-align: center;">
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The view from the stern of Swing Set looks the same...but not for long. </div>
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We are ones who embrace change, we look forward to it, and encourage it. In fact we are catalysts for it. There is a big one coming up.</div>
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But first...When we returned from our trip to Key West, which was one month after returning the boat to the water after bottom painting, I finally got around to checking the bottom to see how our new paint held up. It did, and it didn't.</div>
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The paint on the hull looked fine, with the exception of some "wrinkles" where the straps on the travel-lift smashed the new paint, as we didn't allow for it to dry long enough. Check one lesson learned for next time. The major disappointment was that I found that the paint on all of the metal had sloughed off on a wholesale basis, right down to the bare metal. Ouch. This was the main reason we hauled the boat in the first place because the PropSpeed didn't hold up. Now I have to give the Interlux Primocon a thumbs down too, even if I didn't apply it properly, at least for the time being.<br />
The whole bottom painting debacle is what got me started thinking about moving the boat further north, allowing us to have cheaper rent, have access to more boatyards for service and bottom painting, and to also look into real estate that was not so ridiculously overpriced.<br />
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In retrospect, the idea about expanding our horizons must have been brewing in my brain for some months, because back in September we leased a truck, as pictured above with Rosie at Sombrero Beach.<br />
So the seed was planted back then, and when the thought of moving moved to the forefront of my active mind, I ran with it, and Rosie was thoroughly on board. As in the past, when I get an idea, I run with it. I become so focused on what it is I want to do, the details get pushed aside, and for good or bad, what I want to accomplish consumes my only thoughts.<br />
I began by researching marinas along the West coast of Florida, but I didn't have to search long, as checking out marinas is something I've been doing for the last three years. Now, when we were in the planning stage, back in St. Louis, Tarpon Springs was high on my list. The reason being was that the area of Land O' Lakes is nearby. We have friends in that area, and have visited there many times over the last thirty years, and have always considered it to be a place where we could have a small condo and keep the boat fairly close in order to share time at both places.<br />
We both fell out of favor with Tarpon Springs on our way down the coast three years ago. We didn't like the water quality, and the marinas for the most part were about an hours idle up the Anclote River. The two hours to and from needed to get to any open water was a deal breaker for us.<br />
Later, when we visited our friends in Cape Coral, the idea of living anywhere north of there became a thing of the past, as we learned that the warmer weather in winter was mainly south of the Cape Coral/Fort Myers area.<br />
But something made me concentrate on the Clearwater area again. I started reading reviews on Active Captain about anchorages and beaches from Clearwater to Tarpon Springs. I noticed lots of comments about white sand beaches all along that area. I also noticed the string of barrier islands protecting the mainland in this same area, and a marina in Dunedin caught my eye.<br />
Before we left for Key West I called Marker 1 Marina and talked at length to the Harbormaster there. I thought we had a good rapport, and he seemed to be able to accommodate us upon our expected arrival date of after the New Year for a boat of our size and our needs. I also called some others, but eventually decided that if we moved the boat, it was going to be to Marker 1 Marina.<br />
Marker 1 is not a live aboard marina. That <i>is</i> a problem. I talked to folks here at Marathon Marina who have kept their boat there, and they said that like many other "rules" at Marker 1 Marina, the rule about not allowing live boards was largely ignored, the rule only being enforced when someone causes a problem. We've found this to be the case in many marinas when they have the no live aboard rule. (My thought is that marinas have the official policy of no live boards to satisfy their insurance carriers.)<br />
Knowing we could probably skirt the no live aboard policy, or at least spend enough days on the hook to technically adhere to the policy, I still wanted to satisfy my curiosity about real estate prices in the Land O' Lakes area, so I called a couple of friends that live there. The ball really started rolling then.<br />
Before we left for Key West, we had booked a studio apartment for three months, as well as told the folks at Marker 1 Marina that we'd be up to visit by the 4th of December. This is where the truck comes in.<br />
We intended on stopping by Marker 1 Marina on our way to Land O' Lakes on the 4th, a Friday, when I called and found out that everyone we needed to talk to about a slip was not around that day, so we headed straight for the studio apartment, planning on visiting Marker 1 Marina the next day.<br />
The place where we wanted to look at property, and where our temporary apartment was located, is in a resort complex, as I've mentioned, a place where we have been visiting for many years. Once we got settled in, we took a stroll around the property and was pleasantly surprised. The "club" area of the resort was in good shape, as was the residential buildings around it. In fact, the pool area was getting a major renovation and the new owner was doing his part in keeping up with improvements. We liked what we saw, which was one reason to inspect the property in person and not rely on what someone else thought.<br />
We saw a For Sale By Owner sign on a townhouse in a building overlooking the main pool and club area, a section of the resort that we've always wanted to have a place if we ever wound up buying property there. We jotted down the phone number, and then ran into a guy we met years ago that just happened to have a park model home for sale in the RV area of the resort. With nothing else to do, we took a tour of the place, and really liked it, but wanted to sleep on it as well as look at some other places for sale.<br />
The next morning we headed for Dunedin, home of Marker 1 Marina. Just thirty miles west of Land O' Lakes, the forty-five minute drive is a pleasant one, through some scenic (for Florida) countryside, and no busy interstate highways to lose your mind on.<br />
We stopped in the harbormaster office and met one of the harbormasters and "Tempie" gave us directions of the slip that they had picked out for us based on what I told them we needed.<br />
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We requested a slip with a long pier on one side so we could deploy the dinghy if we docked bow in. There are only a handful of slips in the whole marina that have long finger piers on one side, and such a slip was reserved for us. Rosie is standing in front of it for the photo. There is one row of boats blocking our view of the open water, but given our experience here in Marathon Marina, the additional protection will be welcome in a southerly blow.<br />
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Here's a view from the outer dock. The slip we wound up paying a deposit on is the empty one in the middle of the picture. Sure, we would really like a floating dock, but at $11 per foot, per month, we can exist just fine in this slip. It's officially ours on January 1st, paid in full.<br />
We had called the owner of the townhouse for sale earlier in the day and as we made our way to downtown Dunedin, we got a call back and was told that we could view the property the next day, so we made an appointment for 10 A.M. on Sunday. We couldn't wait to see it.<br />
We had lunch in Dunedin at a place called the Living Room. We ate outside where we could have Holly with us, and there were several other dog owners having lunch too. Servers brought doggy water bowls and strips of bacon for the pets. We won't let Holly have bacon, but I asked for a strip for myself.<br />
A drive down Mainstream Dunedin was a delight. The town appears very clean and there are lots of restaurants and bars. An outside bazaar was in full swing, and parking is totally free. I said free. We were impressed with Dunedin, it has a true "Old Florida" feel.<br />
We met the owner of the property we wanted to see at 10 o'clock sharp. We held back our enthusiasm as much as we could but without even talking to one another, we both knew that the other liked the place very much. After a thorough tour, we spent some brief time alone, rejoined the owner and made an attractive offer, but less than the asking price.<br />
The owner countered reasonably, and we agreed, but only if we could sign the contract that afternoon. By 2 P.M. we were signing the contract for purchase at the real estate office, with possession to take place on February 1st. We spent the rest of the afternoon having beers with Dee, the seller, asking about her experience at the resort and her plans for when she moves. Turns out Dee and her husband only had the place a couple of months before he had a stroke and died. Dee put her energy and dealt with her grief by focusing on going ahead with major renovations to the townhouse, of which we will now benefit from. We left at nearly 10 P.M., new owners of a place on land to call home, as well as a new friend.<br />
Our other friends in the area said that we could never be accused of dragging our feet.<br />
One word about the townhouse; the second bedroom is a separate lock-out, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, small sitting room, a nice sized bedroom, and an outside covered and screened in deck, that a person or couple could live full time in. We'll rent out the "studio" by the night, week, or month for extra income. In fact, we have the studio rented already for the month of March!<br />
We spent two full weeks exploring around what is to be our new "land home", and was amazed at the changes we found and were pleased to see the results. We think that the variety of trading time between the resort and the boat will keep everything fresh for us.<br />
One thing that we think we'll find is that the area we'll be boating in is better suited for what we like, with plenty of beaches, and with the protected water of St. Joseph's Sound to transit between Clearwater and Anclote Key. We'll meet folks at the resort, as well as friends we already have in the area, to take as guests out on Swing Set, something we like to do to get the most enjoyment out of our boat. We'll have more on that later.<br />
One thing is that we won't be spending so much on dock rent that we don't want to leave the dock. I think we'll be more inclined to take some week long, or longer, trips and not worry about how much we're paying for a slip that we're not in. We can dinghy to all of the many beaches in the area without being in open water, and leave Swing Set in the slip if we want. If the weather gets cold in Dunedin, we can cast off and head for warmer weather and still have all the comforts of home. This is something we're used to.<br />
Tarpon Springs does have an abundance of boatyards. If you don't know it, Tarpon Springs is largely a Greek community, and the Greeks there still hold to their boating roots. I have an eye on one boatyard in particular, Pittman's Yacht Services, where we'll pop in and talk to them about getting some anti-fouling paint on our running gear that will hold up.<br />
As it is, we're back in Marathon to spend the holiday, and some good friends are coming to visit on Sunday. They're here for a short stay, and then we'll head out of here by New Year's Eve and point the boat towards Dunedin, weather permitting of course.<br />
Some changes to the blog are probably in order since we're not officially "live aboard full time cruisers" any longer. But if you've been paying attention, we haven't been <i>that </i>for a couple of years now. We'll still be swingsetonthehook, but will probably change the description, and hopefully still be able to give you something to enjoy reading about occasionally.</div>
Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-77471353574827826672015-12-02T07:17:00.000-08:002015-12-02T07:17:14.169-08:00Drip Drip Drip Can Sink the Ship After about ten hours of running time on our new bottom paint job, almost four hours of that at our cruising speed of 25 M.P.H., I decided yesterday to strap on my goggles and take a look at the boat bottom. Not good.<br />
Although no paint had fallen off of the hull itself, as far as my quick assessment could tell me, but the metal parts such as the shafts, rudders, exhaust outlets, and props, all had chunks of paint missing.<br />
There could be several reasons for this happening, but there is no doubt in my mind that surface prep and improper paint application are the reasons for the paint not sticking.<br />
No, I'm not going to bother trying to hold our marina responsible, again for several reasons, but a few of them are that <i>I</i> was the one who finished up the painting process on the underwater metal parts because the yard laborer who was supposed to do the work went on vacation before the work on our boat was finished. I also believe we launched Swing Set too early before the paint was completely dry, and probably didn't wait long enough between coats.<br />
The bottom line is that the boatyard here is not equipped to do much service work. I believe the focus on Marathon Marina and Resort as being a <i>resort and marina </i>is better suited for them rather than being a service facility.<br />
Also, we're leaving in a couple of days to drive north for some recon in order to find a more affordable marina, hopefully one with really good service facilities nearby. I think we have an eye on a good one. On my last post we got a few suggestions as to where we should keep the boat; those suggestions were ignored as being in areas where we have no intention of ever living.<br />
Maybe I'll do a quick haul out once we get settled just to address the underwater running gear, as like I mentioned, the hull looks O.K. except where the slings came in contact with the fresh paint where now it looks and feels wrinkled. Really wrinkled.<br />
Last but not least, the yard laborer who did the majority of the surface prep and painting on Swing Set is now in jail for what looks to be a long time. But that's another story.<br />
How about some good news?<br />
You may remember my post about cleaning up the shafts and reseating our dripless shaft seals so they would quit leaking. We have Strong brand Sure Seal System shaft seals on Swing Set. Well, the seal on the starboard shaft is tight and keeps the bilge dry as a bone, but the portside shaft seal has continued to drip at a steady rate. A steady drip if you're living onboard is one thing, but leaving a vessel unattended with a little drip can lead to disaster. (I read a statistic once that said the leading cause of boats sinking is due to shaft seals leaking. I believe it.)<br />
We have spare shaft seals in place on our driveshafts, I suppose they have been there since the boat was new, but I had been reluctant to use them because if I did, then...well then I'd have no more spare ones would I? But after trying to clean up the portside shaft and reseat the seal again, I went ahead and decided to use the spare on the portside to stop the drip.<br />
I utilized my friend Mr. Google once again for a quick video of how to attack the seal replacement chore. One thing that had me worried was just how much water was going to come rushing into the bilge when I pulled out the old seal, but the video and the commentary that came along with it assured me that it was no big deal.<br />
Now, I'm not giving a tutorial here on how to do this seal replacement, I would want you to do your own research if you need to perform this task, but I do have a few tips that may be of use to anyone attempting the job.<br />
One thing is that an allen wrench is needed for the seal housing, and an allen wrench won't turn around all the way because the drive shaft is in the way, so I used a socket with the appropriate size allen bit installed. This made quick work of the tedious job of tightening the five allen bolts. (Make sure they're started by hand to avoid stripping the threads on the housing.)<br />
I also used a small mallet to tap in the seal. I was happy to find that the new seal was still tight, as old as it was. (There is also a story here, but don't tempt me.)<br />
Anyway, the new seal is installed with not much trouble, and not a drip to be seen. Now I feel much better about leaving the boat for a couple of weeks although our neighbor has promised to keep an eye on Swing Set.<br />
I mentioned the mallet before, well I think I did, but I keep the mallet in the engine room along with several sizes of plugs. The theory is that is you get a hole in the hull somewhere, you can quickly grab a plug and hammer it home. I can see where this may apply in the case of a through hull valve breaking off, but any other hole will be jagged, and most likely occur in a spot where you can't swing a mallet, but at least I have good intentions.<br />
I also have a small assortment of rubber plugs to stick into the ends of hoses if I take any off in the course of some service work when I don't want stuff to leak out or in. I can't tell you how many times I took a hose off and scrambled around to find something to stick into the hose to stop the flow of water or other liquid. (Fingers are usually too fat. Don't ask.)<br />
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<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-11038380748407664902015-11-21T11:08:00.000-08:002015-11-21T11:08:51.027-08:00Is The Grass Greener Over There?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As you can see in the picture, our view from the stern of Swing Set is a pretty good one. We like our marina, we like our boat neighbors, and we like the area in general. It must be time to move on.<br />
In my last post it wasn't hard to sense some disappointment in the fact that we've had to have our boat bottom painted for the fourth time since the year we left St. Louis. Seems like so long ago but it was only three and a half years. But at an average of $4000 per bottom job, it means a big hunk taken out of our budget. It's time to tighten our belts some and the easiest way to do it is to find a place with cheaper rent. Good bye Florida Keys.<br />
Nothing is set in stone, but in a couple of weeks we're taking a drive up north for some recon. I've done some phone inquiries, searched through Active Captain, and looked online at some dock finding websites, and with hardly no trouble at all we can reduce our rent by over 50%. Yes, it means getting into parts of this state that may get cooler in the winter, but with cheaper rent we can afford to fire up the Cats and head south if a cold front rolls in. What we love best about living on a boat is the ability to change our scenery if we want without too much trouble. No sense living this lifestyle if we're afraid to move because we may not have a slip to come back to if we take a trip.<br />
On the subject of taking a trip; we've just returned from a month in Key West. We had to not only pay double what we pay now for a slip in Key West Bight, we had to pay for our slip here at Marathon Marina while we were gone in order to have a slip to return to as the waiting list for slips for boats our size are at a premium this time of year.<br />
Like I said, we've just returned yesterday, but you can't return until you <i>go</i>, so let me start at the beginning: We pulled out of Marathon of October 24th and with a following sea we headed west, wallowing through the waves at our regular displacement speed of 8.5 M.P.H., so I put Swing Set on plane, adjusted the tabs, and ran the whole 40 miles to Key West at the published cruising speed of our vessel, which is 25 M.P.H. at 2500 R.P.M.s, without a glitch of high temperature issue. Yippee!<br />
We pulled into our slip at A & B Marina in a tad over two hours. We did something a bit different this time at A & B by pulling into the slip bow first. We used a provided set of steps to exit the boat from the very bow, which wasn't any harder than ducking under the dinghy on the stern via the swim platform like we used to at A & B because they have no finger piers. We think if worked out pretty good for us, plus Holly didn't feel a need to bark at every soul who walked past our boat, which seemed to happen about a million times per day.<br />
This blog isn't about our exploits when we're in port, and this may come at a disappointment to those who want to see pictures of our week in Key West during Fantasy Fest, but we're keeping those details to ourselves for now. I will say that the best time we had in the last month was when we took some friends out for a cruise while we were there. All of our guests were boaters, and everyone helped and didn't cause us any grief.<br />
With nine persons on board, Swing Set ran us home from the upper end of the Northwest Channel of Key West at cruising speed, albeit with a bit of a throttle lag when I first poured on the coals.<br />
We spent four weeks in Key West going to Dante's, bars and restaurants, blah blah blah.<br />
The weather proved to be worsening, so we left Key West a few days early to take advantage of a light wind on the bow and minimal seas as we made our way back east to Marathon. Today would have meant beam seas, and if we waited until Sunday, we might have just been stuck for another week. No thanks. Another couple of days and I may have gone over and shot the singer they had over at Schooner's Wharf in the afternoons.<br />
I think we've had enough of Key West to last us a few years. By the time we go back, we'll need to be able to speak fluent Russian to buy a t-shirt on Duval Street. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">Spasibo tovarishchu.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> People who read this blog remark on how much they learn from reading it, and mostly I think </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">it's because I don't have a problem sharing when it comes to my ability, <i>or failures</i>, at fixing</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">the ongoing mechanical issues that pop up. We did have one such issue while in Key West.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> We have been keeping our shore water hooked up to our plumbing while in Marathon, but in </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">Key West we had to keep our water tank full and use the fresh water pumps to have water.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">This requires monitoring our water supply and I apparently had other things on mind during</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">Fantasy Fest and I let our tank run dry. This adversely affected one of our fresh water pumps</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">to the point of it needing to be replaced, so I popped in a spare pump that I had on hand but </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">a small leak was coming from the pressure switch. There was a good chance that just </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">tightening up the screws on the switch assembly would have fixed the leak, but I had already </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">installed the pump and tightening up the screws required removing the pump again, so I </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">ordered a new pump to match the other new one that was installed last fall. I like things to </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">match.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> The new pump came and I pulled out the spare I had put in and in fact found out that the switch</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">assembly was indeed loose. (From when I "fixed" the switch after installing a new pump last fall)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">I installed the new pump anyway and sent the old one to the spare parts department again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">The new pump wouldn't turn off, so I consulted the manual and adjusted the switch by backing </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">off the adjustment screw just a smidgen. All was fine, but the new pump kept cycling on every </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">few minutes, much to my perplexity.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> I checked all the fittings and faucets and was left to wonder if the switch on the new pump was</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">bad. I decided to sleep on it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> That night I woke up to find the air conditioner in the master stateroom had quit working. The</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">unit in the salon was still working, so I figured the filter in the master stateroom unit needed</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">the air filter changed. In the morning the salon unit had kicked out on low pressure too, so this</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">usually means that the water strainer is clogged. Down into the engine room I went to check on </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">the sea strainer which I found to be free of debris. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> It was time to get serious, but first I had to wash the sleep from my eyes, so I went to turn on the</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">water and found out that the water tank was dry. Hmmm. The new water pump was cycling on with </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">no sign of a water leak, and the air conditioners were both kicked out on low pressure. Somehow </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">the A/C units lost their prime when the water ran out on our house water supply. I went back into</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">the engine room and with dry hands I again tried to tighten the faucet in the engine room</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">and found that it wasn't turned off all the way. The light bulb had finally come on.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> When I flushed the engines after the outing with our friends, I hadn't turned off the water all the</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">way, so when I installed the new pump, I had water leaking through the shared hose supplying</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">fresh water to our A/C units for when I flush them. The leak wasn't detected because the fresh</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">water was just going out through the raw water intake for the A/C units. All was good until the</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">water tank finally ran dry, so this caused an airlock in the A/C water pump which kicked out both</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">A/C units. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;"> One little oversight caused all these problems, but I'd rather have simple solutions to</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 15px; white-space: nowrap;">complex problems rather than have complicated solutions to simple problems.</span></div>
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Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-59008015438895827842015-11-01T07:41:00.003-08:002015-11-01T07:41:59.594-08:00Hanging In There<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Launch day for Swing Set after being "on the hard" for two weeks getting a new bottom paint job. Hope this paint job lasts more than a few months.<br />
We absolutely <i>hated</i> being holed up in a condo on the resort property for most of the two weeks. Not that the two bedroom condo we were in was not nice, or that the rate we were charged was very fair, it was just that we felt like we were not in our element. Holly probably was affected the greatest, she didn't use her potty pad one time during the time we were off of the boat. She had quickly trained us to take her for a walk twice a day as we wanted to be assured that she wouldn't have an "accident" in the condo.<br />
When we pulled Swing Set out, the first thing was that she got a good pressure washing. It was then that I noticed that the straps on the travel lift were marked with paint where the straps came in contact with the chines of vessels being put back in the water. Dry paint does not leave paint residue on the straps, so I told the lift operator that when Swing Set gets splashed back into the water once the bottom painting was completed, I expected pads to be in place on the straps to prevent paint from rubbing off onto the straps. We also learned to inform the yard man to use only two straps instead of four; a vessel of our size doesn't need four and it further reduces the chance of rubbing new paint off the hard chines. But I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
Once the pressure washing was completed, and Swing Set was on the blocks, I noticed that some aggressive power washing stripped off some of the boot stripe decal near our port exhaust. I made sure the yard man was informed, and then took it upon myself to buy new tape and make a repair to the stripe.<br />
We had a pow wow with the marina manager, lift operator, yard man and various onlookers, and agreed that the Prop Speed that was applied ten months ago was virtually gone. We've since learned that applying Prop Speed takes some expertise that was not used in our application. Old paint along the waterline on our boat had craters in it, due to the last two bottom paint applications being applied over old paint that had flaked off and left a pock-marked surface. I made it clear that I wanted a smooth surface at least on the sides of the boat between the boot stripe and first chine, this would at least ascertain that we had removed all of the loose paint and leave a smooth surface for easier cleaning. The bottom of the boat hull had very few craters in it, and the ones there had no loose paint around them.<br />
We were advised by a questionable "authority" that we needed to grind our boat bottom down to bare fiberglass, apply a barrier coat, and then paint the bottom with three coats of ablative paint. You should have seen the looks on the faces of me and the marina manager. I could sense a need for compromise, so even though it may not have been the best move, we all decided to remove any unhealthy paint with sanding, paying special attention to getting the sides smooth, then apply Interlux Primocon, a fairly new underwater primer, onto the whole undersides of the boat; including all metal except the zincs, of course.<br />
We did stand our ground and insist on three coats of Micron 66 on the bottom, with four coats applied along the water line. Micron 66 is a very soft ablative paint; the more applied meant the longer we could go without applying more. So goes the theory.<br />
We had initially thought a week out of the water would have been enough, but more realistically we knew we were looking at two weeks with the extra sanding and another coat of paint. Now we were looking at splashing the boat on the day we were scheduled to arrive in Key West for a month and the dock at A & B Marina had already been reserved a year ahead of time. Had we known how close we were cutting it, we would have waited until our return from Key West to do the bottom job, but by then we might be out of money. Key West is expensive. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.<br />
There was no sense of wasting time on the blocks when we were looking at two weeks. The hull was waxed between the water line and the gunnels. That job took three days after initially washing the hull first. I don't know how professional "detailers" come in to wax a boat without washing it first, but I see it all the time, especially when the owners are not present. If I had any advice to offer when getting work done when an owner is absent, is not to ever do it.<br />
While Swing Set was out of the water I also used the opportunity to attempt to lessen the dripping around our port side "dripless" shaft seal. A few months ago I repaired the shaft seal on the starboard side shaft and had great success. I moved the dripless seal back, sanded the revealed shaft smooth, and then secured the seal around the newly sanded surface.<br />
Meanwhile, I'm glad we were around to keep an eye on things. Even though the marina manager was trying her best to keep apprised of the work being done on our boat, had we not been there to check up at least twice a day to see how things were going, some mistakes that were made could not have been easily rectified. As it was, the primer was applied over flaking bottom paint along the sides, no less, where I stressed that those areas be sanded completely smooth. Additional sanding and more primer was applied before the first coat of bottom paint was applied.<br />
At the beginning of the second week we were informed that the boatyard laborer was going on vacation mid week. That left us no one to paint. We were told that the travel lift operator would be available to paint, so when I popped over to make sure he was on the same page as everyone else in regard to how we were approaching the job, he apparently was not made aware that bottom painting, and also some grinding, was going to be part of his upcoming job description. I think I almost scared him off as an employee of the marina. He may have been planning his escape back to Cuba before the marina manager came up with a plan B for who was going to finish up the painting.<br />
Plan B was <i>me</i> and another employee whose duties consisted mainly of housekeeping and landscaping, but her husband is a very knowledgeable boater and was going to supervise. It also did not hurt that she <i>loved</i> to paint and was very good at it.<br />
We were under the impression that the running gear had all been sanded, but found out otherwise. I grabbed a sander and finished sanding the running gear, Jamaican style. Jamaican style is sanding without eye protection or a dust mask. Barefoot too, if you are wondering.<br />
Me and the other conscripted painter worked together very well. As it turned out, I'm now glad the yard laborer went on vacation, as now we knew firsthand how much paint was applied and also knew the condition of the surface before painting. As it was, we used two gallons of Primocon and <i>EIGHT GALLONS</i> of Micron 66 which alone retails at nearly $375 per gallon. Painting the underwater metal with a brush just eats up paint in a hurry. Only a few drops got on my flip flops. Now I look like I work for a living.<br />
Two days before the intended completion of our work, we were informed that we had to vacate the condo we were staying in as there was a conflict in the booking of the unit. Usually possession is 9/10ths of the law, but there was no sense on complaining about the issue. We knew we were going to get a very fair rate for our stay, and a customer paying full fair would take precedent if one was any kind of businessman, so we booked two nights in a local flea bag motel and sucked it up for those nights.<br />
The day came to splash the boat and pay our bill. Judy, the dock master and marina manager, called us into her office to go over the bill. I was reminded of the time we bought our first home as the details were laid out for us. As promised, Judy was very fair in the charges, considering that we had just had bottom paint done ten months ago. Many items normally charged for were done au gratis, and the paint was sold to us at cost. Profit margin was non-existent, or very low, and we did get a very good rate for the nine nights we stayed in the condo on the marina property.<br />
The only complaint I'd say we had was in the quality of work done by the yard laborer. But being realistic, we know those jobs are really hard jobs to do, especially when it's hot. Keeping any employee doing hull sanding and painting coming back day after day is quite an accomplishment. Next time if we have work done at our marina, we'll just do a better job of supervising the work, even if it isn't our job to do so. You know what they say about assuming anything.<br />
Back in the water, I checked the bilges and found out my shaft seal repair was ineffective. Water was pouring through the seal. I wound up moving the seal back to the original location and got the flow back to where it was initially. My opinion is that the seal on the "new" part of the shaft needed time to "seat in". Worse comes to worse, I can install the new seal already in place on the shaft, but I only want to do that as a last resort.<br />
While troubleshooting the leaking seal, I found out the the water line feeding the port side shaft seal was plugged coming from the port engine. There is a crossover line between both seals, so our port side seal was still getting water, but just not as much. I removed the line from the seal and the engine and got it unplugged by beating the hose against the concrete dock and blowing it out with compressed air from our Hookamax. At least our Hookamax is good for something.<br />
The next morning we left for Key West a day late, no matter because we called A & B and was told that our month long stay would start on the day we got there. That was good news and the call by us was greatly appreciated.<br />
We had a following sea with a 15 knot wind, making a slow cruise very uncomfortable. Even though we wondered how much the three coats of bottom paint on the props and shafts were going to affect our cruising speed, Swing Set jumped up on plan and with the trim tabs adjusted to even out our running attitude, we clipped along at a pleasant 25 M.P.H., spinning the Cats at 2500 R.P.M. and only rang the ships bell once coming off a four foot wave. Even though the engines sang happily at 200 degrees for the whole two hours and ten minutes to Key West, we didn't set off any alarms or get much salt spray on the topsides. When we arrived at A & B marina we were also very pleased to find that the new bottom paint had not worn off already.<br />
It's hard to take paying rent here at A & B Marina <i>and</i> at our home port of Marathon Marina, but it's what we had to do if we wanted to have a slip to even go back to in Marathon. Slip rental in the Keys is unbelievably high, and even more so here in Key West. We're not sure we'll reserve a slip here next year at this time, since we're considering a move further north. We might save a trip down here for when it gets colder way up toward mid-state in the middle of the winter. Two hundred miles makes a big difference in winter temperatures in southern Florida, but with lower rent further north, we get to keep our options open.<br />
For those of you who pay attention; Holly did fall back into her routine of using her potty pads once she was back on the boat. We are all now happily back in our element.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-2235051190437193832015-10-21T12:01:00.001-07:002015-10-21T12:01:17.757-07:00The End Is Near<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The end of what is near? Not the end of beautiful sunsets here in the Keys, that's for sure, but recent events have had us looking to other horizons. We aren't going to change the description of this blog, but "cruising full time" hasn't been true for a while now, as we've been tethered to a dock pretty much full time since we came back from The Bahamas.<br />
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We've gotten pretty comfortable here in Marathon, meeting new folks in town and some of those passing through on their boats. We even attended the Marathon Dolphins high school football game a few Friday nights ago. Rosie was a cheerleader in high school and went to lots of football games, but I've never attended one, even when I was in high school. So we went and had a pretty good time although the Marathon Dolphins stink.<br />
We also were recently invited to attend the wedding of a couple we met here at the marina shortly after we arrived. I don't know why we agreed to go, but it was a good time although we don't know how anyone would want to get married for the third time <i>each,</i> but I told Rosie afterward that if we meet anyone again who starts talking about getting married soon, I'm going to come right out and tell them to not bother with sending us an invitation. This one was like going to an organized auto crash. With fatalities.<br />
The weather has just recently turned cooler and the dog days of summer are behind us. We're able to begin waxing Swing Set again, a rewarding experience when the weather is pleasant, but a grueling ordeal when it's hot. But boat maintenance cannot be avoided in this climate and in the salt water, lest your boat just waste away little by little. Like I've said before, a person who has a boat in salt water spends their time "trying to keep it from dissolving like an Alka-Seltzer tablet". I cannot be attributed with this quote, but I can get credit for passing it on.<br />
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This is not a photo from when we had our boat bottom painted <i>ten months ago</i>. This is a current picture, and I'm writing this blog while Swing Set is on the hard. Again. It's the fourth bottom painting job we've had since the spring of 2012. No, I'm not happy.<br />
This summer while under the boat removing some line from a lobster pot that got snagged on our starboard prop, I noticed that the Prop Speed we put on the running gear last December was GONE. Also, the bottom paint on the hull sides was wearing through to the fiberglass in one area.<br />
I talked to our guy that does our bottom cleaning once a month, and he agreed that our bottom paint, particularly the Prop Speed, was prematurely wearing and we would be due for new bottom paint sooner, rather than later.<br />
There is a long story here about this last bottom painting job, but the realization that we'd be going through this process possibly every 18 to 24 months didn't set well with me. In fact, it got me pretty much disillusioned with owning a boat that was kept in the salt water full time.<br />
I called a boat broker and started the process of finding out what we had to do to get our boat sold. Then I came to my senses.<br />
The age of Swing Set is such that even if we sold it for top dollar, we'd have a hard time replacing it with <i>anything</i> that we would like as much, let alone something that would allow us to pocket some money for the difference.<br />
What we did decide was that as much as we like the Florida Keys, the rent here is just too high, even though Marathon is half the price of Key West. If we move north, we can cut our rent down to less than half again what we are paying now. The difference in our outlay can pay for the added maintenance that we haven't planned for.<br />
We have our eye on an area we want to move to, and we are looking forward to being closer to better beaches, and near to bigger towns where there is more to do, but a move won't happen for a few months yet. I'll keep you all in the loop.<br />
As far as bottom paint goes, this time we've sanded off any areas where the paint is not "healthy", and we've grinded all underwater metal to the bare surface, and coated all bare metal and fiberglass with two coats of Interlux Primocon so that the three coats of Interlux Micron 66 will stick to it. If this is the wrong thing to be doing, don't tell me. What's done is done.<br />
Meanwhile, Swing Set is due to hit the water again this Friday, and then we're heading to Key West for a month to take in the busiest time in Key West, starting with Fantasy Fest and ending with the World Championship Offshore Boat Races.<br />
Lots of folks come down that we know from the St. Louis area, so we get to visit with some old friends, maybe for the last time. If you think about it, everyone you see everyday is someone you may be seeing for the last time. Don't take anything for granted.<br />
We're approaching a half million hits on our blog, not a real big number, but I'm always surprised at how many people still enjoy reading it, even though I'm only posting about once a month. Just the other day a fella in West Marine recognized us and commented that he liked our blog.<br />
Maybe where we're going will give me more material to pass along.<br />
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<br />Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-70741720086838358522015-09-17T08:14:00.000-07:002015-09-18T01:09:39.301-07:00Sweet Dreams<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sunsets are plentiful as well as beautiful from our vantage point here at the dock, but sunrises are nice too when we get some clouds to reflect the light from the rising sun coming up on our bow.<br />
In spite of our satisfaction with our boat neighbors on both side of us, we moved slips anyway, just a couple of weeks ago. When a majority of boats in our area of the marina (the 45 foot slips on the West dock) moved in anticipation of Hurricane Erika, some did not move back and a slip we had been eyeing became available. The slip was only two spaces away to our south, just on the other side of our then current boat neighbors, and when we mentioned to them that we were thinking about moving, they both were delighted.<br />
We asked Judy, the dock master, about moving our boat to this other slip, and after some deliberation about how some future guests could be accommodated in a slip other than the one we wanted to move to, she concluded that since we were now "permanent residents", we had priority. It didn't hurt that our current boat neighbor, Caroline, works in the marina office.<br />
One of our reasons for liking this new slip was the fact that the boat that our neighbors have is over 50 feet, and their stern blocks our view somewhat of the channel coming into the harbor, as well as the rest of the West docks. It's not a big thing, but we felt just a little "boxed in" between two aft cabin vessels. Sometimes it's just the little things.<br />
Also, a factor in the equation was that the pier we would be tied to was recently rebuilt, so we wouldn't have to move again in the future to rebuild the pier we <i>were</i> on, a certainty. Once we started counting reasons for moving, the reasons started adding up. Another one was that we wouldn't have the prevailing easterly winds blocked by the laundry room, nor the view to the East. How did we ever stay for over ten months in that ratty old slip?<br />
I spent over three hours on a Saturday morning relocating our dock lines, water lines, shore power, T.V. cable, cleats, hose rack and hose, welcome mat, and solar lights from our old slip to our new one. Since we berth "bow in", our shore power, water, and cable, is run from the pedestal along the top edge of the wooden pier to the end of it, where I can quickly disconnect everything when we take the boat out, leaving it all neatly secured to the dock and not strung out all over the boat.<br />
Our new neighbors, which are actually our old neighbors, only we now share a pier between us had a rag rug screwed to the pier at the point of boat entry, in order to wipe everyones feet before boarding. We had a welcome mat too, so I installed it where the concrete on the pier ended and the wood began. Max, the male half of our boat neighbors, said that he would only charge us one dollar a month for the use of their rug. I said, "OK, and I'll only charge you a buck fifty a month for the use of the mat I just installed over there."<br />
Never mess with a retired union member.<br />
No, actually we get along fine with our neighbors. We've both installed more solar lights on the pier, and Max bought two strands of solar rope lights to run along the concrete section of our pier. At night it looks like a Miss America runway between our boats, putting all other piers at the marina to shame. If anyone falls into the water at night around here they deserve it.<br />
One dynamic that has changed is that now we share a double slip with whoever happens to arrive as a transient, as there is no one "permanent" in the slip south of us yet. It could happen that another fifty foot aft cabin vessel might move in, and we'd be just about where we were before, view wise, but those things we can't control anyway. As it is, the first boat to come in and occupy the spot next to us came in a few days after we were in our new spot.<br />
The 34 foot Mainship trawler was owned by an older couple, and coming from me, that's gotta tell you something. It's a good thing I kept a line in place running from the outer piling between our double slip to the concrete bulkhead, because our new neighbor was just a wee bit inexperienced in the docking department. Even though we had no wind at all when he came in, it took him three tries to nose his bow head first into an 18 foot wide slip. Everyone has to learn at some point, but he didn't even help himself by putting out any fenders. I walked over to give him a hand, which was greatly appreciated by him and his wife, helped him tie up and get his shore power going.<br />
As they were our immediate neighbors, we shared some conversation when any of us were outside, but we didn't impose and neither did they, but we learned that they had cruised from an overnight stay at Cape Sable, from their home port of Marco Island.<br />
I admired our new neighbors as they made the most of their stay here in Marathon. They took the boat out everyday, and I helped them each time they came in bouncing from piling to pier. One day the front deck was covered in blood, it appeared to be fish blood, I didn't ask.<br />
On the last day coming in, the evening before they were due to return to Marco Island, I went over to oversee their arrival. Once we got lines secured, I asked "John" how long they owned a boat. "About a year", was the reply. "If ya got any advice, I sure could use it", he added.<br />
Given the opportunity, I suggested, as nice as I could, that perhaps when he came in to the dock, he could have his fenders out. They currently were tied to the rails, but laying uselessly between the rails and his cabin. "Oh, I thought I had forgotten something", John said.<br />
Our own preference is to employ fenders on each side of Swing Set when we enter a slip also occupied by another vessel. We feel that it's our responsibility to protect not only our boat when docking, but the boats of others in our close proximity. We wish other people felt the same way. If I'm around when someone comes in and looks like they want to use our boat as a means of bouncing off to get into their slip, I strongly suggest that they put out fenders before attempting insertion. Everyone knows about the phrase "better to be safe than sorry", but lots of people don't put the words into actions.<br />
I also suggested that he learn how to use spring lines, especially at a fixed dock. "If you slip at least one on as you come in, it can help you avoid hitting the forward bulkhead if you are coming in bow first, and if you come in stern first, they take the guess work out of knowing how close you are to the dock at your stern.<br />
I also relayed to him my Cardinal rule, which he apparently was not aware of, and it's the rule that states to "Never leave the helm until the boat is secure". This rule is naturally only a rule if you have a crew, or some help. Single handers gotta do what they gotta do.<br />
I say this time and time again, "You cannot control the boat if you aren't at the helm".<br />
We should be seeing more boats coming into the marina by the end of the month. As it is, there is a 25 vessel waiting list for slips of our size starting in October. One reason for this is that the marina is getting a face lift, and all of the boats in the area getting the facelift need slips to go to, hence the waiting list.<br />
The fuel docks are getting moved, and some new slips will be added. The new double slips will be able to accommodate catamarans, which the current marina doesn't have much of, and they'll be Bellingham floating concrete docks, twenty-seven in all. Twenty of those slips will be for transients only, so in the summer when things are slow, there will be floating docks to move to if a hurricane threatens.<br />
Long time blog readers might remember that one of our improvements to the boat was the addition of a three inch thick foam pad that we had installed over our five inch thick innerspring mattress that came as original equipment on our Sea Ray. The mattress was made by HMC, the "home crafted mattress company". Having learned a few things about foam padding from our dealings with having upholstery done on the boat, got me thinking about our mattress, and the foam pad covering it. We decided to look into getting new bedding for the V-berth in our master stateroom.<br />
Thinking that if I gave HMC our hull number, we could get a custom mattress made, sort of like we did with our bimini top through Boatswain's Locker, but when I called to the regional outlet for HMC, I was told that we would have to go from scratch, supplying measurements to them because they had no records of the size of mattress made explicitly for our Sea Ray.<br />
We were disappointed, but undeterred, but were taken aback by the quoted price, which was in the neighborhood of three thousand dollars. Considering that we spend over one third of our lives in our bed, we accepted this quote, and began to think about getting measurements to HMC and having a new mattress made.<br />
Watching T.V. one night, I was watching a commercial for a mattress company, selling queen size mattresses for $99, when I began wondering why we were about to spend $3000 for a mattress. The next morning, I called our "go to" canvas and upholstery guys here in the keys, Oceanside Canvas, and talked with one of the owners, Steve Alberts.<br />
I asked about just replacing the foam pad over the existing innerspring mattress with a stiffer foam one in order to save money, but Steve had another idea. He said they could build us a custom made latex foam mattress covered with Sunbrella material in any color we wanted, and it would be much cheaper than the quote from HMC. Knowing that HMC also sells latex foam mattresses, we weren't stuck on the idea of an innerspring mattress, so we told Steve to come up to Marathon to measure us up and to leave some samples of Sunbrella material.<br />
Steve sent his partner Fritz to get a ballpark measurement so they could get us a quote, and by the time he arrived, we also decided to recover our padded bolster (basically our headboard) with the same material we would choose for the mattress covering. The padded bolster, which we had gotten recovered in St. Louis years ago, was showing signs of mildew that we couldn't get out. Just examining the headboard in really good light made us cringe with embarrassment.<br />
The initial measurement gave Steve and Fritz something to go by when they called their supplier for costs of foam material for the mattress. We wanted the mattress to wind up being eight inches thick, so they decided on a six inch thick mattress material with a two inch thick very firm foam base, hinged so we could lift up the bottom end of the mattress to access one of our air conditioners under the bed, and then covered with Sunbrella on top, and a breathable material on the bottom. Even with recovering our headboard, the quote was half of what we got from HMC, and I wasn't responsible for measuring for the mattress.<br />
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Yesterday we installed our new headboard and mattress. We picked a neutral colored green for it all. This picture is before Rosie made up the bed with a mattress pad, sheets, bedspread, and pillows. Since we went with an eight inch mattress, the added height allowed Oceanside to increase the width of the bed at the head. Instead of the original trapezoidal shape of our old bed, we now have something more of a square. It's geometry. I hardly understand it myself.<br />
Last night was our first time sleeping with the new mattress, and it's as firm as we wanted it, and we like it.<br />
People like to say that we are "living the dream". If this is true, we may never want to wake up.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-62350391713638380512015-08-30T08:06:00.001-07:002015-08-30T08:06:35.055-07:00Hurricane Erika That Wasn't<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We just don't get tired of these sunsets in the Keys! At times we second guess our decision to face our stern into the west because the late afternoon sun is so hot shining into the cabin, but when the sun sets below our flybridge overhang, we just close the shade on the salon door for an hour or so. The really good weather is coming soon.<br />
The weather has been foremost on our minds for the last few days. First we had tropical storm Danny threatening to come our way, but that storm dissipated quickly and was soon replaced by tropical storm Erika, which had our attention in a big way.<br />
Our "hurricane plan" which is filed with our insurer, Boat U.S., states that our "plan" is to simply go where the hurricane <i>isn't</i> going to be. Well, we found out that trying to guess where the hurricane is going to be is nearly impossible for the experts, let alone us.<br />
First Erika was coming straight at us, then the path switched to the east to head up the Florida coast to miss us, then as the storm passed the Dominican Republic, the path changed again, heading straight for us and up the east coast of Florida, then just before the storm dissipated like Danny, the path was forecasted to go south of us, just north of the tip of Cuba. If we were going to go anywhere, it would have been hard to guess where to.<br />
My second option during this time of the year, would be to grab a mooring ball in Boot Key Harbor. There is plenty of moorings available this time of year, so worrying about if there is room in there is a non issue, but as we are learning, the boats in there that are not on the city owned moorings have a great risk of breaking free and slamming into other vessels that are on the paid-for moorings. Also, from what we have seen on most of the vessels in Boot Key Harbor, many of them have so much junk piled on them by some of the pack rats living on them, there is a potential for a lot of flying missiles when the wind kicks up.<br />
Danny, as well as Erika, were never touted as developing as more than a category one hurricane, so our alert level wasn't to the point where we thought we would head to the Everglades up near Marco Island, or up the river near Cape Coral. This plan, being fairly expensive, will be put into play if the early forecast for any storm indicates a storm higher than a category one.<br />
Another option is to head to Stock Island. Safe Harbor is named as it is for a reason, and if we swallow our pride, we can get a slip at Stock Island Marina Village at their floating docks, my preference over the fixed docks like we have here at Marathon Marina.<br />
We eventually settled on another option for Erika. Judy, the dockmaster here at Marathon Marina, asked us if we wanted to take a bigger slip for the duration of Erika, allowing us to ride bow out toward the sea, and have more room to "spider web" our lines to keep the boat more to the middle of a wider slip in order to avoid bumping the pilings on each side of us.<br />
Even as the strength of Erika was in question for its duration, we decided to move to a bigger slip anyway, just to be safe. Our boat neighbor on our starboard side moved as well, and we tied up next to each other in much bigger slips.<br />
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As you can see from the picture, we are still off to the side, next to the pier, but Erika is gone and all we have left is some threat of gusting winds today. As I was writing this, the wind kicked up, and we positioned Swing Set more in the middle of the slip. We have ten lines around the boat, more available to us if we need them. We also have our auxiliary anchor lines, more than 500 feet of them, ready on the bow if we need them, but for now they are staying put.<br />
We had placed our Yuba bicycle back onboard the boat, along with the cover. The bike cover, and the bimini top, would probably be removed for any winds approaching 100 miles an hour. That's the plan anyway, but doing that requires some forethought that may or may not come into play.<br />
Several boats in the marina moved to bigger slips until this storm is passed us. Some owners flew in from out of town to move their boats, and some other owners pay a fee yearly to be on a haul out list, plus are charged for the haul out and blocking for each haul out. Not only would that plan require us to find a place to live besides staying on the boat, I've seen lots of boats in The Bahamas that had been hauled out for storms, now laying on their sides as the wind blew them off the blocks.<br />
Most of the staff here at the marina were housed in the condos around the resort. One staffer offered to share her condo if the weather got too rough. She said to just come knock on the door if we needed to, and bring our sleeping bags. That was a nice offer, and one we would take her up on if staying on the boat proved to be a mistake.<br />
Putting our scooter onboard wasn't necessary either, because Judy told us to put our scooter in the office until storm passed, so we did. Had we decided to leave, the scooter would have went with us, but as it was, we had one less thing to do to prepare.<br />
One reason we didn't want to leave was that Holly had a veterinarian appointment for yesterday morning. She has been battling an ear infection for over a month, and this third, and final visit, was to be a check up to determine if her ears were free from infection. We were happy to find out that she got a clean bill of health from "Dr. Gerry" at the Marathon Animal Hospital.<br />
On a less positive note, we began discussions about possible surgery for our little buddy, because she has what's called "luxating patellas" which means basically that her knees on here hind legs slide off to the side of her legs, causing pain and potentially causing an inability to even walk. We've known that she's had this since her first visit to Dr. Tara Brooks at Affton Animal Hospital in St. Louis. Now that she is going to be four years old, the constant dislocating is starting to take a toll. When she wants on our laps, Holly has no compunction about barking an order to us to pick her up. We're happy to do it.<br />
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Rosie had a birthday last week and we celebrated by going out to breakfast, then taking the dinghy out to Sombrero Light and snorkeling on the reef. We weren't in the water but a minute, and we both got stung by jellyfish. Rosie just got brushed on her leg, but I got stung all down my right side. We continued to snorkel for about a half an hour, but it was hard to enjoy it due to constantly looking up at the water surface where the jellyfish mostly are. The water was really clear on the day we were out there, and we saw lots of fish.<br />
We climbed back in the dinghy and decided to take a long ride to Duck Key, about twenty miles to the east. The seas were flat and we had a good ride, taking about two hours to go around Duck Key and come back on the bayside to the marina as some thunderstorms started to roll in. We finished out the evening at Franks, an Italian restaurant in Marathon that was recommended to us. We had a really nice dinner, and capped it off back on the boat with some wine that was an unexpected gift from our boat neighbors.<br />
Speaking of boat neighbors, we have some good ones. The people on our starboard side are very social people, and we talk to them quite a bit. We've helped each other out to a small degree, and we compare notes on mechanical issues as they pop up. I'd say we have a pretty good "live and let live" situation with them and we like it.<br />
Our neighbor on the other side of us is a good one too. He also lives on his boat, and even though he is friendly, he keeps to himself and is no bother to us at all. One night last week though, we were in bed reading and I had actually fell asleep. Rosie heard a big splash, and I did too and it woke me up. We both jumped up and looked outside and saw nothing, so we figured it was a dolphin or tarpon splashing near the boat, as we have seen that happen before. I returned to bed and soon Rosie was hollering to me that someone was in the water. It turned out to be our boat neighbor who had fallen off the pier at the bow of his boat and was clinging to his stern ladder and couldn't get up. I crawled over to his swim platform and helped him out of the drink, to which he was very appreciative. We think he was embarrassed, but we know these things happen. It's just lucky he didn't hit his head going in and drowning. He owns an aluminum railing company and had one of his employees come down to the dock and install a nice post at the step down onto our pier.<br />
It's not unusual to read about veteran boaters falling off docks. It seems like there's about one a week around here, but I'm sure it's not that many. My message here is to BE CAREFUL on the docks, and don't get complacent. Even the most seasoned boaters can wind up in the drink.<br />
One thing there is plenty of on U.S. 1 is auto accidents. Currently there are eight fatalities so far this year on the Overseas Highway. Even though we ride the scooter to Key West occasionally, we don't take it lightly, and we try to avoid riding in the rain. I had a doctor's appointment for Monday, and we cancelled it because of the storm forecast. We may borrow a car and reschedule the appointment. We continue to get offers from residents here, and staff, to borrow their vehicles if we need them. It's nice to have options.<br />
We rode to Key West last weekend to "get away" for Rosie's birthday. Some friends had their condo available and offered it to us, and it was an offer we couldn't refuse. We loaded up the scooter with two backpacks of stuff we needed for a two night stay, and with Holly strapped into her carrier, we arrived like the Clampetts to Southard Street. Had we arrived in a car we wouldn't have found a place to park. There's usually a place to park a scooter in Key West, and those parking spots are free, but not always where you want them. We locked up the scooter and put our travel cover on it and didn't move it until we left on Sunday morning, not wanting to lose a spot that we could see from the condo we were in. Everywhere we wanted to go in Key West was easily within walking distance.<br />
Here in Marathon, cabs are five bucks. You can't beat that. Even though we keep thinking about getting a car, it's just complicates matters if we need to move anywhere. If there's anything we like, it's not having complications.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-53851532368195859512015-07-31T15:42:00.001-07:002015-07-31T15:42:45.893-07:00A Few Days On The Hook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We recuperated from our long weekend with visiting friends and the boat races, and then started venturing out to the sand bars on the weekends. During the week we spent a lot of time hunkered down in the A/C because of the repressive heat.</div>
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I did some minor work on the boat, one item being the replacement of one of our fresh water pumps. I installed two brand new Shurflow 4 G.P.M. pumps before we left St. Louis, so I was surprised that one of them had quit. We don't use the pumps when we are at the slip because we just use dockside water pressure with a hose. If the pumps are on the water is pulled from the water tank on board and this requires filling up the tank on a regular basis. I do use the pumps when I flush the engines after taking the boat out and it was during the last flush when I found out the pump wasn't working.</div>
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I did suspect either a wiring problem or a pressure switch issue with the pump, but I didn't want to tear into our plumbing or wiring at the pumps only to discover that the problem was in fact the pump, so I ordered a new pump, thinking I'd have a spare if I could fix the problem easily.</div>
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I found out that the pumps I had installed were no longer available. This is not a good sign. If components work well they are usually not discontinued, at least that's my belief. I refuse to be cynical to the point of thinking businesses quit making a product that "works too well".</div>
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Plumbing in the new pump and wiring it was a cinch as the connections were in the same locations as the old pump. One thing I was really thankful for was that I had relocated the two pumps for ease of maintenance, but as I had mounted them in line, not side to side, I had to remove a pump to access the pressure switch.</div>
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Once I had the old pump off I removed the pressure switch and applied direct power to the motor and it ran. I put the switch assembly back on, adjusted the pressure a bit, and the pump ran fine. I put the "old pump" in the "new pump" box and stowed it away for when we'll need it. This could be viewed as wasting $150 but had I called an electrician to troubleshoot or fix the problem, we would have spent that money anyway. As it was, I enjoyed a sense of accomplishment from being able to fix the problem myself. The best thing, I didn't even cut myself.</div>
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We got a phone call from a friend that we've known for a long time that now lives in central Florida who was coming through Marathon and wanted to visit. Luckily we had nothing on our schedule, so on the agreed to day, we got picked up in a spiffy white Cadillac and drove down to Big Pine Key, and more importantly, to No Name Key to see the Key Deer there.</div>
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We hadn't really ridden in such a nice vehicle for some time. Mostly it's the scooter for us, or the cheap, but largely beaten up local taxis, so naturally, after our friend left we began to consider the purchase of a car. Yes, impulse buying raised its ugly head again.</div>
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I found a nice used MINI Cooper on AutoTrader and last week we went to look at it. We were going to take the scooter all the way up to Hialeah Gardens but on the morning we wanted to go we were greeted by a sky full of rain clouds. Hialeah is near Miami, and even though we've ridden motorcycles in the rain countless times, (is there a song about that?) the thought of doing it on our scooter for such a long trip didn't really appeal to me too much.</div>
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Wade, the guy who scrubs our barnacles every month, has a nice little Ford truck that he has offered for our use on more than one occasion, so I looked him up and asked him if we could borrow it. He said, "Sure! Let me check the oil first."</div>
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A half an hour later we were on our way. Got about 15 minutes out and I noticed the "check engine" light was on. I suspected that the light was perpetually on, and a quick call to Wade confirmed this fact, so on we went to Hialeah.</div>
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We pulled up to the address given and even though I might be a bit slow, I know a body shop when I see one. The ad for the MINI didn't mention anything about the car being a repaired wreck. Warning bells were ringing big time.</div>
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We didn't want to waste the drive, so we decided to see the car anyway. The owner of the shop showed up just minutes later. Phil was a Cuban who immigrated years ago and started his body shop business on a shoe string. He showed us a picture of his first car, an American Motors model of some sort that he had paid $600 for and had to get a loan to obtain it. After seeing his two warehouses and his mention of their house in Miami with a guest house, I figured he has done very well with himself.</div>
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The MINI was very nice really. I could tell he wasn't really pushing to sell it, in fact it was stuck way in the back of the warehouse and he had to move six cars to get to it. There was some other minor things that needed to be fixed, but we could see through the little dust on it that the repairs had been done excellently and the interior was like brand new.</div>
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We went for a drive. I wanted to check shimmy on the front end at highway speeds, and how well the manual transmission shifted. Rosie and I were both impressed, so we told Phil we would be back to buy the car once he got some minor items fixed. (Loose fender trim, MINI decal on the trunk lid, clearance light on one fender. He had the parts.) This was a Friday, so we picked Tuesday to come back to get the car.</div>
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It's a two hour and forty-five minute drive from Marathon to Hialeah Gardens and the drive up reminded us how ignorant and inconsiderate our fellow drivers can be. The drive home was close to rush hour and we got a triple dose of what we got going up.</div>
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The worst part was that my back started killing me from driving the truck. Since we had the time on our hands, we wisely began questioning our decision to get a car in the first place. At first, the thought of having a vehicle gave me fantasies of taking little trips, seeing friends in Florida and even back in Missouri. Maybe some sight seeing up the east coast would be in order. Hell, we might even drive to Californy. The reality is that we only had an interest in driving south one hour to Key West, and north one hour to Key Largo. Anything beyond that was too masochistic for us we decided.</div>
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We slept on it, but still called Phil in the morning. If the car would have been 100% perfect, we might have still went through with getting it, but this was one rare time I listened to my gut, and my gut said no. Phil was very appreciative that we called. In fact, he offered his guest house to us in Miami if we ever wanted to come visit. We returned the favor and offered a boat outing and a few beers next time he and his wife came through on their way to Key West. We really feel like we made a friend. He even said that most people wouldn't have even called. We don't operate like that.</div>
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Last Saturday we woke up to a field of sea grass in the flats behind our boat. What you see in the picture is not brown water, but grass completely choking the "flats" behind our boat. We know that the bay side (Gulf side) of the keys suffers from an influx of sea grass on a regular basis. A lot of marinas and canals have sea grass "gates" to keep the stuff out when the seasonal north winds blow the grass in and choke the harbors. Having this much grass on the ocean side is unusual and rare.<br />
Some friends who had just moved to a marina on the bay side were happy to gloat about the absence of sea grass in their marina, and lucky for them they won't be around this winter to experience what happens over there all winter long, but for out part we just figured to leave the dinghy on the davits for a few days and do something else with our time.<br />
Unfortunately, the winds were not due to change for at least a week. By Monday the grass was turning brown, and with the heat we've been having, it began to stink in a big way. We decided it was time for a "road trip" and go out on the hook.<br />
I made a quick trip to Publix for provisions in the name of two cases of Bud Light, (16 ounce aluminum bottles were on sale) two thick pork chops and two strip steaks. An eight piece fried chicken box filled out my list and I was on my way back to Swing Set on the scooter, the two cases of Bud Light at my feet. What a sight.<br />
Getting out of our slip was not easy. A boat doesn't necessarily slice through tons of sea grass, especially in reverse. There was a moment when I thought we would have to pull back into the slip and stay put. Turning the boat was a chore in itself. This was something we really were not prepared for. We only had to go about a hundred yards to clear water, mindful that cleaning sea strainers would be first priority once we got to our anchorage.<br />
We pulled over to the fuel dock and pumped in 150 gallons of diesel, not having gotten fuel in months. Mike, the attendant, asked us if we would wait just a minute as he was just in the middle of lowering the diesel price by twenty cents to $3.19 a gallon. I told him we could wait as long as he wanted us to.<br />
Last time we ran Swing Set was on our return from Faro Blanco and I noticed we were a bit off on our top end speed, but I attributed it to some head winds and the possibility of having some lobster trap line wrapped up in our running gear. Since then I had checked for fouling of our props and found none, so I was disappointed to find out on our run to the anchorage last Monday that the engines wouldn't take fuel. I switched the Racors on the run without any improvement. I had some spare primary fuel filters on board and knew it had been a year since changing them out, so without ruining our day, I just decided to swap them out the next day.<br />
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By early afternoon we were anchored twenty miles away from Marathon in Newfound Harbor, just off from Picnic Island, a favorite place of ours to spend some time. Lobster mini-season was about to start, so lots of vacationers are here in the Keys and loads of people were out enjoying the lull before the two day mini season started on Wednesday. We took the dinghy over to the sand bar and met some nice folks who live on Little Torch Key but also have a house in New Smyrna Beach. I remember when we had two houses, but not at Florida prices.<br />
The next morning we took the dinghy over to Dolphin Marina to get some ice and a couple gallons of diesel to fill the fuel filter canisters before installing them. (This saves on a bunch of priming.) Our main engine strainers were not too bad, but the air conditioner strainer was packed, as was the generator strainer. We hadn't even run the A/C strainer, but it was still so packed, the hose from the through hull valve to the strainer was plugged. I don't even know how we were getting enough water to run the generator but we were. I had to remove the hose to unplug it, but having a water hose with good pressure in the engine room really helped the process along. I decided right then and there to check the generator strainer every day while on the hook. I did and it paid off.<br />
I've mentioned the heat outside and this week was brutal. We ran the A/C all week long which meant that the generator had to run too. There wasn't enough wind to let the Air-X wind generators help much, so we were burning .9 gallons of diesel per hour to keep cool, well worth it but we began to call our neighbor back at the marina to see if the grass had moved out.<br />
We did some exploring in the dinghy and spent some more time over at Picnic Island, but mostly we enjoyed just being on the hook for a few days. By Thursday we found out that the sea grass in our slip was nearly gone but we decided to stay one more night and visit Looe Key Tiki Bar on Thursday for happy hour.<br />
The channel into Looe Key Resort is not far away from our anchorage, but it's fairly long and very narrow. The last time we went in there a guy on a jet ski came out on plane and soaked us with his wake/spray when he refused to slow down. My antenna went up yesterday as we entered the channel and a center console boat entered the channel outbound, came on plane and started heading toward us.<br />
There is a sign on the first marker coming into the channel to yield to outbound vessels, so I slowed to idle and moved over as far as I could without getting into the rocks. The boat kept coming at us, not slowing down, and was throwing a wake and spray the width of the channel. Sure enough he passed us at speed and soaked us, rocking the dinghy pretty good. I thanked him sincerely, and not knowing his name, or any of the other eight people in the boats names, I addressed him as Jack Auf. First thing that came to mind.<br />
He yelled something and I waited to see if we wanted to come back for another pass, but they kept going on their merry way. We motored on to the end of the channel and entered the canal leading to Looe Key, only to see another sign on the first piling on the way out that said to yield to inbound vessels. What?<br />
I spent the first hour or so at the bar stewing over the inconsiderate behavior of a "fellow boater" until the Bud Lights kicked in and we started having some fun. We met a local woman who had a cute little dachshund and we struck up a conversation with her and she even bought us a beer. We like that.<br />
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We also met two young girls from Atlanta down for a few days. They had been on a "booze cruise" that day and were well on their way to Margaritaville. We like that too.<br />
But before we left, some guy came by our seats at the bar and reached behind Rosie to pet Holly. Wrong move. "Your dog bit me", he said.<br />
"My dog did not bite you", I told him. But he insisted. I told him again that our dog, no matter what he said, did NOT bite him. Rosie settled the affair, to a degree, by telling him that if he had kept his hands to his self, maybe there wouldn't be a problem. Oh boy, here we go.<br />
He kept grumbling to his friends as to how he "oughta know if we was bit or not", so we made our exit as quietly as we could given the fact that Rosie had developed an attitude over the issue. Understandably, yes, but historically, given my experience, never leading to anything good.<br />
This morning we left Picnic Island at high tide in slight winds. I put Swing Set on plane and away we went, just a bit under our desired cruising speed at 2500 R.P.M. of 25 M.P.H. I pulled back the throttles and we settled in to a two hour cruise at 1200 R.P.M. and 8.5 M.P.H., but when I went to throttle up to warm up the CATS at the end of the run, again they wouldn't take any fuel.<br />
I switched the Racors and this time it was the trick. We ran the rest of the way in at 25 miles per hour and a top speed of 28. I'll take those numbers considering we had 3/4s fuel and a half tank of water left. And plenty of beer.<br />
Our four days on the hook running the generator, plus the 40 or so miles round trip, only burned 50 gallons. Not too bad. After getting our fuel we pulled into our grassless slip and plugged into shore power and let the A/C crank.<br />
Rosie grabbed the hose and began to rinse the decks that had so much salt on them it was like walking on a pretzel. I walked over to the dockmasters office and was greeted like a long lost relative.<br />
It's really nice to be back home.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-76508156159464266052015-07-14T07:03:00.001-07:002015-07-14T07:03:31.198-07:00Dog Days of Summer There is no getting around it. It's HOT here in the Keys. But as far as we can see, it's hot in most areas of the country, at least in the places that we'd want to live. We deal with the heat like most lucky people do, turn on the air conditioning and stay inside a majority of the time.<br />
And boy, the A/C gets a work out here in the summer. I made a minor improvement to our air conditioning system recently by installing a new raw water strainer for it.<br />
Our generator and A/C systems each have their own strainer, and each engine has its own too. For some reason Sea Ray put Perko strainers on the A/C and generator systems and used big Groco strainers for the main engines. I prefer the Groco strainers because the tops just screw off like a mayonaise jar and the Perkos require loosening two wing nuts. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but the wing nuts get hard to turn and the gasket on the lids get harder to seal on the Perkos. I also wanted more capacity on the A/C strainers because the units are operating 24/7 and they get full of grass more often. Bigger strainer means less maintenance, always the goal on a boat is to reduce any maintenance interval.<br />
Defender Marine had the Groco strainer at a good price, so I ordered a new one and swapped it out two weeks ago. The basket is bigger and easier to pull out, so every week or so I've been putting a crushed chlorine tablet in the strainer to ward off growth in the strainer itself and presumably the lines for the A/C system. I monitor the affluent from the A/C units and make sure water is flowing freely. If the water starts dribbling, your lines or strainer is getting plugged and A/C efficiency suffers. Also if you need to keep turning up your thermostat to keep it cool in the boat, it's a sign that something is wrong. I can't quantify my results, but my feeling is that ever since I began using the chlorine tablets last year, our A/C has been running better and colder.<br />
Our choice to have our stern facing west certainly has the advantage of a great view, but the sun beats in late in the day. We still like our slip though, we just close our room darkening shade on the salon door when we need to and avoid sitting around in the cockpit in this heat. I've considered a shade for the stern, but then there goes the view, so we'll just deal with the shade on the salon doors for a couple hours a day and enjoy the view for the rest of the time.<br />
In regard to our slip here at Marathon Marina and Resort, I occasionally consider moving to another west facing slip, but keep finding reasons to stay put. One of those reasons is that Rosie doesn't want to move. Makes it easy for me.<br />
One reason I consider moving is because the boat next to us is an aft cabin Hatteras, rather lengthy, and our view to the south is blocked somewhat. But one thing you can't control is your neighbors, whether on land or sea, and the good outweighs the "bad" (although calling it bad is misleading) because our boat neighbors on either side of us are permanent residents and I think we all co-exist rather well. No one is infringing on each other in any way, except for a minimal view issue, and really that's all one can hope for at times.<br />
The pool here at the resort is climate controlled, so taking a cool soak is just a short walk away, but we have been avoiding the pool lately. Every place you go has their self appointed social directors and one particular person here is a bit overbearing for our tastes. The beauty of living in a marina is that most folks are transients. Things will change with time.<br />
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We still make regular trips with the dinghy to the "beach". In most cases, what we consider the beach is usually a sandbar. The one pictured is near the Vaca Cut, about five or six miles away. We can only go there if it's not too windy, as there's a bit of open water to transit for us to get there. Another one at Grassy Key is usually full of people on the weekends, but it's even farther away and the water is deeper even at low tide. To the west we have Mollassas Key, I've shown pictures of that spot previously. We like it there but the sand is better at the Vaca Cut sandbar.<br />
Our standby is still Sombrero Beach, but since the water has heated up, grass has grown up in the shallows in the section of beach where we have to beach the dinghy so it's a long walk to get into deep enough water to cool off and the beach stinks at low tide due to seagrass deposited on the beach. Oh, the troubles that we must endure!<br />
Our Coleman beach chairs that we bought last year broke. I thought that the steel rivets would be the first to go, but it was the aluminum frame that broke on one, and the other one was about to fail. We bought the Travel Chairs in the picture above. They are aluminum and have stainless steel rivets. Admittedly they are not as comfortable as the Coleman chairs but they should last longer. We considered buying cheapies at Home Depot, but all steel chairs only last a short time and the rust in the dinghy makes a mess. We'd rather spend more money and have nicer chairs.<br />
Last week the Superboat International races were here in Marathon. Some friends from Kentucky came down to visit for the 4th of July weekend and to watch the races with us. We have just now recovered.<br />
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We had planned to anchor out and watch the races, but instead, we nabbed a primo slip for two nights at the brand new Faro Blanco Resort, the headquarters for the race. In the picture, the boat Second Amendment passed right across our bow as they were coming in from a practice run. The throttleman, as well as the driver, have been acquaintances for years, having met long ago when we had a condo at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. The Second Amendment team won their division and we spent time with Neal, Karl, and Brenda at the tiki hut at Faro Blanco well into the evening after the race, as well as our visitors Jeff and Sandy.<br />
We'll see them all again, as well as many other friends, at the races in Key West this November. It will be here before we know it.<br />
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Last Sunday night when we came in from the sandbar I was rinsing off the dinghy and we had a manatee stop by to visit. If you ever get a chance to see a manatee up close and have a water hose nearby, you can make their day simply by hosing them. They love the fresh water, not only to drink, but they'll roll around to get squirted on all sides. You can see the smile on this ones face. This manatee hung around for over two hours until we got tired and hungry and had to say goodbye once it got dark. It felt good to make another creature so happy with such a simple effort.<br />
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Speaking of making creatures happy...our lives revolve around making Holly happy these days. We had to visit our vet here in Marathon recently because Holly got another ear infection and we were out of medicine. $146 later and Holly got a going over and some new ear drops. One thing the vet was impressed with was the condition of Holly's teeth. She remarked as to how clean they were!<br />
Holly will be four years old at the end of October and doesn't have a speck of tartar on her teeth and the vet asked what we are doing. On a whim, back when we were in Cape Coral, we bought some stuff to put on Holly's food once per day. It was about $25 for a small bottle, but it lasted for months. It seemed like a scam, as the ingredients are listed as only one thing, seaweed.<br />
Yes, seaweed. My guess is that seaweed acts as an enzyme that attacks the tartar on Holly's teeth. We can't argue with success, so now we buy a product called PlaqueOff, made by ProDen, for a fraction of what we originally paid for the stuff at the vet in Cape Coral. We get it on Amazon, but we've seen it at PetSmart too. It's still seaweed.<br />
Our boat neighbors have two older dachshunds, one in his teens, and their teeth were coated with plaque. She started using the PlaqueOff and according to her, the plaque just melted off of her dogs teeth and their breath was improved too. Even I'm impressed with what you can learn on my blog!<br />
We were also concerned with some dandruff that Holly has been experiencing lately, maybe because she gets bathed so much, so the vet recommended we get some fish oil to put on her food. So once per day, in addition to the seaweed, Holly gets a fish oil pill poked open and dribbled on her food in the morning. She loves it, and her finicky eating habits have disappeared since we've been using the fish oil. I do think the breath freshening properties of the seaweed have been offset somewhat by the fish oil, but Holly's coat looks shinier and her smile...well, her smile is fabulous.Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5720229159132630924.post-48802760462320583232015-05-28T08:01:00.001-07:002015-05-28T08:01:51.150-07:00Air Draft You may know that we are members of the Americas Great Loop Cruisers' Association. The AGLCA has a members forum on their website that we can use to find out information about "Doing the Loop", or just to discover other tidbits concerning the boating public. Some of the items that members publish makes you wonder how they ever become equipped to leave the dock.<br />
One recent question a member posted had to do with how he could best measure his "air draft". For anyone who doesn't know, this would be described as the measurement from the waterline to the topmost part of a vessel, or "how much does my boat stick out of the water?"<br />
The responses were many...and varied; from using string wound around a stick, poles made with tubes filled with water (to ascertain it being level), to using a laser scope. On and on.<br />
Give this a thought when you consider joining others in a "buddy boat" situation; If a fella can't figure out how to measure how much his boat sticks out of the water, do you really want to be tethered to someone like that on a Gulf of Mexico, or Gulf Stream crossing?<br />
Wanting to know the height of ones boat is necessary, however, for the very important reason that many bodies of water have bridges on them that don't raise or move. The "Loop" has some low bridges along the route that may determine whether or not you can even make the trip in the boat you have, or at least may dictate which route you take. But this post isn't about informing you how to go about making that Loop trip. That would require research, and I don't do research. It <i>may</i> be about dumb questions, but since I ask the occasional dumb question, I don't want to shoot myself in my own foot.<br />
Even though our immediate plans don't include leaving Florida waters anytime soon, we still need to know what our air draft is. There's lots of bridges around here.<br />
We don't drive around saying, "Hey, there's a bridge over there, let's see if we can fit under <i>that</i>!" But for instance, if we want to go over to the Bayside, we need to get under the Seven Mile Bridge, and we can go under at the closest point to us, which is "low", or we can travel nearly three or four miles to the high point passage and not worry about it. We have always gone out to the high point.<br />
Why go out an hour out of our way when the "low point" is somewhere around 21 feet and are "air draft" is a few feet lower? The answer to that is because there are no markings on the piers at the low points showing the distance between the water and the bridge structure, and we have tides, waves, and strong currents to consider. Plus, we don't ever <i>have</i> to get over to the Bayside in a hurry.<br />
If we ever have a need to get under a bridge, we would lower our VHF antennas and our wind generators and stern light, maybe even the radar dome. This would get us under any bridge on "The Loop", but not under some of the bridges along A1A. For some of them, the dinghy air draft may be too much.<br />
One question that was brought up on the AGLCA members forum did prompt a response from me. One guy asked if the extra buoyancy of salt water was significant enough to make a difference in the air draft of his boat. I think it's a good question, I even anticipated having some extra freeboard once we got to salt water, in order to compensate for all the extra crap we had onboard, but it was not to be.<br />
In fact, before we left St. Louis, we raised our waterline on the boat by an inch. We were floating that much lower in the water after bringing all our "stuff" onto the boat. Chugging along the inland rivers, our waterline for the most part only changed when we ran light on fuel or water. The depth of the water due to floods, etc. is more of a concern.<br />
With a full load of fuel and water, Swing Set has water lapping right at the edge of the swim platform. When we got to the ocean, this did not change.<br />
I'm not saying that salt water does not make a boat more buoyant, it does, but it's not enough to make a difference when one is considering whether or not they can take their boat under a low bridge. I wouldn't even let it be part of the equation.<br />
Swing Set is 17 feet, 6 inches from the waterline to the tip of the wind generator blades. That measurement was made with a full load of fuel and water. She sits about 4 inches higher in the water with a light load. Does this mean I'd run under a bridge as low as 18 feet without worrying about it? No, it doesn't. I pay attention at anything under 21 feet, and then I still pay attention.<br />
Do you see where any of my approach to a fixed bridge takes in the consideration of a few inches here or there in relation to fuel and water load, or added salt water buoyancy, or whether I measured the air draft with the boat tipped to one side or the other? Maybe if the boat is squatted down at speed we would have more room to get under a bridge. If nothing else, if you hit something going fast, anything that falls off has a better chance of landing in the water and not back onto the boat.<br />
The message I have here is: Go slow, give yourself lots of wiggle room, and don't take chances.<br />
Anyone who knows me also knows I don't take the helm with a slide rule in my pocket and a heat sensor gun on my hip. Hardly. Leave that for the engineer types. But you can measure and calculate only so much down to the nth degree and there is still an unknown out there sometimes. (At this point, I don't even know if I'm making sense.)<br />
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Speaking of air draft, it would appear that we added some to the dinghy with our new bimini top, but not really. The new top is about even with the stern light. Even so, the top easily folds down, and the top part of the stern light comes off. We can get under some pretty low bridges around here which definitely saves us some time getting around in the dinghy.<br />
We ordered the top from iBoats.com and it was shipped free. I upgraded the material, but still the bows are aluminum. I don't mind the aluminum bows because weight is an issue when we hang the dinghy on our davits.<br />
The top, and the material to make a new dinghy seat came to just under $300. The little green umbrella that we had been using to give Holly shade on our trips to the beach would blow around in the wind and make her skittish, and our supply of $4 umbrellas was running low. They <i>do</i> tend to rust.<br />
How many $4 umbrellas can we buy for $300, you may ask? The answer is seventy-five, but then we'd have to get permission from Holly to share her umbrella when we want to get out of the sun too, skittish or not.<br />
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We thought that the marina would be clearing out after the holiday weekend, but it seems like for every boat that leaves to head north, a new one takes its place. The air temperatures are heating up and we are running the A/C full time now, taking advantage of the fact that our electric is included in our rent.<br />
As we watch some boats depart, I do get a twinge of regret that we are staying put, but as long as it's just a "twinge", it's outweighed by our sense of luxury and contentment here. We have friends coming down for the Superboat races here over the 4th of July and we're looking forward to that. Now that traffic has settled down on A1A, we'll make more trips to Key West on the scooter and maybe take Swing Set to A & B marina for a few weekends this summer. We'll make do.<br />
Swing Sethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18154555877968708725noreply@blogger.com0