SO WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OR ON YOUR C-DORY TODAY??

Our boat, No Pressure has been in limbo for two months. We needed new bottom paint and some Tender Loving Maintenance
but had to wait for the mechanics and the boat yard to synchronize their schedules. During the interim Merry and I worked on the
house and I even resorted to beach diving. I plead temporary insanity.
of
We weren't sure how long the boat would be out of service, so we got a couple spots on the Magician for Santa Barbara Island
while Kevin Lee booked passage aboard the Giant Stride. Both trips were canceled, but our boat was back in the water just in
time to make a run to Golf Ball Reef this morning. Kevin was dreading the climbing of the Giant Stride ladder. His knees haven't
completely healed, so he was thrilled to have the use of our handicap rails once again.

The ocean was a little bouncy but we had surprisingly good conditions on the reef. It was the best visibility we've experienced at
Golf Ball Reef. Life was sparse compared to our earlier dives here. There were no tiny nudibranchs in the kelp nor shrimp on the
barrel, but life on the reef was plentiful.

Now that Spring has arrived the water around Palos Verdes has dropped to its usual 52° but it felt refreshing to finally be back in it.

Report and photos at http://www.mydivinglife.com/MaxBottomtime/3658/Max+Bottompaint.html
 
We arrived back home in Illinois after living 3 months on the boat in the Florida Keys. Looking forward to watching Spring develop here at home.

Dan & Peggy
"Lake Effect"
 
pulled the boat home from dry storage last friday for a complete tune up on both motors and trailer maintenance. this weekend should be the first cruise of the year for us :)
 
Toledo Bend Lake is a giant reservoir on the Texas/Louisiana border. Spent 3 days watching eagles dive on fish, a large rookery full of shrieking birds, beautiful water and sunsets.
 
Took advantage of the short stretch of sunny weather and spent 2 nights in Friday Harbor. Cruised up to Roche Harbor and took advantage of the low season, docked and walked around the resort checking out our "dream lot" overlooking the harbor. Picked a great slip at Friday Harbor with full and open views of Mount Baker. Lots of preseason work going on in the marina and in town getting ready for spring and summer.
 
both motors are now fully tuned, new impellers, fuel lines, etc. trailer is almost 100% caught up, brakes are good and bearings are new (went with the bearing buddies). only thing I have left for this season is I'm thinking new tires, probably going to do that this month. I love my boat. even just trailering it through town got me excited for this season.
 
I hauled Nomad out of the water on Dec 1st and took her home. Just launched on April 1st, so exactly 4 months out of the water. The twins started first time, so did the Wallas. Life is good. Now for some sunshine.

Martin.
 
Brought SleepyC home Friday, from the mechanics. Trailer serviced, new Batteries, oil and tuned up and ready for the new season. Purged the drawers, and getting ready for boating :!: :!: :!:

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
Performed routine maintained on the engine several days ago and noted that the oil (before I removed it) was high on the dipstick. I run the boat a lot and do check the oil, but not check it every time that I use it. Well, I measured what I took out and got a total of 5.5 quarts, from an engine that only is filled to 4.2 quarts... On top of that, it did smell a bit like gas. Mind you that the oil on the dipstick looked transparent, like relatively clean oil. The oil that I removed had no emulsification, so I did not suspect a water intrusion issue.
Yesterday I pulled both fuel pumps from the block, but left all fuel lines attached. Next I squeezed the fuel line primer bulb and gas started coming out of the upper fuel pump (gas was coming out of the side that is inside of the engine block...). This pump had failed on 6/12 and I replaced it then with a new Honda pump and I did not replace the lower pump at that time.
The previous failure was due to the internal diaphragm leaking and not providing adequate fuel pressure to the two carburetors that it feeds, which did not allow the engine to come up to full speed and acted like it was missing on a few cylinders. It is sad that a new fuel pump only lasted that short period of time, when the other pump is now 13 years old (& 870 hours). It is also a shame, that you can't just buy a fuel pump repair kit and replace the diaphragms, as it is a simple job.
 
Started on a few projects today. Ran about 80 gals of water through the fresh water system to dilute out the RV antifreeze. Will put some bleach in tomorrow to sanitize and then will run a bunch more water through.

Spent a good bit of time figuring out where to mount our new Revere Offshore Commander 4 person life raft. I bought a unit in a canister and a cradle with the thought that if I didn't have it out all the time it would likely be to difficult to dig out and deploy. What I didn't count on is how heavy a good 4 person raft is in a canister. The thing weighs about 100lbs in a canister and once it's mounted on the roof, you have to be able to get it up over the edge of the cradle - e.g. you have to lift it up about 4-5" to get it over the edge of the cradle. This is not too hard to do when it's at your feet but is difficult when it's on the roof above your head and a few inches back from the edge. Prior to drilling holes in the roof for the cradle, we wound up throwing the raft on the roof rack on top of my truck to simulate what it would take to get it out of the cradle. After a bit of noodling and experimentation, we came up with a plan. In brief, we ran two 1" wide straps of webbing under the cannister and tied them off at one end to the cradle. The other ends will loop down into the cockpit and get tied together. When we step into the loop,it lifts the canister up out of the cradle and provides a bit of a ramp that allows us to slide the canister out of the cradle and into the cockpit. Once we got that figured out, then we placed the cradle on the roof and marked the spots to drill holes to mount it. The center of the Tomcat roof is cored with balsa so we over drilled, ground out some balsa and mixed up some epoxy to fill the holes. Tomorrow, I will drill out the holes and mount the cradle.
 
Spent the day at the Cathlametstan CBGT with a bunch of really neat people. Did a tour of the back alley way to get to Astoria from there and then came back up the main Columbia River channel. Played sweeper for the group :lol: and had a really nice dinner afterward. It is really great to enjoy the C-Brat family. What a great group.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
 
Took off the original lazarette hatches in preparation for putting the Imtra hatches on. I was surprised how easy they came off. Once the screws were out it only took one sharp pull to pop the old ones off. Getting all the sealant off took a couple of hours though. A heat gun was a good help.

Found only a couple of spots where the core was wet and these were only on the side which was used as a live well. Since I don't fish and use that space for storage, I also cut a hole to install a vent. I can store damp lines and stuff in there now with less chance of mildew.
 
I did a second sea trial of an app i have built. It reads data off the Lowrance GoFree hotspot on the boat. Basically its NMEA sentences expressing all the common data points you can put on the display. So, I filter through all that and get the water depth reading. Then I take that and display it in a large font on the iPhone/iPad, and have it spoken through the speaker or bluetooth. I came up with the idea when fishing with Starcraft Tom last week after calling out the depth alot to him. The clever fisherman just gets bottom contouring downriggers (like Tom). Now I just need to tie in my Scotty's to the same stream. Anyway, I see the app handy for downrigger fishing and possibly anchoring.
 
chromer":2idpgrny said:
I did a second sea trial of an app i have built. ...Then I take that and display it in a large font on the iPhone/iPad, and have it spoken through the speaker or bluetooth.
Click to expand...

I don't fish (yet), but I could sure see that coming in handy many other times. Neat-o!

(I guess you could name it something like "Mark Twain" :mrgreen:)
 
I am trying to think of other things to make now. I have all the speed parameters and GPS info constantly coming at the app. Everything on the NMEA is coming at it. I think one 3rd party app may have been built to date. That app is an overlay of waypoints on a visual display.

After my next sea trial next week, I will post a video of it on Youtube. One neat feature I put in the current app is a squelch slider (0-100%). What this does is only speak the depth if there is a n% change from last spoken depth. Eg. Voice calls out 40 feet deep. If slider is at 100%, then It would require boat to get to 80 feet before next spoken depth. A slider value of 0% calls out the depth constantly as that datapoint arrives.
 
Worked on inspecting wheel bearings on trailer. Have to replace one brake drum/hub due to cracked lip when seal was pressed in. Thinking Six Roblees in Everett should have it, ez loader trailer.
-Also sanitized and rinsed water system for the season.
-Gave boat thorough cleaning and bleach/washed to get ride of mildew. Never have had this much before on exterior! Waxed back bulkhead, cockpit and splashwell.
 
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