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

Yesterday, we shouldered through seas up to almost 1-2 inches for 4.46 miles from our NAS wet slip to the Pensacola Bay side of the best walking beach in the hemisphere...the Ft Pickens section of Gulf Islands National Seashore. We anchored in knee-deep water.

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I solved a problem with the trim-tilt sensors on the midsection by spraying a LOT of Boeshield on the rheostat springs and “exercising” them up and down with a screwdriver.

Solved a problem regarding no GPS signal by (eventually) replacing the N2K ATC fuse, which had some very mild darkish discoloration on the legs, but nothing I would have predicted that would interfere with a solid electrical connection.

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Social Distancing was easy.

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We crossed 100 yards of sugar white sand (ground down from the Appalachian mountains quartz and deposited here a few million years later) for a beautiful 6 mile beach hike.

We’ve been walking this particular beach for over 20 years, but this old roadbed was buried under 3 feet of sand and never previously visible. The roadbed never moved, but the island did...right over it.

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The high was 84 degrees, the wind east at 5-10K, the water 78 degrees so we took a dip as needed to cool off. Unlike Thailand or anywhere in the Bahamas, a jumbo can of SPF 50 sunscreen, or a bottle of pretty nice wine, or 2.5 gallons of E-0 gas are all under $10. Half that of Canada or the Bahamas.

We had a blast as usual and love boating like this twice a week or more if we want. Working together, we have the boat underway, or secured in ithe slip, in under 30 minutes including shore power to the 15K BTU AC rooftop unit and flushing the engines for 15 minutes.

In a few months, the boating season will be over.

Safe travels and boating to you and yours!

John
 
In a few months, the boating season will be over.
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Tell me why boaters from Heartland America (and the Far North) bring their boats to the Gulf Coast (Orange Beach AL, or Destin, FL for the "Season?" Pensacola does not have quite the same "Cachet" but the rest of the year is actually pretty good boating also--The beaches are the same--water a little cooler.
 
We had another "adventure". I replaced both alternators, solving the charging issues. Hint...don't buy cheap Chinese alternators from Amazon or Ebay. I wasted a couple of hundred dollars before buying OEM alternators.

A few miles from the marina, the fuel gauge suddenly began dropping slowly from full to empty. I quickly shut off both motors and checked for leaking gas tanks. No gas leak, so it's likely loose or corroded wires between the sending unit and the gauge. I'll check it when we haul the boat out next month. The gauge began working correctly after starting the motors and didn't give a false reading after that.

We arrived at our target dive site and jumped in the water, only to find really poor visibility and surge on the bottom. Merry left after thirty minutes but I stuck it out. I have a new obsidian stage I wanted to try out. It was difficult keeping the tiny nudibranchs on the stage with the surge, but I came away with a few nice shots. Using a black, reflective stage gave the images a studio quality to them.

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Solved one problem today and caused another.

It was funny the other day I was working on the bilge pump. No clamp on either side just the hose pushed on. So I thought I'd bring down the heat gun and put a clamp on it. Went to pick up the hose to get a better hold on it and it snapped. The hose was so brittle it had no give. Quick trip to WM and ten feet of hose later, two clamps and the bilge was operational.

Today, similar but much funnier. Got a new shower spray as the old one had a crack and was leaking when turned on. Super simple install. Double checked, no leaks dry as a bone. OK, sat on the toilet seat and that broke. So, now time to renew the toilet seat.

Just a thought, why do we say renew and not "replace the broken part" in the boating world? Because renew sounds so much more exclusive, softer, sophisticated?

Anyone know the depth of the seat, of course I left the boat and didn't measure.... :smilep
 
bshillam":3ikdm1r6 said:
Solved one problem today and caused another.

It was funny the other day I was working on the bilge pump. No clamp on either side just the hose pushed on. So I thought I'd bring down the heat gun and put a clamp on it. Went to pick up the hose to get a better hold on it and it snapped. The hose was so brittle it had no give. Quick trip to WM and ten feet of hose later, two clamps and the bilge was operational.

Today, similar but much funnier. Got a new shower spray as the old one had a crack and was leaking when turned on. Super simple install. Double checked, no leaks dry as a bone. OK, sat on the toilet seat and that broke. So, now time to renew the toilet seat.

Just a thought, why do we say renew and not "replace the broken part" in the boating world? Because renew sounds so much more exclusive, softer, sophisticated?

Anyone know the depth of the seat, of course I left the boat and didn't measure.... :smilep
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Sounds like "Airhead" time for sure.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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What broke on the seat? They are pretty “stout”. We did break one of the cheap plastic hinges, but I managed to find white exact replacements on eBay.

Those nudibranch pics are cool. 8)
 
After a very, very busy week (work calls as late as 10 pm each night) I decided to take Friday afternoon off and head down to the APG marina.

Temperature was around 80 F, winds light from the southeast, and skies clear except for a layer of altocumulus here and there portending a change. Days like today with limited time really reinforces the value of a slip. Step on, prepare to go, ten minutes later we’re on our way out.

We traveled towards the main channel where the southerly winds were causing regular rollers. We cut the engines and drifted in the lee of Sepustie island. It was quite comfortable and though we drifted out towards the channel leading to Havre de Grace, we had few wakes to trouble our leisurely afternoon sitting in the cockpit in the fall sunshine.

There’s still not much change to the trees here yet. I suspect it will be a couple more weeks before we can enjoy a fall cruse.

We took advantage of high tide and pulled Navire out of the water to ride out the strong storm predicted on Saturday. I checked the fuel use and despite a few runs at 25 knots the get the engine warm, batteries charged, carbon off, and bay green slime off the hull the amount of fuel used was nearly undetectable.

I plan to tow her back home and give her a good scrub before the last few weeks of the season.

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After a very, very busy week (work calls as late as 10 pm each night) I decided to take Friday afternoon off and head down to the APG marina.

Temperature was around 80 F, winds light from the southeast, and skies clear except for a layer of altocumulus here and there portending a change. Days like today with limited time really reinforces the value of a slip. Step on, prepare to go, ten minutes later we’re on our way out.

We traveled towards the main channel where the southerly winds were causing regular rollers. We cut the engines and drifted in the lee of Sepustie island. It was quite comfortable and though we drifted out towards the channel leading to Havre de Grace, we had few wakes to trouble our leisurely afternoon sitting in the cockpit in the fall sunshine.

There’s still not much change to the trees here yet. I suspect it will be a couple more weeks before we can enjoy a fall cruse.

We took advantage of high tide and pulled Navire out of the water to ride out the strong storm predicted on Saturday. I checked the fuel use and despite a few runs at 25 knots the get the engine warm, batteries charged, carbon off, and bay green slime off the hull the amount of fuel used was nearly undetectable.

I plan to tow her back home and give her a good scrub before the last few weeks of the season.[/img]
 
Today we picked up DayBreak from Rogers marine electronics in Portland, OR. They installed a Raymarine AIS700 Class B transceiver with GPS antenna and a Raymarine EV150 autopilot. They did a great job with the install and took us out on the river so that we could become familiar with the units.

Special thanks goes out to Harvey, SleepyC and Jay, Hunkydory with their postings on the usefulness of autopilot. Also to Steve, Pan-A-C'ya for the safety benefit of AIS.

Looking forward to testing the units out more next week.
 
Gary, You are going to love it. The AIS is my favorite electronic device and really used more often than the VHF -- Really :smile Rogers is a great place and they will treat you right. I'm curious which class B system you installed?

from Wiki:
"There are now two separate IMO specifications for Class B transceivers (aimed at lighter commercial and leisure markets): a carrier-sense time-division multiple-access (CSTDMA) system, and a system that uses SOTDMA (as in Class A). . . . . Class B "CS" (or unofficially as Class B/CS),a 2 watt, tx mode which is essentially the same as the original Class B, and the newer SOTDMA Class B "SO" system,[27] sometimes referred to as Class B/SO or Class B+ and change its rate of transmission depending on the speed the vessel is going, up to every five seconds over 23 knots, instead of the constant rate of every thirty seconds in Class B "CS".[30] Finally Class B "SO" will also broadcast at a power of 5 W instead of the previous 2 W of Class B "CS".[28][31]"
Click to expand...

So the Class B-SO is the hybrid of A and B and has some of the advantages of A, but only half the transmit power. At any rate, either is way faster at defining and determining crossing situations or collision avoidance than MARPA on radar. Again, you ARE going to love it.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Hi Harvey,

We got the Raymarine E70476 transceiver with GPS antenna. Marty also put in a Vesper SP160 amplified VHF antenna splitter because Raymarine has a bulletin out that says it will do better with this splitter in conjunction with its own splitter capability. Anyway, the system works really well. Rodgers installed all the components in out of the way places which is really nice because our boat is not really all that big and we seem to have gained a lot of stuff over time. :)
 
hardee":1ebhb98i said:
Gary, You are going to love it. The AIS is my favorite electronic device and really used more often than the VHF -- Really :smile Rogers is a great place and they will treat you right. I'm curious which class B system you installed?

from Wiki:
"There are now two separate IMO specifications for Class B transceivers (aimed at lighter commercial and leisure markets): a carrier-sense time-division multiple-access (CSTDMA) system, and a system that uses SOTDMA (as in Class A). . . . . Class B "CS" (or unofficially as Class B/CS),a 2 watt, tx mode which is essentially the same as the original Class B, and the newer SOTDMA Class B "SO" system,[27] sometimes referred to as Class B/SO or Class B+ and change its rate of transmission depending on the speed the vessel is going, up to every five seconds over 23 knots, instead of the constant rate of every thirty seconds in Class B "CS".[30] Finally Class B "SO" will also broadcast at a power of 5 W instead of the previous 2 W of Class B "CS".[28][31]"
Click to expand...

So the Class B-SO is the hybrid of A and B and has some of the advantages of A, but only half the transmit power. At any rate, either is way faster at defining and determining crossing situations or collision avoidance than MARPA on radar. Again, you ARE going to love it.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Harvey is it the receive ais function you use the most? Any tips on how you use it? I have a vhf with ais receive I’m planning to install and tie into my Lowrance.

Thanks and congratulations Gary on the upgrade!
 
kaelc":206bzsi3 said:
hardee":206bzsi3 said:
Gary, You are going to love it. The AIS is my favorite electronic device and really used more often than the VHF -- Really :smile Rogers is a great place and they will treat you right. I'm curious which class B system you installed?

from Wiki:
"There are now two separate IMO specifications for Class B transceivers (aimed at lighter commercial and leisure markets): a carrier-sense time-division multiple-access (CSTDMA) system, and a system that uses SOTDMA (as in Class A). . . . . Class B "CS" (or unofficially as Class B/CS),a 2 watt, tx mode which is essentially the same as the original Class B, and the newer SOTDMA Class B "SO" system,[27] sometimes referred to as Class B/SO or Class B+ and change its rate of transmission depending on the speed the vessel is going, up to every five seconds over 23 knots, instead of the constant rate of every thirty seconds in Class B "CS".[30] Finally Class B "SO" will also broadcast at a power of 5 W instead of the previous 2 W of Class B "CS".[28][31]"
Click to expand...

So the Class B-SO is the hybrid of A and B and has some of the advantages of A, but only half the transmit power. At any rate, either is way faster at defining and determining crossing situations or collision avoidance than MARPA on radar. Again, you ARE going to love it.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

JC_Lately_SleepyC_Flat_Blue_070.thumb.jpg
Click to expand...

Harvey is it the receive ais function you use the most? Any tips on how you use it? I have a vhf with ais receive I’m planning to install and tie into my Lowrance.

Thanks and congratulations Gary on the upgrade!
Click to expand...

Kaelc,

Rather than continue this off down another rabbit track I started the AIS discussion (Updated) on another thread: AIS and How I Use It On SleepyC

and it is here:

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?p=361080#361080

I will answer your question if detail there. Any questions ask on that thread or PM me and I will be glad to try and help.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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I did a search and didn't find an answer, so I figured I might ask here.

My 16' Cruiser has no head and I want one for my wee daughter.

Anyone know if there is a model that fits under the cushion, and if so, which one it is?
 
For a small child? I would get a plastic bucket--name the size. Put a lid on it, and a nice little seat for her...then empty in a restroom or at home when you get ashore. Some Portipotties are shorter than others. You would have to measure to find how low a "bucket" or porti potty would fit there.
 
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