Out of Thin Air

 In keeping with new hobby tradition, another new toy arrived this Wednesday. In my defense, when the idea was struck into my head, I was actually searching for new keyboards, a mouse, and a new headset for the computer. But while talking to a friend from work, they mentioned something to the effect of "they can 3D print guns, that's crazy" and in the midst of my Amazon spree, my brain went AHA! And not just because the thought of guns is all manly.

A Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer has found it's way to my desk (the one that my prior post alluded to having more space on). As with a lot of hobbies, this thing is addictive. It came partially assembled, and thanks to copious YouTube videos while waiting for it to arrive, I had it fully put together in probably an hour. I've never owned a 3D Printer before, but I've looked before. There are a few different styles, and different technologies. The most common that I see for general public use are FDM machines, standing for Fused Deposition Modeling. As the name implies, they work by heating up a filament, usually plastic, and fusing it into layers upon itself. Depositing it, if you will. One style that had caught my eye before was a Delta style printer. They look like this:

Obviously that is not the type I ended up with. I'd still like a Delta, if for nothing else because I love the motion the print head has when it moves. But no, I settled for a Cartesian style, the most common out there. The two are fundamentally the same in principle, with the main difference being the Delta machine, the print bed stays fixed and the nozzle dances around. The Cartesian such as the Ender I purchased, has an X,Y, and Z axis movement - the nozzle travels along the gantry for the X and Z motions, and the bed itself moves back and forth for the Y bit.

When I went to Amazon, I typed in "3D Printer". Novel idea, I know. I then picked a budget, relatively small. I knew I wanted one, but also had the presence of mind to convince myself to start basic, and see how I got on with it, or what I would even use it for. So for a max budget of $250 dollars, I sorted by rating, and well I'll be dipped if this Ender 3 didn't pop up at the top of the list with over two thousand ratings, 4.5 stars with almost 80% being a 5-star rating. Good enough for me, I was sold, and a few days later, it arrived. This particular model is also a very popular one, with great community support to boot. Couple that with sites like Thingiverse.com for free prints of almost anything you can imagine to serach for, and I felt fine with my choice. 

The hardest thing to do with most 3D printers for novices, is leveling your print bed surface. A video make a good point that while it's referred to as leveling the bed, it's not entirely accurate. What we're really doing is making sure the surface of the bed is square in relation to the X and Y axis of the nozzle as it goes back and forth, and at the right height off the surface. Too low, and the nozzle can scrape, scratch or damage your print bed. Too high, the material doesn't get smooshed onto the surface enough to adhere to it and your plastic just flakes off before you get anything accomplished. I felt relatively proud that it didn't take me too long to find a dialed in setting, and I got to work printing test prints.

This turned into a finished dog, that I was rather impressed with. Certainly as a demo print, they had the quality dialed up pretty good, but hey, if the machine wasn't capable of printing it as fine as it came out, it wouldn't have mattered, so I was thrilled with it.

The picture makes it harder to see than real life, due to the single color and being unable to make out the depths and contours well enough. But it printed great to my eyes. I printed some other things, like a Baby Yoda holding a pumpkin, and a tool holder that clips to the top of my printer to hold the various hex keys and things that came with the printer. There were plenty of other things to print for the printer too, but I knew I wanted to wait until I had some black filament to match the black printer, instead of the light gray, whitish sample I was playing with. Fortunately, that didn't take long to arrive either, so I've done a few of the common Ender 3 additions since. And when I say since, I mean in the last two days, I've been having a ball.

There's the tool holder, and there's a standoff arm to help the filament have a better arc down into the Extruder, where the filament gets driven and pushed through the tube to the nozzle. I upgraded that tube to a newer one that can handle slightly higher temperatures which will be ideal for different plastics to print. I added a little cover for the front of my rail, then some panels to cover up some of the wiring, and even swapped out the extruder to an all metal version. 

I swapped out the factory Extruder which had a plastic assembly (but did at least have metal gears and a proper bearing), to an all-metal version and topped it off with a printed knob. And you can see the tubing, called PTFE or the Bowden Tube, so named as this is considered a Bowden type extruder and nozzle setup, is now blue and not white as it was originally. This blue tubing is made by a manufacturer called Capricorn and seems to be widely accepted on these printers as the go-to upgrade. This is more heat tolerant, where the end is that sits against the nozzle, is less prone to damage over time and can handle higher heat for certain other materials.

I printed a decorative cap complete with the Ender dragon logo, to cover up the pulled and belt adjustment on the front of the machine.

And I printed these snap-in panels that cover up the wiring for the control panel. If you look in the first picture from when the printer was first assembled, you can see the rainbow colored ribbon cable. Not any more!

And as I type this, I'm printing more goodies, like a different arm for the filament and a little guide for the bottom, so that I can use that original PTFE tubing as somewhat of a guide tube from the filament arm, down to where it goes into that new metal extruder. While the arm does a good job of holding the filament out to allow a less steep angle of entry at the bottom, it's still not the best way of doing it. Having a piece of that tubing will really allow it to make a more graceful curve at the bottom, and enter straighter. Similar to this:

I might just need to let that one finish on it's own and go to sleep. It's already almost 2 AM. I need to stop finding new hobbies, they're costing me sleep!

Wait, I should look for some sailboat models to print while I'm at it...

Vroom

2020 has been kind of a weird year to say the least. With working at home being a thing, one thing that has also been a consequence has been free time during the week. Obviously on the weekends I prefer to go to the water, but a funny thing happened on the way to the lake.

Early in summer, my uncle had asked if I had ever tried iRacing. At the onset of the pandemic, NASCAR had actually been running virtual races using this service, with the racers in their homes running on computers and steering wheels. I think this is what prompted the question due to the increased exposure. But iRacing.com isn't just for NASCAR races. There are plenty of race types, cars, tracks, and experience levels. One of these avenues is dirt track racing, something that my uncles and family had been involved in for years. Perhaps this was some of the motivation as well.

A few months back, I decided to take him up on this offer, and signed up for an iRacing account. They are running still a promotion on a yearly subscription which costs far less than many forms of entertainment. I believe plenty of drinks at Starbucks would also singly exceed the monthly cost of the service. Costing a little more than a caffeine fix, I also picked up a second-hand racing wheel - a Logitech Driving Force GT. While it's many years old, they're a solid starting point. It clamped to my desk, and the pedals sat on the floor under my feet. It provided a good learning curve for me, learning the challenges between sitting in a real car, and in a chair at my computer. 

It became time to replace the carpet in my bedroom, opting for a laminate option to ease the keeping of it. At the same time, a lot of changes fell into place like dominoes clattering. As I sat back and saw my lowly desk sitting in the corner, I outlined it:

My current computer was still plenty strong enough to run anything I needed to do it. It was an i7-7700k, with 32GB of RAM and a GTX 1070 FTW video card, all housed in a Genome II case with integrated water cooling. I had an older 43" 4K TV sitting on the top, and my work computer to the side. 

Admittedly, part of the urging for an upgrade was spurred on by the announcement of the 30-series graphics cards release. I started thinking about different situations, and the next thing I knew, I had new goodies and a plan. First, the computer. 

Out with the old, in with the i7-10700k, newer faster RAM, and a shinier motherboard than previously installed. I kept my existing case - the cooling has been fine, and I like the look. So the new parts were chosen to compliment that look as well as a performance bump. Sadly I must keep my existing 1070 video card until stock comes back in the newer generation. I also traded out my big tv for a more modern ultrawide monitor, to better serve my racing playtimes. I then built a new desk, one that gave more space, but tighter to the wall, moved the tower up to the corner on the wall for even more room, and reassembled my goodies.

One issue became apparent after I renovated the flooring in my bedroom, from carpet to wood, and my pedals no longer stayed where they started. It's quite hard to stop an imaginary race car when you push a brake pedal that darts away from you. So next it became time to make myself more comfortable. 

A new chair, and a new wheel. The T300 RS GT edition comes with the 3-pedal setup, and seems to be a proper upgrade in quality too. The Driving Force GT was a great start, but it did nothing more than make me yearn for better. And in the T300, I've found better. Smoother, more precise, and combined with a better seating position in the Playseat Challenge, it made me quicker the moment I strapped in. Granted, I'm still slow. But it did improve my own times at least. The advantage is that when I'm done, it simply folds up and out of the way like a lawn chair, wheel still attached. When I want to race, I take it out of the closet, roll my desk chair out of the way, and plug it in.

The worst part of a new hobby is telling yourself that you're satisfied with what you have. In truth, it took a half an hour in my new setup to decide I need even more. Time will tell.

Unexpectedly Productive

There was originally one main reason I needed to go up to the boat this weekend. I say needed, not wanted, because that reason was to pull the cockpit drain plugs out, that I had forgotten two weeks ago. If anyone has actually read any of my past stuff, they might remember I made that mistake in the past which left 6 inches of water in the cabin I had to deal with. This time at least, I was aware and kept an eye on the weather. As inconvenient as it would've been, I could have taken a few hours and run up to pull them if there was a lot of rain in the mix. Fate was on my side, and other than a few drops one day, it's been relatively clear up there. 

The other reason for going was to take some goodies to the boat. First and foremost, was the new fridge/freezer thingamajig. The second, were my new fenders. I had purchased a set of 4 larger fenders for the boat, to finally replace the old dirty dingy ones, and the two cleaner but undersized ones that were gracing the port side of my boat. Nothing fancy, I didn't splurge on the good stuff, so to speak. What I did, was pick up these:

GoPlus Ribbed Boats Fenders

These do have a little more squeak to them, they're not as hard a compound as some others, but they were all delivered inflated, can be reinflated with standard needles like most others, and seem decent enough. I ordered the 8.5"x 27" size which seem a lot larger in person than on paper. 

I drove up Saturday afternoon, and despite the climbing temperature, unloaded the car's contents onto the boat. This was not only the fenders, and the fridge, but my laptop and a bag full of tools. I decided that since there was a nice breeze across the lake, I would head out into open water for the day, and either work on my project list on the lake, or after I came back for the evening. Sunday was forecast to be a bit windier with a possibility of a storm, so maybe I'd sail on Saturday and sweat on Sunday.

Leaning over the transom, I loosened the kicker bracket, and then unlocked the outboard. As I tilted it up to free it from the shallow-water tilt, I heard a slight snap, and then put it back down and into the water. Raising my gaze, it didn't take long to find what the source was. I hadn't realized how close the engine was, and I had left the fuel line connected. When I tilted it up, it caught on the edge of the transom and snapped the barb off the fitting in the hose clean off. So in that split second, I nixxed all chances of going sailing for the weekend. Oh to be sure, I tried going straight to the fuel fitting on the engine with the hose but without proper airflow from the fitting, it just wasn't going to happen. 

Onto the projects. I had loaded the fridge onto the boat - It's strange to be calling it a fridge when it looks like a cooler, and is shaped like a cooler. I had it plugged in, and was watching the usage side of the battery monitor and my Victron App. Since I was already at full capacity and float, the panel was basically doing nothing but every so often it would kick up a few watts to make up for the occasional amp draw of the fridge. The first task was the easy one, just swap out my old fenders for new. I would like to pick up some new fender lines but I re-used the existing ones and so far, so good. 

I hopped below, sweating already, and started staring at the existing galley. 

This picture shows how it basically started out. Now, I'm pretty sure that the counter-top isn't original, nor the shelf under that speaker. I had basically used all this as storage, from everything to safety gear like flares and a first aid kit, to that Tablet you see on the cushion, to random paperwork and plastic silverware. This area was my catch-all. Catch no more, I say. Step one, was to empty everything out. Step two, remove the sink.

It actually did say Ambassador Marine for the manufacturer, so I'm sure it was completely expensive. It was held in with nothing more than silicone. A bit of fiddling with the utility knife to loosen that, and it came off relatively easy. Next, I removed the shelf in the middle, and test-fit the fridge into place. 

One of the thoughts I had was to simply notch out the counter top in a way that would let me open the lid. Or, I could get really fancy and put a hinged notch that I could lift the counter top up in that section, then left the lid of the fridge. The downfall to that idea was that whatever ended up on top of the counter would then have to be moved anyway. And a notch, well.. that would eliminate all usable space minus the sink which I had zero intention of keeping or using. So after a long three minutes of self debate, out came the saws.

Basically just sawed back with the jigsaw which worked perfectly. The guard on the saw contacted the side of the hull with an inch to spare, also stopping the blade below just shy of hitting the hull. THen it was a matter of just yanking it out. And just like that...

Behold the big empty! Obviously there is a lot of cleanup required, which I will do more of once I get some fiberglass ordered to cover the holes up, and then paint. Most of the cabin is still in need of white paint anyway, but for now, it will have to do. I set the fridge up in place to see what it would look like in it's nearly-final resting position.

Now all that's left is to add a couple strips along each side on the bottom to keep it from sliding left and right, or rather fore and aft. And to get a small bracket to screw down to strap down the handles with to keep steady in all directions. The wiring will be tidied up next weekend when I go back. This weekend was all about proof of concept. As far as wiring goes, I will pick up a dedicated 12v receptacle to wire up in what I'm now going to just start calling my technical compartment - the space that houses my batteries and main fuse panel. I currently have two panel mounted outlets to the other side which I use for things like charging phones and the like. They too are wired directly to my fuse panel, but it'll be nice to run the fridge wiring out of all sight and tangling possibilities.

I set the temperature for 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and set it Eco mode. This is the more energy efficient mode, and as I had this plugged in for days ahead at home and in the car on the drive up, there was no need to run it in Max cooling. I chose 30 degrees because the only thing I was keeping in was water, and while 30 degrees is actually below freezing in the world of science, I knew that it wouldn't actually be a true 30 degrees constantly. Eco mode allows for a little more time between compressor cycles, which meant that realistically it was probably 32-33 degrees on average. What I can say though, is that through the nearly-90 degree day, and in the cabin with very little airflow, it was such a nice change of pace to be able to pop the lid and pull out a cold bottle of water. Well, to do that, without it being plucked from melting ice water. The other issue was power draw. I checked quite often throughout the day. I would see it pop up a couple amps of usage give or take, and then draw back down for a while. Obviously on a bright sunny day as I had, power was not going to be an issue. I could easily put back ten-plus amps into the bank if I needed to. Sunday turned out to be more overcast, but still plenty left in the tank. I checked in remotely last night after all power was gone, and I was still quite topped off. I left it plugged in when I came home, to see how it behaves and to check the Victron when I go back to see what kind of draw it's had the whole time. 

Next stop, the bakery! That's a Pie reference, and then in turn, a Pi reference. I have a Pi 4 set up with Openplotter and OpenCPN chart plotting software, but until now, it's been relatively out of the limelight. Not only because I generally don't sail from inside the cabin, but also because I haven't figured out a good way to mount it. I had a general idea that I wanted it by the main switch panel and such, and since the AIS needs to hook to my VHF antenna cable, the Pi itself couldn't really move far. I've had a Raymarine fishfinder on a TV arm mount that I could swing out into the companionway to read depth which has been my primary source of real-time information. I debated again with myself, and decided that I can always re-mount that elsewhere. Off it came from the mount, on went the monitor bracket. I drilled a couple holes in the liner and fished some zipties through to secure the Pi casing to, tidied the wires up, and other than not having a new keyboard and mouse of the wireless variety handy, it came out looking pretty good indeed.

You can see in the upper right of the screen, there's a solid GPS signal, even with the GPS dongle plugged straight in. Granted it was a clear day and the hatch is open, but even in the event I needed more oomph, I do have a USB extension cable that can be used to relocate it further outside. Even sitting in the slip though, I was able to draw AIS targets from 30 miles away, which I always find kind of interesting. You may even be able to see them on the right side chart, the yellow triangles to the North of the lake. I celebrated with another cold drink, and then loaded all my junk and scrap wood into the car. The new fenders squeak a little, but nothing too bad, and at least I had a South wind holding me against the dock so they didn't bounce around on the side of the hull to keep me awake. 

Sunday came, and I had nothing left to do but head home. Time to order the fiberglass mat, some epoxy resin, and a couple extra fuel line connectors for extra insurance. 

Pretty cool

Last year, I bought a Koolatron plug in 12v cooler. It was exactly what it sounds line - a cooler that plugs in via 12v outlet. It claims to cool things down up to 40 degrees below ambient (room/air) temperature, or you can flip the switch and heat up to something over 100 degrees. I never tested that part. The cooling side though, I did. I first tested it on a drive down South, by sitting it right on my passenger seat and loaded with bottles of water. It did keep them cooler than air temperature, though I would stop short of calling the water cold. And as the days get hotter, the temperature of the water is also not going to get anything but. 

When I upgraded the battery bank and solar panel this year, part of the motivation was the ability to use this thing in the boat, plugged in and running without having to worry about draining the bank. To that end, I've used it twice on the boat so far, and while it's certainly better than nothing, it's not really that much better than using a regular cooler with ice. Ice keeps things actually cold, though you have to deal with the melt and keeping things dry. So you sacrifice cold, for convenience. This last time, I got a little smarter and froze a few of the bottles of water ahead of time, so it had a colder air pocket in the cooler to start with. This helps, but again, not the best solution and longer trips negate that gain.

Enter the compressor! In the world of 12v fridge/freezers, there have been pretty handy steps made. There are the name brands, Engel, Dometic, and so forth. They also come with up to, and above, 4-digit price tags. I am certainly not in a position with this particular boat that I want to spend that kind of money, but while they are the cream of the cooling crop, there are alternatives. Instead of the high end compressor that is the defacto standard, they might use cheaper generic ones. They might have less features, and for all I know, they might last 6 months and die. After a binge watch on YouTube from various ones, I came across one that not only was in stock on Amazon, but that I saw a 'real' review from a couple in an RV. They did an unboxing and a regular person's viewpoint on a JoyTutus model. I believe they reviewed a 55 Quart model, but they also offer a smaller one, which I ended up ordering.

The JoyTutus 42 Qt portable Fridge/Freezer

It's nothing too fancy but in the couple days I've tested it, it does seem to work well. I won't know exactly what kind of draw it'll have on the boat, but a few review videos I watched give it some promise. There's a vast array of these style coolers from various manufacturers and most of them are likely using the same compressor, so even though the one reviewed was a different unit, the power draw should be the same. The general result was that at average cooling, and in the Eco mode, they pull an average of between .7 and 1 amp per hour of operation. Obviously they would use more while the compressor is on, but the cycling of it is what averages it out lower. I'll get into that more in a moment. First, a few of the few features:

It has a dual compartment set up. Sort of. There's a large main section, which is metal-lined. This would be considered the freezer section, should one turn the knob down that far. Then there's a smaller, isolated section on the side that remains a few degrees cooler than the main compartment. The idea here is that if you have your colder, frozen goodies in the big place, you can still keep things like condiments, or the like in the smaller on without fear of them also freezing. Since I don't plan on actually freezing things much, this will be a good spot for lunch meats and things.

In this picture, you'll also see the LED light feature. Not much, but it certainly would make getting things in the dark easier. There's also the lid chain to prevent the lid from being yanked backwards too far and breaking something. This is something that a lot of the Overlanding crowd would remove. Easy enough, just two screws, but for them they can hear it rattling, I suppose. I don't expect I'll have a need to remove it. You can see the main compartment, and the removable basket that comes out, and even has a divider if you want it. A plus to that is you can take the basket out, load it up, and then just drop it in. Neat.

I'm including this picture just because. The unit is fused quite obviously, and even can handle both a 12v or 24v system. That's also really handy for a boat, since there are plenty of people running 24v systems, especially outside of the States. You also can see a small High-Med-Low switch. Ok ok, so it's more like Med-High-Low, for whatever dumb logic that has. Next to it however, you can see the battery protection chart. This little switch is designed as an automatic cutoff when the input voltage falls below a certain threshold. Obviously if you were running this in your car, you could leave it set to high, and as long as your voltage is over 12.5v, it'll turn on with no problem. And then if you stop, and the voltage drops, it'll pop an E1 error on the screen for low voltage, and turn the fridge off. It might not be the best way to keep your beer cold, but at least you'll still be able to start your car. Note that this switch has nothing to do with the operation. It will cool down in the same amount of time regardless - it is only for shutting down at voltage levels. 

One thing that will affect cooling, is the mode. This model does come with a Max and Eco mode. Eco keeps the compressor cycling to a lesser extent, though I imagine it means that the temperatures might creep up an extra degree or two in between on/off cycles. For example, in Max mode, let's say you set it to 30 degrees F. The compressor will run, and get you down to that level. Then it'll turn off, and it might creep back up to 32, maybe 33 or so before it'll kick back on and bring it back down. In Eco mode, it might go up 34-35ish. This is purely a guess right now, as I haven't actually run it in eco mode, but from explanations I've seen this is how I understand it to work.

So far I've only tested this in the house, and in the car for a party at a park on Saturday morning. It's performed well so far, and I even had a bottle of water start to freeze on me. Totally my fault, it was right up against the side, and I had the temp set down to 26 degrees or so. The manual says it'll go all the way down to -4 Fahrenheit, though I don't know if it'll actually do that. As long as it can hold about the 30 degree mark, that's plenty for me. 

As far as draw goes, lets get back to that. My Koolatron is rated for about 45 watts or so. That means that for my 12v system, that's pulling about 4 amps of juice every hour it's running. Now, on a nice sunny day, the solar panel is putting in well over 10, 12, 13 amps, and I'm in no danger of running low. Plus, with a 50% DoD leaving me with a bank of 200+ usable amps, I have plenty of time I can run it without worry. Don't get me wrong, 50+ amps of battery getting used overnight just to run this cooler isn't something to scoff at, but with decent sun, it'll take a long time before I use more than I can replenish. The Eco mode in the new unit is supposed to use a comparable amount of energy while the compressor is running, and far less when it's cycled off. This means that at worst, I'm the same as I was with the Koolatron but with colder water, and at best, I won't ever have to turn it off. 

And if I do have to turn it off? It cools down in very quick order, so pretty much in only an hour or so of running it'll be back down pretty much to temperature, even starting from room temperature or worse. When I first got it, I plugged it in at 84 degrees cooler temp, and was down under 50 in 20 minutes, and pretty much 30s within an hour. The test will come this weekend when I take it up, try to figure out a place to best put it, and then see about leaving it plugged in for the week to see how it does. The low-voltage cutoff is also a nice peace of mind feature. I have my Schu-link wireless monitor to check on the battery while I'm home, anyway.

A whole lotta effort

You know when the best time to do lots of physically intensive boat projects is? When it's 90+ degrees out and no cloud cover. So that's what I did this weekend.

After bringing the Tohatsu home after last weekend's outing, I muscled it back onto my stand and tried to get that lower unit off. Still nothing. I decided to see what I could see anyway, and removed the middle covers, which exposed the exhaust as well as the water tubing that came out of the midway point of the leg. I popped it off the motor side, and slowly sprayed water down into it to see what would happen. To my surprise, water came out of two smaller holes just above the cavitation plate. Well, that's interesting, I thought. So I put everything back together, and put a 50 gallon trash bucket in place, filling it with water above that level. Then I decided to try the electric start, so I grabbed that 'junk' battery the seller had thrown in. Finger tight on the posts, and pressed the button. Not only did it instantly fire up, but also had an instant steady stream of water.

Well, that was rather annoying. All that mess from last week and it turns out it was just because we didn't have enough water in our buckets! Though, it's probably for the best that it didn't work, since as I started to research it, the existing motor mount I had was woefully undersized for the weight of this 4-stroke. Rated for up to 85 pounds of 2-stroke fury, and holding a Merc that came in at 70 lbs, it would be no match for this 120 lb monster. The search was on.

Shortly after, I found a gentleman selling a Panther Marine lightweight 4-stroke mount. They sell two versions of the same model - the lightweight for up to 132 lbs, and a standard one that carries a little more, but for what I have, that was perfect. And the price was right, at half retail for a barely used example, so I ran up and snagged it as soon as I could.

So that gave me a project for this weekend. I would go up to the boat, pull the Mercury off and swap the mount, and if I couldn't get the Tohatsu mounted, I could at least bring the Merc home to list for sale, and then worry about getting the other on when there are plenty of people around to help in two weekends. Surely, this can't be that hard, right? First order of business was to see how bad the Mercury would be to start. It's always been a pain after it sits, but it seemed ok last weekend. And 5 pulls later, it started with no fanfare. I almost felt bad that I was going to pull it from the boat, but it was for a better purpose, I told myself. I motored out into the bay, swapped my fenders and dock lines to the starboard side and came back, backing stern-in to the slip. That was a first for me, like, ever. I couldn't imagine doing that in any sort of a blow, that's for sure. I tied the boat off tight on the three corners I could, and with a 4th as a spring line to keep the boat as stable as I could, and with the outboard as close to the dock without hitting it. Removing the old motor was surprisingly non-eventful, almost felt light. I set it aside on the dock, and took a last look at the old mount on it's last outing.

Poor thing, it's almost surprising it's made it this far. Even getting this far, I was already shirtless and chugging bottles of water. It's nice to have the extra power and capacity to run my plug-in cooler. While not quite a fridge, it does still keep water cool enough to be refreshing, especially on days like this. Removing the old mount was just a matter of zipping off the old nuts with my Ryobi driver and a socket, tapping the bolts out and the hard part was done. Wait, maybe that was the easy part. As luck would have it, the new mount and old share the same mounting pattern. But the old bolts looked to be maybe 5/16", and seemed to be just a tad loose in the holes. So, to Lowes we go! I picked up 8 stainless 3/8" carriage bolts and lock nuts, and lunch, and headed back. When I went to feed them through, that set the tone for the rest of the weekend. The bolts wouldn't quite fit through the holes. Well I was committed to using bigger hardware, so out came the drill. I drilled out the holes just enough to feed the bolts through, and then drilled holes in a piece of aluminum sheet that I had with me to use as a backing plate. My mistake was drilling them after using the mount as a pattern, instead of putting the bolts through the boat first. Since all the bolts aren't drilled at a perfect perpendicular angle, they didn't line up afterwards. I made do with a poly sheet that I had, and some trimmed off stock of the aluminum just to get things in place. At that point, I had enough of the sun and heat, and thankfully was getting later in the evening, so I called it a night, killing time by playing on the laptop for a while, watching videos, and killing bad guys in a game.

Sunday morning... I woke up at 5:30 for no real reason, and only managed another couple hours after that. Deciding that 6 hours of sleep was enough, it was time to drag myself out of bed and get after it again. Step one was to finish up the backing. I crawled into the starboard cockpit locker (that's not easy by the way), and wedged some pressure treated 2x something dimension back along the transom to help with the compression the new bolts would have between the layers of the hull, and then got everything in place. At this point, I'm already sweating, and even a walk down to the lake and dunking my head in didn't do much to help that out.

Now I'm at a cross roads. What do I do with this Tohatsu? It's not exactly light, and I'm not exactly into lifting. But I don't want to take it all the way home again, along with the Mercury, and all the gas cans and so forth. I muscled it out of the car, and set it on the ground, catching my breath again and again. I pulled the Mercury farther up the dock, to feel like I was accomplishing something. I finally thought, might as well try, and lifted the Tohatsu up again, left hand on the handle, right hand under the leg, and be damned if I didn't feel like this:

Granted, that stone is 409 lbs, and I was less than a third, but considering I'm 1/3 his size, it's appropriate, right? But that was basically my mindset as I started down the ramp onto the dock. One more step. One more step. One more step. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was able to rest.

For those curious, yes, that is the correct position to lay this down, if laying flat. It even says so on the sticker, not that you might be able to make it out. I took the Merc up to the grass and it's accompanying gas tanks, all in plastic garbage bags, including the motor and the mount. Spiders at the marina like to find the crevices and hide, and on more than one occasion I've had them pop out of corners of the car after transport, usually at about face level. And the tanks like to vent gas during trips and even with a tarp under to catch. That makes it fun to drive, getting all light headed and things. Back to the dock.

I really didn't want to leave the motor not installed, but I was conflicted at how to get this thing into place. I didn't want to go through the hassle of removing the solar panel in order to use a halyard to support the weight, so I thought maybe if I ran lines from the cockpit winches and cleats, back over the center of the transom, they could support the motor once I swung it off the dock. This tuned out to be harder to set up than I thought. Throw in the mix the half-confidence I had in my ability to lower the motor down onto the motor from the dock. It was a lot easier to pull the Merc off the mount since I was straight on to it, so how much worse could the extra 50 lbs be, right? I tied off a line to a cleat and around a winch to the handle of the motor and had it as tight as I could from that angle. Now or never. I slid the prop over the edge, and tilted the motor up. If you look in that picture, you can see the angled cover piece that comes from the leg up to the cowl. As luck would have it, as I started to slide the motor forward, that piece slid down the edge of the dock, and acted as a wedge to push the front of the motor perfectly into position over the mount. Don't get me wrong, it was still a lot of muscle to guide and not drop, but it went a lot better than it could've. 

I used a piece of 1/4" thick aluminum flat stock and drilled two holes in it to match up with the pegs on the clamp screws where the cups normally would've been attached. This allowed the bottom of the threads to exert force on the bar, and then into the mount. It tightened up nicely, and I really don't expect it to go anywhere though I suppose if I really wanted to, I could tap into that bar, thread it, and then install some bolts through those holes to line up with the patchwork of holes on the backside of the mount which I presume are there for weight savings. Having a bolt stuck through and into one of those holes would ensure that even in the worst situation, the bar couldn't slide around or move. For now though, it will work fine.

Time for a test run. I installed the battery into the cockpit locker where there's a perfect spot for it. And then my electrical leads for the starter were too short. Of course they are. So, lifted the battery back out, and set it on the seat, wired up, and the motor started right up. After locking the lift lever so it couldn't kick up in reverse, I untied the lines and putt-putt-putted out into the bay once more to swap slip gear back to the other side. The difference between motors is night and day. Whereas the Mercury took a moment to stop momentum and change direction, especially from forward to reverse while underway, and would slow to a crawl when at idle, the Tohatsu idles along at what feels like about a knot and a half. I didn't have my phone up to check, but it moved quite a bit without even touching the throttle. This will make the already-improved efficiency even more so, if I barely need throttle to get where I'm going. Granted, it means taking more caution coming into the slip, needing to cut back to neutral a little sooner to let the speed slow. But at the same time, a couple short blips in reverse (reverse-neutral-reverse-neutral) was all it took to all but stop the boat from that speed. I'm not sure what prop is on this one versus the Merc, but between the low end torque of the 4-stroke, the extra 50% power, even if they're identical, it's a world of difference. I tied back up to the slip, put everything back in relative order and dragged my exhausted butt through loading the car back up. I took a shower, progressively turning the warm water to the cold direction because that's exactly what you want when you're turning a little extra red, and it's been that hot all weekend. 

Home to unload the spider palace that was the Mercury, I tossed it on the stand, hosed everything off, gave it a wipe down and took some pictures, throwing it up on Facebook marketplace for sale with the two tanks and whatnot. If all goes well, should be someone coming at noon tomorrow for it. Works out rather well, that way. 

Parents use the phrase "I'm gonna tan your hide." I know it's Father's Day and that seems like a privilege they are entitled to, but I'm pretty sure the sun beat you to the punch today. So now my tanned hide is going to pass out, because I think I've done about all I can do this weekend.

2 or 4

This was a strange weekend. More ups and downs, though mostly ups. I touched upon my outboard saga briefly last post, but the highlights are that my Mercury9.9 hp 2-stroke was having difficulties running correctly. It was missing every so often, and wouldn't shift into reverse without dying out. This is the same outboard that has been notoriously difficult to start. And by difficult, I mean last season there were days it would take me what felt like 10-15 minutes of cord-yanking to start. So, those memories fresh in my mind along with the new issues of running prompted me to hit the outboard listings of Craigslist. First, let me be clear; I like that Mercury. When it was running, it was running fine. It has a tiller shift - turn it one way, it goes into Forward and the other was Reverse. You never had to move your hand off the tiller to change direction. This comes in really handy when trying to maneuver slowly in tight quarters, or when you need the left hand on the boat tiller and the right on the outboard. And when it did run, prior to this, it ran reliably. Sure it was a bitch to start, but it never gave any hassle once running. But it seemed as it's time had come to an end after all. It's a 1988 model, so it made it over 30 years. I know that's infancy in outboard years, but still. I will also add another note to this. My brother obtained a Mercury about the same size, maybe a little older? If so it wasn't by much. Now, on the whole, there aren't lots of pieces to these things. Carbs are simple, make sure you have spark, and that's more or less it. It's also why it's maddening when all the things don't seem to work. And my brothers was that way. It would run great on a test stand but the moment it had an actual load, it would bog out and die. Tear into it, nothing to be found, but the results never change. So as popular as Mercury motors are, it seems maybe we're cursed when it comes to that era of them.

I stumbled across a listing for a 2007, 15 HP Tohatsu 4-Stroke, sold by someone just North of Syracuse which puts it on almost a direct route along the way to the boat. Happy day, right? No issues, also has electric start, decent price for what it was. A slight miff when it seemed like even after we had agreed I would be up that Saturday (the 13th), later in the week he was still trying to show the motor to whomever would get there first. Thankfully that didn't happen and my dad and I were able to stop on our way up to the boat. No real good bucket to fit over the lower end of the unit but he did have a tote that we propped up under it while it was on his stand, filled it to the brim which just covered the cavitation plate, and after he revealed he hadn't run it in two years (missing from the ad, of course), it started on the third pull. The battery he had, he said was dead, so it was pull starting instead. Three pulls, it started. Can't argue with that. But no water shooting out from the cooling outlet. No 'pissing'. Well, ok, that's an impeller issue. I had already watched videos of the Tohatsu line-up ahead of time. It's disconnecting the shift linkage, and four 1/2" nuts and the lower unit comes off. Cake. Ok, the price was still decent and considering how smooth it ran for the moment it ran, I made the deal. We loaded it into the back of my car, and headed to the boat.

This is where the weekend got back into the downs, part. Earlier in the week, I had inquired to the marina about the WiFi password, why my boat was back on A dock and would I be getting a credit for the difference, and lastly - most importantly - would the yard guy be able to drop my mast so I could straighten out my halyards. Initially unsure if he was taking the weekend off (and ok, seriously? I mean, I'm all for days off, but... come on. Wrong industry, honestly.), she did say he would be around and would reach out to get with me about it. Ok. Phew, I thought.

When I got to the boat, I noticed that my halyards were no longer twisted in the spreaders. Ok, so that's half the issue solved, must be he did that at some point. But, they still weren't cleared of the forestay attachment, which was the more pressing issue. And he was nowhere to be found. I don't know if he cleared them from the spreaders so that he could then take the weekend off anyway, or what. What I do know, is that it annoyed me. But I decided that it wasn't going to stop the weekend from trying to be a good one. We unloaded the Tohatsu from the back of the GL, and the homemade engine stand that I had brought along. Pulling the prop off the engine, we rigged up a 5 gallon bucket underneath, and tried starting again. Still no water. Ok, ok. Let's pull the lower unit and see what we see. And therein lies the first problem. We tapped one of the rolled pins out of the connector on the shift linkage, and removed the four 1/2" nuts on the lower unit. Maybe they're 13mm based on what people say, but my 1/2" wrench fit it exactly perfectly nicely.

And nothing budged.

When I say nothing budged, I mean not one micron. We tried everything. We used blocks of wood on the plate, bashing the absolute hell out it until there was nothing left but splinters. We did the same after we soaked the threads and seam with both penetrating liquid, and even lubricant on the flange.

This was when we finally admitted defeat, and turned our attention to the Mercury. We angled the boat in the slip and hauled it off the mount, and up to the stand. I sprayed a little go juice in the carb and it started, ran a little puffy and sputtered here and there. So we pulled the carb, and disassembled it again. Now, a little PSA - Whenever you have tiny bits, PUT THEM SOMEWHERE SAFE! When we were trying to drop the lower unit on the Tohatsu, I used vice grips to pull the pin out of the linkage. I THOUGHT I had set the pin on the tarp we had under us, and then we shook that all over, and I went - oh no.. And then disassembling the carb, I dropped the tiny little bb that goes on the spring in the diaphram. And when I say dropped, I mean on the ground, in the grass. So while Dad went through more of the carb, I was laying on the grass combing through all the blades hoping for something good. Turns out, I found it. And then shortly after, realized the rolled pin for the Tohatsu was still clamped in the jaws of the vice grips. So, don't do what I did.

We found that the float looked like it might've been upside down, so we flipped that. That would totally be my bad, but to be fair, I didn't have a manual. There were a couple bolts that weren't fully tight (don't know how that happened), and the adjustment screw on the top of the carb seemed way out. I never touched it, since when the motor did run, it seemed to run fine. Just took forever to start, but then always seemed ok. Turns out, that was out of whack. We put the carb back on, and it pulled over nice and smooth and started right up. We put it back on the boat to test going into gear, and wouldn't you know it that that stupid motor ran perfect? The real test will be next weekend, when I go back up and it's sat for a week.

We buttoned up Saturday and called it a night after a spin around the bay under motor. Sunday, we decided to play with a light air sail that Dad had brought. We motored out into the lake, turned East and after some very light puffs, finally had enough wind to get moving. Didn't take too long to get to where I normally anchor, so I hauled the Rocna up through the forward hatch, clipped it onto new chain and rode that he brought up, and dropped it over the side. And I can safely say, it holds just fine. Almost lost a finger (not really) learning how hard it catches. We ate lunch on the hook, and then hauled anchor back up. I think I strained something in my right arm doing it, man that thing is a beast to haul straight up with your arms out to keep it from bashing the hull. But, it does the job for sure. We sailed all the way back, and even into the channel in the bay, then down to the South end of the bay and then tacked back up, under headsail alone. Was good wind, and good times.

At least the weekend ended on a positive note, right? 

Ups and downs

This season is turning into quite the roller coaster. We've gone from happy that they want to get things going quick, to sad that the world went to crap and then things were uncertain, back to happy things are open, frustrated that it still seemed to take forever, happy that the boat is in the water...

And then this weekend..

I got up Saturday morning, and loaded my toolbox, and some of my Ryobi tools into the car, and headed North. I swung a detour through Lowes in Oswego to pick up an 8' length of 1" aluminum square tubing as my local stores had none, and arrived at the boat. This was one of the highlights of my weekend. Not that it was a total bust, but mostly.

My Newport 28 was on an end slip, though my actual assigned slip was one finger down, I just needed a wide u-turn to swing it over. But before I did that, I decided that since I was parked stern in, I would use that to my advantage and decided that one of the first projects would be putting the new solar panel on. After all, that's what the aluminum is for. Also, it still doesn't sit right in my head that square tubing is still called tubing. Just putting that out there. Anyway, first, I needed to get the boom and mainsail out of the cabin, and mounted. That part should be easy enough. And it was. This was the point where I would start to hoist the main to get all the slugs in and everything shaken out. First order of business, was to grab the main halyard, which is now on the correct side of the mast. What wasn't correct - is that it was led from the masthead, through the spreader, and down. I looked at the other side, and the head sail halyard was the same way, though both ends of it were crossed over. And then I noticed the actual masthead, and realized I'm in a much bigger pickle than just trying to get my lines tossed over the spreaders.

When I put the halyards back on, and in the correct position, somehow I had managed to feed the halyards over the tang for the forestay instead of under it. This means that they are basically running along the metal, instead of free. While they probably would work that way for the short term, it's far from ideal and would likely mean much accelerated wear and chafing on the lines. Coupled with the fact that they're also through the spreaders and the easiest, though most annoying way to fix it, is going to be to see about being hoisted by crane to the top so I can sort it all out from there. It really shouldn't take more than fifteen, twenty minutes, but still. It does mean no sailing until then. That was unfortunate. A lot of it falls on my shoulders, sure, for not realizing there was a mix-up. However, I would've preferred they would've just dropped the mast back down onto the deck and dropped a line to let me know, instead of putting it up as it was. Surely they had to have seen, if not the forestay hiccup, that the rest was twisted? Well, that'll get sorted sometime.

Back to the solar panel. My last panel was a 100 watt HQST panel, which was mounted on 1" x 1/8" aluminum bar stock, and used 1" conduit clamps to hold the bars onto the rear rail, cushioned from scratching it with some rubber bits. Since this new panel is larger, I wanted something stronger to mount the panel onto. The smaller 100 watt panel had ever so slightly a hint of flex on those bars, so I opted for the square tubing which will eliminate any of that. I measured off the width, about 27" wide on the panel, so I used my sawzall - a high precision cutting tool, and zinged off two lengths to use as rails. Fortunately, Aluminum is soft, since I had only a limited set of drill bits with me, and I had holes in each end of the bars, as well as one to mount my fancy rail clamps to. Now, the fun part - how does one hold a massive solar panel, very off-balanced, and somehow fasten the outside half of the clamps? Very awkwardly, as it turns out. And it was when I realized that I should've measured one more thing before I did it. The distance between the holes on the frame of the solar, happens to be a dead-on match for the same distance between the stanchions on the pushpit. This means that the clamps can't actually latch on. I decided to fix this by shifting the rails from perpendicular, to a slight angle which would lead the clamps to the railing on the outside of each end. some thrice-folded cardboard wedged into the solar panel rails to prevent damage, and I re-drilled two new holes. I found that by leaving the end bolts out to start with, I could get it in position and clamps in place, and then bolt it all up, and voila, all good. Oh wait, I need to get some support. My last panel was only slightly weighted aft, so I just had some small lines tying to the front down to hold it level. This one, being heavier, I picked up some adjustable bimini poles and clamps, mounted them to the other rear mounting holes on the panel, and then I was officially done with the panel.

Pictures taken after I did move the boat, but you can see the general idea. The first shows a wide-angle picture of the panel, the 2nd a better shot of the bimini pole, and the third, a close-up of the bar clamp and aluminum tubing mounted to the panel. Those clamps are typically used for mounting light bars and accessories to ATVs and handlebars, but work well for this application as it turns out. They clamp down with hex head bolts, and have varying rubber inserts to account for everywhere from 7/8" to 1 1/4", if memory serves. 

So after the panel was mounted, then it was time to zing the boat around. This outboard, I tell you. So I assumed the reason that they left the boat where it was, was because the motor wouldn't start. Wouldn't you know it, it wouldn't start for me, either. I had both gas tanks on the boat, the old and new. The old tank, I now can't remember if I had purchased a new fuel hose or if it was one the previous owner had sent me, but the new one, I know is fully brand new. I rebuilt the carb here at home a while back, and tested the motor for a while in a bucket outside, forward, neutral and reverse, and other than it was temperamental when sitting for a bit, it was fine. When I took it up to the boat a month ago, I left it hooked to the old tank with the thinking that since it had run off the old tank last year, there shouldn't be any issue burning up what's left of that gas. So after using my home-tried and true method of a couple squirts into the carb, it would sputter and then die right out. I finally tried switching back to the new tank, and again a squirt, and then it started right up and kept running. I let it run for a few minutes, gave it some juice in forward to make sure it would go, and indeed it does. I couldn't use reverse since I was already up against the dock.

At this point, I untied, and putted over to my slip and tied up. Then the motor started getting sputtery again. This was when I realized that while it would run fine in neutral, and forward gear, as soon as I turned it to reverse, it would die out. The only counter was if I had the adjustment cranked so the motor was revving handily, then it seemed to go, but would also be more aggressive. Usually I would be even more annoyed, but since I couldn't exactly go out and get the sails shaken out anyway, there was no point. I tilted and lifted the outboard up, and turned my attention elsewhere.

I could only think of a couple other things to play with. One of which was already on the boat - my Raspberry Pi setup for OpenCPN. There's a lot more of this to get into, but since I already had it set up at home before, I knew it wouldn't take much. I snipped the wall adapter off the cable, since it was a 12 VDC output, and wired the monitor direct to my Instruments switch in my DC panel. The Pi itself needs too much amperage to turn on than is provided by my USB-C phone charger, so I left it plugged into the inverter, and turned it on. Within a few seconds, the screen lit up, OpenCPN started automatically, and within another minute or two, I had a GPS fix showing exactly where I was in the marina. Nice. I found a good spot for the monitor to mount to, just need to fashion a bracket and such, but I do have a good location for it.

I ripped everything out of the cockpit lazarette out of boredom, and really cleaned it out this time. Keeping a few old halyards, and lengths of line (never can have enough), I left them coiled up and stored nicely, and left the anchors in there on top of them. A lot easier to get things now without it all getting tangled or having to drag everything out. Afterwards, I decided it was also time to try one more project. I decided to tackle my floor. Prior, it had a couple of heavy duty carpets on the floor, probably visible on some old pictures. I had picked up some cheap foam faux-teak floor, and some 3M spray adhesive. If this was a forever boat, I would've taken a lot more time to organize, measure, trim and... ok, that's a lie. If it was my forever boat, I wouldn't be using this stuff. So instead, I got to work. This stuff comes in a 3' x 8' section. As it happens, the cabin sole is about 3' 3" wide. Luckily, from the companionway entrance to the main bulkheads is just about 8' long in itself. I did find out that when you peel the backing off to reveal the adhesive, it does shrink a little overall. But after a little trimming, and trying to keep it centered as much as I could and cutting out room for the bilge boards - I originally intended to get some thinner boards and then put more of this foam on those boards to fully match, but I actually don't mind how it looks this way - it does make it look halfway decent in there. We'll see next time I get up there, if it remains stuck.

All in all, a somewhat productive weekend, just not one full of actual sailing. Does that make me a cruiser now?

Wet

And just like that, the tides have figuratively turned. On the one hand, I was still annoyed to watch a half dozen boats splashed before mine, seeing as the e-mail they sent out alluded to only having three boats on the wait list, one of which would've been me. On the other hand, I wouldn't have been up there until this weekend anyway, so should it really matter if it took them all week to get it in? Jury is still out on that one.


As I have all week, I started my work day on the monitors to my left, and on my personal computer, opened up the marina webcam page (located HERE if you wish to see it). I noticed right away that there was a boat in the launch pit, and one on the travel lift lined right up behind it. They were trying to get things moving as quickly as they could, it seemed. Drop one boat in the water and as soon as it was verified that it wasn't sinking, they would move the lift to the next on the list while getting the mast stepped via crane. Quite the assembly line, to which I was, I believe, third. There was a brief pause while watching a few guys combing the weeds where the prior boat was stored, possibly a dropped clevis pin or something in the shuffle. Of course it was right after the lift had made the turn towards my spot.

Eventually though, she was loaded and placed into the wet stuff, and soon floated on her own. There are only two current thru-hulls in the boat now, one for the sink drain that never gets used, and one that's an old paddle wheel boat speed sensor, long since disconnected but left in place. The others have been glassed over, leaving less worry for water ingress. Still, there's that tiny bit of apprehension to be had, especially being three hours, and three more days away from even getting up there. She hasn't leaked since the first time she was launched - that was just a tightening needed and that has since been glassed over - so there's no reason to believe there would be any to worry about this round either. Still, it's always there in your mind.

The next time I looked, she was floating in the slip with the mast stepped. It's a little weird seeing her parked stern in, especially since it puts the outboard perilously close to the dock. My guess is that it wouldn't start, even with the spray bottle instructions, maybe they figured it would just be easier for me to deal with it than them. Perhaps they thought that I might need to work on it, and it would be easier access if it was next to the dock. Maybe trying to maneuver it into place with an outboard on a heavy-ish 28-footer was too much hassle, and was easier to just swing her over there with lines. Whatever the case, I'm pretty sure that's not my assigned slip, really, but I have no doubt I'll get the outboard fired up in short order again when I get there this weekend. Well, unless it's bashed to bits by then.

So now it's a two day wait for time off, when I can pick up a couple aluminum bars to fashion a new solar mounting bracket for the larger panel, and then start to get into this years projects. Finally, even though it's still a month earlier than last year, it's felt like forever.

Bueller, Bueller

My marina is going to someday realize the error in their ways, for having a 24/7 webcam accessible.

Let me preface my upcoming comments and thoughts by saying that in no way do I believe that I am better than anyone else, nor should be entitled to anything above and beyond other persons, nor do I want to make light of the hardships that have befallen today's world and persons inhabiting it. Ok, now that I've gotten that out of the way, allow me to voice my frustrations. In one of my prior posts, I mentioned that the marina was re-opened in the middle of April. I want to say somewhere around the 19th, if memory serves. I remember running up to the boat shortly thereafter, and loading all my goodies up and mounting the outboard complete with stickered how-to-start instructions since it's finicky. Allow me to use the magic of Copy/Paste technology for a bit.

From the Marina's update on April 21st:

Launch Procedure 1) If you have not done so already, please pay off any final balance on your account and provide us with your insurance certificate. We will not launch any boat without full payment and a certificate on file.

2) Get your boat ready for launch. Remove your cover, charge or replace your batteries as needed, complete any desired maintenance work, ensure that all dock lines and fenders are on board - and for sailboats, make sure all items required to rig your boat (turnbuckles, pins, etc.) are in a visible location such as your nav station.

3 Once you have completed Items 1 and 2, send an email to [The] office@fairpointmarina.com to let her know that you are ready to launch. She will confirm your account is paid up and we have an insurance certificate and then put you on the "clear to launch" list.

4) [The] team will check the "clear to launch" list daily. Generally speaking, we will pull boats in the order in which they were put on the list subject to any operational limitations. Obviously, boats that are behind other boats will not be pulled until we are able to clear the blocking boat.

5) We will move your boat to your assigned slip if it's ready. If it isn't, your boat will be tied off at another dock on a temporary basis.

A reminder when you are in the boatyard - please stay away from [The] team so that they can be safe (social distancing) and stay focused on getting everyone in the water as quickly as possible.

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So, as you can see, woohoo! There's hope, and then factor in their original e-mail that they wanted to get boats launched as quick as possible to continue grounds work and try to avoid any flooding if it were to happen, and I was a happy guy. I fired off an e-mail the morning after visiting the boat, and had a reply on that 23rd that I was on the Clear-To-Launch list. So then it was just a waiting game to get the docks in and so on. And waiting. Annnnd waiting. Now, this is Lake Ontario, and even being in a sheltered bay, there's still weather to contend with. Mostly wind is the driving factor and I am completely aware of how bad it can be, with gusts over 40 knots happening more than once. But by the first week in May, the B dock was in place (mind you, this is my 'new' dock after having not gotten my deposit in on time for my A dock slip, so I had to pay an extra hundred dollars for one of the few available slips left on B).

E-mail updated on May 7th:

Slip Availability.

Boat slips have been available for anyone wanting to splash since April 19th, the day we were allowed to open under the New York PAUSE order. In addition to our 14 Wharf slips, which we have encouraged anyone to use while we build out the rest of the marina, B Dock is now open bringing the total number of slips to 34.

We will be putting fingers on C and D dock this week so those docks should be ready by the weekend.

A Dock has a few broken dock fittings. Our welder should be able to make the necessary repairs this week. We will then put A in the water on the first calm day. We expect it will be open next week sometime.

Again, please feel free to take any available slip whenever you wish. We will move your boat to your assigned slip once it is available.

Launches - We only have three boats waiting on the launch list and two of those are behind other boats. We will start launches sometime next week.

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Now, I should point out that assuming I am indeed on the list as I should be, that I am the only boat I know of that would be considered a boat not behind any other boats. Nor is there any boat or now dockings that are next to my boat that would prevent the travel lift from accessing it. I know, I've been there. So now you can see hope rising once again! Ok, so the whole availability thing is a little confusing, but I'm assuming a lot of that was aimed at people with trailerable boats that would be bringing them up and ramp-launching them and then tying up. When I first read the e-mail, I'll admit my reaction was 'Then why am I not in the water yet, since I certainly was ready right after the 19th!' But, again, if that's more aimed at trailers, I totally get it. And they did mention later down, that they would launch next week. Well, this week now.

I would like to draw your attention to exhibit C for...calendar. Today is now the 14th, which is the part of the 'next week' as outlined. More specifically, it's almost the END of that next week. There were two days that I can recall were quite windy this week, not only here at home but at the lake as well. Here at the house for example, I had actually framed a small shed, 10 x 14 feet, and braced with planks to hold the four walls up while I waited for a chance to go get sheeting for the walls. That shed was promptly blown down anyway in a fit of Mother Nature's coughing. I can certainly understand not being able to put in boats or docks in the water in those days! However, there have also been days quite nice at the lake too. Yesterday, they fitted out the A dock into place. Hooray, I think? I mean, it's not my dock any more. But I know it was one they had to repair so good for them that they got it ready to go. And earlier this week they got a bunch of the fingers on for the C dock that was in place. That puts the number of available slips on the docks now at 50+. So here's where the frustration kind of kicks in a little. And again, I have zero information beyond what I've shared in the e-mails about what else is on the agenda for the yard. What I do know, is that zero boats have yet to be launched, as of right now. And today was a pretty nice day, a light wind this morning and it died out throughout the afternoon. The frustrating part is in relation to the availability of the camera.

I'm currently working from home, one of the lucky ones that is able to do so and not incur any loss of income. My work computer sits on the same desk as my home computer, with the monitors side by side. This means that while I'm working, I have nothing better to do than to stream the marina cam all day long, in hopes I'll see my wonderful little derelict lifted and tossed into the water. What it also means, is a full day of watching absolutely zero activity at the marina yard, other than the few customers that are trying to ready their own boats. Again, I have no idea if the gent running the yard fell ill, pray not, or if there were unseen projects that had him/them busy in the workshop. Instead, it gives me anxiety. I was hoping to go up this weekend with possibly my brother and dad to join - my brother hasn't been to the boat since I got it. So I'm currently fighting the frustration of being ready for a month, having dock space actually available for weeks, and still being stuck on shore. Couple that with the experience of last year when months went by both due to flooding, but then also a loss in communication from myself and the yard manager about my having been ready - I was ready for weeks and mentioned it, but apparently had slipped memory until finally they must've gotten sick of seeing me up every weekend and sitting on a boat on the hard instead of in the water and asked me again. Then, add in the fact that everyone has been locked down and cooped up and is itching to get out to relax somehow, and it's easy to get frustrated.

I think a big part of it though, is that the owner's e-mails about the intentions for quick launches and well-meant intentions of getting people going quickly has been conflicted by the slower progress in the yard. There was talk of having extra hands on board to help speed up the process, haven't seen that happen. Having A Dock being down for repairs and not able to be put in the water was unforeseen - but why not launch boats in the days waiting for the welder? All in all, I'm doing a fine job of armchair quarterbacking in this, and I know that it's one of those problems that many other people in this world could only wish they were dealing with instead of actual hardships. But selfishly, I'm not in the hardship camp yet, I've been ready for a month, and I can name plenty of days or times in between then and now when I could've been tossed in the water, tied up, and forgotten about. So tomorrow, I'll continue to watch the camera, and if I haven't seen anything that looks like activity, I'll shoot an e-mail asking if they have any ideas of when they'll be ready at the yard level to launch, not the owner level. While I would really like to be up and on the water, there's only so much I can do until then. I could dry-start the motor to make sure it runs? Or... well that's about it, really. Too many things stuffed in the cabin that need to be out of the cabin in order to work on things any more than that. But this being one of the few weekends my brother might be able to come up, I'd really like to be floating.