What a difference two days makes, eh? Normally I would expect a statement like that to allude to a weekend, but nope, not today. I posted just recently how they were starting to get things moving on the boat side of the marina. This was because I saw them launching a sailboat off a trailer, stepping the mast, and then it vanished to parts unknown. Yesterday was spent mostly putting the last dock sections in, save one or two, which they got around to this morning. And then the rains came on the lake. According to the weather channel, it was a band that looked like it would last a few hours, so I had stopped watching the camera during work for a while. Imagine my surprise when I checked back at 6 PM (they would've long gone home by then), and saw this.

    There's no mistaking the silly blue hatch. Yessir, that would be my boat in the slings, floating merrily in the loading slip and awaiting it's departure. Granted, they had all ended their day after getting it this far, but it'll be interesting to watch tomorrow and see the mast go up. More interesting than that however, will be where it ends up, and how. 

    Last season was the start of the marina launching boats without owners present. It saves time, and in the Covid clutches, was safer for the staff to not have lots of people clamoring over each other on the deck. Unfortunately, this did lead to a couple hiccups that I had posted about. To recap - the halyards were run through the spreaders, which left them unusable until I was able to get them to go up and straighten them out when I was gone the next weekend. And I had run them on the wrong side of the forestay tang on the masthead. Now, both of these were my fault, though had I been able to attend the launch, I would've caught them immediately and fixed them within five, maybe ten minutes. More concerning was where and how the boat was slipped. 

    You can make out a white fishing boat on the opposite side of the dock just behind the travel lift in the picture. My boat was slipped on this side of the dock, directly opposite. That already was a little strange, as the depth there isn't really ideal for a 5' draft, but ok, it managed. However, they parked it stern in, likely due to not being able to start the outboard. Fair enough, except they pulled it so far inward that the outboard was quite literally getting banged off the dock for a couple days until a neighboring owner noticed and did me a favor by pulling the boat forward a little bit. Don't get me wrong, stern in was fine, and it made it easier to mount the solar panel. But the outboard getting thrashed was a little upsetting. And that was the old Mercury outboard, not this newer Tohatsu that I really hope isn't subjected to the same fate. This one does have electric start, with a dead battery, but should also start just fine once the gas line is hooked up, with a few good pulls on the cord. On a related note, I've already started ordering replacement cables to run from the outboard to replace the one I tried splicing in, in the event that it doesn't hold the amperage correctly once I've got the battery topped off. We'll see as the season goes, but at least this one does start more reliably than the Merc did, even with the pull start. The only downfall is that it takes more effort to yank this cord, even though it takes less pulls. Tradeoffs, I guess.

    I'm not sure if I'll be able to get up there for the weekend, or just waiting until Monday or so, but that might also just depend on the speed of UPS this week. I had to order a new spring for my riding mower so I can chop down the budding forest that is my lawn, and also ordered a new deck gland for the battery cables when I get to that. I also ordered some long overdue new clevis pins for my shrouds. I've been using generic 3/8" pins from the hardware bins of Lowes - I'm in fresh water so being high grade stainless wasn't a priority, but I've been meaning to replace them ever since I got the boat. So I've ordered the shroud pins to take up with me and swap out, and then after I get to double check the forestay and backstay sizes, I can order those too for the next trip up, probably in two weeks.

    My plan so far, is to stay up for the better part of my first week off, then come back home for a few days in the middle of my vacation, and then follow it up with the last week up enjoying the floating fun. Granted, I haven't looked at the weather upcoming, but then again it changes so quickly on the Great Lakes as it is, I don't think it would help much. As long as I have a cooler full of water and some munchies, I'm good.

Getting there

    Saturday morning, I gathered my goodies together for the trip - ladder, the LED bulb for the mast light, as well as my Total Boat fairing compound and such, and loaded them in the car. After a quick glance at the web cam assured me that there wasn't any work happening around the docks, I hopped in and began the drive up. It was a nice day, no jacket required, and a good amount of people trying to get some boat bits tied up prior to launching this year, and I increased that number by one upon arrival. The build replacement took me the better part of about three minutes. One screw at the base, then two more to remove the upper lens cover to allow the base to lift up enough to access the bulb base, plop the new one in, and then reverse the procedure. Unfortunately, I can't test anything with the mast not up, but I'm fairly certain it was just a bulb issue. Either way, as long as the steaming light still works, that's what matters. I don't usually kick around in the dark but you never know.

    I also wanted to try to test out using my panel connector idea for the outboard battery cable. Like a fool, I didn't think it through ahead of time. I did, but I didn't. It's a relatively small outboard, only 15 hp. And the battery cable looked plenty thin, probably about 8 gauge. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that at the time, and envisioned them being smaller. So my panel connectors are only 10 gauge. However, there's only about a foot and a half of total small wire in line, so maybe it'll still hold the current? The motor has always started quickly using the electric start, so it doesn't need to sit and crank, so perhaps, just perhaps it'll work. Alas, I won't know until the boat is in the water. The starting battery, alas, is dead. BUT! Hey, I thought, I have a plan for that!

    I have this little solar panel and it's original charge controller and everything. My idea was to use this disconnect in the cockpit, to do double-duty. The battery runs to the back of the connector mounted near the aft section of the port side seat. From there, I have the matching plug on the end of the outboard cable. I also have a plug I intended to put on the end of the wiring from the charge controller, so that I could just leave the little panel out in the sun, unplug the outboard, plug in the panel and trickle charge the battery. Unfortunately when I did a test run of the panel without messing with plugs, the controller never lights up. This could possibly be why the end of the wire from the panel itself had been cut off - maybe they had it just wired direct. At 5 watts, it's hardly in danger of frying a battery in short order, but who knows what they had done. All I know, is that it didn't work when I hooked the controller up. I decided to abandon messing with it until it's in the water. And pray that the small section of slightly smaller gauge doesn't interfere with starting. Either way, I'm searching for a better more robust wiring solution. Same concept, better material.

    That was really all I accomplished up there this weekend, I was only there for a little less than an hour. Five hours of driving for one of work. Well, at least the light is ready for when they put the mast up, assuming they don't destroy it upon stepping the mast this year. So, I came home and decided to wait.

    I have a week left to do work things before I have a few weeks off. It's a rare event for where I work, between seniority and other factors that a person in my position can snag more than a week off, and most of the time the only available weeks are either pre-Summer, or.. October. Usually I aim to take a week off towards the tail end of April or early May to hopefully enjoy the boat early in the season prior to weekend duty. Unfortunately timing has not been on my side the last few years. We had the flooding the one year that delayed launches by many weeks, which negated my taking time off. I should also mention that in my job, our vacation time must be scheduled in the fall of the previous year. So for example, my week in May? I chose that in September. It makes it a challenge, because really, who knows when they want to take a vacation NEXT YEAR? It's annoying, but you do what you can do. Last year, I was able to take a week off, but the boat didn't go in until afterwards due to the Covid delays. This year, as I said though, I was able to schedule my first week off, and then fortuitous circumstances allowed me to secure two more weeks, so I have the first three full weeks in May to myself. 

    I had a pleasant surprise this morning, seeing some more boatyard activity on the camera. The guys were splashing a sailboat. I expected it might be a little extra windy, but there were a good number of guys on hand and the mast went up fine. Surprised that it took the better part of an hour to get the mast up, and I saw the boom go on afterwards. I usually do that part myself, but after the boat was tidied up, it went off to parts unknown. 

    Hopefully I'll get my shot soon. I would love to have the boat in the water at the beginning of my vacation time. Been awful windy up there lately, but still would be nice to enjoy some floating. Right now, the travel lift is parked next to my boat while the guys tinker with something on the end of the crane. It's like false hope, seeing it next to my boat while I'm probably not next. Miracles can happen though.

Countdown

    The marina sent out an e-mail last night to ask members to reach out as soon as they're ready to launch, so that they can get the list moving as soon as possible. They want to avoid a mid-May avalanche of requests all at once, and I for one am all on board with that idea. Naturally, I sent a reply saying I was good to go. Granted, I knew the time was coming, I've been watching them get the docks in over the last week.

    There are still a couple of fingers left for the C dock as well as D, the East wall. Tomorrow should be a nice day though, so hopefully they're able to get those in too, and get some of the launches started. I'm certain I won't be in the water tomorrow, so I'll be using the day to run up and install the new LED bulb for my deck light into the fixture before it splashes. While I believe that a ladder would give me plenty enough reach to reach it after the mast is stepped, there's no reason not to just get it done while I can. It'll also give my car a good chance to prove to me that it's fixed.

    I drive a GL series SUV, and last trip up caused me to notice that an issue that I had been avoiding diagnosing had become well, needy. A bunch of months ago, I went to take off in a spirited manner from a stop, and heard a crunching/grinding noise briefly in what seemed like the driver's side front wheel area. Normal driving however, was fine. While concerning, obviously, I deduced that as long as I just drove normal, I could just put off having it looked at. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. I noticed it happen one more time during my last trip to the boat, under what I would consider less-than-spirited takeoff. Now, I could certainly baby the vehicle off the starting lines of stop signs and green lights, but I also decided that it was less safe than practical; if I needed to quickly accelerate on the highway out of potential danger, it would be a problem.

    We have a newish garage locally that I've found relatively reasonable and pleasant to deal with. They're also one of the few places around that will install parts you've purchased yourself, at least within reason. Of course, they can't guarantee those and nor would I expect them to, and generally I would rather they get the parts anyway, but the option is nice. They've done some work on other cars, and honestly I'm just at a point that I hate spending free time during nicer weather under or beside a wheel well. I called at the middle of last week, and dropped it off for diagnosis, hoping it was something as simple as a bad CV axle, or maybe a wheel bearing. 

    One transfer case, and twenty-two hundred dollars later - which included an oil change, mounting two more tires I had purchased already, and a renewed state inspection - we'll see if it's fully fixed and trustworthy of a longer journey this weekend. To be fair, it's the first major issue I've had, and going through the service records for the 160k miles of it's life, seems to be about the first major issue it's had at all. Shocks, batteries, but this was the first biggie. No complaints.

    On the order of other projects again... the tiny-home shed is no longer going to be a tiny home. It's still a shed, though I've been working on some of it. I've run electric throughout, although right now it's all powered off an extension cord. Once I get it moved over to the driveway, I'll run a dedicated feed into it's panel. It will ultimately be finished off inside and turned into half office/work space, half playroom for my toys, like the Sim rig, and the other simulation that I've built in there:

    

    I can't remember if I've mentioned or not, but one of the bucket list items I have in life is to learn to fly, to progress towards a Private Pilot's certification. This would be done by training on likely a small Cessna plane, a 152 or 172 perhaps. So I've built myself a flight simulator cockpit that somewhat replicates a generalization of one. I do have a different throttle assembly coming in the mail, either tomorrow or Monday that will effectively round out the experience, but so far, I'm happy with it. I'll do a full breakdown in another post. Right now, it sits in the shed, pre-move, but functional. 

    I've made the joke, that since I have a racing sim cockpit, a flying sim cockpit, a Venture 21 sailboat on a trailer outside I can go sit in while a breeze blows, now I just need a submarine to put in my pool and all my bases will be covered.

    I did also order some fairing compound to finally work on solving the ugly cockpit bulkhead where the gauges used to be, and a new block for the port rail to feed my jib sheet through. I did also order some wiring to use to do a better job with the outboard electric starting. Currently the battery sits in the cockpit locker, and I have to pull the battery out and set it on the seat so that the wires from the outboard can reach it. It's annoying, but at least it works. I'm hoping that this panel mounted connector will let me make a disconnect for the wiring, but also enable me to leave the battery in it's container in the locker without having to manhandle it up, cause tripping hazards, and such. As a slight bonus, I can also use a spare connector to wire up a small solar panel to act as a trickle charger for that battery if need be. I still have a small 5 watt (I think) panel and it's controller that were on the boat when I purchased it, so I can retrofit that into working for the outboard battery, and just set the panel on the seat when I leave, letting it keep the outboard battery topped off in between trips. Even though the outboard has an alternator of sorts to keep the battery up, I don't usually run it long enough to make much difference. I'm sure it does something, but if I can regulate the battery better via solar in between outings, why not. I might even be able to start working on that system tomorrow while I'm there.

Untangled

 It's official - I'm ready for the season. At the very least, the boat is. Whether or not the yard is as ready, that remains to be seen.

I woke up this morning, beating my alarm by an hour for the third day in a row - not a fan. I hopped onto good ol' trusty Amazon, and decided I better order up a couple things quick. I can't remember if I had mentioned it, but my steaming/deck combo light had an accident at some point. Personally, I believe they caught the deck light half with the mast sling when attempting to step the mast onto the boat at the beginning of last season, or banged the light fixture somehow in the process. I remember getting to the boat, and seeing an LED circuit board laying on the deck. So, assuming that my cheap fifty dollar combo had reached an early grave, I wanted to replace it. Now, I'm a cheapskate for some things, and I didn't see the need to spend hundreds, potentially several hundred dollars on a light for a boat that wasn't in a financially sensible value to warrant it. I did decide, however, to step up to a Hella Marine model.

There were two models I came across, an 8504, and an 8505 model. Hella Marine themselves only list the 8504 on their website as far as current products go. It's not too shabby, however it's fully halogen including a blinding 100 watt deck light. That's nice and all, but I don't need sunlight at 10 PM on the deck. Bugs are bad enough as it is. The 8505 uses a much more practical output, and can easily accept LED equivalents. So, a little under a hundred bucks later, that was on order, as was a new block for my port-side jib sheets, and some wiring to add a panel connector that I can use to hard-wire the electric start for the outboard without having to move the battery in and out of the cockpit every time I go out. Granted, none of this would arrive instantaneously, but at least it was on order.

I arrived at the boat in wonderful weather, just shy of 80 degrees and mostly sunny. First order of business was going to be to string the halyards into the mast, but as I walked the topsides, I realized that my cheapy light had a few screws on it's face. Hmm, I wonder... Yep, sure enough, the three screws allow for the top lens to be removed, as well as the lower housing to bend up out of the way to replace the bulb. The wait, what? Oh. Yep. Turns out the LED array I found on the deck last year was from the bulb that was in the unit, but the whole bulb could be replaced. So I ordered a whole new light when all I needed was a bulb. You would think I would've looked further into that. Cheap, yes. Smart, not so much so often.

So now that I had a plan for the light issue, I went about my time fixing and arranging the halyards. It takes three bolts, and a half turn of one nut in order to swing the top plate on my masthead off to the side with enough clearance to run the halyards up through the sheaves. This time, I took extra care to make sure they were actually run correctly, instead of over the forestay tang mistakenly like last year. I also triple checked that nothing was crossed up or tangled in the spreaders or upper shrouds. I'm confident that everything is finally settled and ready to go, barring the wasp next in the base of the mast. Not my problem, they can vacate when the yard steps it.

I also took my fancy new iPad and it's case, which arrived yesterday, to the boat and tested that claw mount. As I was remarking to myself, and to my dad on the phone that the mounts were very reminiscent of the RAM style mounts, I actually saw the RAM stamp embossed into the side. Go figure, but I guess that explains their robustness. And just as I had hoped, the claw mounts perfectly onto the handrail inside the companionway hatch. I guess I could've read the description better, but I'm quite happy with how it works. Now if I can only find a navigation app that I like, we'll be in business.

Lastly, I brought the fridge/cooler thing back into the cabin and placed it where it should go, got the fenders ready, and called it a day. Packed up my ladder, bundled up what was left of the tarp (really only one corner had ripped away, so it could probably be salvaged for.. the Venture!), and headed back home. I stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple quick things, like numbers for the other side of my mailbox. I've lived here for twenty years, and it didn't dawn on me until just the other day that the only side of my mailbox with my house number is on the opposite side of the mailbox from where the mail route comes. I have it it on the side facing the driveway, but the route comes from the other side. And since I had another ipad ordered which was quite literally dropped off at the neighbor's porch yesterday (the good neighbor, at least), I figure it was probably time to spend two dollars on numbers to put on the other side so that there's no excuse for drivers to not find the correct house. Whether or not they actually perform the duties beyond that, well... baby steps, I guess.

I also bought a new window unit air conditioner to finally replace the decade-and-then-some old 220v unit that I have installed now. I went with a 110v version, only 10k BTU but I'm also relocating it to a more central location on the opposite side of the house with a much better airflow path into the living area, instead of kind of tucked into the corner where the old one is. I believe that this will actually work out better, even though I think the old one was rated higher from it's time. Then again, it's so old and rattling while it runs, I'm certain that's a good chunk of missing efficiency there. And the old one is on the South side of the house, wide open and taking the brunt of the sun full force during summer. I'm not an expert, but I remember reading that if your AC is shaded, it's more efficient. The new one is now on the North side, center of the living area, which will be shaded until late in the evening, so that should help too.  Plus with the new shed being moved soon, I can get the race rig out of the spare room, which means there will then be two rooms that can be basically shut off from the rest of the house, helping out. And worst case, I get a little 5k BTU deal to stick in my bedroom window and tag-team the heat. Can't wait to drop that old out out of that window that it's lived in for years now, with the added bonus of having a freed up 220v circuit! I guess I could start a welding business in the dining room?

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and miserable, so I guess I won't get to tell Google to turn my AC on for a little while. At least in the virtual world, the race tracks will be dry. 

Oh, Hello Spring

I keep telling myself that this year, I won't need to really spend much on the boat. Turns out, all the excess spending I'm doing for everything else is more than making up for that. However, at least one of those purchases might be boat-handy anyway.

I've dabbled in the racing sim stuff, as you've seen recently. I'm putting together a flight simulator rig (budget minded, let's not get all multi-axis full motion crazy yet), which I'll outline soon for kicks, and I've decided to start taking lessons towards a private pilot's license this year, as soon as the weather can make up it's mind. It's the latter that might lead to more boaty things.

One of the things I've purchased ahead of flight lessons, is a new iPad Air. First, let me stress this, and I cannot stress it enough, I do not like Apple. It's not because of the products, which I freely admit are quite high quality. As far as that goes, I prefer the customization and such of Android products, and I can't stand that Apple can announce a new feature that Android has had out for years, and the world touts them as innovative. I'm not a fan of some of their legal tactics - there was a case not long ago where they realized no one had patented the slide-to-unlock gesture on smartphones, that had been in use by basically everyone at that point. So they did, and then sued everyone. Really? My thoughts are, win by being better, not by trying to belittle and undermine the accomplishments of others to lift yourselves up. 

I'm also not a very big fan of their.. I don't know what to call it, exactly. But for example, I once had an iTunes account to download music. I didn't use it much, I think I bought a handful of songs once, and never used it again. I hated that I had, HAD to use iTunes for it because there were no other options for what I was doing. I then ended up buying an iPhone X for someone to use, ended up taking it back when they moved South, and tried setting up the phone using my standard fare of free apps like Pandora. I couldn't even get it to let me download free apps. It took two hours on the phone with customer service over the space of three phone calls, to find out that there was a rogue application at some point, that was trying to charge my account (which is why I refused to put any default payment method on file - why should I need a card on file to use free apps?). Had I put my card on, it would've instantly been charged. Ridiculous. Even now, I said ok, I'm buying an iPad, let me see what apps I can--- oh, you can't access or browse the Apple App Store without an apple product. At all. 

So why do I buy an iPad then? Seems strange for someone like myself that is anti-Apple, no? Well the short of it is, I'm not an idiot. At least not always. When aviation started trending towards the digital age, the apps that paved the way were initially created for the iPad, because it was THE tablet to have at the time. And over the years, that's how it's stayed. The iPad is the tool of the trade, and while there are some Android based alternatives for many of them, I've resigned myself that an iPad it is for it. It's just a fact that there are some apps across all genres of activity that are just iPad only. Take sailing for example. Many people have found great success with iSailor, and other similar apps that generally work better on an iPad than an Android equivalent. 

One thing I'll note, is also the outrageous prices of Apple products. Fortunately, I ordered my iPad through Verizon, so that I can spread the payments out as well as have a Cellular model that has internal GPS instead of WiFi only. But if I wanted the fancy pencil to go with it? $129 dollars. Seriously, it's that much. I can buy much cheaper alternatives if I wanted, that charge separately and don't have all the functionality of whatever this piece of plastic does, but still. I don't think I need that.

What I do need though, is protection from the elements, and my own mishaps. A nice rugged case, but also a way to mount it in a plane cockpit. I've settled upon this, a Pivot case:

Now before you ask, it's not cheap. And that seems a little funny from someone that was just complaining about the price of a pencil. But, this uses a lot more plastic than that pencil, lets be honest. It also allows for the addition of accessories like suction cup mounts, and another one, a claw mount.

The best part about the claw mount, is it would allow me to easily affix that arm to the handhold just inside the companionway, and give me a perfect view of the iPad in the cockpit of the boat. See, told you there were sailing applications to be had. So in a roundabout way, I guess I bought an iPad for the boat. In seriousness though, it's a really rugged, heavy duty case with a wonderful yet easy to use latching and switching mechanism, and for what it does, I can't really find many better alternatives. It does add some heft to the iPad, sure, but the versatility it adds outweighs that, no pun intended. 

In other news, the slip is fully paid for, and I'll be going up next weekend to get my halyards in order, and straighten things up, and then she'll be ready to go in the water whenever the marina is. I haven't heard of a planned start date, but the bay isn't frozen and we're already well into pandemic times so hopefully not much of a delay. I really hope not, I have most of the month of May already taken off from work. Checked the marina cam, I see there's the dredger parked over on the other side, and the marina even left one of the floating docks in for the winter that just needs fingers added to make room for boats. Who knows, maybe we'll have an early season.