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I wired up the solar panel and alternator on Sea Puppy today. The solar panel is wired into the batteries before the 1/2/all/off switch so that it will still trickle charge the batteries even if the the power is shut off on the boat. The alternator I wired in on the other side of the switch so that it will run the system even if the switch is off.. ( I need to read up on this to make shure this is the correct way to do it. Not sure if the battery has a stabilizing affect on it vs running stuff from it without the battery in the link.) The rectifier on my engine was wired backwards from the factory and was putting out excessively high voltage. It took putting a volt meter on it and playing with it to get it right when I wired it all up. luckily my gps unit actually started warning me about an over voltage condition and I was able to shut everything off quickly and start troubleshooting it, also my next door neighbor at the dock took an interest as this was going on and helped troubleshoot it. Took about 5 minutes to figure out and fix with his help.
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It’s both like and at the same time the antithesis to those shows where you have the scene with the alcoholic standing up in front of a group of people and saying “hi my name is George and I’m a recovering alcoholic”
“Hi my name is Scott and I want to go cruising.” It really doesn’t sound like much.. there isn’t much overt drama to it. Most people when you tell them you want to get a boat and move onto it to live a nomadic lifestyle give you that look that says. “where did this guy come from? loon in the house!” You get questions from them .. “What about your Job? Your house? Your life.” Though to be honest I also get from some of them “that is so cool” and “I’d love to do that”.
I went out with Patty and Jeff today on Pirate Girl (beneteau 323). I really like how she handles.. you can set the sails and she will steer herself forever in flat seas. So far every Beneteau I have been on sails well. I’m sure there are some that are not a good as others and I will readily admit to only having sailed on 5 or so, but all those have been a pleasure to sail. She also has a nice size cocpit and if you sitting leaning back against the cabin sides facing aft the angle on the cabinsides makes for a very comfortable rest. I like the cabin also just for the headroom.. most of it is 6ft.. I don’t have to do the duck thing in the main cabin.
Well I guess its official.. my new outboard is not running right. I showed my video (Tohatsu outboard video) to Tohatsu USA and Vic who I spoke with told me to take it to a service center.. he thinks its in the ignition.. I will say this… Tohatsu USA has been really responsive to my calls and questions. Its not fixed yet but to date I’m really happy with their customer support. They pick the phone up and talk to you right away and Vic who I have been dealing with has been really helpful.
I have finished the break in period… I took the boat out again with Patty and Jeff after running it for a while at the dock to finish up the break in period. I don’t know if something is wrong with the engine or what but it doesnt perform as strongly as my old 4hp 2 stroke. It also has a lot of vibration. I have talked with tohatsu and am going to take it into the local service center and let them take a look at it. The guy at tohatsu said if it isn’t getting up to the top end rpms it is supposed to be then it could be the timing advance having problems in the electronic ignition. They have seen this before. Or that I possibly need to get a lower pitched prop. The one on there is a 7.7 inch 8 pitch prop. I can go down all the way to a 7.9 inch prop with a 6 pitch.
here is a video of the engine running at the dock.
I ran the engine for several hours on saturday when me and Miriam put it on the boat. Today I ran it for a few more hours and even took the boat out and ran it up and down the water way for a bit. I have been carefull to follow the breakin scheadule and rpm constraints.
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In the fall of 2003 I painted my Shock Santana 21 topsides with Glidden porch and deck paint from Lowes or Home Depot.. I forget which. I used a fine roller and for the non skid areas added the non-skid powder they sold there for a couple bucks a pack. I mixed it into the paint before rolling it on. This seemed to work well and the finish was sand paper non skidish 🙂 Here is the link to the original post when I painted her. I recently got a comment from a new Shock Santana 21 owner and in a followup email he asked me how the paint had stood up.
Went out today for the spring regatta. Not many people showed up. Only 3 boats went out. Me on Sea Puppy, Angela on Valkyr and Jerry took out L.C. Marie. It was really light and shifty winds. We were supposed to head down the beach and run past the Cherry Grove Pier but we were basicaly sitting dead in the water for a long time. By the time the winds started to pick up, Tina the young lady that came out with us on sea puppy was sea sick… Another case of a sick puppy on sea puppy. I turned around and went back to the inlet. Once we were off the ocean and back on flat water she felt fine.
After breakfast I was going to do some work on Sea Puppy. Mainly some cleaning.
However I got side tracked with an invitation to go out on Valkyr, Angelas 38 Down East. It was a great day for sailing .. Flat and about10 to 13 knots of wind. By the time we got back in I was beat. No work done on Sea Puppy but sailing fun was had by all.
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This morning I got up and had a nice mug of tea sitting in the cockpit. I got to watch the excitement as a trawler that was anchored near me through the night got stuck on the sand bar near the entrance from the ICW. The Boats US tow boat was out there pulling him off. Actually last night there was another powerboat stuck in the same place that got towed off. I figure based on those two incidences that they make a fortune pulling people that get stuck there off. It’s very shallow accross most of the entrance other than a narrow not well marked just shallow channel.
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I took Sea Puppy out today. I was pretty tired and decided not to sail. I motored to the calabash anchorage and dropped anchor. Spent the evening kicked back in the cockpit reading.. It was really nice and peacefull, something I need to do more often.
I ran the anchor light all night and the drain on the battery was minimal. The led bulbs are still working fine.
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I spent some time yesterday working on the herb garden walkway that comes off the back porch and wraps around the herb/kitchen garden.
This morning it is starting to look nicer as the concrete dries and the colors get to be a closer match.
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Its about 75% complete now and starting to look pretty good. I have mixed dyed about 10 80lb bags of concrete so far to make the flagstones in the pictures. Having a cement mixer makes this doable. I wouldn’t even want to imagine what mixing it all by hand would be like.
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