Well it happened. The universe converged to make it so. It started with the rockfish season being lengthened by a month. Then it was between storms where it laid down for a few days and I actually had some time I could take off work. It would be my first day off this year where I was not studying. The final element is that Trent deigned to have time as well. So Sunday afternoon, after doing all my assigned “honey do’s” the hall pass was valid. I headed to Carmel and after an uneventful road trip I arrived and we did the usual prep and big food and beer drinking. Perfect! When we went to launch at the Monterey Coast Guard jetty we noticed there was more wind than forecasted. Hmmm. The harbor was still though so we were hopeful.
On the run around to Carmel, our normal fishing grounds, there was more swell than expected as well.
We motored around looking for a less windy spot with little luck so we hung out and had our cold Safeway breakfast Panini’s off Pebble Beach golf course.
The wind did die down shortly thereafter and the fishing was on. I hooked up pretty quickly and landed my first fish on this boat. A respectable grass rockfish. Then Trent hooked up on a nice lingcod.
Throughout the day we ended up throwing back as many as we kept and finished the day with a ling a piece. An Olive apiece, mine going 19.5” and we kept two grass rockfish each. Weird that we caught no blues though. As we were approaching the harbor we ran into several pods of dolphins. There must have been a lot of them as everywhere we turned there was three or four breaching the surface at any time. We pulled the boat out with my van on a slimy ramp without incident as well. Which ended a great first day in the ocean with fish on the boat without any mishaps!
Here is the starting point. Actually I have already redone the captains chair by removing the 4″ booster and replacing the seat slide. Now if you are driving seated you can slide the seat forward. If you want to drive standing you slide it back about 6-8″. This makes it easier to work fish and get into and out of drivers area quickly without getting hung up on things.
Dawn wanted a lounge seat on the port side. It is more lake boat styling and function which is fine by me. If it will make her happy I am cool with it and will probably be used more anyway. Smart gal. Kind of like this.
Here is what I have on order to replace the port pedestal seat. I got the grey/dark blue combo. They don’t make it in Oyster unfortunately which is the color of the hull and deck. Grey is better than Brite White which would have been blinding and stood out like a sore thumb on an old boat.
The existing pedestal seat is currently mounted to far forward to be comfortable. It is a knee basher as it is only inches from the forward bulkhead. The previous owner wanted maximum deck space for fishing. You can kind of see how close it is in this picture.
Here is my idea for behind the starboard captains chair. At the lake this will make for a nice lunch prep spot and when out fishing it can double as a bait station. It will have a sink with cold running water with a tackle center and storage below. Maybe a flip up seat in front. There is also a rod holder just to the right where I can mount a BBQ grill. Could be sweet set up if it comes together as I hope.
It is brutal working on the boat in 100 degree heat even with shade. I made good progress though by drinking buckets of water while working. I finished wiring both the rear bilge pumps though the new fuse block and everything works. I ran the radar cable into the electronics box. I replaced the captains chair seat slider, which was carroded stuck, and removed the 4″ riser. I had to file off a little bit of a mushroomed flange from the riser but what is left works smooth as butter now. I can slide the seat back and stand at the helm without the chair digging into the back of my legs. I yanked the starting battery and drilled out all the old holes in that area. Then filled them with epoxy. There were almost a dozen I filled. I mounted a new battery plate and attached it with SS screws sealed with 4200. I remounted the battery and nothing moves around now. What a novel concept on a boat. I will deal with the house battery next time. The charger got mounted and I used it to charge both the batteries last night so they are nice and topped off. The Battery Bug on the starting battery confirmed this. Then I vacuumed out the bilge and the rest of the area under the decks. Amazing how much crap was in the bilge just waiting to clog the pumps. All I really want to do is get the battery switch and VSR mounted. Then most things after that are optional and don’t have a time urgency. I spent a lot of time running wires properly and re-looming them wherever I could. More and more is getting dialed in and secured. Now it is time to get her back in the water. Ocean or lake, I am easy. Sorry no pictures this weekend. My wife lent her old camera, that I use, to a friend at school until she can buy her own. Smart phone pictures just dont’ cut it. Maybe next time.
Man I made huge progress on the fixing and upgrading the boat. Installed my old GPS and radar. Eventually I hope to figure out how to get my exisitng thruhull sonar unit hooked up to GPS. Upgraded an old bilge pump and installed an emergency backup bilge pump. Cleaned up more wiring and installed a fuse block to run the bilge pumps. Didn’t finish the final wiring but that should be fairly easy now that everything is mounted. A big thanks to my wife for handling the kids and letting me work on the boat for the weekend. Also a big thanks to Lee from work who came by and shared his considerable boat repair skills.
Here is a link to my pictures and notes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9489480@N03/
Well it finally happened. We made it out the the lake on the boat as a family. Initially we didn’t have Kyle but his Dad and him were already at the lake and we met up to get Kyle late afternoon. Dawn did great as a first mate and rose to the occasion on the things I asked her to do. She is a boat newbie you know. She ran the boat while we were anchoring and was like an old pro. Anchoring was a little interesting to start with but we managed. The windlass just move a few spots up the list. Hoisting the anchor manually a handful of times gets old fast. Argh! Erin generously christened the porta-potti not once but twice. Thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday gift. Who is laughing now. Once Erin got in the water we could barely get her out. Dawn and I had to take turns so we wouldn’t get tired out. Erin never stopped moving. Swimming and jumping off the swim platform over and over again. The haul out went smooth as glass with Kyle’s help and on the drive home everyone but Dawn fell asleep. Out like lights. After emptying the boat I cleaned out the porta-potti which was not as bad as I thought it would be. I put the boat back in storage and covered it up for next time. Oh yea top speed was 36.4 mph at around 4100 rpm. My dashboard precludes me going faster as the controls were pressed against it firmly. Ran most of the time at 3500 rpm and 30 mph. The hull eats up lake chop easily, crosses wakes with nary a bump. Having a 25 foot hull really smooths things out. Enough for now. Later.
