Ramblings

Abalone Diving!

Chris — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:23:11 +0000

I made a speed run with Brad and Minh to the coast to meet up with the dive club that was spending the weekend up at Ocean Cove (http://www.oceancove.org/store.html). Jack was nice enough to ferry us out to a spot north of the cove in his inflatable and after almost two years since I last freedove I was able to get a limit. It took a little effort but I dove better than I had hoped and was able to spend most of my time down between 23-28 feet. I felt surprising comfortable diving for my lack of fitness and not having practiced any breathe ups. There were not many abs in the outer area that was exposed to the winter swell though. Then Holger pointed me in shallower where I finally found plenty of abs among the boulders in about 20-23 feet. Lots of abs to choose from and I finished my limit. The visibility was only 6-8′ so we had left the spearguns behind so no fish unfortunately. When we were done we helped Jack pull his boat out and after a nice lunch with the rest of the club we headed back home. I was tired and slept well. Tonight we dine on fresh abalone!

Cat Proofing

Chris — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:02:45 +0000

I went over to storage to take some measurements on the boat and found a couple of cats living in my cuddy cabin. I chased them off and proceeded to block the cuddy cabin step where they were getting. It was a temporary fix and I used some scraps of wood and weights that I had in the garage. I wiped out the cabin with some cleaner to get rid of the smell and hair. Still a little to do but the cats had not been there very long and hadn’t wrecked the place to bad yet. I did let the storage facility know as well. They were not happy either.

So I built a removable insert that blocks access to the entire cuddy step area. The insert is collapsible and it folds in half so it is stores small. It should do the trick I think. I used some exterior grade enamel paint from the hardware store that almost matches the color of the boat. If I need to redo at some point I will make it more burly. For now it will do the trick and I should get a few years out of it at least.

Got the measurements on the new swim step

Chris — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 05:47:32 +0000

I got the measurements for the new swim step today and removed the old one. The new one is going to be 36″ deep and about 5 feet wide with room for a kicker bracket on the starboard side. I left about 26″ on that side which should handle kicker motors up to about a 25 HP. The depth is required so that when the outdrive is up the swim step will cover it. Nice and safe for the kids for when they jump off it at the lake. It will also be sweet for diving off of. Plenty of room for big spearguns and big fish. I also removed my trim tabs today. Some of the screws were wet and somewhat rusted and one of the heads snapped off. I was able to get it out with some pliers no sweat. About half the holes are going to need some TLC before I patch them. I hope the rot is not to bad. My Dad helped me throughout the day today which was handy in a few spots. Here are a few shots of the template (and me) before I mail it off to get the swim step built. Check my Flickr site for all the days pictures.

Picture 36″ fins on my feet and the deep blue beneath!

Ends the weekend at a new home

Chris — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:45:28 +0000

Well if you check my Flickr site link (on the right side of my blog in the black box the green hyperlink below my mug) for this weekends pictures you can see how far I made it. Lots of comments on the pictures for what I found. Port side of the bilge compartment mostly done. Still have to remove the trim tab pump though. Starboard side still to go. Maybe next weekend I will finish up the removal which includes the exterior transom. Swim step and trim tabs. Then on to the repairs. Lorne came by to share some of his considerable glass wisdom. Luckily no major repairs just lots and lots and lots of holes.

I got a new spot at the storage facility that I can pull straight out of and back straight into because it is at the right end and tilted the right way. Sweet! Holger won’t have to come rescue me again thank God. No more going around two corners and trying to dodge 100M class A’s and not hit the building in front of me. Never fun and usually time consuming, especially when I was alone. It was always better to hop out and look, which I did a lot. Not as much sun protection from the side as my previous spot but not bad from directly above which is mostly what I am concerned about. It is also longer so when I redo swim step I would have needed a longer spot anyway which this one is. So I am good to go.

Preliminary cleaning

Chris — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:15:10 +0000

This can’t be good!

Chris — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:30:59 +0000

I’ll go back and fill you in on how we got here. Suffice it to say I have some elbow grease to use. I am guessing about a 55 gallon drums worth. I suppose you could consider this the “before” picture. Wish me luck!

Ocean Maiden Voyage

Chris — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 05:37:28 +0000

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!

Seating revamp for spring

Chris — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:17:24 +0000

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.

Good Progress

Chris — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:33:57 +0000

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.

Productive weekend working on boat.

Chris — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:24:41 +0000

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/