Sep 25 - home without smoking

... the clutch that is.

As planned, I went for a bike ride. It was hot and humid and I was soaking wet when I got home. Of course I was soaking wet about five minutes after leaving.

Back before noon, I had lunch and then went over to North Causeway Marine (NCW) at 1pm. Tara was out to lunch so I browsed around their shop for a few minutes because she was due shortly. Sure enough, a few minutes after 1pm she was back. There was bad news and good news. The mechanics didn't like her plan of moving the bankruptcy boat onto a work stand. From there point of view they were crowded already. As she put it -- "It's their call; I don't have to work back there".

The good news was that out of the blue she got a call from an "inside" customer that they were canceling at the end of the month -- this coming week. She will figure out which of the outside boats is next in queue to move inside and I'm in ! ... or rather I'm out ! ... you know what I mean. By mid-week I should be able to start using their facility. I'm still keeping everything crossed.

While there I picked up an 8 pound anchor, a gallon of 2-cycle oil, a couple of pre-spliced dock ropes and a fire extinguisher. I think that I have all the basics now for our first ride.

Monica called around 2pm to say that the boat would be ready around 3pm and that the cover would not be in until mid next week -- being shipped from Indiana it seems. That's ok, I'm planning on parking the boat on the other side of the house away from the Live Oaks, so the lack of a cover for a short period of time won't be a big deal. If I had to park it under the trees, I'd be buying a tarp because the leaf droppings stain immediately with the morning dew.

Sandy then called and said that she'd be home shortly from Orlando. Once she was home we set out for Bluewater Boats in Holly Hill, not without trepidation. Oh yes, and in the meantime I'd been pestering my insurance agent to get insurance bound. At the end of the day that was still outstanding because it seems that at least some companies don't want to insure boats in Florida ... that particular saga will continue on Monday.

So ... as I said ... off we went. Once at BWB I sorted out some things with Monica, talked to Doug and we hooked up the boat. At that point the insurance agent called and I was on the phone with her for about 1/2 hour answering questions -- "will it be used for racing ... no; does it have an automobile engine ... no; sleeping quarters ... no; and on and on, some questions inane, some less so. All that done, it was close to 5pm and we left for home.

Then came the fun part. I'd opted to drive home on I95 figuring that getting onto the Interstate was a lesser evil than stop and go traffic along US 1. It's a big boat -- I've said that before -- it dwarfs the car. Fully equipped it weighs more than the car, which is 4800 pounds. It does have its own surge brakes and I could tell that they were operational because I didn't have to brake hard at any point. After a little stop and go on LPGA Blvd on the way east, we got onto the highway. I'm being followed ! ... but that's a good thing. I can really feel the big trucks passing me because at most I get up to 65 mph in the 70 mph zone and mostly I'm a little below 65. In 5th gear I'm getting 11 mpg and of course that's on the flat. 5th gear is marginal with that load, 4th is better but then it's revving around 4000 rpm. 6th gear is not an option. I'd hate to pull this thing up any mountains ... I'd be in third gear < 50 mph, I'm guessing.

I'd decided that with the extra length -- I'll have to measure the rigged length to check -- I would not try and turn right at Saxon, since it's a tight turn and there are always cars turning left off Saxon. I would go along A1A, turn right at Hiles and come at our house from the other direction on Saxon, exactly what I'd recommended that George do with his RV. When I got there and parked along the side of the road and got out to assess, I changed my mind. I would be on the far side of the turn and not be able to see what was happening. So ... I went down the street, turned right at 27, left at A1A, left again at 24 and back along Saxon. Sandy got out and held traffic and I backed it onto the property on the south side of the house where George had parked. There is more room to maneuver on that side so that I could get it moving and stay in gear, i.e. no clutching, reducing the chance of any smoking.

Whew. That was test number one. Test number two will come shortly, once Sandy is up and we head for the boat ramp. Oh -- I see that she's up. I loaded anchor, life jackets, etc. etc. into the boat last night when we got home and soon we'll set out. I haven't decided whether or not I will try and gas up before we get to the water. At 6.2 pounds per gallon, 105 gallons adds a lot of weight. Since I have to run double oil for the first 10 hours I have to add oil as I put gas in the tank. I have about a quarter tank right now (25) ... will probably want to add 40 gallons with that gallon of oil that I bought yesterday. I should also fill the fresh water tank ... 12 gallons of water ... more weight. Here's hoping that when I back down the ramp I can stop !! At some point the boat floats so that is probably not an issue -- the real issue is not smoking the clutch when I try and get going up the ramp but heck, that's later in the day !

The other issue (I have a lot of issues right now as I do everything the first time) is whether or not I can even get in and out of the gas station.

Jason will find this interesting -- I got an earful twice in the last days from Doug and Monica about road gas / ethanol issues. It seems that ethanol creates all sorts of problems for marine engines because of the affinity of water for alcohol and the fuel/water separator should be changed semi-annually and ... fuel stabilizer should be used all the time.

Another interesting thing -- I bought the 4 gallon plastic bottle of Quicksilver (Mercury brand) 2-cycle oil and Tara advised me to save the container. They buy the stuff in bulk and they charge $6 less per gallon to refill. I assume that they can also add oil directly to my oil tank, but don't know that for sure. I probably need to check out more stuff there, including, based on my reading, needing odor stuff for the porta-potti. Who'd a thunk that my nighttime reading would be a porto-potti manual.

Regarding Doug and Monica ... Sandy was talking to Monica while I was on the cell phone with the insurance agent. I'd gotten a hint that they were an item and it turns out that they're more than an item. They also own Bluewater Boats. They are nice people but far away. I suspect that I'll be using the Marina (NCM) services once my boat is parked there. It's too much trouble to haul the boat out of the water and bring it to BWB in Holly Hill. Since all scheduled maintenance is at my cost anyway, why go to the trouble. I'll probably go there this coming week for the 10 hour service and then I'll be done. First off I have to find out if NCM is an authorized Johnson dealer for Johnson service though. There are items scheduled at 50, 100 and 200 hour intervals as well as 3 & 6 & 12 months. The passage of time intervals are more along the lines of greasing, which I can do. Since I have an hour meter that will be a constant reminder, no guessing on the other stuff.

Well, I said that boats would be taking up more of my typing skills than bikes for the next while and so this is no surprise.

David, Kim and Megan are coming to Florida at the end of January. Kim says that Megan is excited to try the porta-potti. Sandy replied that it would then be her job to clean it ...

... and with that note ... onward !