My new steering control!
Well, as final as final can be, I am leaving Cut’s Edge
Marina May 31st. Well, that’s the plan, and you’all know what plans
are for, and if you don’t, plans are indelibly susceptible to change.
However crazy this looks; I did transport the crane hoist to the boat two miles away on my golf cart!
Dwight
came down to help me put up the crane on the back port side of the boat.
With it I can use the electric 2000 lb. hoist to pull the dingy up out of the
water, or pull my sorry @@@ out if I fall in! We also hooked up the steering
actuator, which will be driven with my new wireless steering control (pic at the top of blog). It’s kind of
exciting thinking that to control the boat all I have to do is push a button. I can sit anywhere in the boat and turn it one way or the other.
I am also going to hook up my webcam in the front of the
boat, so I can steer from bed just in case I don’t feel like getting up! I can
monitor what is up ahead via my laptop or my phone. My good friend Fred would surely like this driving feature! His idea of creature comforts are a half melted bag of old ice, and a "cupa Walmart tea in a hot boat!" He always teases me about my creature comforts on my boats!
I realize that many old
salts will roll their eyes up at me when they either read this or hear about
it, but I’m cool with that. I have been criticized by those types of
sailor/boaters for quite some time. In fact, one of these authoritative figures
advised the person that bought my Aloha 28’ sailboat to rip out all of the wiring
in the boat and rewire it because nothing was done right. Although the boat was
self-sufficient with refrigerator, microwave, electric head, Purasan waste
treatment, air conditioning, solar panels and wind generator, and was sailed
hundreds of miles, it clearly did not meet muster with the old salts that have
spent nearly 30 years tied up to a dock.
So, to make a long story longer, I
conclude that everyone can have an opinion however inaccurate it may be, and if
anyone doesn't like my boat, or thinks I have wired it up wrong, regardless of whether it actually leaves the dock, and is moved through the water by an electric motor that is powered
by solar panels and batteries, or that those same solar panels run the air conditioning, pressure
water system, refrigerator, microwave, two crock pots, one electric skillet,
multiple fan options, remote control steering, computers, gps units, lights, ice machine, and more, they can keep their opinion the themselves and never leave the dock!
Sorry for the rant.
Lynda and I have decided that it is more important to get
everything on the boat than it is to have everything on the boat finished
before we leave. She is coming along with me to Marina Jacks in Sarasota where
I will anchor and wait for Dwight to catch up with me. Dwight and I will then
take the boat down to Ft. Meyers. That's the plan!
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