Uh, oh!

I think this is a hint to leave today! Although getting the last few things on board will be a bit tricky, we will certainly get out of here this afternoon. I might just pull the boat out and anchor it, and then use the dinghy to ferry the rest of the stuff on board. Trying to pull up to any other dock here might be more hassle than it is worth. 

Tomorrow is it! Although the weather gurus’ have their opinion as to what the weather will be where I am, I’ll trust that my strong faith in God will deliver me nothing but good weather.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it lately, but I do not like writing these blog thingys!

We will keep loading and loading until we leave. Kevin is coming by this evening to load my last few batteries on board. On a solar boat you can never have enough batteries. I will also try to remember to fill up the water tank. I do not doubt we will forget something, but that is only because every boating blog I have read has a comment about forgetting something. So, to sheeple along I must at least follow suit.

Our expectations are to run down to Jewfish key tomorrow afternoon, and anchor until June 5^th when Dwight comes down to join me. We are going to have Sara and the girls, Stephenie and little Mic, and possibly April and Dave.

I am going to hook up a rope swing to the crane, so the kids can swing off of it into the water. The water is clear and the sand white. We will have a good time with all!

5 days left!

Chillin out on the front of the boat driving via remote control!

We took Solarhouseboat out into Terra Ceia Bay for an overnight to check out the systems. We ran the AC for a couple of hours before the house bank quit on me. We didn't have any solar input for two reasons: one, the sun was setting, and two, unbeknownst to me, the main solar controller popped off one of its lead wires causing the controller to error out. Hence, no input!

We had a wonderful evening though. The sunset was spectacular, the wind was up, and the wind generator was spinning like it had no limit. Sometimes I wonder how long it takes God to come up with all these different sunsets for us just so we can enjoy the evenings.

We got to see a great dolphin show without the trainers’ right out back of our boat. There were three sets of dolphins. Two of the sets of two were herding fish for dinner. The other set of three consisted of a large dolphin, most likely the mother, and two short baby dolphins. They stole the show with many of the common acrobatic jumps. It seems no one gets tired of seeing these creatures do there show. With the great sunset, and a dolphin show, how is it that some people still do not acknowledge that God himself created all of this for our enjoyment. 

I did try out the remote control steering. It worked alright with the exception of me trying to turn the controller like it was a steering wheel. We need to make further adjustments on the linkage to make it have a better response. I will be working on that after next weekend. Right now we are under the gun to get everything on the boat we want to take. I have only five days yet!

I hooked up the dinghy to my golf cart, so I can get it down to the marina and load it on the boat. I use my dolly and rope for a trailer. The golf cart makes a nice truck, and does not complain when I get a scratch on it! Hopefully I won’t have any trouble with it. When I get it to the marina I will put it in using the ramp and drive it around to our boat. I can then try out the crane to see if it can get the dinghy on the boat without much trouble.

Pack, pack, unload, unload. 

Got Ice!

Some may think it is foolish; some may think it cool, but I think it is amazing to watch the new ice maker pop out fresh ice in minutes! If I was a party person: had a party, had guests that like to party, and even had a blender, I would definitely be the boat that they all would come back to. This little jewel can pop ice faster than the kids can eat it!!

But, since we are not drinkers, and do not have drinking parties, we will have to settle with bringing the blender along to make smoothies!

Today, May 25^th, 2013, Lynda stocked up some of the groceries we will be taking along on the trip. She picked up a couple of plastic bins, which fit under our bed to store food stuff, and clothes. She also hemmed up our curtain that slides across to enclose our bedroom. After a few minutes of hanging that up, the room was cold enough to keep meat! I am confident that having a refuge from the heat is paramount to maximizing the enjoyment of camping on the water.

Load, load, Load, is all that we will be doing for the next five days. The good thing is that our boat has much more room than the sailboat did.

Although I did not run the math before I put together my crane, I think it will handle my dinghy's weight. I will be adding my dinghy to the boat inventory soon.

Yes, like many other boat bloggers that I have read about, we fall into the same category as all the rest when I say that we are a bit anxious to start our trip! If I have read it once I have read it, well a lot; that leaving the home dock is the hardest part. Leaving this dock will not be difficult. The difficult part of leaving has more to do with forgetting things that we should have brought.

Now, today, we are entertaining taking the Keys route again. It is all about the heat index. I never gave the heat a thought all of those years that I worked out in it, but today is different. So, our plan is to keep the plan open to change!

Driving via video

Now, before anyone gets negative on me, we must realize that we are in the technology renaissance period in time; as it were. And, with that being said, I feel it is necessary to continue to do my part to proliferate the convenience of the technology available to me. In my last post I expounded on the need to have remote control steering. Now I have that. So, if I were to think it too hot to stand outside while driving, what can I do? Well, there are many things that can be done, but one of the ideas that came to me was to drive via video!

I am putting a web cam facing the front of the boat, so that I can drive the boat without looking ahead. Now, if I decide not to get up in the morning to drive all day, I can stay in bed, drive the boat remotely, and watch a Netflix movie all from the confines of my air conditioned bedroom in the back of the boat. I realize that the old salts and purists would be out travelling around without any electrical devices, a block of fast melting ice, a compass, sextant, dividers, and a paper nautical map sprawled out on the table, but for me I will follow the technology all the way.

I know where I am because the GPS that is connected to my computer, which has PolarView and PolarCOM on it, continues to give me direction among lots of other nautical information necessary to navigate through the water.

7 days more to go before lift off!!

I believe I now know the meaning of being an armchair sailor/boater!

Steering remote!

My new steering control!

Well, as final as final can be, I am leaving Cut’s Edge Marina May 31^st. 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!

The rain can then start coming to Cut’s Edge on a regular basis. I will not be there. 

The Body!

Well, a body has been found, and removed!! Lynda and I are so happy to be rid of that little pirate mouse who had the audacity to die in a secluded place. I taped a movie camera on the end of a yard stick to peer into the reaches of our bilge and other a sundry places that a mouse with battle wounds could go; to no avail. So, I did the thing I should have done in the first place. I sat down, and waited for the Lord to show me where the body was. In just a few minutes I saw him lying near the bow of the boat with his head pointed toward the back of the boat, and his tail straight out. At first I thought I must have got that from one of the movies, but after reviewing the movies, I realized that God had been the author of my mouse citing.

So, Lynda and I went down to the boat this morning with a positive inclination to apprehend the stinking pirate. After preparing for the ordeal with charcoal mask, old clothes, and rubber gloves, Lynda crawled into the bow area through the vanity door. In less than a New York minute she discovered the body exactly where I saw it, well where the Lord showed me he was. So, thank you Jesus from both of us!!

A dead mouse, rat, or any animal can be quite stinky when decomposing! I doubt if anyone with any sense is reading this particular blog post. It gags me to write about it!

At least we can now get the boat aired out, and continue on the “list” projects. Sorry to post such a nasty note, but it has to be better than going through it like we had to. Better stories to come.

My Solar Array

Even though I had just started this blog a few days ago, I have been getting questions about the solar system I have running. I signed up for a yahoo group: Yahoo electricboats Many of the people on that group have excellent ideas and experience to help get an electric propulsion system going.

On my boat we have

6- Pm 280 W

Vmp     36.7 V

Imp      7.63 A

Voc      44.4 V

Isc        8.14 A

Max sys voltage            1000 V

Module Efficiency         14.3%

PTC rating        249.3

solar panels. I have a PCM-4048 MPPT charge controller that charges my 4-24 volt motor battery banks, and another 24 volt to 12 volt charge controller that charges my 12 volt house bank, which is comprised of 4- 12 volt batteries in a parallel array. I will also add my 3 12 volt 105 Amp golf cart batteries for a backup, or ballast whichever deems more necessary.

Although the current solar panels suffice for the power demand I need, I would like to add a few more just because. I can use them to make a porch roof on the back of the houseboat, and then look for other electrical devices to add.

The ease of installation and the simplicity of the solar array cannot be overstated. As for the rest of the list of projects, there seems to be no end. I pull out of the marina regardless on May 31^st!

The List

Since every boat blog I have ever read, and I have read quite a few, has a final list of jobs, supplies, etc. to get finished picked up, or done before shoving off, I thought I would sheeple along with the rest of them. The following is our current list that needs done before I pull out of the marina May 31^st.

In no apparent order:

get 1-5/16" paddle bit for doors, or 1-3/8”

finish boarding ladder- bring little grinder

check white micro for a turntable

bring table saw for siding

Finish boarding ladder

bolt on the Hoist

Autopilot

Drill doors under bed

Flooring under windows and shelf

Order and hang Blinds

Wood for blinds

Power washer

Outlet out back and front

Reconnect front bath gfi

Cover stools

Finish flooring in bath and second bed/bath

Hang rest of white siding

Second bedroom cover by master shower

Hang blinds in master bedroom

Bring down chaise lounge to see if they work

smoke detectors for boat- bought ebay

fire extinguishers for boat- bought ebay

stair railing

Screen door for boat

take more garden hose for getting water at ramps

Beg God to either help us find that nasty dead mouse, or make it dry up and quit stinking ASAP.

So, there you have it; an incomplete list to be continuously amended. The boat list must be a voyager’s rite of passage. Without the list one may wonder off aimlessly into the deep.

The Battle is over!

Pic above is from the inside of the wall. No body as of yet!!

Although the battle with the pirate mouse is over, we still have to locate the body. The little pirate had the audacity to die in a private place, alone. We can smell the little bas****, but we have yet to locate the body. How inconsiderate of him to die in a secluded location! We surmised that he died of his wounds. He was successful at getting out of four traps with peanut butter on them, but must have sustained injuries in the battle. We kept fresh water available for him so he wouldn't try eating his way through a waterline or a bottle of water. The only other possibility is that when Lynda cleaned down below the bunks in the front bedroom she used Mr. Clean, which may be lethal when ingested.

Nevertheless the body needs to be recovered for burial. We suspect that he died in the walls between the outer and inner hulls.

A distinct smell is wafting out in that direction. The nausea that just writing about it causes is enough for me to quit writing about it. My smelling capacity was greatly diminished forty some years ago when a shotgun blast removed my nose and my face, but this critters decomposing body is susceptible even to me! We have to locate the body no matter what, or wait until it dries up; yuck!!

After looking everywhere imaginable, and sweeping up a shitload, literally, of mouse droppings, we have not found him. So, today we got out a light and a video Flip camera. We shined the light down the wall through various cutouts, and used the Flip camera video to make a number of videos of the inside of the wall in hopes of locating the rat. Lynda also used ingenuity by locating a small mirror to use as a sight tool in hopes of locating him. The mirror gave no immediate results, but hopefully when I finish compiling the videos on my computer I can go through frame by frame looking for any hints of his war torn body. If the videos avail nothing we will probably have to attach a small flashlight to the camera, and investigate further in the vestiges of the boat. A body must be found!

I had a pirate mouse on my sailboat last year, above, but after battling him for a month, he gave up and jumped ship. He was an especially clever little devil. His battle plan was to set off the traps, and then hide them from me. It took several months after the war to find all of the missing traps. I thought that the experience I garnered from those battles might be helpful in this most recent encounter. On one hand I may have delivered the deadly blow through my battle experience, but on the other hand I did not think I would have problems finding and burying the dead.

I’ll do a post op-ed when and if we find him. If we don’t we may need to keep the fans going, and the windows open for a number of days until the body is all dried up like a piece of jerky. 

Now that gives me a visual that will certainly keep me from ever eating another piece of jerky!!

What to do; what to do? 

Dead Batteries

Since the flood of water in the boat, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot resurrect my house bank of batteries. They shorted out to 9.38 volts. I got them to hold at 12.35 volts, but that isn't going to make it.

We run all of our electrical devices such as refrigerator, microwave, crock pot, electric skillet, water pump, etc. from this bank. It was only 420 amps, but nonetheless we will not be leaving with them. I will try to get them replaced by this weekend.

In a way it is good that Dwight's plans changed because it makes it possible for us to get the batteries changed, and install the window shaker air conditioner. The air conditioner that came with the boat works well, but when we are not hooked up to a 30 amp service it will not run off the inverter. 16,500 BTUs' are a bit too many to for our system. The 6,000 BTU unit will suffice, and we can run it off the house bank of batteries with the solar array, or off the 800/1000 watt gas generator. We prefer running it off the solar array.

I will be installing the 6,000 BTU unit this week.

It never fails: "the list never ends!"

Our new plan of attack is to get the boat to Ft. Meyers/Sanibel area in time for Lynda, Sara, and the girls to jump aboard for a few days. Then Lynda and I will cross over to Stuart via the Okeechobee waterway.

In the mean time I have acquired a different type of mouse trap to catch the little pirate on our boat. He set off three traps so far without being caught, but I think this new one may get him. I will post the obituary when I have a body!!!

What plans?

As a side note I am not into writing a blog every day, or at all. I think my private information is just that; private? But, since I have learned so much from reading other peoples blogs, I almost feel obligated to write one too. Maybe someone can read about my experiences (bad), and learn from them. I have avoided many bad experiences by remembering what others have done. So, I will try to do this blog thingy regardless. It may be more sporadic than consistent, but then again I may become arrogant and assume I am an expert at boating, and that anyone reading this will gainfully acquire a wealth of knowledge!

I didn’t mention in the first blog that while I was in Europe and the Middle East our boat took on a good bit of water. Dwight came to the rescue, and pumped it all out. The boat was listing a good bit. With that in mind it is no wonder we had some damage.

When we got the boat and began remodeling it I made sure that anything that went into the boat was plastic if possible. That way if it got wet we wouldn’t have to worry about rot, mildew, etc. The refrigerator died on us, but we had two others in the garage, so we just replaced it. Our outboard motor battery was under water for some time, but failed to realize that when submerged for any length of time it will ruin. It somehow came out unscathed?

Well, the plan is changed. Dwight found out that he has previous pending obligations to attend to, which will interrupt our planned schedule to sail to Key Largo by the 10th of June. What to do?

For one thing, while Dwight is available, we could cruise around up and down the GICW to test our systems out. That would be a good thing. Just because the math works out that doesn’t mean all of the systems will work. The boat is totally solar/wind powered except for the 115 Johnson motor I use for a rudder and occasional backing. We don’t go fast but we go for free. And, if you are in no hurry, and have all of the comforts of home, why be concerned how far you can go in a day?

Plans are always good to have, but as you know plans are just guidelines that are subject to change!

The journey begins!

As it should be, we begin with solar panels. Without them this would just be another boat blog about, well, boats. Our boat started with the need to upgrade from our 28' Aloha sailboat to something that had more room, and didn't tax my weak heart to move about. We decided on getting another houseboat. I calculated that if we went no more than 34' I would be able to power the boat with a DC solar powered motor. My ideal length was what we got.

The boat had new bottom paint and we had a vision. What we needed to do was turn the boat into a semblance of that vision. Well, a few thousand dollars later we have an almost completed in transition will be completed on our way boat. I may post later the construction process we went through to get the boat to the point we now find ourselves in.

Time is running out; I need to get the boat on the way. My best friend Dwight will come with me for a few weeks. I hope to be in Key Largo before he goes back home. The plan is for Lynda to join me when she gets out of school for the summer along with Sara and our two granddaughters.

Plans are just guidelines for those who travel in boats! We will see what happens.