This weekend is Boat Project Weekend. Or at least the whole thing is turning out to be that anyway.
Last weekend Christina leaned back on the passenger-side seat and the hinge between the two seats snapped out of the wood. So, I thought I'd fix them since you couldn't lean back at all anymore.
About 15 minutes or so into it I realized I was getting into a big project. In fact, I've been working on these things now for 17 hours, 6.5 last night and 10.5 today so far. I would be done if I hadn't decided to do something with the dash on the captain's side also. The seat is back in the boat now. I also decided to rent a Rug Doctor to steam clean the carpetting in the boat.
The seats had four backing boards that connected with three long hinges. Two of the four boards were rotted out where the hinges attached, so I replaced those two panels with pressure treated lumber. Luckily the boards were in good enough shape that I could use them as a pattern for cutting the new boards. Pulling a couple hundred staples to remove the vinyl carefully and then stapling the foam and vinyl back on was really the only tedious part of the project.
Click on this link for pictures of the seat repair:
I've also started work on the dash. I've removed all the gauges, roughed up the front of the dash panel with some 220 grit sandpaper (veneer on top of plywood, so I couldn't refinish it), and I've primed it and started painting it. Since the long plate with the rocker switches for the electronics was black, I decided to paint it black. Since the gauges were all black with black rings around them, I've started painting the rings around the gauges (which thankfully were loose and slid off) a metallic silver.
Click on this link for pictures of the dash (still in progress):
Today was one of the cooler days we've had in a while (high of 89), so I decided to take a wire brush to the trailer and repaint the bad spots. I had the boat at the house anyway to recharge the battery after it sat in storage for a week with the dash lights and gauges left on. It was a good thing we had the portable jump power pack yesterday. Started the boat 4 or 5 times reliably. The battery charger we bought worked great... fully automatic. Charged the almost completely dead battery overnight.. about 15 hours in total. The combination of a fully charged battery and better fuel made the boat run and start a lot better today. In fact, today was the first time we've gone out when the outing wasn't stressful. We're getting in the groove and getting used to everything involved in it I guess.
Anyway, here's a gallery of pictures from the trailer repainting:
We went out late today (around 4:30) intending to get dinner at a restaurant we like at one of the marinas called Dockside, but it was closed. So, we went to another marina's restaurant, Rusty Anchor, and had dinner there. Pretty nice place and it's cool pulling up to the dock right in front of the restaurant.
Here's some pictures of us returning this evening:
I haven't posted anything real in a while, so it's time to update it I suppose.
First, a picture of Sharon in bloom from a couple weeks ago:
Also, we went out in the boat today to meet up with some of the people we tailgate with at football games from the Gamecock message boards. Some of the guys are having a camping weekend on Doolittle Island out in Lake Murray. Saturday afternoon was a cookout where everyone that wanted to come was invited.
If you click the picture above, it'll take you to my Pbase gallery of 5 images from today's day on the lake. The boat idled a lot better after giving it 16 gallons of new gas. Should have filled it up more, but we'll do that next time.
Lots of fun, but we're tired now from the heat. Just about to go find something for dinner.
We took the boat out for a while this morning. Not too long since it was supposed to rain this afternoon. By the time we got the boat back out of the water, got everything tied down and our stuff back in the truck, the big rain hit. Pretty good timing if you ask me.
We were getting a little low on gas anyway, so it was a good time to pack it up. The boat did start more reliably with the new battery, however, it still has a tendancy to stall when idling. We're hoping that it's the old gas and that when we fill it up next time it'll take care of that.
And of course, the rain lasts only a few minutes and it turns into a beautiful sunny afternoon.
We had lunch with Michelle today! Nice seeing her again. She was swinging through Columbia on her way back to Atlanta and it was good timing for a lunch break.
We got a new battery for the boat last night. There are three kinds you can get: Flooded regular Deep Cycle marine batteries, Gel Deep Cycle marine batteries, and AGM marine batteries. The prices are around $60, $170, and $230 respectively. Guess which one we got?
Though even the standard marine deep cycle battery we got will be a good one. The boat had a regular automotive non-deep cycle battery in it before. That provides good cranking amps for starting, but non-deep cycle batteries are really damaged by deep discharges. They never recover to anywhere near 100% of their capacity after even a few deep discharges. Whereas a deep cycle can discharge anywhere between 300-500 times depending on the type and recover almost fully when recharged.
We'll probably take the boat out again this weekend to work out the final kinks before inviting anyone out. We'll pick up the "instant jump" power pack tonight just in case. I have the feeling the lake will be a little more crowded this Saturday with the high around 91 degrees only.
Well, after running just about 3/4ths of a tank of 93 octance through the system, my Service Engine Soon light on my truck turned off. So that's great news.
However, my Mom called yesterday with bad news. She had to put down her cat, April, yesterday. She was so sick she couldn't eat or walk and had lost a lot of weight. But my Mom saved the runt of a litter that the people were going to kill anyway and gave her a wonderful 15 years of life. Much like us taking in Ashley as a stray, it's nice to give a cat a chance that didn't have one otherwise. I know they appreciate it and I know April will be missed by both my Mom and her other cat Kari.
It has been one of the longest weekends I can remember. Frustrating too.
Friday night was good though, I pulled the glove compartment out of the passenger side of the boat and took out that Sony cassette stereo and replaced it with my old Pioneer stereo I used to have back in the 90's. A few measurements, a spare mounting kit I had, and a jig saw later and it mounted in just fine.
Saturday was where the frustration started. I put the dash back together and hooked up the stereo wires and it wasn't working. It's not like it was a complicated install either. There are 5 wires total. 2 speakers, power, ground, and antenna. So I hook back up the Sony and it doesn't work either. So I get out the multimeter and check the voltages on all the lines, take apart the driver's side panel and test the voltages on each switch too. Only to find out that the "Acc" switch is for the depth finder only, not the stereo. So, I hook back up the Pioneer and flip the "Interior Lights" switch and it works like a charm. Kind of frustrating. Even more so when I find out that it won't play CDs anymore. Below are a few images from the stereo install... click the picture or the link below the picture:
Anyway, the plan was to take the boat out early Sunday morning when the public access ramp wouldn't be as crowded. But, we're impatient, so we leave around 10am on Saturday to take it out for the first time. We get out there and it's pretty much dead. Only until later did we figure out why no one was on the lake.
The public ramp was pretty easy to manuver the boat around, even though it doesn't just go straight down into the water. It goes down and then turns to the left towards the water because the lake is 11 feet low right now. We get it down into the water, unlatch it, and try to start it up. Won't start. We fought with it for around 15 minutes or so. In the meantime we're holding up the other few people trying to launch also. But there were 3 lanes to launch from, so we just stayed put. Still nothing. So after getting seriously pissed off and frustrated we winch it back up and take it home. Where it starts up just fine. Extremely frustating.
By now we've realized that it's also the heat that's making things more annoying. That's also what's probably keeping a lot of people from going out on the lake. But we decide that since it's running, we'll go back.
This time it starts up fine with minimal fighting, so we launch it fine and head out on the lake. Below is a link to some pictures. Either click the image or the link below it:
We were only out for a couple hours and each time we stopped we had to fight it starting again. So, we decide to go back since we're both getting a bit too much sun already anyway. We get up to the dock and shut it off. I go up, get the trailer backed down into the water, and come back to the boat. Won't start. And after fighting it for 10 minutes and trying to start it a few times, the battery dies completely and can't even turn it over. 20 feet from the trailer. Pretty frustrating. Luckily the guy on the other side of the dock had an instant-start battery booster pack. Clamped that on and it started up immediately. So I back away from the dock, it stalls... and won't start again. So I throw Christina a rope and we borrow the guy's battery pack again. Starts, stays running this time, we get it back on the trailer and get it home just fine.
And then take a deep breath and a long cold shower.
So then we head to pick up a prescription for me and we spend 30 minutes trying to find the prescription slip around the house. As if the day hasn't been frustrating enough. It's out in Christina's car of course. So I throw it in my pocket, go back inside, grab other things like sunglasses, etc. When we get to the store, I can't find the slip anymore. We look in the car too and it's not there. So, we drive home. We look for another 30 minutes. It's in my pocket still... always had been. I reached in there to check about 5 times and only felt my cell phone. It was folded so flat that I didn't even feel the paper.
There are a handful of other frustrating events I could list also, but I think you get the point by now. Been that kind of weekend.
Happy belated 4th of July to everyone. We just got back into Columbia this afternoon. The return trip was almost as uneventful as the trip down. The only thing that really went wrong was my 'Service Engine Soon' light coming on 15 miles from the exit off I-26 to get home. We'll see what comes of that later though.
The only other thing of note on the trip was that I couldn't go faster than 60 MPH. Ugh... for me, that's tough. I had planned on taking it easy coming back of course, but 60 MPH the entire way wasn't what I had in mind. Any faster and the trailer fishtailed because of the weight distribution. Anyway, no where we bring it around here to store it or launch it is over 55 MPH, so there shouldn't be a problem. It was, however, a long, long trip back.
We had a fantastic time down there! Lots of lazing around the pool, a trip to the beach for fireworks, tons of great food, and a project or two with the boat. I took all the teak wood trim off the boat, sanded it down, and refinished it. Ended up looking pretty good. There are some pictures in the link at the bottom of this post that show how the finish turned out. And one of me sanding which shows the color the wood was before finishing, after sanding, and the next image shows it stained.
I don't know when we are taking the boat out for the first time. The plan was to take it out Sunday morning, but I'll have to see about that 'Service Engine Soon' light first. Anyway, we promised pictures when we first took it out, so I'll make sure to update my blog.
Now to catch up on email, the message boards, bills online, and tons of other things that need to get done tonight. Here's the link to a few of the pictures from the trip:
