Fishing

Saturday morning is the target for my first focused fishing trip. This will be a test to prove that my repair of the PS hose.










My love of fishing came from my dad.

Learning about Lake Ontario Salmon has been happening over the last 20 years.
FreedomchartersLakeOntario.com
Captain Gary Begy would be the man who taught me what I know.
For professional guide services on lake Ontario, this guy is tops. From Chinook salmon to Brown trout, lake trout to steel head and even Atlantic Salmon, he catches them all!

Sunday and Tuesday

Upside down as fuck. I was hanging inside the motor compartment to see underneath where the alternator and power steering cooler are. my entire upper body with head almost touching the floor. One leg hooked outside under the gunwale was my only leverage to pull myself back up besides my hand holds on the exhaust manifold. I did tie a dock line to the aft cleat and drape it in reach also as another aid but did not need it. I would say for a good 2 or 3 minutes. I did it a few times, three in all.

I finally reached the other end of the power steering hose. It was removed previously to replace the alternator. The clamps didn't seem to be re-tightened. It was the one rough part of the trip for me. I lost all the fluid on the way into Sodus and had to take some from my car for the trip back to home port. The leak was the reason I didn't stop in the river to visit and cut short my previous attempts at fishing. I believe I have it fixed now. 

Sunday I went down to make sure when I finally go for a test ride I can have some down-riggers and rod holders to do some fishing. the three boards in the middle will serve as the sides for some tackle box holders to slide in trays of fishing lures and there will be a pad that will hang in front of the rod holders to lean against eventually. A seat on the port side that folds down may happen someday. For now I have rigger mounts and rod holders. 

I sized up the problem of the leaky power steering at this time. I did some test hangs to see how my body would handle being upside down for a time and what I could hold on to to get back out. I lit it like crazy too. lots o light until I finally saw the hose clamp screw. I tried to tighten it with a flat head but between having trouble with my form and technique and being afraid of touching the red wire on the back of the alternator all I succeeded in doing was pushing the clamp around and never tightening it. I was getting tired by that time and decided to give up for now. A tactical retreat


Stopped at the house quick and made my way out to the boat. Got set up and started armed with my new plan of attack. I was going to use a socket .  Tested a few on the upper hose clamp and found 8 mm to be correct. Pushing the bottom of the belly is the point of no return. This is when more than half of me is in a hole, head first and little room to wiggle. Actually there is a decent amount of space but being stuck upside down not being able to get out would not be fun. I tightened it up and ran it for about half an hour spinning the wheel back and forth much of the time.

The verdict, without a test at high rpms its still inconclusive but seeing no air bubbles in the fluid was encouraging and I am confident the next test drive will last a bit longer. she really purrs nice when that pump isn't squawking.

I have a new boat right aside of me now and I am not comfortable backing in against the wall with the other boat there so I decided to wait until my designated dock is assigned (tomorrow) so I can move.

Followup

In the days following the trip I had the good fortune to enjoy some less than perfect boating weather.   North winds and rain produced the perfect conditions to observe my boat at the dock .

I pulled into my new port zone time Thursday. There are no docks in the rec boater area. I wanted to be there though and braved the challenges.

The sea wall with a high step platform is my home I at at the southeast corner. Protected on the south and east but exposed from the north and west to a lesser extent. 

The heavy north wind pushed her against the wall but it really didn't do much more. It was enough to create a significant chop in the marina. The cockpit cover holds fast even with a missing snap on the windshield still. the camper which hasn't received a good spray and had a few spots that let in some water. 

I was able to back into the spot on my midweek boat trip but it would be much nicer to have a finger dock to back into and jump out and walk it in. I almost let it hit the outdrive. The power steering leak is still happening. I am fairly sure its in the section of hose that passes under the exhaust manifold and around the alternator. Will have to back out the hose to access it plus I dont like filling the bilge with the PS fluid. I never take on any water so there is nothing mixing with it. I have to get a water pump of some kind going. 

BYC as I enter Sandy Creek for the first time!

Finally something fairly bad happened

Sodus was nice.
So nice my car wanted to stay.
It made me forget to take my key when Brad picked me up to take me back to get it.
I took a bunch of stuff including clothes, my machine and my laptop.
I specifically looked for my house keys
I was excited about home
I was excited about ribs since I had not eaten since 10am

Ride was nice but power steering fluid was leaking. I still dont know where it all went.
found a very loose hose clamp. hopefully that was the only problem. top hose shows now wet spots or leaks. I cant see all of bottom one easily.

had some issues with temp creeping up high while idling when I finally fished a little by watoma shoal.. it took long time in a heavily following sea but I caught it before it got near red. neutral and RPMs to 1600 and it dropped right down.

changed the oil after the trip it smelled pretty old and burnt but still havent found oil filter. will change it next time when I find it.

Docks wern't even ready. I parked on the sea wall.

Motoring

Writing from Sodua tonight. I showered for the first time since I left Saturday and it felt good. I was hoping to be in Rochester by tonight but with the issues I overcame I am happy to be at the south end of the lake at least. Brad picked me up here and made a mad dash back to get my car..

When I returned, a kind soul opened the office to me where the bathrooms and showers are. 

Funny thing about the crossing was the entire way I was constantly wondering how anyone gets lost with all the big landmarks available. Oswego stared at me the whole way and stayed on my left as I passed it going diagonally all the way. 

Up at 6, breakfast, finished installing circulation pump by 9 or so.Test spin to association then across to wescott beach and back to Harbors End. Great trip! Sub and drink and pack the rest into the boat around noon and then final cleanup.

Left HH just after 1pm

Stony Point lighthouse, ~2pm

Last land I saw up close for 3 hours

Poor or no cell signal 3:30 

Arrived in Sodus just after 5pm

Picking up my car around 7:30

I covered 63 miles in about 4 hours total the longest stretch being 50 miles straight across open water.

Plans vs Reality

In the weeks leading up to this trip I spent a lot of time envisioning the scenario and picturing the journey. An exploration of the lakes interesting places possibly multiple stops to see the sights and cruise along, singing my song, day by day or something like that. Fishing here and there along the way, I wanted to stretch it out for a couple of days of travel.

Reality came along and reminded me that those plans actually were to hold space for the time I would need to fix up the boat enough for it to be fit to travel. Deep down inside I had some inkling that I would run into things that would delay launch. I actually expected it to be luxury builds like the fishing board in the back with rod holders and down-riggers but that has not happened.

Stuff that didn't work cold in the morning again hand waxing above your head is tough time seemed to move slow today The batteries were not charging and the circulation pump (water pump on a car) bearing was worn and near failing The last straw today was when I dropped one of the water pump gaskets. It fell into oblivion. I fished in the bilge water for 30 minutes before accepting that it was time to get food and call it a day In my plan this style was a good idea

Stuff that worked blankets galore and more breakfast at The Cherry Tree Inn port side came out really nice once the trailer was moved and it was reachable These moments have been few and far between and I was always busy making some sort of progress . Alternator wire broke so fix was easy for that one and the pump is fairly easy to get at so its mostly user serviceable. In reality...

Ok enough of that experimentation, its getting late and I want to sleep soon. 

Woke cold, breakfast, broke down and got moved to sun for final wax

Sleeping on the water once again thought I can't just get up and go but on the water. 

The wiper blade I brought was the wrong style. so I will be stealing one from my car for the ride.

Motor fired right up and ran well.Find em and fix em so far.  The weather is holding up and actually the best travel days are ahead. 

Getting there and preparing for launch

This seemed like a much more interesting story as I was living it but is really mostly for reference and a place to stash some pics and info about it as I go.  Monday has now passed and I am about to go to sleep in my boat on land while sitting on a storage trailer. I started a month ago and am finally prepared to launch tomorrow. Shakedown in the morning.

That may sound like a long time but it consisted of only two, single day mad dash visits prior to this one. The first was to retrieve the cockpit cover canvas to have it restitched and repaired. I forgot to take it home in the fall and after having the camper done I knew it needed attention also. The second was to cut off the plastic cover totally and set up my newly repaired canvas. I also took measurements for some modifications and I power washed all I could reach from the ground. 

In preparing to leave Friday, gathering everything together I was going to need took a bit longer than expected. I ended up turning in sick to my stomach. In the morning that sick hit the fan and I was whupped from multiple purges. TMI I know but this is my story and it happened and it was significant enough that I wrote about it =P. This wasn't self indulgence either but some pork from big M. Ugh, 

Saturday was slow motion city trying to load the car and prep everything. 4:30 before it all got loaded and I was on the road. Just enough tome to sling the extension cord across the road to get some power for the c-pap and I crashed, hard about 9pm after hitting the bathroom. I was so happy it was open this time since it was too early the two previous visits.  

The bathroom was left ajar. How lucky I was I wouldn't know until the morning. The morning came and I returned with no particular urgency. Peck in the code since someone had closed it all the way after I had visited and Blah, Red Light! No go ! no poo for you! I was grumpy. Here it is Sunday and no one is around yet. Made it half way to oswego before it was time to stop. The McBoatface pictures were from a trip to the bathroom later that day, the vantage point being just past the bathroom. This was after another kind boater shared the new code with me. Life was good after obtaining that sweet knowledge!

So I suck at buffing. I said it. I am slow and unfocused. I try to do too much at once. I let stuff dry and stick so many times. I finally put some Nu finish on just to be done with trying to fix buildups over and over. Its not beautiful but its protected so I am happy. 

I brought four batteries with me to get the party started. I had two in the boat last year and a third for the downriggers which just slid around on the floor in the back. I finally spent the time to decipher where each wire goes and what each one does and how everything works. 

Sorting all the battery doing was going great. it was time consuming since I would climb down into the motor compartment and hook up a wire and then get  back out and search for what was active. I had a pretty good idea about most of it but one gem I found was the 12 volt fridge fuse had melted the holder last year when I tried to plug the microwave in to an outlet that was stealing from its inverter.

Once all that was done I was close! I started working the hydraulics and checking. Outdrive up and down, Check. Trim tabs,  hmmm that doesn't sound right. In climbing down I notice the outdrive is spattered with something. ATF was seeping from my port trim tab ram.   Things had been going too well I thought to myself. Argh.  Off to the races I went, searching the marina here didn't turn up anything but a few more local visits and I had one in hand with info and warnings to boot. Few more hours and several trips to the shop here to borrow the vise and a few time for re-assurance from the mechanics here followed by some crouching and cramming to refil the pump and I had two flippers again good as new.   This was just enough to push the launch back. 

If I had my choice of sleeping on the cold water or protected from the wind by other boats in a line and not in the water, well that didn't take much though. Here I sleep on land. No gentle waves but since there is a frost warning here tonight and I am not comfortable with heaters in the cabin, I sit here snuggled a sleeping bag and two super warm blankets. Turns out cpap exhaust when running the humidifier in a cold place will condense the water droplets in the mask and make for some rude awakenings if the seal slips open(cold water in the face.) but I make due, 

That is enough for now. More tomorrow after the trial and loading up.