Outboard motor issues...again

I curse my outboard motor....again. My ever so wise wife reminds me that it was a piece of scrap that came with the boat, (I still have the bill of sail to prove it). Now it won't idle again.....and my shop manual is MIA on the boat somewhere. I am not ashamed to say I am frustrated by this simple mechanical devil, but I am ashamed to say it makes me feel extremely stupid in other ways.....like when it refused to turn over. I thought I drained the starter battery, but after 15 minutes of looking for the charger, (which was at home), it turned out I blew a fuse....Duh! Check the easy and simple things first!

I'll admit I had fantasies of tying a mooring ball to it and dropping it in the harbour! I do need a new motor soon but I just put one in the car so the $$$$$$ are just not there. Thanks for the rant, I needed that...Allan

Engine install

I am trying to install a small block chevy in my friends Dougs power boat but am failing at every attempt. Typical of the week I am having.

Update

We are outside of Hamilton, anchored about a kilometre from shore when Ellie decided she would swim ashore and back. She is the black dot in the water.

The second picture is of our new to us roller furling, taken from the V berth. Colourful.

The third shot is of my homemade extension for the roller furling. I need it so the furling drum would have clearance away from the fore stay. I made the extension from two strips of stainless steel flat bar welded together. I welded stainless steel flat washers over where I would drill the clevis pin holes. Not pretty, I never called myself a welder but it is funtional.

The last photo is of my daughter on her prom night. She is second from the left.

A Perfect Weekend

My daughter had her graduating Prom on Saturday so I was at her beck and call all day for driving to hair salon and fingernail place etc. She looked beautiful. Rule #1 and the only rule...she was not to get in a car if anyone had alcohol....it would have been OK to be at a destination with booze, but not before. My good girl danced for five hours and called me for a drive home at 11 pm. Sober.

Friday and Sunday were awesome sailing days. Period. Sunday was even better than Friday because it was an all day event. 32 degrees Celsius, high UV, and 10 to 15 knots of wind. We went under the lift bridge onto Lake Ontario proper. The Lake itself had a lot of algae for about a mile off shore then the water cleared up. We sailed and made googly eyes at each other for about two hours then decided to drop the sails and drift. I figure we were about 5 or 6 miles off shore. E
we picnicked, had a drink, acted like newlyweds.. heh, heh. The wife even went for a quick dip...

Then we just lay ed around, had another drink and read whatever books we had lying around.

OK, we were laying around 'au naturale' with plenty of UV protection. I don't think any UV protection was necessary as more power and sail boats dropped by to see if we were OK. As annoying it was to put clothes on, take clothes off...over and over, it was also nice to know there doesn't seem to be much apathy in fellow boaters when it comes down to boaters safety:)

Sunday just confirmed that we have chosen the correct path for us and we need a good canvas dodger with a sunscreen:) Damn it, I have to post a few pictures don't I? Modest ones of course!

Roller Furling

Finally got the flexible roller furling installed. No pictures yet as I keep forgetting to bring the daughters camera to the marina. I constructed a 15" extension for the bottom of the furling drum to raise the sail off the deck. This also gives me a small viewing window which I never had with the Genoa. With the roller furling raised all I have to do is crouch a bit and see whats ahead of me, I didn't have that luxury before. I even remembered, after some experimenting, how to tie a bowline for the sheets. I am sooo nautical:) Special thanks to Vic who was a great help with the install. I'll add photos later.

First sail!!!

Finally got the canvas up for a lovely three hour sail. The wife packed a picnic basket of sandwiches, fruit, wine and rum. Note to rum drinkers out there. I now drink "Sailor Jerry" rum, an amber rum that goes down like honey.

A friend at the marina introduced us and we are now the best of buddies:) It is so smooth that mix is not even needed, which is good for a diabetic such as myself.

Oh yeah, the sail....nice breeze at about 10 to 12 knots from the East, more or less. It was kind of tough sailing as I snapped off our wind indicator plus its mounting bracket when raising the mast. We tied ribbons to the shroud stays but I find myself constantly looking at the top of the mast for the non-existent indicator.

Hope to get out today but it seems unlikely as the wife threw her back out lifting a window mounted A/C. Foolish woman, grunt work is MY forte!

A bit of everything.

The first picture show our 'new to us' roller furling. We paid $250 US for it. It came from a Luger 24 I believe. We are excited as now my wife won't have to go forward on the dangerously pitching deck to lower the forsail any more! She can do it from the comfort of the cockpit:)



The second picture shows Ellie tidying up the halyards, (ropes that pull something), after we got the boom and mainsail up and running.



The third picture shows the booms gooseneck fitting as requested by someone who bought a Coronado 25 recently. Hope this helps.



Fourth picture is of our daughters two new kittens. Just a sec, I have to spritz them as they are clawing the couch. Again. Tiny aren't they? But potent, one fart from them can clear a room! I'm not much of a pet guy, but I'm kind of fond of these two. If anyone is considering pets, get two at the same time, they keep each other company AND more than double your entertainment value!



Fifth picture is of Ellie and me after we cleaned up for an old Navy Buddies wedding. Great time was had by all. The wedding party danced down the isle to the tune "Tonight's The Night" by the Black Eyed Peas. The bride and groom, Max and Dianne complement each other to know end. The only downside was that Dianne's father succumbed to cancer 2 days prior. You could see a bit of emptiness in her eyes.



The last picture is of the kittens again, they are cute enough for another shot. They are playing at the base of our clothes rack, er, I mean exercise machine.

There are two extra photos in here and it is way to hard to get rid of them as blogger shows the photos as code as opposed to an image. I just don't know which codes to delete. Sorry.