Daydream's Great Loop Blog!

SeaSpray":1gtpftvd said:
Hi Pat,
Amazing how fast service time comes around when you use the boat every day. Congratulations on everything going well doing the service yourself! After all the post where things have not gone that well you it must feel great.

Looks like your next stop may be the Erie canal, exciting. Also looks like you may be getting some heat now. Hope the AC is working out.

Steve
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We seem to be continually just north of the heat! So far, the AC has been just dead weight in the cockpit, but that may change. Fortunately, Patty has not had any issues with the heat since the first two days back at River Forest Yachting Center.

We should be entering the Erie Canal tomorrow! We will definitely want to linger on the Erie!
 
HI Pat, I just left a not on your blog, asking about the weather, heat and humidity. Funny, You answered it already, I just didn't look here first. Guess I need to wake up and straighten out my priorities. Interesting not there about the water landing Scully did.

Way too hot down here today.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Today's blog post is about Rondout Yacht Basin, where we ended up staying two nights, having the boat hauled out and I did the engine service, and we participated in a celebration for a new U.S. citizen!
 
Pat, Just a question. If you use the MightyVac to suck out the oil, why do you need the boat on the TraveLift. Did you also change the gear oil? I don't do the lower unit, but once a season, if that often.
 
Today's blog post is short! It is about our stop-over at Coxsackie Backwater on our way to the Troy Federal Lock, Waterford and the Erie Canal. It was a very nice protected anchorage behind an island, and my Active Captain review of Coxsackie corrected a serious error!
 
Discovery":117oz6oe said:
Pat, Just a question. If you use the MightyVac to suck out the oil, why do you need the boat on the TraveLift. Did you also change the gear oil? I don't do the lower unit, but once a season, if that often.
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Brent, you are correct. I can do the oil change and filters (oil and fuel) without a haulout. The only reason I had the boat hauled out was to do the lower unit lube! When I drained it, the lower unit lube looked perfect, just like it looked when I pumped it into the lower unit in North Carolina.

I was just going on the advice of Pete from West Coast Marine on doing the lower unit lube on the same schedule as the oil changes. Andrew at Rondout also said it was important to check to be sure the seals were intact and there was no water intrusion into the lower unit. Also, bear in mind each oil change at 150 (or 200) hours is MORE hours than "a season" would be during any normal season of cruising for us.

How many hours in a normal season for you?

 
Pat, Our seasons vary wildly. We have had the TomCat for 11 years now and have 1028 hours on the motors. Less than 100 hrs/year on average. Some years have been in the Broughton's or SE Alaska and were over 150 hr/summer. The last year was 28 hrs. Two trips to Lake Powell. We are coming east in August to do two months on the Trent/Severn, Rideau and maybe the Erie canals.

Were spending most of July in South Africa on safari, or we would get and earlier start.
 
Pat and Patty
Have been enjoying your blog posts, each and every one. One question, what is your total water distance traveled so far? And how many hours have you put on your engine? OK two questions.
 
Spike":1a1b727q said:
Pat and Patty
Have been enjoying your blog posts, each and every one. One question, what is your total water distance traveled so far? And how many hours have you put on your engine? OK two questions.
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Spike, we have traveled 1,930 miles, and put 308 hours on the engine. We did a service at 150 hours in North Carolina, and another service at 300 hours at Rondout Yacht Basin in New York. Glad you are enjoying the blog!
 
Today's blog post is about Waterford and starting the Erie Canal! We are sitting here tied to the floating dock now. We were able to move up from the concrete wall to the floating dock this morning where there is electricity. I am staring right into the doors of the first lock of the "flight of give," E-2 (thee is no E-1!). We will be staying here another day and heading out tomorrow!
 
dotnmarty":3qmtmt2l said:
Dotty and I are really enjoying your blog. It's a wonderful thing you're doing.
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Glad you are enjoying it, we are having a ball on the Loop, and I am having a lot of fun sharing everything in the blog!
 
Pat,
We also are enjoying your blog.
Thanks for taking the time to do it.
A couple of questions: Have you really needed the air conditioner other than in Florida at the start? Is the drone working out as you hoped? I can't recall seeing any footage from it. Maybe I missed it.
On another note, I admire your tenacity to stick with 6 miles an hour and take 3 hours to do a open stretch of water that can easily be done in 1. I know it saves fuel but I doubt I'd be able to maintain that speed on the big open stretches with short term favourable forecasts. Good on you mate.
Keep on having fun.
Cheers
Ron
 
Ron on Meander":2hjkkxdd said:
Pat,
We also are enjoying your blog.
Thanks for taking the time to do it.
A couple of questions: Have you really needed the air conditioner other than in Florida at the start? Is the drone working out as you hoped? I can't recall seeing any footage from it. Maybe I missed it.
On another note, I admire your tenacity to stick with 6 miles an hour and take 3 hours to do a open stretch of water that can easily be done in 1. I know it saves fuel but I doubt I'd be able to maintain that speed on the big open stretches with short term favourable forecasts. Good on you mate.
Keep on having fun.
Cheers
Ron
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Ron,

We have never used the air conditioner. The only days Patty had issues with the heat were the first two pre-cruise days in Florida. We bought the air conditioner on Amazon and had it delivered to St. Augustine. Since we brought it on board it has only been dead weight! We may yet use it, who knows, but so far our Endless Breeze fan set on a little table outside the vee-berth at night has been all we need, and we use little Camfrano fans in the cabin (fixed) and cockpit (portable). So far, totally adequate!

The drone is another issue. I lost the iPhone in the drink that had the DJI GO app on it, and got a new iPhone in Savannah. The new DJI GO app does not work on an iPhone 5. I will be getting a third party control app that does work on the iPhone 5, but I am not testing anything new over water! So there will be no drone footage on this cruise!

Sticking to our slow cruise speed is partly due to preference but actually the boat is so heavy loaded for the Loop, it will not plane. I have put the throttle lever down and all it does is wallow in the water at about 10 mph while the economy goes totally in the toilet! There are a couple of places where I would like to be able to plane, for example, crossing Lake Ontario and then the Gulf of Mexico, but I don't see how that is going to happen unless we jettison the air conditioner, the bar stock, the emergency 7 gallons of water, and a few other things, and even then, I really don't know how much weight I would need to shed to get on the plane. I kind of think if we had a Yamaha 200 there would be no problem but that would be a drastic fix!

Pat
 
BrentB":10uab5ke said:
How often are the spark plugs replaced?
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Pete at West Coast Marine was on the fence about whether we even need to bring a set of spark plugs. Replacing them is not on the schedule for this cruise, only oil, oil filter, and fuel filter changes plus lower unit lubes. I do have a set of spark plugs in my spare parts bin on the theory that I would rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them! Ditto for the water pump rebuild kit.
 
Pat summer is not even here yet--but I see there has been some warm weather up your way:

I don't see how that is going to happen unless we jettison the air conditioner, the bar stock, the emergency 7 gallons of water,
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The air conditioner is about 41#, 7 gallons of water 56#, and ? bar stock--cannot be too large because of restrictions going into Canada. Just a little over 100 lbs there...

Agree that the 200 hp would make a difference in this case.

Love the blogs and photos!
 
Pat,
Thanks for the reply and sorry about the phone. Too bad as I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see some drone footage of your adventures. Don't risk the drone for us though.LOL

I'm surprised at Daydream not planing with full throttle. Anne and I have heavily loaded Meander with 10 gals spare gas, 10 gals water, "bar stock", 2 bikes, 65lb soar1 inflatable, 2 dogs,( 100lbs of dogs compared to Baxter's 20lb), Engel freezer, 4 batteries ( 2 group 27 and 2 group 31), fishing gear, with full gas and water. Plus I think Anne & I out weigh (because of me LOL) the two of you by at least 50lbs. Meander has always been able to plane quite easily, even though a higher RPM was required to do so. Even at Lake Powell. If you can't get Daydream on plane, try a lower pitch prop. And, maybe at your next service, just for the heck of it check the compression.
Thanks for the blog.
Cheers
Ron
 
Past, Ron is right. But what do I know about a 25 loaded for the year. I would run the WOT test (see what RPM you get at WOT) and where you should be, then if you are in the range with a bit of wiggle room, change the prop down a notch. Might even find a place that would let you run it in a circle around their area and test it out. If it works great, if not, take it back in, in the box, no dents or scratches and with the receipt for a return.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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