SO WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OR ON YOUR C-DORY TODAY??

Well,
I just come in from mounting the permatrim on my Evinrude Ficht 90. I am taking her out tomorrow for a clam dig run so I will be able to report on how it performs on my Classic.
 
Originally, we had planned on a long weekend on the boat, but "teenager activities" slightly encumbered us. But in spite of it all we had a great, albeit brief outing.
Saturday afternoon, we finally launched in Everett, cruised down to Port of Kingston and spent the night there. Carol made a great dinner on the Wallas, then we walked to town and treated ourselves to Blueberry Crepes, then back to the boat where we transformed the dinette into "couch mode", set the DVD player on top of the Wallas and watched a movie until 0030 HRS. Then slept soundly as the rain pounded hard on our cabin roof all night (so I was told). (Amazingly, I was the last to roust out of bed in the morning.....a first for me!) By the time I awakened, the dog had been walked and the hot coffee made...........what a great life! Ate breakfast in town, then in the early afternoon I ate a juicy burger, while the "girls" ate salmon crepes. We departed Kingston at 1600 HRS for a leisurely cruise home.
This morning the last of the teen activity for the weekend occurred as we lined the main street of Arlington to watch J and 179 other H. S. band members performing as they marched in the Memorial Day Parade and then to the local cemetary for the Memorial Day Service.

(Last Thursday, when the Arlington High School Band was marching and practicing through the residential streets of Arlington, they ended up in the midst of a torrential downpour of rain, with thunder and lightning. I asked J how it was and she said, "Well, I got to take a cold shower with 179 of my closest friends!". (She's always looking for the rainbow :rainbow )
 
Dave, thanks for that post... the description of your night on the boat made me smile. Boat time has been a bit sparse for us lately; your post took my mind to its "happy place". :wink: Making the dinette into a couch... cooking on the Wallas... rain on the cabintop as you slept. Ahhhhh!

Best wishes,
Jim B. (landlocked, but not for long!)
 
We went out for our second "ocean experience" at Newport today. Wonderful calm day on the water -- took a friend out for some bottom fishing -- for the first time in my LIFE, the guys outfished me -- I was kept busy catching three too small ling, 3 starfish (nobody else caught any starfish -- at least I didn't reel up a tire or a Dodge! :lol: ) -- finally got 3 sea bass and one cabezon -- the guys limited out easily and Steve got a nice ling -- we just had some cabezon for dinner -- fried in panko crumbs...thinkin we'll do that again! :smilep
 
Loaded up the Otter yesterday afternoon with two kids, two dogs, wife and me, another couple, their two kids, their dog, coleman stand-up gas grill, two saw horses, long piece of plywood (for bar), two coolers, chairs, and other sundries. Yes, we really like to "rough it!" We cruised to a nearby beach on Piscataway Creek that has a very shallow approach that keeps away go-fast party boats, unloaded all the gear, set up the bar, grilled shish kebobs and bratwursts, made caiparenas (muddle the limes with a couple spoonfuls of sugar, add crushed ice, pour in the Brazilian caxaca (80 proof!), fluff, sip, and ask for another). Another couple and their two kids joined us via their 15-foot Boston Whaler. We ate, drank, swam, and built a fire as the full moon rose in the east. Cruised slowly home at about 11:00 PM after one of the most enjoyable outings we've had yet. The extraordinary thing is finding that kind of isolation, beauty, and peace in a location within the crowded Washington metro area. Happy Father's Day to me and all you other C-Brat Dads out there. These boats of ours help build some great memories!
 
You had 4 adults, 4 kids and 2 dogs on a 22?! If so, that sounds overloaded to me. At 150# per adult, 80# per kid and 20#/dog, that's about 1000# in humans and animals.... by the time you add in the other equipt. and stuff that's a big load...
 
Tom
Sounds like a grand adventure. Wish I could join you.
Rodger
If I were going to cross the bar on the Columbia river with that load, I would be concerned too. But a slow cruise up a calm water creek, no problem. I would be more worried about the four people in the 15' Boston Whaler :wink:
 
I went down to visit the boat this evening - first time in a week to check on it - and everything was good. One thing was really good. Hanging by the cabin door was a plastic bag with a Washington recreation guide and a note that says "Hope this helps when you take your vacation in Washington this summer". No name or signature, just the book and the nice note. How neat. Kay is looking the guide over already. Whomever it was (and I do have a guess), thank you very much for the book and thanks even more for the thoughtfulness. And I am sorry to have missed seeing you.
 
I didn't do a thing on my C-Dory today. In fact, other than to drive by a couple times on my way to work to make sure it was still floating, I haven't seen the thing for a week. But the big mill shutdown is done for another year - at least as far as I'm concerned - and I'll be seeing the boat soon. If Kay ever gets back from Portland, I might even see it tonight. I hope to get out at daylight for a few hours fishing in the morning. Finally. I sure hope they don't make me work long hours again next week. I fought them off for this weekend.
 
First input to this forum, I think.

We are recovering from our 500NMs run up and down the Ches. Bay from Virginia Beach, VA to the Lankford, C-Dory gathering. A touch of the run can be viewed within the Lankford folder under the Sea Angel pictures.

We experienced many aspects of boating I have taught in the CG Aux.. We had thick fog [a near miss by a comm. fishing boat without fog signals], heavy winds & rain, thunderstorms [at the dock sides] , funnel clouds, water spouts and from calm glass seas to heavy seas [4'-6'] . WE were blessed with a safe journey and following seas going [South wind] to Lankford, MD and coming [N to NE winds] from Lankford. We had 8 glorious days on the water, 186gal of gas consumed, 1 pumpout, 2 refills of 'city' water and 6 different marinas.

Some items to change on Sea Angel: [a] bought replacement wiper arms- panographic arms, added 2 extra - 40' 1/2" dock lines, [c] added 4 extra rail clips for use in cabin, [d] added 4 extra 10" pigtails dedicated to spare fenders, [e] add a fender 'bar' to protect against pilings, [f] shore power panel circuit breaker protective slide cover and [g] streamline camper back setup to allow better egress to/from the cockpit. Add other items, as they come to mind, to my active hit list of safety improvements to cover the what ifs; such as, line & boat hook storage for immediate use.

We also had great fellowship and food! Now, if I could only store some of those clams in the frig.
 
With a high 80's forcast for the PNW, decided to go for natural air conditioning and got up at 0530 to go launch at our usual spot, the keystone ferry dock. First shock of the day. It's no longer on a dawn to duck opening schedule, so drove to Oak Harbor where, due to the low water and shallow ramp we had our first experience of doing the rapid stop in reverse trick to get the boat off the ramp without using the truck as a submarine.
Next question. To go N to the San Juans or check out the S end of Whidbey and then put it on a friend's mooring in Holmes harbor? Chose the S end.
Second experience of the day was losing the depth sounder to a predatory 3 inch submerged log. Oh well it's a nice day, no water coming in, so keep going...
All fine and glassy until getting into the tide rips off the East side of Posession point and Double Bluff.
Third experience of the day.
What a difference a major ebb tide and a few Kts. of NW wind can make. About 5 ft confused chop and just under 1 boat length between them, got us all the way down to 8 -12 Kts. but never any doubt about the boat. That pointy bit up front works well even if it did get buried a couple of times.

Slop and chop on and off all the way up Admiralty inlet to just N of the Keystone dock launch (Which was now open !!) then, absolute glass as far as the eye could see.

Drifted off Bowmans and had lunch in the company of seals and dolphins then had a blast through Deception pass with a good flood tide. Last time we did this with a strong tide going was in the old gas guzzling Tolly. Have to say the CD was even more fun and there was nothing that a quick turn of the wheel and a handful of throttle could not cure.

Then a leisurely cruise down Skagit bay where we met "Hooked II" going N and stopped for quick chat. Nice meeting you folks !!

5 minutes later met the Commodore of our club going N in his 40 ft wind driven machine so we stopped and chatted with him. Had to rub in the fact that he took about 24 hours to finish well down the field in the round Whidbey race a few weeks back and we had just done it in about 7 hours with stops for lunch and side trips to watch birds etc...

Third experience of the day was retrieving at Oak Harbor at about +1Ft. of tide. Lots of helpful words (including some I did not understand) from the 3 boats behind me and a dockfull of commercial fisherman as I expertly demonstrated the fact that this is our fist season trailering and I have no intention of putting my truck in the water over the back axle !! Must admit that afterwards I was tempted to stop at West Marine and get a power winch !

Fifth and best experience of the day was that it was FUN and didn't cost an arm and a leg in gas. Won't know exactly until we fill up.

Now to fix the depth sounder. .. Thought it would be OK as it just "kicked-up" but it's showing no connection with the electronics unit so I guess it's dead.

Guess we are now also firmly "hooked" on CD's, thanks to Les and the gang at EQ marine, it does all you said it does !

Merv & Kathy on Kingfisher
 
Complete rewire of the boat.
Added protected (isolated) circuit for all important electronics. I now have a 50 Amp and 30 Amp dedicated circuit for my computer and navigation equipment and separated everything out in the cockpit. Added a dedicated ground bus as well.
I can't believe everything was being fed from 2 small wires before. Now I have #6 and #4 wires supplying power to the cabin.
Found both my onboard chargers were split, I will need to replace them.
Installed the new Icom 422 with command mic for the cockpit. Should be really nice.
Pics when I get back from Tuna fishing.
 
Justin and I finally got the engine out Sunday before last. Pulled the heads Last night. 2 cylinders looking very rusty and one piston missing about 2" of the crown but no signs on the head or cylinder as to why. Timing chain was very loose but the cam looks to be in great shape. Surprisingly enough other than the crusty cylinders the engine looks to be in very good shape. The water jackets are clean and there is almost no carbon build up anywhere. The previous owner obviously took very good care of it up till he decided to let it sit in storage for 3 years.

Now I have to decide if I'm going to rebuild this motor or buy a long block. I'm actually leaning towards having this one rebuilt with a good bore job to clean up the cylinders. Then I will know exactly what is going into the engine and what the status of it is.
 
Pulled the boat out of the parking spot yesterday for a good cleaning and spent some time trying to chase down a problem with the finder throwing static on the radio. It's been doing this since I bought the boat but I finally got annoyed enough to try and fix it. When I first noticed this, I thought the static was being fed back through the electrical system but I get the same static on my handheld VHF. A month or two ago, someone suggested that maybe the sonar was feeding the noise through the antenna and that they solved the problem by separating the cable to the transducer from the antenna cable. As those two were routed parallel to each other for several feet, I thought that might be the problem.

Took an hour or two to re-route the wiring. Moved the antenna cable so that it crosses the transducer cable only at one point and runs perpendicular - still get the $%#S# static! Even with the antenna cable routed so that it comes around the front of the sounder, the static is still there. So, I gave up on it again. I might have to make a run over to Les's or someplace where someone knows what their doing and pay to get the problem fixed. For now, I'm stumped.


Also built the bottom half of the slider for the fiberglass electrical panel in the v-berth - e.g similar to this one

3CDSlideOut.sized.jpg

Will finish it up on Mon. Gased the boat and the truck up tonight ($175). Provisioned with food for three days. Selected two bottles of wine and loaded up the fishing, shrimping and crabbing gear. Off to Neah Bay at 5:00AM tomorrow.
 
Roger - Turn on the little fish symbols on your sounder. Since they don't mean anything, the VHF will ignore the whole signal. Plus , you won't be trying to catch silly little sticks in the water!

Have fun fishing!
 
Roger-

I get the same problem on certain VHF frequencies depending on which fishfinder I use and which transducer frequency is active. I'm assuming the "the $%#S# static!" is similar to mine- sounds like a repetitive

r-i-i-i-i-p-p-p!!!, r-i-i-i-i-p-p-p!!!, r-i-i-i-i-p-p-p!!!, r-i-i-i-i-p-p-p!!!, etc....

and is apparently the sonar output for the transducer. Must be generating an RF frequency signal.

Interesting problem. Will have to determine if it's being generated in the cable, the transducer, or just being fed back through the power supply system by the fishfinder's signal generator.

Time to ask a marine electronics pro!

Joe.
 
I don't have that problem (lucky?), but have a couple of suggestions. Like others have suggested, got to find the 'source' of the problem. Since it's repeatable upon demand, that will make it easier.

Determine if it's radiated or conducted. Radiated is easier to start with. Raise/lower the VHF antenna or other 'receive' components while listening. Unbundle cable runs (receive and transmitting individually) and move the cabling around while listening. If none of that significantly affects the noise, then it's probably conducted.

For conducted I'd start with noise filters like Radio Shack sells, in-line are best. You can also buy cable clamps that are strong tubular magnets that you'd put right at the start of the cable(s) from the fishfinder, and possibly at the end also--you see these on AC adapters for cell phones, etc. The transducer itself might be a radiating source also (that's what it does...), but doubt it's the culprit since it's underwater and quite aways from the VHF components generally. Happy hunting, you'll get it.
 
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