She let me back in the house.

So, we left off at the last post, with my residency in Mackinaw City while Kathy had her "girls week" at the condo.  

The party was over on Saturday and I found a window of calm in the morning to motor down the coast 15 miles back to Cheboygan.  It was a cloudy/hazy morning so the cameras never surfaced.  That run between Mackinaw City and Cheboygan isn't exactly full of photo opportunities.  

Now that I was back at the "home" port, it was time to go to work installing all the new stuff I had amassed over the year of hiding from the pandemic.  Fortunately, UPS drivers were still working.  I started with basically a stock boat as it would have come from the factory back in 1997.

Nothing on the arch.

Nothing on the dash.

The first task was running all the necessary cables and wiring from the arch and bilge to the dash area.  That was a painful experience as access is limited and every cable seems to have an end fitting the size of a grapefruit.  I had to cut the connector off one end of the radar data cable because there was no way that fitting was coming out of the hole in the arch.  Fortunately, there was a kit available to replace that fitting. It just took a $15 connector, $15 crimp tool and a week of shipping time, but in the end was successful.

Next was to install the radar dome on the arch.  This involved removing the existing masthead light, drilling a new access hole (remember the "grapefruit" sized fitting?), mounting the radar tower and new LED masthead light.

The mount is tilted slightly forward to account for the bow up cruising attitude.

The next task was to mount the displays in and on the dash.  That was a traumatic experience.  Any goofs here and it's a very expensive fix to repair fiberglass.  First, I made the plan for the cut.

I did a lot of measuring and put the pattern where I though it would be best and began the cutting process.

I drilled the corner diameters with a 1/2" brad point bit to minimize and gelcoat chipping.  After the corner diameters were drilled, I taped right next to the cut line to maintain the paper position throughout the sawing process.  I went through 3 down cut saber saw blades during the cutting.  The fiberglass is brutal on a steel blade but I got the job done.

Unfortunately, a saber saw blade isn't very accurate.  The cut was a tad undersized and anything but perpendicular to the surface...typical of a saber saw.  Well, better too small than too big.  I tried a few techniques to fix the hole and nothing was real successful until I decided to see if I could get a trim router in there.  I clamped a pattern on the hole and worked my way around the opening with a flush trim bit. 

That worked excellent and I had the hole I needed.

At that point, it was just a matter of hooking up all the cables and power connections...which took another couple days.  But it's all done and operates well.

The installation included two displays.  My thought was that the 9" screen of the dash unit wasn't going to be big enough to split a minimum of three ways (sonar, GPS, radar) and still be able to read on a rocking boat.  So I added a 7" screen gimbal mounted on the dash.  I'm not totally sure how and where I want to use that screen so its portable at this time and can be move anywhere in the future.

In addition to the functions mentioned above, I installed engine gateways that transmit engine operating data to both the Garmin displays through NMEA data lines or to my phone via an app.  It's pretty cool.  The biggest asset with that is fuel flow data so I can optimize cruise performance.  

Beyond that, we spent a few days camping with the kids on Mullet Lake at Aloha State Park.

We had a site on the boat basin there.

The basin is rather weedy and shallow but can be managed with the Crestliner.  The state could really improve that facility with a little dredging, weed harvesting, and some side tie dockage.

The basin has direct access to the lake. 

We had a few opportunities at a nice lake.

The fish fly hatch was happening so while the fishing was great, the catching was terrible.  I was only able to find three fish in total.  A small rainbow that I released, a rock bass and this nice 20" rainbow.

So it's a down week from now through the 4th of July where we'll enjoy the holiday activities here in Cheboygan before heading to Mackinac Island on the 5th...weather permitting.

Back in the saddle.

After about 20 months of sitting on a cradle in a storage building, the Sea Ray made its 2021 debut.

It was launched on June 3 after many days of polishing and waxing.

I had a lot of help from a friend to bring the shine back to this 1997 boat.  It did come out very nice after a couple weeks of work.

The marina guys had a laundry list of maintenance to take care of, including reconditioning the propellers.  

With all the work done, the boat was launched and brought to the condo.

That's pretty sweet, having the boat at out the back door.  Unfortunately, I found a slow leak through one of the mounting bolts for a grounding plate.  So, the boat had to get hauled out and those bolts re-bedded.  

The guys at CVM take care of me pretty well and got that job done the next day and I was back in business.  The last time I looked, the bilge was 100% dry.  That's a rarity in a boat.  They always leak somewhere.  At the moment, this one doesn't.

So, Kathy had a party planned and I wasn't invited.  Therefore, I packed my PJ's and headed to Mackinaw City in my freshly launched ship.  It was a foggy morning, but I found a window to make the 15 mile cruise to the city of "the bridge".

The lake doesn't get much nicer.

I found a nice cruise was at about 3200 rpm and close to 25 mph.

I did go full throttle for a brief period to see how well the reconditioned props would perform.  It looked like the top end was about 4300 rpm and 38 mph.  That's pretty quick for this size of boat.  I could likely make 40 mph with less fuel and water on board.  Those tanks were all full.  225 gallons of fuel and about 40 gallons of water.  Of course that speed comes at a cost of somewhere around a gallon/minute of fuel burn.  

Anyway, I arrived at the marina after a 30 minute cruise and settled in.

I'm out near the fuel dock in slip #71.

The bridge was in and out of the fog all day.  I was fortunate to get here without dealing with the fog.  I can't wait to get the new instruments installed on this boat.

So, if you want to ride along, the following video is the 15 minute Reader's Digest version of the trip.

Yes, it's good to be back in the saddle.