Surprise surprise!

This was a bit unique.

Brian And Shanna came to the house for a couple days.  They wanted to fish the St. Clair River for walleye.  After a day of the usual crappy weather, we had a nice morning to hit the river.

We were spread around the boat waiting for a bite.

Three of us were fishing.  Shanna was catching.

And then it happened...KATHY snagged the bottom.  Or so it seemed.  I took the rod to try to save 300 yards of braided line (@ $30/spool).

I finally coaxed the fish to the surface where we all got a good look at a sturgeon.  I've never hooked one of those (and actually, still haven't) but was able to fight the fish.  

It was pretty much like lifting an anchor with a fishing rod.  Every time I got the fish anywhere near the surface, it just ran back to the bottom.  We had no desire or even any way to land that fish.  It was hooked in one of the swim fins on the side by a small stinger treble hook attached to the jig. That eventually broke and the fish swam off.

Quite an outing.  Not sure I can top that this year.

Off to the north woods tomorrow with the Minnie Winnie.

The fun begins

I had to lift the spirits a little after the news last week of the Sea Ray transport delay.  That was a tough pill to swallow but there's nothing I can do about that.  Just have to roll with the punches.

I woke up this morning to a bright sunny 38°.  Brrrr.  But the weatherman promised that is would warm up so I hitched up the Crestliner and headed to the river.

Unfortunately, I just can't seem to crack the nut on that fishery.  It's so difficult for me.  Kind of like chewing gum and walking at the same time...I can't do it.  The whole game is to keep the boat and jig moving at the same speed as the river current.  Any wind causes the boat to move at a different speed so constant adjustment is required with the electric motor.  It's not really a relaxing activity.

That said, I had three bites on my first drift and landed two nice walleye.  After that, nada, nothing, zilch.  Not sure what happened after a stellar start.

But there was plenty of river traffic to watch today and it was sunny and comfortable.

It was better than sitting home but I'm about ready to scrap this river thing and move out into the lake.

As they say...Better luck next time.

Woe is me!

In spite of my best efforts and planning, shipment of my beloved Sundancer has been delayed.

I had it removed from Lake Cumberland and it now sits atop the knoll at Hilltop Marine.

The shipper that I had originally contracted was moving a boat last week from Lake Michigan to Idaho.  When he entered Montana, the Montana DNR stopped him and inspected the boat he was hauling.  They found zebra mussels and quarantined his equipment.  Outside of what I was told was going to be at least a 45 day delay, I don't know how the shipper gets back in business.  So...back to square one with the boat transport.

I spent a few days on the phone getting quotes and availability and have another mover lined up.  These guys are all real busy now so to get into the schedule before the 4th of July is a good thing.  The current schedule is for delivery in Mackinaw City at 11:00 am on June 26th.

In the meantime, I'll just have to keep myself occupied with the Minnie Winnie, that I just went through four days of exterior polishing with, and the Crestliner.  I've got a couple events planned for those toys so stay tuned.

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung...a leak.

It's about time for the monthly off-season update to the blog.  The risk of freezing in the mid south has passed so I took a field trip to Lake Cumberland to visit my boat.

I left Oxford early Tuesday morning (4/9) and drove south finding spring blooms in Kentucky and 70° temperatures.

I arrived at Conley Bottom Resort in the middle of the afternoon, loaded up a dock cart, and headed to the boat.

It's a bit of a hike to the boat from the car and my boat was actually about as close as you could get.  The first bow sticking out of the covered slip at the right edge of the picture is me.

I was told there are about 1200 slips at this marina and by Michigan marina standards, this place really isn't the greatest.  In this part of the marina, there's nothing more than the boat slips.  I had to travel to the campground maybe a half mile away for a restroom/shower building.  That said, they are awesome dock systems.

Every year I see people swimming off boats in marinas and sometimes caution them about the hazards.  Comments are usually of indifference or ignorance.  This place has their liability covered.  People are killed every year from electrical shock in these places.

So the mission was to clean the winter grime off the boat and de-winterize all the systems to see if there were any problems to address before I send the boat north.  I didn't get actual ownership of the boat until after it was winterized in November so had to trust that the seller had taken proper steps to prevent winter damage.

Step 1 was to purge the antifreeze from the fresh water system and check for leaks.  There are five faucets, an ice maker and a water heater that the system feeds and amazingly enough, no leaks!  

I'm really beginning to like this boat.

Step 2 was to start the A/C and heat system.  It's a heat pump kind of device that uses lake water to feed it.  Again, no leaks and everything functioned normally...miracles still happen!

So that was Tuesday and time to kick back and enjoy the evening.

On Wednesday I got the bucket and "Boat Zoap" out (yes it's called Zoap).  Time to scrub the grime and mildew off the exterior.  The fight with mildew is a big minus for me with everything in the southern climate.  That's not much of a problem in Michigan.  A couple hours of scrubbing, and mission accomplished.

With the exterior all cleaned up, it was time to make this thing MINE.  First to add the Michigan registration numbers.

Most of these boats are documented.  A guy near me said he didn't like the look of numbers on his boat.  In reality, they're using the system to avoid some tax expense and it has nothing to do with appearance if they're being honest.  

The other item was to remove the old port city from the transom.

Oddly enough, the seller was from Oxford as well.  The only problem is it was Oxford, Ohio.  I would have just removed the "Ohio" but that left the city off-center so I got rid of it all.  I was real tempted to remove the name as well, but left it for now.  That's a decision that's still an indecision.

The end of another day and time to enjoy the evening.

Thursday was a big day.  I brought the big 7.4L V-8's to life.  Once more...no problem.  They fired right up, pumped water, and ran smooth.  I love the fuel injection.  Just like the car, turn the key and go.  If repairs are required someday, that might be a bit more expensive.  The last item to check was the generator.  So I got down in the bilge to start that from the switch on the generator and zip, nada, nothing.  Dead battery???  I know nothing about how this is all wired so finally decide maybe the main engine ignition circuits need to be turned on.  I flip those breakers, press the start switch and presto...the generator comes to life.  

IT ALL WORKS!!!  Every last thing I touched works...except the horn that I know needs replacing or repair.  That was a big relief after a winter of unknown.

I've driven this boat for maybe two minutes during the sea trail and definitely nowhere near the dock so I was a little apprehensive to take the boat out alone.  Friday, I just couldn't wait any longer and I untied the lines and off I went.

You'll notice the hatches on the bow open.  That was because the CO detector was blaring in the cabin and I needed to air that out.  Idling at the slip and the slow ride out of the marina apparently sent some CO into the cabin.  There's warning signs on the cabin hatch to close it, but who would ever read a warning sign?  The detector quit once I was moving a little and all was well.

I ran a couple miles up the lake (river) at various speeds.  There was too much debris in the water for me to be very comfortable with running on plane too far so it was mostly a slow ride.  The great news is the vibration I experienced at the sea trial wasn't noticeable during this run.  Whatever was out of balance in November, has improved.  That was a surprise.  

The boat ran and handled perfect.  I've heard all along that the control of inboards are amazing and that was my experience.  I backed this 12' wide boat into the 14' wide slip and never touched the dock.  Beginner's luck I suppose.

So I'm done with the prep and ready to have the boat shipped to Michigan...

Unfortunately, as of this morning, Michigan isn't quite ready for the boat.

Northbound

Kind of hard to believe, but I'm about to trade the winter life of sunshine and palm trees...

for this...

There's a dozen reasons, but for the most part, we decided we aren't "home" enough.  The need to play all summer, then hibernate in the Florida sun doesn't leave much time in my house.  Florida might be somewhere in the future, but we're exiting this place for now.  I'm not real excited about the land of snow, but there's a list of negatives in Florida too.

Before we left the warmth, we hopped a ship to the Bahamas with Brian and Shanna.  We took a short 4 day cruise on Enchantment of the Seas.

It's about the smallest ship we've been on but we enjoyed the beach...

Did a little snorkeling...

Observed some marine life...

Enjoyed the dining room...

With dessert...

And were entertained.

It was a surprisingly nice cruise compared to the 7 to 10 day cruises we've taken before.  They packed nearly all of the activities of a 7 day cruise into 4 days.

One more thing...when I feel the need to move up in class from the new Sea Ray, I found my yacht.

I should probably start my "go fund me" page now.  I'm a little short on the funds for that.

So off we go in another week and the countdown to boating in the north begins.

2019 Begins

Well, I updated the title page/picture today.  Half a day struggle with photoshop and tada...

The boat name is what the USCG documented name was when we purchased the boat.  It remains to be seen if that name is going to survive the ownership change.  I'd give it a 50/50 chance.  

Seasonal plans are just beginning to gel for all the toys.  A brief cruise to the Bahamas this month via Royal Caribbean is the winter highlight.  It looks like I'll need to spend a little time at the boat on Lake Cumberland in April and arrange shipping in May.  There's a couple camping/fishing outings planned in May and July.  Then we'll settle in with the new boat in Northern Michigan for the rest of the summer before finding some place to tour again this fall.  Between all that, I'll pass through Oxford now and then to cut the grass and do the laundry.

Like they say...make hay while the sun shines.

Turn the Page

So here's the story...

1997 was one of many years that I went downtown Detroit to the boat show at Cobo Hall.  I was always attracted to Sea Ray boats and at that point owned a 23' Weekender.  I looked at the boats on display and picked up a brochure.  

In that brochure, which has had a home in my magazine rack for the last 21 years, was the 330 Sundancer.  

I said, "that's the boat I'm going to own someday".

Well, "someday" arrived.  Here is our 1997 Sea Ray 330 Sundancer.

I feel SO fortunate to be able to realize this dream.  

Here's the details.

I found this boat through "Houseboats Buy Terry" at the Conley Bottom Resort Marina on Lake Cumberland near Monticello, KY. 

BTW...the houseboats down there are really something to see.  They're basically a mobile home on a barge.  Some are little more than that and others are quite luxurious.  Docking one of those things in a crosswind must be a challenge.

But back to the subject at hand...MY "houseboat"...

It's a 1997 Sea Ray 330 Sundancer.  The tale of the tape...

LOA       33' 6"
Beam     11' 5"
Weight   11,200 lbs.
Built at the Palm Coast Florida Sea Ray plant. 

The seller was the original owner and used the boat primarily for day cruising.  I have a clean slate for navigation electronics as there are none on this boat.  It is unusual to find one of these that also don't come with 20 year old electronics.  Another rare feature on this boat is cockpit air conditioning and heat.

The cockpit interior is in remarkable condition.  Light use and a covered slip in a temperate climate probably had a lot to do with that.

The co-pilot has her own throne in this boat.  An ice maker is under the port side seat with a wet bar behind it.

It's powered by 680 horses.  Twin 340 hp 7.4L MPI fuel injected inboards.  There's a 4.5KW Westerbeke generator for electrical power when "aweigh" from the dock.

The interior has the layout with the settee to starboard ahead of the mid cabin conversation pit.  Both areas make into additional berths.  We would have preferred the dinette layout that was available in this model but in the used market, some concessions have to be made.  We can live with this arrangement.  It actually makes the cabin feel a bit more spacious.

On the port side is the head...

 ...and then the galley with sink, range, fridge and microwave.

Forward is a queen berth with port and starboard hanging lockers.  The A/C unit is located under the berth with ducting throughout the cabin.  An "antique" TV/VCR is on a pull out shelf in the forward cabin.  The TV was an item that still has the factory stickers on the screen.  The sellers obviously didn't use it although there is a TV cable hooked to the boat at their Lake Cumberland slip.  Extra cushions and pieces of the canvas top system are still factory packaged as well.  It's really quite amazing.

The next hurdle is to have the boat shipped to Michigan.  Unfortunately, Lake Cumberland doesn't connect to any of the river systems that are connected to the Great Lakes but a cruise of that length would be more than I'd be comfortable with...on an unfamiliar boat.  Kind of like when we took off on a 5000 mile trip with a 15 year old RV that we owned for a week.  But then AAA is much more accessible on a highway than a river.

I'm thinking I might enjoy a week or two on Lake Cumberland in the spring before northern Michigan thaws out and get the boat prepped for shipping. That said, I'll be really glad to get the shipping part accomplished.  That's the part I absolutely have to rely on professional help to get done.

So another chapter begins.  More updates as they develop over the next several months.