The siphon loop was an easy fix. The hardware store had just what we needed so I bought a replacement & 2 spares. We still had time to visit the Saturday morning street market. Bought some fresh goodies for the pantry and then headed out for Harrisville. Since we want to make good time, we motored the whole way. There was no wind in the AM. We could have sailed the last few hours but we wanted to get in early and get settled for the evening.
Fried up a few burgers on the cast iron skillet. We'll be keeping warm this evening with fresh hot cider and cinnamon and Pandora on the stereo.
I finished editing the latest video last night but the slow internet connection at Port Austin prevented my uploading it. I'll upload this evening. Hope you like it. Your comments would be appreciated. And feel free to send a link to this blog to anyone you think might be interested
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Saturday, September 17, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
I told ya
Yesterday I said we have no schedule...we're sticking to it. Decided to pull up stakes at Harbor Beach and head for Port Austin. It will get into the 30's tonight so we splurged on a slip at the marina and get plenty of juice to power electric heaters.
It was a lumpy day of motoring into 3' to 5' seas. No big deal for the boat but tiresome and tedious for us. We'll continue on to Harrisville tomorrow...IF...I can fix the engine siphon loop. I noticed a drip in the fitting so I tried to put a new hose clamp on the hose. The corroded hose barb snapped off!! Hopefully the hardware store has a replacement. Just part of keeping an old boat running. No duct tape and bailing wire, but constant 'stuff' to keep me on my toes.
Got the Spot Messenger working. Just took an application of $$ to get the instant tracking feature. So follow along in real time when we are on the move...Tracks to Freedom
It was a lumpy day of motoring into 3' to 5' seas. No big deal for the boat but tiresome and tedious for us. We'll continue on to Harrisville tomorrow...IF...I can fix the engine siphon loop. I noticed a drip in the fitting so I tried to put a new hose clamp on the hose. The corroded hose barb snapped off!! Hopefully the hardware store has a replacement. Just part of keeping an old boat running. No duct tape and bailing wire, but constant 'stuff' to keep me on my toes.
Got the Spot Messenger working. Just took an application of $$ to get the instant tracking feature. So follow along in real time when we are on the move...Tracks to Freedom
We have no schedule, and we're sticking to it!
It was howling all day yesterday while we sat firmly hooked to the bottom with our Manson Supreme anchor. Love that tool! We were planning on heading to Harrisville from Harbor Beach today. The winds have subsided but the waves take longer to calm down. We don't mind 6 foot seas, we don't mind setting out in the dark and we don't mind (too much) temps in the upper 30's. But combine all of those and we're sitting tight for another day.
We'll take some time to work on the endless list of projects. Today will include finishing the bike bag and editing my St Clair River video. Stay tuned for that!
We'll take some time to work on the endless list of projects. Today will include finishing the bike bag and editing my St Clair River video. Stay tuned for that!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
First day is in the books
Monday, we pushed off from Jefferson Beach Marina at 5:15AM. We had a surprise visit from Pam & Pete to help us cast off. VERY nice of them to show up at such an early hour.
The plan was to cover 70 miles to Port Sanilac. That is across Lake St. Clair and all the way up the St. Clair River and up the Lake Huron coastline. The river flows down against us at 3 to 4 knots so we loose quite a bit of speed, especially at the mouth under the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron. Sanilac was chosen because there is sufficient room to anchor (free!). Anchor down at 5:45pm.
We had one bad thing and one good thing happen. The engine drive refrigeration compressor wasn't working right and was actually warming the freezer! The 12 volt system was fighting the good fight and trying to keep it cold. In the process the 12 volt system was consuming a LOT of battery juice. Fortunately I installed a BIG battery bank, 900 amp/hours of wet cell golf cart Trojan batteries. It took me until Tuesday morning to realize what had happened. Overnight everything settled down because the engine was not running and I'd turned off the engine drive compressor. Called Cleve at Seafrost to confirm the diagnosis. Now all I have to do is find the leak in the engine drive system and fix it, then recharge that system. Great to have redundant refer systems!
The "good thing" is the Manson Supreme. Our 45 lb. primary anchor. We anchored in Sanilac harbor with winds of 12 to 20 knots with a 5:1 scope of chain. We had a 180 degree wind shift this morning with more gusty wind into the low 20's. Didn't budge an inch! Good? GREAT!!
I thought I activated my Spot Messenger tracking feature. Evidently something did not work right so we did not record a track of the first day trip. Bummer. More confusing techno gadgets to figure out. Hopefully we'll be able to post maps with tracks of our journey here on the blog.
This entry sent courtesy of free WiFi at the Port Sanilac Municipal Marina!
Still looking for time to figure out my new camera...stills & video to come.
The plan was to cover 70 miles to Port Sanilac. That is across Lake St. Clair and all the way up the St. Clair River and up the Lake Huron coastline. The river flows down against us at 3 to 4 knots so we loose quite a bit of speed, especially at the mouth under the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron. Sanilac was chosen because there is sufficient room to anchor (free!). Anchor down at 5:45pm.
We had one bad thing and one good thing happen. The engine drive refrigeration compressor wasn't working right and was actually warming the freezer! The 12 volt system was fighting the good fight and trying to keep it cold. In the process the 12 volt system was consuming a LOT of battery juice. Fortunately I installed a BIG battery bank, 900 amp/hours of wet cell golf cart Trojan batteries. It took me until Tuesday morning to realize what had happened. Overnight everything settled down because the engine was not running and I'd turned off the engine drive compressor. Called Cleve at Seafrost to confirm the diagnosis. Now all I have to do is find the leak in the engine drive system and fix it, then recharge that system. Great to have redundant refer systems!
The "good thing" is the Manson Supreme. Our 45 lb. primary anchor. We anchored in Sanilac harbor with winds of 12 to 20 knots with a 5:1 scope of chain. We had a 180 degree wind shift this morning with more gusty wind into the low 20's. Didn't budge an inch! Good? GREAT!!
I thought I activated my Spot Messenger tracking feature. Evidently something did not work right so we did not record a track of the first day trip. Bummer. More confusing techno gadgets to figure out. Hopefully we'll be able to post maps with tracks of our journey here on the blog.
This entry sent courtesy of free WiFi at the Port Sanilac Municipal Marina!
Still looking for time to figure out my new camera...stills & video to come.
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