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Greetings, One and All! I'm not new to the forum, by any means, but I have recently converted to Commercial Member status. I am a Florida-based, USCG-licensed 100 ton Master (captain). I am available for local and regional boat deliveries in the southeastern United States, with or without the...

With great sadness, my beloved Wanderlust has been sold. (The boat in the avatar photo) The sale officially closed two days ago and the new owner started moving aboard yesterday. Wifey didn't want to live aboard any longer and I didn't want to be without her so it seemed the best choice. I'm...

We’ve been thinking about our next boat. We’re thinking we’ll be doing weekends and week to ten day trips. We won’t be living aboard. A couple of boats that have popped up on our radar are the 28-32 foot Ranger Tugs and Cutwater tugs. Pocket trawlers. Some even come with a three axle trailer...

It is with profound regret that our beloved Wanderlust is offered for sale. This is a great opportunity to pick up a turn-key liveaboard for a very reasonable price. The previous owners extensively cruised the Bahamas and completed the Great Loop. Jeffersons are tough boats with solid...

Took a 48' Navigator from the Bradenton, FL area to Mobile, AL last week. The forecast called for 1' seas at 4 second intervals when crossing the Gulf and there was a storm down south of the Yucatan peninsula that NOAA said was unlikely to develop. Looked like a good crossing opportunity so we...

So, each morning, I let my wife sleep in while Bella, our dog, and I go for a walk. It’s our quiet time together. We often sit and watch the sunrise. The days are getting a little shorter so the sunrise is a little later each morning. We sat on the fuel dock together this morning, her laying...

We have a center console Rendova. It has a five spoke, stainless steel steering wheel. The davit cable caught the back of the wheel when lifting it recently and popped three of the five spoke out of their holes. It appears they were originally spot-welded in. I managed to manhandle one of the...

On Thursday, the 11th, Debbie and I cast off the lines to head south out of Bradenton, FL. Our best friends have a boat of similar size and are berthed in the slip next to us. They went, as well. This was our first experience with buddy boating. Our first stop was Cayo Costa State Park, near...

Anyone familiar with this probably-common cabinet door hinge? We have several and a couple are loose or out of adjustment and the doors sag a little. You can lift up and back slightly to cause the hinge to drop back in place and the door to close normally. The screws that attach the hinge to...

The previous owner of our 2005 Rendova tender had a tendency to run the bow up under the swim platform on the momma boat. As a result, the essentially-cosmetic tape strips are a bit chewed up. We contacted a local inflatable repair shop and they quoted us $200 to use adhesive to attach two...

We’ve owned our boat a little over a year. One of the previous owners had the floor of each shower redone in a sort of grainy, non-slip surface. I like the surface; it’s nice. When they redid it, they apparently dropped some sort of insert into the drain that is attached to a 3/4” hose that...

Is your shower drain (master or guest or both) connected to a 1 1/2" hose that connects to the gray water sump and then is pumped overboard or is it connected to a 3/4" hose that routes to a suction-type pump that outputs overboard separately from the sump? Every other boat I've ever seen has...

Some dear friends of ours recently purchased a Carver 506 in Nashville. They had the engines serviced prior to departure. It took them 12 days to get to Mobile, AL. The only mishap they had was a grounding in soft mud that sucked up into the generator raw water intake and fried the impeller...

Went to Nashville, TN this weekend with a friend to view a boat he is interested in. The boat is, overall, quite clean and move-in ready. We started the Cummins 6CTA engines and they produced a lot of white smoke with a very minimal, light sheen of unburned fuel on the water. The engines have...

Opening this up to the collective wisdom of the group. We have saddle tanks that hold 600 gallons. We have two currently-unused auxiliary tanks in the lazarette that hold a combined 130 gallons. (The previous owner never used the rear tanks, either.) We're mulling two options. 1...

The output of our master stateroom a/c eventually got to the point where it was only a trickle. The output hose was hot to the touch. No doubt about it; there is a blockage. A standard flush of pumping in Barnacle Buster and letting it sit for a while had no effect. It was time to disconnect...

Last weekend, I did full oil and filter changes and fuel filter changes. While doing an air bleed on the port engine, I discovered the manual priming pump was leaking badly when pressed. Replaced it today, bled the system, and then had my wife crank the starter while I cracked open the...

Spent all day Saturday doing a raw water cooling system flush, oil and filter change, fuel filter change, and transmission oil and filter change on both of my Volvo TAMD 72. I let them sit for 24 hours with Barnacle Buster in the systems. Started them up Sunday to warm them up, prior to going...

I'm thinking of replacing the factory threaded-plug fittings on the side of all of my seacocks with stainless steel zerks so the seacocks can be lubricated and be easier to operate. Two plugs on each main, one on the generator, one on the a/c, and one on the raw water washdown/watermaker. It's...

With our Cummins engines (circa 1989), you turned the key to On and watched the tachometer, when it pegged and then returned to zero, the engines were preheated and ready to start. With our Volvos (circa 1999), you turned the key to On and waited for the diagnostic light to go out. The Yanmars...

We're very excited!! Things kind of fell into place. The marina has capacity for us in a liveaboard status, we have a renter for the house, my boss (one year, eight months until retirement) has no problem with a minor change to my schedule, the last of the kids are squared away, the dog likes...

Okay, I'm going to suck it up and risk lots of flaming by asking a really naive question. I know it's important to have a 1000 hour service on an engine. That 1000 hour service involves many things including a valve adjustment and fuel injector service. Is this normally only done at the first...

Thinking ahead to some extended cruising to remote areas we plan to do in 202 and beyond, I've been looking at spare and backup parts to have on board. One such part is a spare starter for our Volvo engines. The existing starters have been painted at some point. I can make out the word...

Had to burn a couple of vacation days so we booked four days/three nights on a mooring ball at Marina Jack's in Sarasota, FL. The humidity had broken a bit and there was a strong breeze from the ENE Saturday and Sunday. Made for an interesting crossing of Sarasota Bay, taking several waves...

About six weeks ago, our Village Marine Stowaway watermaker (circa 2005) started having issues. The master control panel’s buttons stopped working. You couldn’t auto flush the system or start the low pressure or high pressure pumps. After discussion with the technician who originally installed...