Taking the Plunge

Wow

Congrats on adventure 1 of many

Auto pilot redo is way up on my list also

OK, autopilot stories; here's mine;

Departing Ft. Myers Beach for Marco Island our 5th leg of our trip last summer from Tampa to the Chesapeake, we cleared the entrance markers to Ft. Myers and headed south.This was to be our first leg in open water and I was anticipating a comfortable ride on autopilot almost the whole way. Autopilot has been working fine and a new head (controller) had been replace about a year before due to a faulty display bought on ebay. About a mile south of the markers with a few boats around but none close I engaged the autopilot with the boat doing 7.5 kts. To my surprise the boat did an immediate hard left turn. Hard over rudder. I attempted to disengage the autopilot but nothing happened - it stayed engaged with the boat now nearing 90 deg off heading. I positioned throttles to idle and turned off all power to all the electronics via two switches on the helm. This released the autopilot from the rudders and I regained control of the boat. We had done a 180 deg turn.

After supplying power to the electronics I noticed the autopilot head had no display and no depth was shown on the plotter and the plotter could not find our position. The autopilot was raymarine and all raymarine equip was down. We have a garmin plotter also and I used that with the separate depth gauge to nav to Marco.

Talking to Raymaine tech help confirmed the autopilot was dead and Ray no longer services that unit. $2000 later with a new course computer, heading sensor and autopilot head we were underway again. All plug and play, about 2 hours to install. New unit was delivered to the Winn Dixie dock by a very accommodating marine electronics store in Naples, about 25 miles away. All told we were 3 nights in Marco.

If you enjoyed the ramshackle, run-down island of North Bimini - you will LOVE the rest of the Bahamas!

Good job FG! Auto pilot? What's that??? Oh, it's me.......

PEEING MOTORS AND PERPLEXING PROBLEMS

Just a quick update from Ten Knots. Making preparations to return to Bimini this Thursday or Friday with my Son, daughter in law and two Grand Urchins. So excited.

Though we have a Yamaha 8HP Outboard we have no dinghy. Must get one before we leave so going to shop today.

Speaking of outboards, started mine this morning. It ran fine but no raw water peeing out the top. Started reading about how u had to pull lower section of to get to propeller, buy water pump kit, tork bolts and lots of that...ah...WORK so, I poured me a drink and sat down to do some thinking. No sense rushing into these things.

2nd drink in, it occurred to me that the spill tube might just simply be clogged. The unit had sat for quite a while.

I dug around and stole some pipe cleaners from the Grand kids craft box. Ran one in and got a burp. Ran second one in and she pee'ed all over me! Problem solved.

I said a small prayer of thanks cause the Lord knows how lazy I am. He also knew I really didn't want to spend money on a water pump kit for that motor!

Next time you get hit with a problem, sit down, take a deep breath and think on it for a while. It might save you some time, money, and extra work.

Fair Seas and may God bless all of you my friends.

George +

Good advice from above, Fr, George!! Start with the easy possibilities before throwing a lot of money and effort into it.

Glad to hear you're still doing well.

Look forward to the pics .......

Dang George....it took you a little while to get going but now there's no stopping you. Awesome!

I thinks it's a fine example, if you will, of the best way NOT to rush into a big job!!!


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

dimer2 said:

Dang George....it took you a little while to get going but now there's no stopping you. Awesome!

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No stopping me now my friend for sure! That trip over to Bimini with the wife was a life changer.

Yes, I know some will chuckle at making a big thing out of a 46 mile trip but, to us, it was huge. Yes, it's only 46 miles but almost 3000 ft deep in places!

So many questions ran through our minds. We're WE ready? Did we work hard enough on the boat to make HER ready? Would the electronics work - which they didn't- and if it didn't was I sure how to go on compass alone and was I able to calculate set and drift on a chart if I had to? Would we get out there and chicken out?

Having done it we are hooked and can't wait to share this with others and to go even further. We can't wait to see that deep, cobalt blue water again!

taking the plunge

frgeorgeh said:

No stopping me now my friend for sure! That trip over to Bimini with the wife was a life changer.

Yes, I know some will chuckle at making a big thing out of a 46 mile trip but, to us, it was huge. Yes, it's only 46 miles but almost 3000 ft deep in places!

So many questions ran through our minds. We're WE ready? Did we work hard enough on the boat to make HER ready? Would the electronics work - which they didn't- and if it didn't was I sure how to go on compass alone and was I able to calculate set and drift on a chart if I had to? Would we get out there and chicken out?

Having done it we are hooked and can't wait to share this with others and to go even further. We can't wait to see that deep, cobalt blue water again!

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Very cool!

I guess I missed it-- what happened to your electronics? How did the charting work out?

Electronics did not go out; just auto pilot. Chartplotter worked but kept loosing heading sensor. After more sitting and thinking the Heading Sensor seems to be the common element in the equation. Going to recheck all wiring and grounds. I have read a bad ground can cause havoc with flux gate sensors.

Worst case, I'll call in a Garmin tech to sweep and mop the issue for me. Anyone know a good Garmin tech in Ft. Lauderdale area????

Oliver is around the corner in Dania Beach. He's young but very knowledgable. Might be able to walk you through your problem on the phone.

I am not from the East coast of florida but have used MEI before when I was at Lago Mar

Fort Lauderdale
954-306-6665
2019 SW 20th St
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315

And right out of the blue Fr. George has to go buy a battery charger. The old one is a Pro Mariner 30 , probably 20 yrs old and no good for my batteries anyway.

Funny how much stuff rises to the surface just prior to taking a trip. At least it happened before we left for Bimini! Gotta love boats....and I do!

Decided on the promariner Pro Nautic 1230p. Thought? Comments? Concerns? Come now...

frgeorgeh said:

Decided on the promariner Pro Nautic 1230p. Thought? Comments? Concerns? Come now...

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frg...
OK I'll jump in...

I have dealt w/ RC at Compass Marine and he recommended the ProN P chargers. He has a How To Article on Batty Charger Instln that might provide some insights.

My initial reaction was maybe the 30 A was on the small side... He recommends sizing charger at roughly 10% of batty bank capacity - you need to decide how many banks & sizing.

I have a 3 bank 50A ProN C series & like it... I added the remote readout and really like being able to see what the charger is doing from the helm / salon.
Also recommended is the temp sensor - I don't have one but may be worth it in your warmer clime.

Battery charger replaced!

I decided on the 1230p. I only have two banks so it gives me some room for expansion in future. Thanks for the responses.

New one shore is purty!

Might use the old one as an anchor!

Just spent the entire evening reading this thread from beginning to end. This is also my first post/response. Very inspirational and encouraging. Can not wait until the day the wife and I begin this journey.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard. Mr77. You'll do well taking some tips from Mr. frg. He seems to have done most things well BUT I suspect a direct line to Divine Intervention.

Welcome aboard Steve.

steve3377 said:

Just spent the entire evening reading this thread from beginning to end. This is also my first post/response. Very inspirational and encouraging. Can not wait until the day the wife and I begin this journey.

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Welcome 77 we have all enjoyed Frs adventure

and hope we get to see and here about your adventure soon

Welcome Aboard!

Hi Steve3377! Thank you so much for your kind comments.

I wish u all the best as u move toward your dream. If I have done anything at all on this forum it is all due to the friends I have met on here.

You would be hard pressed to find a better group of folks or forum anywhere!

Bimini trip number two is in the books! What a wonderful time we had.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Our youngest is a sophomore in college here in Middle Tennessee. Until he's finished the closest we can get to paradise is our occasional visit to our condo in Islamorada and our 25' Trophy with twin Merc's. We do plan to liquidate here in TN and retire aboard in the not so distant future. Certainly am enjoying all the good info in this forum. Thanks again.

frgeorgeh said:

Bimini trip number two is in the books! What a wonderful time we had.
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Awesome. Thanks for sharing....

How did the boat perform?

Not to complain, but hijacked thread? Let's get back to frG trip....


BTW Welcome 77

Sorry...my bad. Yes, back to Bimini trip #2. ?

Greetings,
Mr. frg. With 2 successful crossings you're fully in the loop. Congratulations. Pray tell, how was the fishing?