Deck Repair

I had supported both ends of the deck at the marina with steel cable and the boards that the cables attached to had pulled away from the assembly; evidence that the deck had sagged. Part of the problem was that shims supporting the deck on the side closest to the boat's port had come loose and floated away.

Vic came down Thu night and we spent time making repairs on Fri. He recommended putting in tack boards to make the newly replaced shim more permanent. That amounts to screwing small boards to the deck base and then running a screw through those boards and the shim.

Vic brought his winch and we used it to lift the deck up when we put the new shim in. We tried to use a heavy steel eyelet screwed into the deck as an attachment point for the winch but it just pulled out. We had more success using steel cable wrapped around the deck supports and another steel cable on an adjacent piling.

We hit Tuckerton Lumber to get reinforcing brackets that would help to keep the boards in place next time there was any strain on the support cables. We got an education from the man there who told us that chemicals used in new treated lumber (alkaline copper) were not compatible with galvanized metal and that we had to get coated screws and that any brackets we used had to have a Z on the box. We assumed that we had this new type of more corrosive lumber and confirmed it by looking at the label on some left over wood. More about the difference between CCF and ACQ treated lumber here.

We hammered in the 2 boards that had come loose and attached "Z" coded brackets.

We agreed that it would be smart to do more reinforcing work and will get together in coming weeks.

Anybody Here Have a Ride Plate?

When Kevie called the marina about recommissioning the Seadoo they said the ride plate was corroded and might need to be replaced. We went to pick it up on Sunday hoping that it would be ready or, at the very least, that our presence would spur them to action.

They took our red flash out of the rack and showed me a metal plate on the underside aft that was showing oxidation and some barnacle growth. I nodded as the mechanic told me that he wouldn't really know what was needed until they power washed($39) it. Fortunately for our bank account there was no real damage and he got to come home that day.

So what is a ride plate? Here's what I gathered by talking to the guys. It's a heat exchanger for the engine that can cost $400 - $500 just for the parts should it need to be replaced. And there's an inner and an outer plate with deterioration of the inner plate being more serious. At some point there was mention of sacrificial zinc replacement but our model (GTX-4 TEC) has no such zincs.

How can it come to such a bad end where one would have to replace it? If it sits over the season on a pad (sport port) with its tail dragging in the water that's a recipe for disaster. In trying to remember its position last year I guess this could have happened a time our two.

Move Cancelled

After spending time looking at real estate and trying to narrow down our options our search came to an abrupt end. Kevie called the lawyer who had helped get Chris the out of district placement and he told her that moving from Jersey City would violate the agreement. K and I are a little deflated. We had built some momentum toward the move and were starting to picture ourselves living somewhere else but the person most disappointed was Michele our real estate agent.

Emerson told Kevie that we must stay in Jersey City until July 1, 2009.

Stuffing Box

After any cruise I can count on the stuffing boxes leaking. It's always been a simple tightening of the adjusting nut to get the drip to stop but his time the starboard nut was immovable using the slip lock pliers so I left it dripping. I did fetch a big pipe wrench from the house but have read that over tightening can lead to a scored prop shaft. I'll seek advice.

Before we left Spring Garden Ken had advised repacking the stuffing boxes in the fall.

Movin' the Boat

The marine forecast leading up to this weekend was pretty encouraging but as it got closer to Saturday it deteriorated to 3-5' on the ocean. We decided to try and scamper across the bay to the ICW and then work our way north on the inland route.

Rented a car Friday night and got to Sunset Marina after dark but it was obvious that the deck we built had suffered some damage over the winter.

On Saturday we got out of the house in late morning because the forecast was for calmer seas in the afternoon. We had some problem getting off the dock at Spring Garden - someone came over and gave a push. That should have been an omen of things to come but it went unheeded.

As we were nearing the mouth of the Maurice we fired up the nav system and got the red 'No GPS' icon. I changed to the backup GPS but it didn't resolve the problem and eventually I ended up on the phone to Nobeltec. The tech verified that I had a good connection to the GPS and asked that I read the NEMA sentences to him. He told me that the GPS hadn't found enough satellites and advised that we wait and try again. That worked!

The rest of the trip on the ocean was glorious! Despite what the weather service predicted the bay and ocean were pretty much flat. We stopped around Wildwood and scattered my parents' ashes as per their wishes.

We'd built up a coating of cloudy salt water from the sea spray and as we we came into Little Egg Inlet decided to get out the hose to clean the windshield and ran it over to the windshield then poked it through an opening under the canvas at the top of the windshield. When no water came out Kevie headed down below to find a bucket to use instead of the hose. In the meantime the water started to come out of the hose and drenched some stuff on the upper deck including the nav system computer. Soon we had a blue screen and I shut down the computer.

We navigated the rest of the way in using the Lowrance GPS from the car with a marine navigation chip that we had purchased for just such an emergency. It worked fine.

When we stopped at Morrison's for gas we had a hell of a time getting to the dock and then leaving after we found out they were closed. The wind was blowing.

Things went no better when we got to Sunset. Not only did we fall off the slip but we ended up drifting into the marina towards land. Every time I tried to get turned around we'd get uncomfortably close to other boats and ended up blown onto the pilings of the empty slips closer in. So we tied off onto those pilings and prepared to spend the night then move the boat when the wind died down.

We'd been there for about 15 mins and had the idea to loop a rope around one of the pilings and pivot the boat around. This got us headed out and away from other boats in the marina so I tried again to back into the slip and made it after 2-3 tries. It was good to be at the dock!

Car Maintenance

Chris helped me change the oil on the Suburban and even fished in the pan for the plug. He came out with a black hand and the bolt. His reaction, "Ehw, how do I get this stuff off?" Mileage was 122K. Note to self, next time make sure you've got a strap wrench before proceeding.

Called Surf City marina and asked them to have the ski ready for Memorial Day. Ha! If this Memorial Day is like the last 5 we're talking 60 degrees and rain.

Got the motorcycle started on Sunday after a night on the charger. The battery has been so abused that I probably need to get a new one.

Wanted to take the boat to LBI this w/e but the weather didn't cooperate.

Spring Garden splashed it in last week and had to replace the starboard battery. We had a problem last season having to use the parallel switch to get that engine started so I should have known this was coming. I told Ken Walker that we had to replace the house battery during summer '06 and he said that because the house and starboard engine batteries are wired in parallel that one going bad will cause the other to fail too. Ken T recommends that we keep the battery switches off when the boat is at the dock. That's probably going be too inconvenient given that we have to run the engines every weekend.

The forward fitting on the hot water heater is leaking so will ask Ken to fix it before we take off.

It took about 157 gallons ($550) of gas to fill it.

Went to the drive-in Sat night and saw a double feature of Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. My butt gets tired sitting in the car for 5 hours but a good time was had by all.

Technology that Works - Always on Internet

Recently there was a South Park episode called "Over Logging" where they wake up to find no internet. Panic ensues and the rest of the episode plays out like an end-of-the-world movie. My wife and I both saw ourselves in those characters.

Contact with friends and family, not to mention work, is mostly through email. Being able to go to a keyboard and jot a note or reminder prevents things from falling through the cracks. If I want to know the temperature or the weather forecast there's an internet connected applet on my desktop that tells me at a glance. I can check the bank account to see if that check I wrote to the doctor cleared? I can look at Fandango to find out what's playing at the movies?

Yup, if I had a dial-up connection I could do all the above but I did, and I didn't. That is I can remember having dial-up service and I didn't use the web for these things. It was too inconvenient.

Because of smartphones pushed on us by employers we take it a step further. New email causes my phone to vibrate and, if we're in the car talking about a movie and question who that actor was then we use the phone's browser to look on IMDB.

Always on internet gives me access to broad knowledge and keeps me better informed and organized. I've paid for the service for 10 years and find it very valuable.

Technology that Works

I have been an early adopter of technology for all of my adult life. The desire to touch it, explore it, and use it goes back to early childhood but I wasn't an early adopter then because I had limited access to money that I could put toward tech indulgences. But I have vivid memories of my first garage door opener, TV remote control, walkie-talkie, intercom, and light dimmer.

Though I'm not a professional industry analyst I've put significant money and thousands of research hours into technology products. In upcoming posts you can read about what's worked and what hasn't. I'll cover web search and shopping, RSS, ebooks, smart phones, DVRs, Web 2.0, and more. I look forward to your comments and hope that we can learn from each other.