New Ignition Boxes for Model T

Didn’t want you to think Jim is just sitting around doing nothing. He got his new ignition boxes for the Model T today.

  Got them installed and took it for a test ride.

Ran very good. Now we can travel a bit farther for a show or two.

We have 2 solar vents for the boat on order…should be here Wed. After we get them installed we’ll be heading for the river.

5.23.09 It’s back together

Jim picked up the new injector tips. All installed. We just need to figure out when we want to launch and do a test run.

We’ve had a lot of rain and flooding, so it is going to depend on the St Johns River’s situation. If there is a flooding problem they usually ask you to stay off so as not to create wakes that could cause a homeowner some damage. We’ll be checking that situation out and working from there.

My sister gave us a folding bike. Jim has been getting that back into shape. Rode it a couple of miles and it is pretty comfortable. She has another one that we can have so we’ll be in good shape on a cruise, if we need to go for groceries, etc.

I’ve been chasing the little critters around with a camera for the other blog: http://wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com/

Windows are open…temperature is about 86 inside…nice breeze but it looks like it’s clouding up for another go. It was a good day to do some transplanting…nature is going to water for me.

Figured I should at least put 1 picture of the boat in.

engine update 5.20.09

Jim followed all the suggestions the fuel pump rebuilder gave him and nothing worked. When we reminded them he had bought the injector tips before they rebuilt the fuel pump..and there had been rust and water in the fuel pump..they said to bring the injectors in for a recheck. They were leaking where they joined the injectors and were not spraying right, or too much, or not at all or something, so they are going to re do them...Let's hope that is the problem.

We'll have them back in a few days. Then Jim will have to reassemble everything again and we'll hook up the water and see if she runs. We'll let you know, when we know.

Hope everyone is have fun with their boats...in or out of the water.

Friday….we are hauling out.

I got up early and rowed the dog in for a walk. I had my camera with me. As soon as I got back in the dingy I noticed a disturbance in the lily pads. A gator had caught a fish and was trying to swallow it by tossing his head in the air.

If you enlarge the picture you can just see the fish’s tail sticking out of the side of his mouth.

I took this last night. A beautiful sky after a long hard afternoon rain.  It turned out beautiful.

We had no problems either launching or loading. Guess we’re getting that part down pretty well. As soon as we have the smoking problem fixed we’ll be back on the water for another trial run.

Thursday…

Well…we had a good day, yesterday, with the improvement in the amount of smoke. It wasn’t bad..but I had to open my mouth and suggest another little “tweak” might make it go away completely… Boy was I ever wrong. We never did get the good combination back. 

We spent the night at G 109. We both watched a couple of gators fight. At least that’s what it looked like. One raised himself up out of the water and bellowed. About 4 more showed up and the next thing we knew…two of them were sure churning up a bunch of water. I grabbed the camera but only got a lot of splashing. Here are 3 of them. You can see the one on the L is still posturing.

On the L of the picture you can see the tail  and then to the R is the head of the same alligator. Pretty good sized. You can just see the back of another on the R and in the center there is another head. He’s a bit smaller. 

Makes you want to go right out and jump on a pair of water skis…..huuuummmmmm

Wednesday a.m. moonlight cruise

We had gone to bed early and I woke up around 1:30 a.m. Decided to make coffee and read for awhile. Jim woke up a bit later and we decided to head S. The moon was bright and the sky fairly clear. A nice night for a cruise. We rolled up the side curtains for better visibility. We had seen the ends of some logs on the outer edges of the river and wanted to be sure we stayed in the middle.

Around 6 a.m. we passed Ron and Karen’s boat and got a call on the cell a few minutes later. They were anchored on the side of the river  only a few miles from G 109 so we continued on down.  After a few hours sleep. Jim made another adjustment. MUCH less smoke, so we cruised back up to visit for awhile. 

After watching all the gators cruising around…you wouldn’t think anyone would want to water ski unless they could stay up.

Tuesday…it still smokes

The engine seems to be running fine…but it smokes. Jim has made several adjustments and we can’t seem to find the right combination. We cruise…then anchor and wait for the engine to cool down….make another adjustment.

The gators near G109 are plentiful. It is our favorite gator watching spot. Jim saw a gator fight or mating. Not sure which. But there was a lot of splashing in the water and loud grunting noises. We’ve seen several that seem to be pairing up.

It is breeding season and you need to be wary. I try not to go too close to an area I think might be a nesting site. Mommas can be pretty nasty if they are guarding a nest.

Monday thru Friday on the St Johns River

We launched the boat on Monday morning. We cruised out onto Lake Monroe, shut down and drifted until we got the dingy inflated and everything stowed. Our vacuum cleaner makes short work of inflating and deflating. The new engine was smoking, but we had expected there to be some. At least until the stuff all the parts were cleaned with etc. had burned off.

The Osprey love to nest on the markers. Here are 2 youngsters.

Look at the face on this little one.

And here comes Momma.

Once every thing was stowed and we’d taken a few minutes for a cool drink of water, we headed N on the river. To our surprise….we spotted a houseboat with a pontoon boat tied along side.  We only know one couple who use a pontoon boat for a dingy…Ron and Karen!! We tied along side and had a pleasant evening visiting with great friends.

It is really a great idea, towing the pontoon boat. They can anchor where they want and explore in comfort.

We spent Monday night at anchor with Ron, Karen and Bob. Tuesday they are  heading S and we are going to go N.  We’ll meet on the return trip.

I’m packing !!!!

I started putting stuff back into the boat for our first trip with the rebuilt engine.

I sprayed all the compartments with the insect spray made for my Lovebird, Babe. (safe to spray directly on baby birds, so figure it might be safe for me). I want to be sure there are no big “hunter” spiders or other bugs moving aboard.  Once it dries it has a residual effect for 4 – 5 weeks. I don’t really like pesticides but I have to do my window and door frames every so often or I get surprised by seeing a big creepy spider run across the ceiling. Here in FL, you shake out everything before you use it. Havn’t seen any in many months…don’t really want to…especially not in my sleeper berth.

I’ll have everything thing in and ready to go in a day or two. We cant stay out long…but couldn’t wait any longer to see how she runs.

Jim had the engine running for over half and hour, day before yesterday, and then changed the oil. So…I guess we are good to go, as soon as, I finish stowing away all the stuff I hauled out awhile ago.

Next post should be from the St Johns River. See you then.