Bottom cleaning 10.17.12

Jim wants to put a few coats of Poliglow on the bottom of the Yukon Delta, but before that can be done, all this gunk has to come off. The shiny part behind him is what he has already cleaned. It has definitely spent some time in the water.

It would be much easier to put it in the water and have it lifted out and pressure washed…..but that gets expensive, and “elbow grease” is much cheaper, although not easier.

Jim is used to lying around under stuff…..but normally it’s an old car.

It’s starting to look better….but a long way to go.

Should make it more fuel efficient going thru the water once it’s polished up.

He took a short break for breakfast and went back to work….it progressed much faster on the back half. It still shows some staining but the muddy growth is gone.

Just as he was starting to back the trailer up on blocks….the first load of dirt for the road arrived……

 

Before that one was spread…..the second arrived.

Just as well….scrubbing the bottom of the boat is back breaking work…..now he can have a few hours of riding up and down the road. Right now….I don’t think we can get in or out…so he’ll be at it until it’s level. Scrubbing will wait till another day.

10.18.12

He finished the road today….and the tractor has been returned.  He did a great job.

The mailbox is just for looks. It belonged to his Mom and Dad. They had it at their camp in Kirkwood, NY.  We don’t get mail out here….all the boxes have to be at the end of the road and they make good “jousting” targets. They don’t last long.

Maybe we can get back to working on the important stuff….THE BOAT!!!!!!

We’ve started working on the boat….finally!!

We brought our new (to us) Yukon Delta home from OH and had to park it and load the camper for the 3 day car show in Tampa. Had a great time….lots of beautiful cars…..mostly street rods. There were a few that were near original…including our 1928 Buick Landau. It’s pretty much original except for the fuel system. Jim has all the parts to put it back to original…but we need it to be reliable for driving. We trailered it to NY and VT this spring and put over 1000 miles on it. Here we are crossing a covered bridge in VT.

We got back from the show late Sunday, then Jim had to go to his brother’s to pick up the tractor so he could work on the road into our place. Had a few pot holes so big, you could almost float the boat in them.

We are waiting for a few loads of dirt to spread on the road, so Jim worked on cleaning out the fuel tanks and putting in fresh fuel. I replaced all the screens. They had big holes by the window slides. The cord was still good and we had the correct size tool.

So now I have all new screens. May not seem like a big deal to some….but here in FL it’s a must have.

They look so much better…and I can leave them open during the day for airing out the boat and not have a bunch of mud daubers moving in.

She’s titled and registered…..the motor runs…..now….if we can get caught up on our other projects…we’ll get launched for a day and see how she runs.

You are looking into my butterfly garden….actually…it’s a caterpillar garden. I have lots of milkweed growing in pots.  I bring the caterpillars inside and then release them when they become butterflies. Check them out on www.wildlifearoundus.blogspot.com  

YUKON DELTA 1980 25’

We decided to sell the Albin 27 and get something we could launch just down the road from our place and not have to run the toll road to Lake Monroe each time we wanted to go out.
This is our new boat. A Yukon Delta, 25 ft long and shallow draft.

The blue cover on the bow is to keep the rain out of the open bow during storage…..great idea here in FL. I did find, I have to unsnap the corners and fold them up for air flow or it gets very hot under it. I’ll make a lighter version out of sunbrella for protecting the open doorway when anchored out at night. It will go from the top front to the bow…no sides.

the hard top on the back needs some work. Once that is finished, I’ll make screens to enclose it. It’ll be a great place to sit in the evening, listening to frogs, gators and other night life.
The interior needs work too. No stove or fridge. I think it had a propane cooktop, at one time. There is a regulator on the roof and it is plumbed to below the countertop. We may put a 2 burner cooktop in there. The open cupboard had a small cube fridge. We moved it to the floor for travel, but will remodel that area for a microwave. It also needs a faucet and water pump.

We are considering putting the fridge in the closet area. That’s the door with the mirror. It would cut down on clothing storage but I’d like a little apartment size fridge and have it on the floor…to keep the center of gravity low.

We camped over night in it on our way back from OH. The base of the couch slides out easily to make a bed big enough for both of us and Jim is a bit over 6’.
The Captain’s seat is pretty big for the area so we’ll see if it is comfortable enough to keep.

The head will probably have a larger porta potty that can be plumbed to a pumpout. We had one on the Macgregor 26X sailboat and it worked great. Has it’s own 5 gallon holding tank. No shower in the head….not sure if we’ll put one there or just put it on the back deck. Winter time we’ll just have to shower during the day when it is warm….
All these changes are our first thoughts…we’ll go out and spend some time on it before hammering away…..other than installing the fridge. With that we can stay out for several days…we have a butane stove we can use for cooking for now. It worked well on the Albin along with the alcohol stove.

The dinette will give me a place to have my computer set up.

Jim wants to do some work on the trailer. There is no bow support or guides. I guess he’s planning to do some traveling too. Larry and Diane, our boating buddies from OK, want us to do the Arkansas River with them. Sounds good to me!!!
We hope this is our last boat…Jim can walk front to rear and only have to duck his head going in and out the doorways.
If launching at the fish camp works out….we’ll spend a lot more time on the water. Maybe not months at a time …but as often as we want.

I’m looking forward to attaching an umbrella to the railing on the top and sitting there gator watching. Should be a great place to get photos from.
Jim had the 25 hp Johnson outboard running. We may try to launch it next week. We are anxious to see how well that little motor will push us along and need to reset the boat on the trailer so he can weld on the stuff he wants to. It will only be an afternoon outing…..but at this point…..that’s better than nothing.
Still haven’t come up with a name…
So…..check back once in awhile….maybe you’ll see us on the river.

We are looking for a spare wheel for the trailer. This is what they look like. If you know what they are....let us know. 

Slow Motion ……sold

We’ve sold Slow Motion. It was a hard decision, but since we will not be doing the Great Loop we decided we would be on the water more, now, if we had a small pontoon houseboat that could be launched at the fish camp a mile down the road.

Lake Jessup has access to the St Johns River, but it is a shallow lake and the Albin’s 2  1/2 ft draft (3’ if I was loaded for a long haul, LOL) wouldn’t let us use that lake.  We have been on it in the Adventure Craft and Larry with his Nimble Nomad but we did churn a bit of mud at one point.

With the 2 wk  parking rule at Lake Monroe Park, it wasn’t always easy to plan a longer trip.

So…we are looking forward to another chapter in our boating lives.  It would be nice to have a perfect afternoon and on the spur of the moment say “lets spend a couple days on the water”…toss a few things in the cooler/fridge (whatever we have) and head for the ramp. Of course, it would be even better to have a place on the water and just walk down the dock..but that definitely isn’t in our future.

Check  the blog in a week or so and see what we’ve found or are working on.

The new owner of Slow Motion is going to live aboard. We still have the trailer, if anyone needs one for their Albin.

See you on the water.

A week on the water…over the 4th of July

Larry (A Dollar More), reminded me that I hadn’t updated the blog since we went out on the St Johns River.

Our launch went off without a hitch. Jim has it down pat. Launching the Albin 27 is not a big project at all. Loading it for the trip is another story. When on the trailer you need a big step ladder to get in and out. I get most of my exercise carrying supplies, bedding and clothes aboard.

We put in a couple of days before the 4th. Instead of heading N we decided to spend the day going S to Lake Harney. We’ve never tried to enter Lake Harney with Slow Motion. There is supposed to be a big bar at the entrance and we don’t want to go aground….been there…done that.

A Peacock was strutting along the shore. I love seeing these birds living free. My sister, Joanne, used to have several that lived at her place. They came in and fed with the chickens but other than that they were free to come and go as they pleased. Great watch birds. Nothing sneaks up with them around.

These Ospreys are large birds. How about the fish it caught?

If it’s a bass there are a lot of fishermen wishing they had caught it.

We had a beautiful sunset to end the day.

We picked up Jim’s brother, Carl at the launch ramp on the morning of the 4th….spent the day on the lake and watched the fireworks. HOT is the only way to describe most of the trip. Bearable after the sun goes down but during the day….HOT and MUGGY!!! 

The fireworks were great. Sitting near the middle of the lake we could see them in the towns all around us. Once they were over we headed back to the launch ramp to drop Carl off and we headed to G 109, Butcher’s Bend for the night. It was unbelievable how many boats were on the water for the fireworks….but we travel so slow that there was no problem dropping Carl off. Had the place to our selves. Many of the boaters were waiting to haul out on the opposite side of the river at the free dock.

We had a good night on the water, and the morning wasn’t too bad so we decided to hang out for awhile and maybe spot some gators.

We took the dingy for a ride so I could find something to photograph. No gators about and we know there are several that hang out here. But!!!!   While hanging out in the dingy a Manatee came over to see us. It was a large Manatee.

We spend a lot of time at Butcher’s Bend…one of our favorite anchorages and this only the second time we’ve seen a Manatee in here.

You can see prop scars on it’s back. They look fairly fresh. It was very curious about us and kept coming back to look us over. You can see it’s nostrils as it came up for a peek.

Their hide is kind of bristly like a pig.

We headed off to see what else we could find. Slow Motion looks good on the water.

Normally we can cruise for 4 or 5 hours and have enough charge in the batteries to hold overnight.  Not this time….we wouldn’t be at anchor for more than a few hours and we’d have to start the generator.

Most afternoons it rained and cooled things off…but it was still pretty muggy.

We made it up to Shell Island at G3 in Astor, FL. An 8 hr day of cruising and we still had to run the generator after a few hours at anchor. We definitely have a problem. Since it was so hot and with the battery problem, we decided to head back to Monroe Park and haul out. We did get to see a couple of gators, but only one was willing to sun itself in the heat.

We were surprised to see this barge on the river. It’s the first one we’ve ever seen. It was headed to Lake Monroe.

This Anhinga is sometimes called a snake bird because the long neck is all you see when it is in the water.

Once home, Jim isolated all the batteries and found 2 that were not holding a charge. Guess it was a good thing we came home, might have ruined the other two.  So….now we have 2 new batteries and are ready for another cruise……..in cooler weather.

Sorry I didn’t keep this up as we went along….it was either too hot or raining. When hot I didn’t feel like hauling out the computer….when it was raining, I just wanted to sit in the cockpit and enjoy listening to the frogs and watching the lightening.

3.29.12 Lungun Island G3 to Monroe Park and loading up.

Captain Jim (of Sailbad The Sinner) was anchored in his favorite spot behind Lungun Island. We had a nice visit last evening. Good to see them again.

We have seen this obstruction near the E bank of the river behind the island, but didn’t realize what it was. Captain Jim told us it is an old sunken barge. When the water is low, the boiler is visible…when it is high…it is not. We didn’t even know there was more to it …but look closely at the picture and you can see the edge of the barge.

There is plenty of room to cruise behind the island and anchor …. just don’t get close to the E bank.

We got an early start…we plan to anchor behind the island at G109, Butcher’s Bend. Usually a good gator spot.

This guy looks like he is doing some traveling on his paddle board.

This looked like a big gator but was in very shallow water and we couldn’t get closer.

Now that is a lot of “gator tail”.  

When we got near Hontoon Island and Blue Springs we talked with a trawler doing the Great Loop. It was headed S to Sanford. Then we met 2 going N. The 3 boats socialized a bit over the VHF. They travel together at times and planned to meet later in the trip. Sure wish we were tagging along. Can you see the gator swimming at the bottom of the photo? Normally with this many boats you wouldn’t even see one.

The markers are a favorite nesting place for Ospreys.

Look at the skoots on this guys back….does he look a little grumpy to you?

We did a slow cruise behind Drigger Island to see if there were any Sandhill Cranes nesting there. We didn’t see any. I did get a picture of a Little Purple Heron. I had to post it….couldn’t get this shot on purpose.

When we got back to the river, a houseboat was cruising past. We waited and dropped in behind. A few minutes later I spotted these Manatees. There were 3 of them. One of them has several prop scars that look fairly new.

I have a video…but you may have to go to youtube.com and put CmyBirds2 in the search…I haven’t been able to attach videos to the blog lately…still haven't figured it out.

Well…this could have been the gator shot of the day….I took this… then switched the camera to video…in the time it took to process the switch….it  slowly turned towards the boat….looked right at us….. stepped towards us and slid into the water.

This can give you an idea how much tail they have…..and there is another ft. or 2 in the water.

Our plans had been to anchor behind the island at Butcher’s Bend….plans change….we saw a boat bobbing in the middle of the river….cruised over to see if they needed help…they did…boat was dead in the water….so we rigged up a tow line and towed them back the to ramp at Lake Monroe. It was only 5 pm and our launch ramp was just the other side of the river…we decided to haul out. So…we ended our trip with a good deed. Hope they will do the same next time they see someone in the same situation. Several boat roared right past them ….not even slowing down.

We covered about 200 miles….put on 40 gal of fuel ….still have 3/4 of a tank.

The boat is all cleaned out…ready for another trip.

3.27.12 Entrance to Murphy’s Creek to G 3 Lungun Island.

I forgot we had these pictures still in the camera….on our way to Corky Bells, we saw this helicopter delivering stuff to workers on the power line.

It made several trips while we were heading N…and was still at it on our way back.

Here we are at Corky Bells’ dock….see the little gator in the foreground?

Here’s a closer look…  might be 5’

They have a nice floating dock, good food at a reasonable price and indoor or outside dining. I believe there is a bass tournament weigh-in on Thursday afternoons.

While we were having our morning coffee at Murphy’s Creek entrance, a train crossed the railroad bridge at Buffalo Bluff.  We figured it would be a good time to head S. Shouldn’t have any problem getting an opening now.
This part of the river is fairly wide so it is hard to get good pictures of the gators…another big one.

Do you think this dog likes to go boating? Sure beats hanging your head out the window.

Looking for the right fishing spot.

Another medium sized one…I think it’s mate is the big one nearby. I guess the turtle didn’t read the post about gators having up to 3000 teeth in a lifetime…from crunching bones and turtle shells.

We are skipping a stop at Silver Glen Springs. We are pulling out on Friday instead of Monday. Our anchorage tonight will be G3, Lungun Island.