Stray Cat Sailing: Almost but not quite yet.

Ok, I know it has been a long time but was honestly getting sick of repair projects that didn't seem to be getting anywhere. It's true that everything that has to be done to a boat takes twice as long and cost three times as much as the same thing on land. We were suppose to leave this weekend but again we have some issues to straighten out before we can actually leave. Took the boat out to calibrate the new Auto pilot and test the other new electronics and the news was not good. We could not get Auto to work and the C180 couldn't get a fix on the boats location. To top it off now the port engine was belching black smoke whenever under load. It did not do that when we did the engine sea trail. Still trying to find the problem with the port engine but found that the gps antenna was bad and was able to acquire a used one that works. We can now get the boat to show up on the chart plotter and hopefully we can sort out Auto and the port engine and be on our way. By the way, West Marine takes a lot of heat on the forums, but I have to compliment them today. When we figured out that the gps was shot we started looking for replacement. Of course the C180 is an older unit that needs a Raystar 125 which is now practically obsolete. A call to WM and the guy told us he had one in stock so off we went. When we arrived the guy we had talked to had gotten off and the new clerk could not find the unit we needed. Finally he talked to the guy we had spoke with earlier and he let him know that he had called Raymarine and they told him another unit was what we needed and that unit was the one he told us he had in stock. The unit that he had would not work without an adapter (another $100 and not in stock). We were not happy after an hour drive. The clerk got on the phone and called around and found us the used unit. That's true customer service and was greatly appreciated!