You just never know!

Yep Still in the same place.

Crazy couple of days. Things are moving right along. We took care of cutting most of the land lines and were set to have family take the car back from the boatyard. And then......
Around 1 am we herd strange sounds. Tracing them down we found water in both bilges. The starboard bilge had LOTS of water. Looked bad and was messy but pretty simple fix. The non return valve attached to the bilge pump failed ( because someone had previously taken the little ball out of it) and was siphoning water back into the bilge from outside, The port side had much less water but it was a potential serious problem. The bilge had been bone dry less than a week before but now we could see water weeping into it. OK did we miss damage while we had her out of the water and repairing the hulls? Are we going to have to come out of the water instead of taking off for the Bahamas? Needless to say we did not sleep much Thursday night. Vacuuming out the bilge and watching how fast the water came back in while we made a dash to West Marine to purchase a couple of non return valves while scratching our collective heads occupied our time on Friday. Very little water weeping in all day Friday so we cleaned the bilge real good and dry and waited to see what happened. Continuing other boat projects (there are always boat projects) I would check the bilge and was encouraged by what I saw. We had thought that maybe with me spraying and cleaning the boat combined with the heavy rains after that possibly a leak from above had slowly made it's way down behind the walls into the bilge. Checked tonight and ugh water. Almost as much as Thursday night. This time I tasted it ( way to nasty looking Thursday night). Fresh not salty. I called Freddie and he confirmed it did not taste salty.That's good news but what is going on. Idea, both Thursday and today we emptied and refilled the water tank overflowing it in the process. Next project is to check out the water tank and hopefully find the issue and that it can be fixed easily.
Got to love a boat!

Day Three

Each day we get a little more done and Stray Cat is beginning to look more and more like a home. The weather has really changed. We woke up to much cooler temperatures and gray skies that gave way to a beautiful afternoon. Fall has arrived and it reminds me that we need to get a move on. Did have a couple of small victories. Got the Salon straightened up and  finally got some pictures downloaded from my GoPro camera.If you have never worked with a GoPro, it does not have a view screen on the camera itself. The camera is controlled through an app on your tablet, phone pr PC. I have definitely been camera challenged. Here are a few of my learning photos.

Freddie wondering exactly what I am doing.

This is when we had the Port berth taken apart and working on solving the black smoke issue.

Going crazy trying to figure out how to work this camera.

The Grand Kids came by as we were packing up our last night before moving on board.

Sleeping on the Boat

Well we are finally moving on the Boat. Spent last night tied up at the dock and doing the same tonight. Hung the curtains for the glass sliding doors still have them to set up on the salon windows. It is a rainy dreary day but finishing up loose ends to set sail. Happy to finally start making Stray Cat Home and be on the moove.

Still a mess but getting better.

Gray Rainy Day

Other boats on the hook in the river

The new anti-slip strips are looking good and really help on a wet deck.

Still beautiful in the drizzle

You really can't beat the views

Gave Stray Cat another wash down and more organizing today and said goodbye for a week. I have a work Conference to attend and Freddie will continue to prepare Stray Cat to hopefully shove off the first available weather window after I get back.

Looking better after a scrubbing.
 

We Ain't Blowing Smoke! Yippee!!!!

With the port engine pouring black smoke every time it was under load we were getting seriously worried. We checked the air filter/ the exhaust elbow and even dove down and checked to make sure that we didn't have anything wrapped around the prop. None of those were the problem so a call to Jack our favorite diesel mechanic was in order. We even had Jack scratching his head. Turns out that there is a no load governor type thingy ( I know a very technical term. I cannot remember the real term). This part controls how much fuel the injector supplies and it was supplying to much fuel, result, black smoke. After a simple adjustment, no more black smoke. Freddie wired in the new freezer and started clearing out and organizing his tools. We moved all the scuba gear on board, brought the dingy back to the boat and took the jet ski home. Took the boat out to the sound and checked out the new auto pilot and other electronics on our own. It's kinda cool the way it steers back and forth as it learns the tide and wind conditions when you set new waypoints. The depth sensor for Freddie's new fish finder is in a different hull than the original depth sensor. That works well since our hulls are 21' apart and can have much different depths below the keels.  I have then spent the last 2 days thoroughly scrubbing the outside of the boat. Stray Cat has some scars but looks much better now that she is clean. I have a work conference to attend this week. Freddie will spend his week finishing up things on the boat. When I return Hopefully all we will be waiting on is a weather window!

Freddie learning the auto pilot

Cushions and seats scrubbed. lines and sail bags washed and drying in the sun.

Removed the old non slip strips now cleaning the old glue before installing the new ones.

Not so good illustration of smoke and smutty exhaust water.

Progress

Well we had a good day today. The Auto Pilot is now functioning properly!We took the boat back out into the river and the River and this Auto Pilot is a big improvement over the other one. That was a must have to start our trip. The only biggie left is to solve the problem with the port engine and Jack(the diesel mechanic) will be here at 8 am tomorrow. We even saw dolphins, always a good thing. This afternoon I started to get familiar with the SSB radio. It's been over a year since I even looked at it and I didn't know much then so today I was totally lost. Tomorrow morning i have to go and re-certify my lifeguard certification ( 60 yr old lifeguard! crazy) then I am going to really work on this SSB RADIO.

River Pics during Auto test

More River pics

Freddie and Ken working on the Auto Pilot

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!

Capt. Fred at the helm again

Circles in the sound for calibration

More circles in Cumberland sound. We still had to do it again in the river.

Jack our Diesel mechanic.

At the dock in Rocky's boat yard

Starting to get cleaned and organized

Freddie up the mast pulling wires

My not so set up salon