B.O.A.T (2/08)

[Latimeria]

Well, I finally got the boat out after it's annual service.  Let me preface this by me asking them to check on a few issues I was having while the boat was at the shop, and all I got back was "Boat runs great.  We can't find the issues you are mentioning". 

It was a little windier than what they called for, but Steve and I met up at the ramp in the morning.  One thing I asked them was to check my batteries as they seemed to go dead or not hold a charge for very long even though they are brand new.  I charged the boat up the night before and got down to the ramp to have completely dead starting battery.  f@ck!  I used a jump starter from my truck and got it running, but I would keep it running the entire day since I needed that little alternator to charge the boat!

So far so good, but I could tell it felt no different than when I brought it in.  The water was cold as hell and we chased birds for a bit in the morning.  Lots of bait, birds and dolphin, but nothing bigger that wanted to play.  The water was chilly!



We moved around for a bit and the bite was tough, but I was picking up some decent reds (Releasing safely due to shallow water) and Steve had some much better luck on the bass.



I thought i finally got a nice bass on the bare iron, but turned out to be a very hungry sheepshead.



Squatch with another nice bass.



We started to head to another area as fishing was pretty tough for the most part, and as i was running, the boat died.  Same damn problem as what I was having.  I almost couldn't get it started again, but happened it get it running.  I could only go around 4 mph without it stalling and made it into the inlet.  Soon as I got in, the boat died and my motor is possibly toast since it seemed to be intermittently spitting steam out of the blow hole from the stream.  The water wasn't too hot, so i'm not sure what was going on....

I set the rolling motor down to make it to the ramp, but the super strong outgoing tide only had us moving at 1 mph at max and the batteries were about to die at any minute.  I called Vessel Assist and they came out just as the batteries were going for a tow.

Two things.  I've became the "El Ass" when I got home and got the neighbor's all pissed at me for something they did wrong.  (You have to be young and stupid to do something that they know pisses off their neighbors and yet still get pissed when you call them out on it)

The tow of shame....



Also noticed later that the tow boat has some old stickers on it.  LOL

Oh well, I'm going to try and funnel the positive energy out of all of this...  Whatever I've been doing these past few months has not helped in my favor, so time to rewire the brain to think and look at things differently.

Thanks for reading and until next tide.... when I'm fishing from terra firma!  LOL

[sasquatch]

The day had a rough start. And a rough finish.

Catching a few fish in the middle was great.

[spideyjg]

Got a multimeter to check voltage and current? Remember I had dying batteries and it was the FF draining 1/4 amp even when off.

Is the home charger on the fritz?

[Latimeria]

Got a multimeter to check voltage and current? Remember I had dying batteries and it was the FF draining 1/4 amp even when off.

Is the home charger on the fritz?

Nope.  All is good from what I could tell.  they even checked everything last week at the shop.

[jrodda]

At least you got a few fish, too bad about the battery. I know the drill  with the brain rewiring,  less about boat rewiring though..

[Latimeria]

...too bad about the battery. I know the drill  with the brain rewiring,  less about boat rewiring though..

The wires are the least of the problems.  The seized motor is a little bigger issue.  hahaha

[Pinoyfisher]

So it is true what they say about owning a boat... As much as I've envied boat owners like yourself, I'm not sure I ever want to own one after seeing your struggles over the years. Sucks. Hope fully you get it figured out before the offshore season starts. 

[vdisney]

The wires are the least of the problems.  The seized motor is a little bigger issue.

I was going to ask if it had a diode or mechanical (solenoid)  isolator, both easy to troubleshoot.  That was until I got to the part about the engine.........I'm bummed for you Tom.  I remember when you got the boat and how excited you were.  Seriously man, I'm totally bummed for you   

[BenCantrell]

Damn.

Catching a shark from shore will feel good.

[Latimeria]

Well, the boats back at the shop!  Hopefully they could find the problem or even salvage the motor.  I had to explain to people that just because I wanted a new motor, doesn't mean I want this one broken.  I could have easily got $5K for it when it worked great, so the cost of a new motor would only be about $5K with the old motor proceeds cutting it in half.  Now it's $10K minimum.

I have my fingers crossed and even broke out some "Black Magic" to help ward away the bad juju.



(Burning Sage)  LOL

[xjchad]

Good luck Tom!
Hoping it's not as bad as it seems and you're back on the water soon (and cheaply)!

In the mean time...  get those surf sharks!

[Tim524]

Ouch      El Ass to the rescue doesn't sound like fun, hope you get it figured out.