svindulgence.com Blog

Long time…no post

It has been quite a while since my last post. I was planning on updating the the blog this summer…but you know the story; woulda, coulda, shoulda. Here’s a family photo from Niagra falls that says it all!

Winter blues

Its been a while since my last post…winter has been cold and as a result I
have not been to the boat. My latest project is a drink holder. So far I’m
pretty pleased on how its turning out. I do have to be honest though…it
is going to be quite expensive if you figure in the tool cost in its cost.
Now I know how the government ends up buying 1000 dollar toilet seats. My
costs to date; wood $15, new table saw blade $44, hole saw $19, router bit
$35. What makes this all the more disappointing is that I could have
purchased an oak one form defender.com for $17.

Blackberry post

I thought that I would test a posting by blackberry. Not very much fun
writing with my thumbs….in fact this is really stupid!
————————–
Sent using BlackBerry

Fuel Polishing System

Another productive weekend….I finally got my fuel polishing system assembled. I assembled it on a piece of plywood with all the required valves. Now, I just need to install it in the boat and hook up the connections from the tank, to the engine, from the engine, and to return to the tank.

Battery Monitor Project

I ordered a Link 20 Battery monitor from Jack Rabbit Marine. The Link 20 with the installation kit was $340…ouch! This will allow me to bettermonitor our battery capacity and the current state of charge. In talking with Stacey and Neil from www.sailzora, they said this is a crucial piece of equipment and referred to it as a marriage saver. If it will stop arguments about how long to run the engine, it is cheap marriage counseling. Right now, our battery bank consists of 2 4D’s….I will be adding another battery in the future as a dedicated starting battery and wiring the 4D’s in parallel as our house bank. I will also be adding a solar panel to provide some additional charging capacity this summer.

Success!

Major accomplishments this weekend…got the cron job to allow for automatic posting of emails. This will allow me to blog from a blackberry…or via ham radio (through winlink or sailmail)…or from anywhere with email access. I also got the ability to import and display a video to work….my first attempt, while functional was not really satisfactory. If you don’t click on the picture, you’ll see what I mean (Windows makes the whole video load before playing so you wait with nothing going on)…the new way will show you that something is indeed happening.

Other than playing with the website, I didn’t do much. I had the kids all day on Saturday (Lorri went to visit her sister in Bangor). I took the kids the new Charlotte’s Web movie. Cute movie, well done with the exception of Charlotte. Julia Roberts did the voice….very disappointing. I hope she wasn’t paid very much because she was lame. She was very flat…like she was just reading a script. I always thought she was over-rated as an actress anyway. Georgia had a birthday party to go to, so I took Jasper to Maine Rock Gym (of course after a quick drive by of Indulgence to see how her shrink wrap is holding up). The kid is a natural.

Why I hate birthday Parties!

I have enclosed video showing why I hate birthday parties…the video is from Jasper’s 7th birthday party. He wanted a Star Wars theme party. Lorri found a good deal on “Light Sabers” on the internet as a take home gift for the kids. Lorri also thought it would be neat if “Darth Vader” delivered the pizza.

Let’s see…gun powder and match…click on the picture load to run the video

[etv]

Georgia Loses a Tooth!

Georgia lost her first tooth on 1/13/2007…I know what you’re thinking… big deal. But to a six year old this was huge. She kept on going around with a HUGE grin showing off the empty space. She was particulary psyched that the tooth fairy gave her a dollar.

The other highlight of the weekend was watching the Patriots playoff game with Jasper. It was good to have a little male bonding time with the little guy. Also, Jasper has been feeling a bit under the weather for the last week and hasn’t been to swim practice in a week.

Project Update - water pump rebuild

Today I finished rebuilding a spare water pump I had…it was pretty easy except getting the retaining clips in. I broke down and bought a tool specifically for working with internal retaining clips…10$. Maybe this will be used one or two more times…maybe it will be the crucial tool in some deserted anchorage that helps me get my engine running again…maybe…more likely than not it will rust away in one of my toolboxes. I’m a sucker for tools. I figure that I am still ahead because I got the pump rebuild kit off of Ebay real cheap.

On our boat engine is a Westerbeke 58 hp engine that is in the boat backwards….the drive shaft comes off the engine towards the bow…goes thought a V-drive and then is redirected aft. This makes getting to the water pump a real pain in the ass. If you need to change the rubber impeller…it is easier to change the entire pump. Therefore, it is prudent on a 424 to have a spare pump ready to go.

The pump is a Sherwood R30G-1, Westerbeke part number 24102. A new pump would run $460 at Torrenson. Therefore, I would recommend the rebuild…easy except for the retaining clips.

More drivel

This website stuff is pretty easy…the real work is the content. As I mentioned, all I need to do now is figure out how to do email postings. I also need to start documenting my projects.

Some of the projects I am working this winter are:

rebuilding my raw water pump
building a fuel polishing system
making drink holder for the cockpit
maybe building new cockpit doors that swing open instead of the hatch boards (from what I’ve read this is a bigger project than it appears)
buiding a website.