I Am A Winner.

Awarded by
Emma to Lazy Iguana

Behold the award I won. This is a fairly cool blog award. Ever see it before? I have not. This is a blog award I could use, because I am almost dry. I have some Sam Adams Winter Later hanging out, but I will need some more in the next week or two. Unless I get a "bunch of beer". Which apparently is exactly what happened.

In other news, not only is the boat GPS Chart Plotter not functional, but now the anchor windlass decided to take a crap. So much for "the boat not costing a lot to operate". I was just telling someone that. See the boat has an engine that is not a gas pig. It uses DFI technology and really is good on gas. For a boat anyway. In the past two trips I used up a whole whopping 7 gallons. I was not running very much, drift fishing and/or "drop the anchor and sit in one place" fishing is economical.

But on the last trip out the GPS stopped working. Now I do not know what the cost to repair it is. And I do not know if it is going to be a warranty job or not. But if it has to be replaced - it will be around $400 for the slightly upgraded CP180i. The exact same plotter is not being made anymore.

SO MUCH FOR BEING ECONOMICAL TO USE!

And on the Wednesday afternoon trip out - the windlass had a problem and now does not work. I think it may have joined the writer's union.

IF the windlass is dead, then that is another $500 or $600 to replace. So if it is in fact not working it will just remain not working for a while. I can anchor without it. It is just a hassle.

Did I say the boat is economical to use? Let me rephrase that. The boat is a hole in the water which you are supposed to fill with money - but it does not use up a lot of gas.

BOAT = "break out another thousand". Which is about what the two broken items would cost to replace if I have to buy new shit.

So all that sucks. But it is part of the game. Nothing lasts forever. It just sucks when more than one thing craps out at the same time.

But hey! At least the outboard still runs! That is a good thing. The engine is very expensive. The boat can be used without the GPS plotter and also without the windlass. But the boat has little use at all without an engine. So yea, it is not really that bad.

I did not catch anything. But I am getting closer. There were two strong hits, probably kingfish. But due to whatever reason, they threw the hooks.
The law of averages says that sooner or later I will catch something worth catching. Maybe some blackfin tuna? That would be nice.

And I think I can revive the windlass. The switch could be bad. The circuit breaker could have burned out. Both are cheap fixes. If the motor is bad, then I can probably just replace that. Or get it repaired at an electric motor repair place.

I am going to try to jump the switch, bypassing the circuit breaker. If that works then the breaker is bad and $15 later I can have another one. If the thing still does not work then I can voltage test the leads going to the windlass. If they are not hot then the switch is bad. Order another one and it is all good. If the power leads read hot and it still does not work......well lets worry about that if that turns out to be the case.

I may need another (or my first) Bush "tax cut" to fix it. Of course, if I made enough to get the Bush "tax cut" then I would just be able to buy new stuff right now and have it sent here express overnight delivery, get it the next day, and then have someone install it. Or better yet, just go buy a new boat. Why not.