Maiden Voyage

[jeff6645]

I bought a 23 CC end of last summer and worked on it when I had time, of course it was one of the wettest coldest winters in like a 100 years.... had carburetors cleaned and rebuilt, repaired soft spot in the floor, new electronic bulge pump switches, installed fish finder, new radios and new batteries (a blank of gel cells for electronics and two hi amp batteries for cranking)

Took her out with the wife and daughter for a test run and everything worked great, so headed back in and loaded up all the fishing gear to head out with the son for a couple of hours of fishing.... ... we were about 100yards out in the gulf thats when things got interesting and bad luck set in (or poor planning) 1st thing to happen was lost the steering, so stopped and had to get the anchor out and overboard, had already drifted out of the channel by now... started working on the steering, the nut had come off and the bolt had slipped under the bracket, the harder I forced the steering the more fluid that was leaking out of end of the cylinder... not good...with my 10 year son working the wheel and me prying we finally got it free (did I mention it was now pitch dark)... luckily I brought my seastar fluid with me and added enough with a drinking straw to get a few inches of steering back. Now to make it back to the dock, put her in drive and didn't move, stuck on the bottom, put her in reverse and started to move slowly as the waves would lift her ever so slightly... almost back to the channel when a loud sound can from the motor, hit something... yep a crab trap, thought I sheared the pin... finally rid of the crab trap and put her in drive, pin was good and we were under way again and heading back to the dock with limited steering... back at the dock we tie up and just set there for awhile and reflected on what had just happened.

So before we got out again I have a to do list:
* Never leave the dock with a known problem (small leak in steering cylinder)
* FIX STEERING!!
* Make sure Anchor is easy accessible
* Learn to dim GPS display for night time driving
* Plug for Q-beam so it can be recharged
* Tools - not just a screwdriver
* Repaint foot where crab trap scratched up the paint
* And A Plan "B" in case all else fells...

Still love the boat and ready to go again as soon as the repairs are made!

PS: while setting at the dock had two comments on my SeaCraft, one was an older gentleman "that's a fine looking boat" and the other was a young man on a smaller CC "I like your boat, I've always loved the SeaCrafts"...

[BigLew]

Even when Fr. Neptune throws us curves, others admire our lines!

[cdavisdb]

Great story Jeff! Been there too, more than once.

[jeff6645]

Hopefully I got all my bad luck in one trip and the rest of the summer will be smooth sailing.

[NoBones]

The old sayin' was "If it is not one thing, it is another"
The new sayin' is "If it is not one frickin' thing, it is six!

Good luck Jeff,

See ya, Ken