Mike and Beth's Adventures

Amy Marie at the Ashland Oregon Highway 5 Rest Stop Amy Marie and crew are excited to be on our next trailerable trawler adventure!  Yes! the gang is together and headed to the Pacific Northwest for a summer of exploration.  To bring you up to date. We completed America’s Great Loop in October of 2022.  Since returning, we have been lavishing Amy Marie with some needed attention.   She is sporting: New upholstery, Relocation of the VHF radio to the top of the helm station for better “human interface” Thorough servicing of her Yanmar power plant. List Marine replaced the glow plugs, the impeller, and repaired damaged sound deadening and insulation on the engine cover.   I installed a new oil pressure sender and also an old fashioned analog oil pressure gauge. A new 220-watt solar panel with an MPPT controller.   Love it! New Yamaha 2-way speakers as an upgrade from the Factory installed Fusion speakers. Movie night will have better sound quality! A ...

  Amy Marie is the "boat symbol" in the middle of the screen November 11th and 12th, 2021 In our last blog we talked about finding a nice anchorage in McKinley Creek.   We enjoyed a tranquil night there but woke to threatening skies in the morning.   A front was forecast to pass through, so we decided to hunker in place.   As we were not rushing to leave, Beth fixed a nice breakfast, we read the e-edition of the paper, and then our books.   It was shaping up to be a relaxing day.   On days like this, we really enjoy our Webasto diesel furnace.   Our boat is equipped for cold, all season boating, in the Pacific Northwest.   The chilly fall days, which we were encountering, are no problem.   We easily maintain a cabin temperature of 68 degrees.    McKinley Creek Anchorage Mid-morning, we received a text from Kittiwake.   They were looking for a spot to ride out the passage of the front and wanted to know if there was room for t...

I have come to the conclusion that trailering a boat is an quick and easy method to expose less than robust design decisions.  It has also reinforced that regular stops should be made each day to fully inspect the boat and trailer.  Today's excitement was finding that the rack which supports our solar panel and "rocket box" tried it's darndest to fly from the top of the boat. The day was quite windy. This combined with highway speeds created forces that the rack design could not withstand.  The verticals were restrained by a single set screw.  Vibration could easily cause the set screw to loosen and wind forces to have their way.  This combined with bouncing on rough sections of road resulted in the verticals popping out of their mounts. Our corrective action needed to be fashioned with items at our disposal.  But first, the stainless steel tubes needed to be bent into shape.  They had been "sprung" open.  I used a ratchet strap to bend the tube b...

  An essential and valuable piece of equipment decided to take a holiday.   This occured immediately  after my morning coffee if you know what I mean.   Yep, the head died just after a very moving experience.   Too graphic, well sorry, it was very distressing.   Suddenly your plan for the day gets reorganized.   First priority is to decide if an 8-year-old marine head is worth repairing or should it be replaced with a new unit.   I decided to defer that decision until I dis-assembled sufficiently to identify the source of failure.   The next step was to begin disassembly Disassembly began with trying to figure out how to empty the bowl.   Beth came up with the best solution.   Little wonder she is such a valuable member of Amy Marie’s crew.   Her suggestion was to motor to the pump out dock and use the pump out hose to suck the bowl dry.     Once the toilet was clean as a whistle, disassembly began.   First...