Wow, time flies when you get old! But I am finally getting excited. I have much of my outfitting mess sorted out, and I can actually see heading south this or next month. If you have followed along you know I have been marina-locked mostly because Spanky has no workable steering system.

I fretted, hemmed, hawed, had Edson design me a cable system, fretted on how complicated the install would be, hemmed and hawed some more. Finally, against my better judgement, I decided to go back to the steering system the factory installed originally (path of least resistance). I got all the parts and jumped in.

Now, I am here to tell you when you remove a hydraulic steering system (like the one installed on Spanky when I got it) you should probably relieve the system pressure somewhere safe before you take off the first fitting in your clothes locker. I doused most of my clothes, much of the starboard stateroom, and all of myself with stinky hydraulic oil. I tried to stop the deluge once it started, but fell to laughing so hard it was all over before I stopped a drop.

I had seen just this comedy in a Three Stooges episode. Oil everywhere, a stooge trying to stop it by forcing what he took off back on (which made it much worse of course). The full length mirror on the outside of the compartment added to the disaster. I laughed so hard at seeing myself I fell over and spread the oil all over my galley too. Nyuk, nyuk.

OK, a few stinky days later I have learned how wonderful Kitty Litter is at soaking up oil, and how nicely citrus Goof-Off cleans up hydraulic oil smells. Oh, and how good Oxi-Clean is at getting hydraulic oil out of clothing too. The hydraulic steering system is completely removed and gone for good now. I have mounted the new steering box in the console, and have only to run the cables to the rudders (only!) It will have to wait for at least one of the cursed Yamaha 9.9's to be sold first though. I have to remove the dumb outboard bracket before I can run the new steering cables, and I can't do that until I am down to at most 1 motor.

I had them in the local trader, but no joy. I am going to eBay one of them this week. Actually, as much as I whine about the Yamaha's, these seem to be fine motors. Both start and run nicely every time I run them up. The one had a problem, but it turned out to be merely a bad connection in the wiring harness that was easily repaired. Oh well, they are too small to be used individually, and I am NOT keeping twins on a sailboat (somebody tell the previous owner this is actually a SAILboat, eh?)

Other than the steering, I am managing to get many of the outfitting checklist items crossed off. So I am really excited at the thought of setting sail - just as Hurricane Season 2006 kicks off! Ah, I am sure I will be able to get in some nice Keys drifting before we get slammed this year. I miss the sun, the clear water, the girls in bikini's, the Jimmy Buffet...

It got hot again here and I had to start dealing with AC once more. Ick. I have this beautiful marine air 16,000 btu unit almost installed. I ran a new 30 amp feed and put in a second panel just for her, and she would be running today if I could get a haul out here at Telemar marina. Sadly, they are afraid to haul a catamaran due to some urban legend of a catamaran folding on a travel lift "somewhere" so won't haul me. And since I have no steering (yet) I am unable to get hauled elsewhere until I can navigate. And I have to get hauled to install the last component of the AC - a through hull fitting for the water pickup.

So it got hot and I was stuck. Went to Home Despot and found this lovely Everstar 8000 btu portable for 300 bucks (you can read my review here). And once again life aboard is cool. Now those of you that know me know of my never-ending AC struggles aboard. I have tried everything, and in the end have given up and decided that despite the problems, marine AC is the best solution for my application. Thankfully I have made some really wonderful discoveries that make marine AC acceptable for me and thought I should pass them along.

Circulation pumps have been my biggest problem. They seem to die every few months and cost exorbitant amounts of money. I discovered two things that make this less of an issue. First, I found that for a small charge I can get a three year carry in exchange warranty at Worst Marine for the pumps. So, now I have a pump, a spare - and that is all I need. No more expenses for three years! Pump dies, swap out spare, and go to Worst Marine at my leisure for my shiny new pump. I have even figured out how to install quick fittings on the pump so I can swap one out in less than a minute. Now I smirk at them and dare them to die.

Second discovery has been even more helpful. On multihulls we have dry bilges. No water in the boat. So even though the circ pumps are submersible, I have always kept mine dry. Well, because I was lazy during the heat of the summer I let my forward AC unit (a lovely little 5k Mermaid) spit her condensate directly into the bilge to be pumped out by the bilge pump when the water level gets to be about 2 inches depth. Well, this cool condensate happens to bathe the circulation pump by complete happenstance (certainly not by any design of mine).

And lo and behold, the circ pump has lasted nearly a year - and is still going strong! They were all dying from the heat of running continuously. A bit of cool water bath and the pump is a happy crewman. So now I have built a lovely tray for the pump with it's own smaller bilge pump, and drain the AC condensate directly into that. Pump is very happy. I am cool. Life is good.

I still have to clean the filters weekly, but that isn't so bad I guess. Oh, and I figured how to stop worrying about sinking the boat with a split pump hose while I am sleeping or away too! My friend Guy turned me on to these cool washing machine sensors that shut off the water flow if they get wet (You can see them here). I mounted one in the bilge, and now if a hose splits the water will be turned off and the circ pump will shut down instead of merrily pumping my boat full of water. As I said last paragraph, life is good!

Now with any luck my next post will be from Margaritaville...