165Striper

I don't know about any of those boats, but we went on the Carnival Glory a couple of years ago out of Port Canaveral for the Western Caribbean cruise (Cozumel, Belize City, Port Maya (can't remember the name), and Nassau. We had a good time on the boat, but we didn't take advantage of much of the night life. The staff was wonderful, as was most of the food. There were quite a few families, but they didn't hamper our fun. BTW, we were in our late 30's and left the kids with the grandparents and escaped. If you go to Belize, you should consider the cave tubing trip and then do the Mayan ruins in Mexico. Some people we talked to on the boat said the ruins in Belize were nice, but the cave tubing was spectacular! Unless you get better leads on a vendor, the snorkeling and clear kayak tour in Cozumel is worth passing for something else and the "history tour" in Nassau is a total waste! We did get to see where you pay your water bill and traffic tickets, though. We also got to see a "nice" neighborhood that happened to look very much like many of our S FL neighborhoods and even had boats in the yard. Be forewarned....they told us that the average cruise passenger gains 2 pounds per day!!!! We tried hard to stay below the curve, but I was only able to keep it to about 8 pounds on a 7 day cruise!

GREAT! Boaters in Maine are going to hit the water before I do! It is always good when things work like they are supposed to without causing headaches and extra work. Congrats and enjoy the water

I don't have an actual answer, but a guess. I had a similar problem on my outboard that turned out to be a leak in my water separator housing (at least that is my guess). The boat would start fine, idle fine, run WOT fine, but would stall out when brought back down to an idle after running for a while. My best guess is that I had a VERY small air leak that under light loads didn't leak, but after running at higher rpms would introduce enough air into the line to make it hard for the fuel pump to feed the motor at low rpms but could still suck fuel around the air at higher rpms (kind of like a poorly primed siphon). I never had a fuel leak, but after replacing fuel lines and filters (along with other stuff!), I replaced the housing in an act of desperation and my problem went away. Like I said, it is just a guess. I really have no idea, but it fixed my problem.

The first thing I would check is the new fuel/water separator and any connections you made in the fuel line. It sounds like you might have a small air leak.

You forgot to mention that they are attracted to warm places during the morning and evening so they all congregate over roadways. Their bodies, like any insect, have a crunchy outside so driving through them is like very gently sandblasting the forward surfaces of your vehicle. Add letting them sit in the hot FL sun on your paint and the juice eats away what is left of the paint. We haven't had many over here in SE FL. I've heard the softener sheet trick before, but I've always been afraid all the little pieces of bug would scratch the paint over time. I usually just use a bug remover when they are bad and then rewax but I may have to give triumphrick's trick a try. Ludicrous, I hope that Pete isn't your responsibility to clean!

Be very careful pulling a tree down! They are sometimes a good bit taller than you think they are and I sure wouldn't want your truck to end up like some of the pics I've seen floating around on the internet (or worse!) When I have a tree to drop, I always look at the cost/benefit ratio to decide if I should do it or have someone else do the work. And that is coming from someone who has felled more than his fair share of trees and usually in bad situations. If there is a reasonable chance that I could hit a house or something, I will let someone else's insurance cover that risk. That said, if you feel confident that you can do the job, don't use the rope to pull the tree over. It should only be used to guide the tree. Use wedges and a single bit ax to push the tree over. The proper technique would be to make your notch in the direction you want the tree to fall, taking into account for the balance of the tree and any wind. Then start your back cut just as you would normally (slight angle downward with the cut lined up to end approximately 1" above the V of your notch). Make your cut, but stop before the tree falls. A slight bit of movement would be great, but you rarely get that kind of notice. Have your wedges and ax ready so that you can quickly place one in the back cut and begin pounding it in with the ax. You should have 3 wedges (you will know why if you ever need them all!) This technique keeps you away from where the tree is going to fall and gives you a great deal of control over what is going on.

What do you think would be the best way for the OP to separate the metals? Since it is the bunk brackets, the connection would need to stay strong. I would be concerned that a plastic would give and allow the bunk brackets to move. I have a glass boat and a galvanized trailer, so I don't generally have these issues but I am certain there has to be a relatively simple solution.

I wouldn't move the bunks. It does, by your description, sound like galvanic corrosion due to dissimilar metals. The best thing would be to separate the metals so that they do not touch. I am certainly no expert on setting up trailers but I would talk to a trailer supply store and ask what to use to separate the metals. It seems that I have heard of a type of "grease" or something that can be used or maybe a thin piece of Teflon.

The ones I saw when we were in Belize were like busses. I would imagine he needs all three when he's loaded with passengers but with the price of fuel down there I'm not surprised he is only running one. I am surprised he can run like that with only one engine, those boats are pretty big and have alot of fiberglass in them with all of that cabin but rode like they were pretty flat on the bottom. The ones we rode on I believe had twin 430 Yanmar diesels in them.

The good news is if they go on hard, they usually don't come off on their own. The PVC pipe was a good idea, I usually just use a piece of 1x4 and hope I don't have to hit it hard enough to dent the cap (or my finger)!

Sometimes those little devils just don't want to go on. The cap is probably not quite round. I've had to take sandpaper and sand the outside edge down to taper it a bit. It usually doesn't take much and don't over do it or it won't stay on. On the really stubborn ones, I've had to use a piece of wood and a hammer to get it started rather than the rubber mallet.

I can't believe I got beat! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-_W18CWypE Also, don't forget "Five Pound Bass" by Lyle's college roommate Robert Earl Keen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77nZoEwpTsw "Jumped in my john boat.....iced all my gear..."

I saw the other day that the Jupiter WalMart had what was listed on the box as a 4hp motorcycle dryer on the clearance isle. I think the price on the shelf was something like $75 or $90, but (obviously) I didn't pay that close of attention since it just caught my eye as something unusual as I walked by. It might be worth a look if you find yourself in Jupiter.

Yes, I'm jealous. I haven't had my yak out in a month and it will be at least that long again before I get a chance. And don't even start about the boat 'cause it's been months! But.....summer's coming and I'm hoping that neither will have a chance to dry out once the kids get out of school.

I've had pretty good luck removing light scratching from acrylic with automotive clear coat scratch remover and a little elbow grease.

An swr meter is a good idea, but at least use your multi-meter to make sure that there isn't a short between the center pin and the outside of the connector (ie - no continuity). I haven't use the screw on connectors, but it is fairly easy to get a stray wire in the wrong place on the solder on types.

Or you could just use an amp and use a 1/8" stereo-to-RCA cable to attach the iPod to the inputs. Wire the + and - to your 12 volt busses and wire the power switching wire to a switch on the dash. Control playback and volume from the iPod (or other audio source). I discovered that a Radio Shack double female 1/8" connector will just fit into a 1/2" hole (the size of my dash switches) with a small amount of trimming so now I have a jack in the dash to plug my mp3 player into. A couple of companies make dash jacks that would work for less than $20, but they need a 3/4" hole and I already had a 1/2" one. No way is my iPod going on my little boat! I keep a cheapo one for boat music. I would love to take credit for this idea, but I learned it from GlenE. I'm sure that you could search this great internet to find more directions if you need them, but it is pretty straight forward.

Nice, simple, and inexpensive! The nearly impossible boating trifecta! I've been wanting a flag pole, but didn't have a good place to mount one that was always out of the way. That is, until now.

I feel your pain. I've been working on my wife's car and running the required errands all day.....right next to the boat! At least it has been outside. The weather here in Jupiter was spectacular today. High around 80 with a dew point in the 50's!

Actually, no GPS in the Touch. It uses known locations of Wi-Fi signals to triangulate your position! Really. And no, I don't know how it works I wish I would have known about you selling. I just bought an 8 gig today to replace an old Palm PDA.

We are going west for a few days to play on the Peace River here just outside of Arcadia, FL. We enjoy camping and the family has been wanting to go to this known fossil site and hunt for sharks teeth since we found out about it a couple of years ago. With as dry as it has been, the river should be pretty low. That is supposed to make it easier to find sharks teeth and other fossils, but we've never fossil hunted before so I don't know quite what to expect. If you see us on the road, you'll know it's us. We believe in bringing plenty of "toys" with us. We are usually around 11k CGVW pulling a popup! The Beverly Hillbillies would be embarrassed! This spot is new for us, but it looks like fun. Any interesting little lesser known spots like this in your neck of the woods?

Getting ready to go camping and missed 5:00 somehow! I'll rectify that right now! Ahhhh..... Life is much better with a Newcastle in hand. Well, now I gotta get back to work getting ready to play.

Darn! I missed that. I was assuming he was already 4. If he's only 3, even if only for a few more hours, then I'd say the exact same thing. I think that Zebco makes a saltwater version of the 33. And, Ludicrous, thanks for pointing it out that it is 5:00. I'm headed to the fridge right now!

The Barbie rods have caught some big fish over the last couple of years, but I've seen too many of the Scooby Do rods exploded at the local parks My daughters have a Zebco 202 and 33 that have held up amazingly well fishing in salt and brackish with NO maintenance for the past 3 years. My oldest (8 at the time) managed a 24" snook on the 202 with 4# test! Legnth of the rod is probably going to be an issue. The longer the rod, the more people on the boat he can hit at a time! The 202 came on a 4.5' rod, which has worked out pretty well for my youngest daughter.