Monday, June 17, 2013

Battery installus incompetentous interuptus

Timmy, we just sold the bow rider, and we will have to deliver the boat with a battery. Here is a bag of coppers. Take them to the market, and buy the cheapest battery you can find, and hurry back. And Timmy, if you come back with magic beans again you're going to be in big trouble.

The boat dealer is facing two conundrums. First off most smaller boats are not shipped with the batteries. Maybe there is some sort of interstate shipping regulations about this, or tipping the boat just a few degrees will let the batteries tumble out of the marginal restraints used to keep them in place. I think the boat builder just doesn't want to spend the money installing them. This has the added benefit of not testing the boats electrical system before shipping. Why look for trouble in the first place I say?

The dealer has to also worry about whether his staff has the competence and moxie to install the batteries in the first place. I mean look at all of the those wires, and ooh, look at all the pretty colors.

This is the end result. The solution from this dealers cost viewpoint is one cheap battery, with everything plugged into it. It's not hard. Take all the black wires and attach them to the negative post, and all of the reds go to the positive post. Hmm, what about the yellow wire Bob? It seems more reddish, then blackish, and what's up with these pink, and brown wires? It seems brown is closer to black than red. We better call the factory and ask.


Saturday, June 15, 2013

The 315MHz incident

The captain successfully single hands the down east style yacht out of the Lake Okeechobee Mayaca lock. He throttles up headed toward Stuart Florida. Almost immediately there is a problem. The boat seems sluggish, and not very responsive in the water. He glances back and sees a a 20' high vertical wall of water rising from the stern. Throttles are slapped back to neutral. The wall of water immediately disappears.

He now realizes the hydraulic swim platform carrying the dingy has been somehow actuated and sank fully downward. The dingy now full of water is nearly underwater. He is familiar enough with the boat to know there is a manual wired pendant in the engine room. Using this he raises the platform in small increments allowing the water to drain from the dingy. Shortly all is well. The engine's motor wasn't submerged, so in the end there is no damage. 


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Wire Pushmepullme, maybe

This is euphemistically an access hatch, and a poor excuse for one at that. It would have been better if it was actually more than marginally usable. This is the upper starboard arch pull area. Just below this is the big Kahuna of pull areas to the console which is only accessible from a five inch hole located three feet aft.  I refer to it as the spiky abyss of blood letting.


Sunday, June 9, 2013

123 TD Andrea

I'm a bit weather obsessed. No it's worse that. I'm a decent amateur meteorologist, but note I do not claim by any known standards to be a professional. I do have an impressive set of weather links and through them I have access to most of the same tools meteorologists use.

On Wednesday I'm eating lunch out and convince staff to switch one of the TV's to the Weather Channel. The morning had been warm and heavily overcast, and I was trying to decide what would become of the rest of the day. Yep the low was still in the gulf, and not appearing to be doing much. The big rain blob that was stalled a bit to the south was just starting to lift northward. I think I maybe see a little more twist in the radar image than I would have expected, but off I go to a boat condo facility. Working on the inside where it's dry has become the mandate of the day.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Word play analysis

Your word is "singerie." "singerie, did I pronounce it right?" "Yes, singerie." "What is the part of speech?" "It's a noun." "May I have the definition?" "Singerie is a picture, decoration or design in which monkeys are depicted." "Would you please use it in a sentence?" "The singerie painting Bob bought for one buck at the flea market depicts monkeys in top hats and tails talking about how disgusting their species smell." "Singerie, S-I-N-G-E-R-I-E, Singerie."

One of my favorite shows to watch is the Scripp's annual spelling bee. It provides some hope that not every child is spending all of their time mindlessly drooling while watching looping six second Vine videos on smart phones.

I was surprised. "Singerie" is a real word? Why in the world did we ever need to have a word for a picture depicting monkeys aping human behavior in a painting? I don't have a single painting decorated with monkeys, and don't know anyone who does. I can't even remotely understand why someone would want to have said simian related content on their wall. Now that I'm through insulting both collectors worldwide of singerie based art, my point is don't we have enough words already?