We took a quick winter stroll today around Shilshole and Golden Gardens - the views were amazing! We had been hiding in the boat all day weathering the mini Christmas day windstorm. I had to cancel a little Northward paddling trip due to the wind & waves. It was nice to get out and walk around at least!
   ~Paul & Amber   ETC

   A few months ago I had a little digital camera snafu, I thought I had deleted some of my haul-out pictures...but...it turns out, I didn't! If you didn't see the original haul out post, click here.
   ~Paul   ETC

   This mini boat project doesn't come close to our previous adventures in the bilge, however, I like to post even the little stuff (it will hopefully help motivate me to finish what I started here:).
   When we purchased Kingsley we had never used a push button autopilot like the Raymarine setup we have now. I had always sailed with a tiller - the only autopilot used was one that plugs in and hooks onto the tiller - I was always scared of it (for no reason really) and didn't use it.
   Fast-forward to now - we like our autopilot. Motoring 5 hours back from Port Ludlow on the man-cruise this summer got a little boring (as steering goes anyway, being out on the water was/is always better than being on land!). Having to hold onto the wheel that whole time would have gotten a touch old too. So, new autopilot good, but... 
   Inside Kingsley, with a long cord coming out of the wall, was a remote for the autopilot. It had an extra long cord (for moving around the boat and using it), all stuck on the wall in the salon. I have always been a if-you're-not-going-to-use-it-than-loose-it type guy, especially since we live in such a confined space now, so I left the autopilot remote there for awhile, then finally decided to take it off (and save it in case we want to use it later). The only reasons it seems one would use it would be if you were single-handing the boat in shallow water and needed to control direction while looking down from the bow, or possibly for solo anchoring, although, it doesn't control speed, only direction...hmmm. Another reason I wanted it off for now is that I have a hunch that it is wired directly to our house batteries (which is a no-no)...I'm still chasing a few wires that are attached to the batteries directly (from the previous owner? Hopefully not from Hunter). Here's where the wires from the wall were connected to the remote.

   Boom, done. OK, well, almost done. I took care of the remote and stuff but still have this wire to follow - I think I'll power down Kingsley when I do, just in case...bzzzt.
   ~Paul   ETC

   It was actually just a coincidence that while the wife went down the road to the spa I stayed at home and did a little Kingsley bilge cleaning. Bilge cleaning is otherwise known as: the complete opposite of spa-time (or was it?).

   For any of our club members who are soon to be boaters, our bilge is an area beneath the floor in the main area of the boat (the main area of the boat is called the salon, or more historically accurate - saloon). The purpose is to collect any water that happens to get inside the boat. When it fills to a certain level, our automatic bilge pump kicks on and sucks the water out. When we take showers on our boat the water drains into the bilge. Also, our fridge has a drain to the bilge, if it ever defrosted and started leaking the water would go there. We have a manual bilge pump also - it has a handle up in the cockpit to pump the water out if the automatic ever quit.

   The whole reason for the cleaning was to continue the work that we had started when we purchased Kingsley. Our bilge was mostly full of sand and dirt - most of which we got clean the first time around. I wanted to finish cleaning this up and have a closer look at our keel bolts (the bolts that hold our keel on the bottom of the boat...a.k.a. super important). In the picture below you can see that I pulled our automatic bilge pump out so it wouldn't start pumping the bilge cleaner overboard.

   In the end the keel bolts look fine and the bilge is looking' pretty good too. There wasn't any oil in the water from the engine - that's good. As it turns out, the wifey returns from spa to find hubby's hands soft and smooth. I may have got a little spa moisturizing of my own after scrubbing the thing for about an hour.

~Paul & Amber (at spa, doesn't count)
Everyone's Travel Club