The average powerboat is said to be used weekly, if that. Often, it is only used biweekly. And beyond that, it tends to be trailered, not left in the water to rot. I decided from the very beginning, that my patterns would be somewhat different: I would launch every 2-3 days at minimum, daily when possible. And I'd keep the boat in the water, mitigating the resulting corrosion with regular use and having a bottom-job done once every 1-2 years. Everyone thinks they're going to use their boat often, but only time can tell if that is actually how it ends up.
In that case, I have good news to report: Once we did go about 4 days without launching, but that was because Grace had a heavy work schedule. In most cases, we've gone out daily, or if we didn't, it was because we were sunburned and/or hung over from the prior day's boat partying.
Often, we find ourselves sitting at anchor, either at "Blue Crab Spot" in the middle of Cudjoe Bay, or in the knee-high shallows of "Chris' Office" near Sugarloaf Key where Bow Channel splits, or off to one side of Bow Channel by the bridge, or even in the ocean towards the American Shoal Light. We've placed crab traps and used Navizon US East on the iPhone (we converted to iPhones a little over a month ago, but that's another story) to mark their positions, and successfully pulled them without fouling the prop with buoy rope. We've anchored up for no reason at all, except to have lunch and relax. And once, we even weathered a rainstorm at sea, hiding under the snap-on cover, suffocating in the resulting heat. The engine itself shows over 10 hours of use on the hour meter. Actual time at sea is at least double or triple that figure. We've grown tremendously from the Porta-Bote days. Some of our "for the heck of it" cruises in the ocean down Hawk Channel are even longer than the distance records set in the "Transit" posts on belgo.com.
Upper blue push-pin marks the area where it's safe to trim down and get on plane. Middle blue push-pin marks "Blue Crab Spot," where, despite the name, none have been caught yet, although some have been observed. Red 'current position' arrow marks split in Bow Channel. The shallow in the middle of the split is informally known as "Chris' Office" and has good EVDO coverage.
Pippi has also been known to join in on the action:
... And of course, work gets done:
I've had to work on the boat itself a little bit too: I've had to exterminate ants and start spraying the dock lines to keep them out. I had to disconnect the always-hot wire to the bilge pump when the automatic float sensor shorted out (causing the pump to either stick on or stick off when in automatic mode). The resulting loss of automatic-mode means I do have to mind the bilge water myself until the pump is replaced, but at least it's an electric pump. While sitting in shallow water, I like to trim the lower-unit up and scrub it a little bit; Once I found some buoy rope wrapped up around the prop (oops). Overall, I consider these to be relatively minor issues for the careful mariner.
It does need to be hauled up for a bottom job, new propeller, new zincs, and a few other details, if we'd just stop using it long enough for someone to work on it.
Blast you dolphins, stop interfering with maintenance.
It's been seven months since we first took to the water with the Porta-Bote and electric engine, and we're still finding new ways to enjoy boating. And that's a good thing, because the land isn't what's special about the Keys.
Anyway, the good ole Nikon is ready to return to action to take some much nicer pictures of our exploits, and I just got a 5-year saltwater fishing license, and our crab traps are ready for action. I'll try and post some of that soon.
-Chris