A Day in Naples

I have an appointment with my Oncologist in the morning in Naples so we are going to do that then go to a really great Southwestern Restaurant that we tried last summer - "Agave".  Great moles' and chili and spicy things from my old stomping grounds.

After lunch we are off to the Naples Zoo and then will check out a new to us Trader Joes that recently opened in Naples.  More later...........

But, tonight we are having Lesley's squash casserole, homemade cornbread, baby backribs on the grill (over a charcoal/hickory wood chip fire).  And for desert "Fat Boy Juniors!  Then we are watching the Hatfield's and McCoy's  a new mini series on The History Channel.

Summer Projects

We brought the tilt/swivel assembly from our Nissan 9.8HP outboard home so that I could rebuild it.  Ordered all of the needed parts from East Marine and have put everything back together again. 

Note that the parts are two different colors - top is Tohatsu black and the lower part is Nissan Grey!

 

I also brought the 12 volt NAV PC home so that I could rebuild it as well as we were starting to have some intermittent problems while still aboard.  The new PC is based on a Intel dual core ATOM processor in a fanless mini  ITX form factor.  The system includes a new 200gb SATA disc drive, 4gb of RAM, and two USB 3.0 ports.

There are no Windows XP drivers for the imbedded video processor on the new motherboard so I was forced to use Windows 7 with Virtual WindowsXP so that I could run my older Nobeltec VNS charting software.   The new system is completed, VNS is running in the Virtual XP machine and OpenCPN is running under Windows 7.

I also made a new panel for the various ports so that connections can be made from the front of the system and not the back.

Stainless Steel

I purchased several pieces of 316T stainless steel tubing from Online metals that I plan to use to replace part of my davit based solar panel mount.  I tried using Spotless Stainless to clean the old tubing and it damaged the finish - suspect that the tubing was inferior quality.

The new tubing is welders grade so it did not have a polished surface.  Fixed that by using different grades of sand paper (ending at 1500 grit) and then some 3M metal restorer.  New tubing looks good and should be more rust resistant.

Moving an IP-38

Tomorrow I will help Peter move a vehicle to Palmetto, Florida in advance of our moving his boat.  After dropping off one car will head up to Seco South in St. Petersburg and drop off a few items and set up our new rigging order for this summer.

Summer projects are coming along nicely. I finished a new housing for our water maker control panel and have placed orders for many small items that we will need next season in the Caribbean.

Completed reinstalling Nobeltec Visual Nav Suite on our new laptop and also on the NV PC.  Purchased ExpertGPS so that we can use the new Garmin GPS unit (without having to purchase proprietary charts or applications from Garmin) for route waypoint uploads.

Back in Florida

We are pretty well settled in now in Punta Gorda.  We've made a major shopping trip to Costco and filled up the freezer, picked up packages for items that we ordered before leaving the Caribbean, completed dental appointments and have my physical tomorrow and the reading on PSA level.

The new Nav PC is completed and waiting on the resolution to a problem with our backup software.

Completed the rebuild of the Nissan OB trim/tilt/swivel unit, pictures later.

I've started working on a friends IP-31 and will help a friend move his 38 to Palmetto so that it can be put up for sale.

Busy as usual but enjoying our time in the house again.

Back on Land

We had a nice trip back to Florida and are getting settled in.  Rebuilding a new NAV PC, working on the outboard mounting bracket, enjoying everything - except daylight savings time - hate it.

Getting caught up on things.  More later