The Ships Logg

Several months ago, I noticed the shower drain in my boat was not removing water as it should. Rather than water running down the drain, it just collected in the pan at the bottom of the shower. Recently, I decided to tackle the job and figure out what was going on. I knew I was going to spend the entire July 4 th weekend on the boat and I wanted to be able to take a shower without worrying about the water building up. If you are not familiar with the workings of a basic shower sump system on a boat, it is actually pretty simple. The drain at the bottom of the shower empties into a box down in the bilge. Since the box is most likely below water level, there is a pump in the box that pumps the water up, out and overboard. Often the pump has a float switch attached to it to cycle the pump on when the water gets to a certain level and off when the box it empty. A Basic Sump Pump Setup In my case, I had already checked the line from the shower drain to the b...

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We are well into boating season now and as expected, the traffic on our local waterways has picked up quite a bit. But if your experience is like mine, you may have noticed that boat traffic is even more than it was at this time last year. We can thank COVID-19 for that. In this age of social distancing, people are realizing that spending time on the water is one of the best ways to have your fun and remain safe. It is pretty easy for a family to be out on the water, whether on a boat or a few PWC’s, and keep their distance from other individuals. Statistics have shown that boating has long been one of the best activities for families to participate in. It seems that more and more people are starting to realize that again. Flying across the water on a PWC, a bow rider or raising the sails and gliding across a body of water is not a bad way to spend your time during a pandemic. It sure beats staying indoors. On Lake Lanier, where I do most of my boating traf...

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If you have been boating for a long time like I have, you probably already know that no matter how diligent you are about doing the right things, sometimes things just come down to blind luck. I guess you can just say that about life as well. Sometimes your luck is good and sometimes not so good. One thing is consistent though. You can usually learn a lesson from whatever happens. Such is the case with an experience that I recently had on the water. It was February 23 but a nice day for late winter. The temperature was in the upper 60’s and the winds were calm. The Bear’s Den II had not been out of her slip yet since November 2019. That’s not normal for me. But life happens. I was eager to take her out. Two of my friends and I headed to the marina and boarded the boat. I let the blower run while I did my preliminary checks before turning the keys to bring the twin Crusader 454’s roaring to life. After a few minutes of warming up, we cast the lines and headed out...

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I am fortunate enough to live in an area where I don’t have to pull my boat out of the water during the winter.   That is great, because this allows me to take advantage of those unusually warm winter days that occur every now and then.   Also, my boat provides a nice place to hang out when I just want to get out of the house.   Of course, being on the boat in the cooler months is a bit different than it is when the mercury rises above 80.   For example, right now, it is a beautiful sunny day, but it is 43 degrees outside.   That kind of rules out water sports as an activity.   While I do sometimes go cruising in the winter months, this is the time of year where I am more likely to just spend time on the boat while tied in the slip.   My boat becomes my floating man cave. During the summer months, the TV on my boat hardly ever gets used but when winter rolls around, it is a staple of my time spent afloat.   After all, a floa...

Underwater lighting is not just for superyachts anymore. It used to be that underwater lighting was something that you only saw on large yachts but that is rapidly changing.   More and more these days, you are seeing smaller recreational boats with colorful lighting below the surface.   There is one thing to consider though, the cost.   Whether you buy a new boat with underwater lighting installed or add it on after the fact, it can be a rather expensive option for just a little bling.   There is another option, however. When I decided that I wanted to add some light below the surface on my boat, there were two things that I was not comfortable with when considering the traditional method.   The first was the cost.   At over 2 thousand dollars for hardware, wiring, labor and lifting the boat out of the water, the cost was hard to justify.   The other thing that I was not comfortable with was the fact that I had to drill holes into the hul...