Away from the dock for the first time since drydock weeks ago. Unlike the drydock trip, this time the engines ran the whole time, and we got back to dock without any drama. Ran her a few miles at various engine speeds. Engines seem strong, and no smoke.
Today life was good! Although there is a lot more to do before we are mechanically and electrically 100% sound, we are finally feeling like we have a 90% chance of going on short cruises without incidents.
We also made a little progress today back at dock. We rewired the old vapor sniffer instruments, and they work perfectly. There are sniffers in the engine compartment and adjacent to the fuel tanks, and instruments at both helm stations (the one on the flybridge is a slave). We shot a quick birst of starting fluid at the sniffers, and the instruments alarmed instantly. I don't know how old this equipment is, but probably it is from the late 70's or early 80's. Pretty neat that this old gear is coming back to life.
We also recently got the old Lowrance depth finder working (took it apart and lubed the motor)-- it is the kind with the spinning neon bulb. Works perfectly. I bought a Garmin GPS chart plotter with depth finder for the lower helm which I haven't installed yet (although I had the thru-hull transducer installed when in drydock), and a digital depth gauge with alarm for the flybridge which is also not installed yet -- but for now the old-style "spinning neon bulb" depth finder is pretty cool.
There is one more instrument I hope to get working -- it is the old "stroboscope" engine syncronizer. I have no information on how these are supposed to work. There is a pickup in the bilge near each propeller shaft, but I don't know how those should be adjusted (do they touch the shafts, or should they just be adjusted near the shafts?). But the scopes on the dash light up and look like they are trying to do something.
Later, Curt....
1967 fiberglass 38' Chris Craft Commander Sportfisher with twin 427 CID 300 HP engines.
