Installing New Solar Panels

 Another Solar Panel Upgrade

As mentioned in my article about replacing our Standing Rigging, I have to alter the Solar Panel install on Eximius.

Currently, we have 600W of Bougrv Solar Panels mounted on top of the Bimini laid out with the single panel athwartships in front of the Backstay bridle and two panels on either side of the backstay bridle. 

Because the new standing rigging's Backstay bridle extends higher from the Bimini, I need to change the panel layout and that involves replacing the 3 existing panels.

The new layout will be as shown below.

The gap between the panels is due to the angle of the Backstay Bridle as can be seen in the lower image.

The panel dimensions are slightly larger than the area taken up by the old panels, I figured that out after completing the previous upgrade.

It looks like I'll be able to install a pair of approximately 435Watt panels giving a total of 870Watts of Solar Power. I know, that's not going to happen, but it should be much better than the Max 0f 600Watts we have presently. I would expect to get at least 700 watts. when the batteries need it.

The panels I'm looking at - next day delivery by Amazon, are about $540 for the pair. 

STAR 870 Watt Solar Panel, 2PCS 435W 48V/24V Solar Panels. 

From the specs of those panels, if connected in Parallel, the max output would be around 36v and 50amps. Well within the range of my Victron 100/50amp controller.

But if connected in series, the output would be more like 72v at 30amps and that's a better case for the MPPT controller.

For the wiring, I could keep the existing wiring from the panels to the controller, however, those wires are only 6awg and were only installed 3 years ago, they have suffered UV damage, so I'll replace them but with larger cables, 4 awg and I'll run those inside plastic conduit. Basically, I'll install a connector box beneath the solar panels with a terminal block inside, then wire inside of conduit down to the deck and into the side of the combing and to the area where all of the Victron equipment is located beneath the Nav Table. 

Doing that should minimize the voltage drop between the panels and the controller.

Ok, that's the plan. Now I have to decide "Do I repair or replace the Bimini" before installing the new solar panels.

Now, I do have to comment on the whole issue of Solar Panel sizing and installation. From my experience over the past 11 years of boat ownership, I conclude that it's best to go big!  I have purchased 2 Victron MPPT solar controllers a 100v/20amp and 100v/50amp. I should have purchased a 100v/70amp controller or two 100v/50amp controllers.

OK, back to the design of the Solar Panel mounting.

I like the idea of using 4040 Aluminum Extrusion, and wondered if Google Gemini could come up with a plan. Here's what I asked Gemini:-

design a solar panel mounting frame that attaches to a 1inch tubular Bimini frame using 4040 aluminum extrusions

( The text of  the response is at the end of this post ) Here's the result: I made up this image using the suggested plan for the mounting frame. ( I use Google workspace drawing for most of my diagrams. )

Basically, using a Stainless Steel Hinged Bimini Rail Clamp on the Bimini Rail, use a couple of Nylon Ferrules as a stand off to allow the stainless bolt to pass through the Bimini Canvas and hold the whole thing together with a M8 T-Nut and bolt.

Gemini suggested I make a rectangular 4 sided frame using the 4040 Aluminum Extrusion, joining the Corners using Inside Corner Brackets.

This should result in a nice looking and substantially rigid frame on which to mount the two panels. I could put rubber washers between the Extrusion and the Hinge Clamp to add a bit of wiggle but I think I'll see how it comes out first.

Parts list

2 x 4 Pack of 4040 48 Inch Black Anodized Aluminum Extrusions

8 x Spartan Power Black Solar Panel Z Bracket Mount

8 Straight Line Connector Joint Brackets ( to join the 48" extrusions )

4 Stainless Hinged Clamps

4 M8 T-Nuts & Bolts

8 Nylon Ferrules ( 1/2" OD 1/4" ID)

I feel that this is coming together nicely. I'll go down to the boat on Monday and double check the dimensions of the panels and frame.

With that, I'll end this post, but here's a link to the Gemini response.  

Stay tuned for the next phase.

Meanwhile, I hope to see you on the water.

Paul

Replacing the Standing Rigging. Completion

Completed the Standing Rigging Replacement.

Just about every muscle in my body is aching and I didn't do a fraction of what the Rigger did !!

A quick intro to the Rigger - Dam Rigging, Inc.

Christian ( Chris ) Dam, from Denmark, gave a quote for the job estimating 16-18 hours of work @ $150ph.

We set the work date for March 9th. 2026 starting around 09:30, he arrived on time. Just a quick note here: "HE ARRIVED ON TIME". This is South Florida - that's unusual in two ways - #1 He turned up, @2 He turned up on time!  Good start.

By the time Chris had arrived, I had laid out all of the new standing rigging cables and connectors etc. All by the new Forestay as Chris had initially intended to do the Forestay on Day 2.

After a quick review of the work, Chris got his gear together including his climbing gear  -  that's a 4:1 purchase block and tackle that he used to climb the mast almost unassisted. Neat bit of kit. It had a jamb cleat on the lower block so he could hoist himself up the mast unaided. To climb down - more like just lower himself down - he just held the line out of the jamb cleat and eased it out as he quickly, but controlled, descended. 

Nice setup.

He soon had the lower shrouds on the dock and measured the old and new shrouds. After making up the new Shrouds to length, Chris was back up the mast and installing them.

That's how the day went: Secure the mast in order to remove one or more shrouds, measure up, make up and then install. Despite it being the 2nd week of March, it was hot enough to have us both sweating. 

Then it was time to work on the Forestay with the Furler. This is the longest stay and the most challenging but it was obvious that Chris had done this many times. It really went very smoothly. I was surprised that we got all of the Shrouds and the Forestay completed and was able to wrap up for the day by 5pm. I helped as much as I could but Chris did most of the work.

Tuesday, start was at 10am, time to work on the back stay. 1st snag. Our backstay has the Delta Plate ( the triangular plate where the split backstay bridle joins the main backstay that connects to the mast head) is about 6" above the Bimini and the bridle wires pass through a gap in our two aft solar panels. Well, the new Backstay seems to be for an adjustable backstay, the Delta Plate is about 8' higher and so the bridle cables are much further apart. The old backstay bridle was 6" wide at the Bimini, the new is 33" !!! In order to install the backstay I needed to remove the two aft solar panels. While I did that, Chris worked on preparing the rigging for tuning. Once the solar panels were out of the way, I made a hole in the Bimini canvas where the new backstay bridles would pass and we completed the install. Chris had his Loose Gauges out and diligently went around the boat adjusting the rigging.  We were done.

Everything was wrapped up by 4pm, so a total of 14 hours. Chris originally quoted 14 - 18 hours but I guess my help cut some of that.

Total cost of the work, new spreader boots and travel time came to $2,400.40. The stress of someone that knows what they are doing and able to work around the issues that most likely happen on every boat, all made sense and I slept really well that night.

Catalina Direct for the Rigging supplies: $3,824.95  - Catalinadirect.com

Dam Rigging Inc. for the installation: $2,400.40      - damrigging.com

Total cost $6,225.35 Plus sandwich lunches for two for two days.

Value: ENORMOUS ! Pease of mind - invaluable.

To continue, I'm going to reorganize the Solar Panel install. probably going to replace the 3 x 200Watt panels with 2 x 300+ panels, perhaps a total of 800 wats. I have to measure the area available over the Bimini, it's going to be just two panels, one in front of the Backstay bridle and one astern of the bridle.

I'll have to do a significant rework of the Bimini canvas, it's due! Move that job up the priority list.

We could take the boat out right now, bit of a make shift condition, but should be done in a couple of weeks. But hopefully we'll see you on the water.

Paul 

Replacing the Standing Rigging. P iii

 

Replacing the Standing Rigging. ( Part 3 )

( Here's the link to Part 1 )

Having fixed the issue with the Mast Mate, and had it tested by a sailing buddy that has a Catalina 36 - same spars as Eximius, I removed the mainsail slugs from the mast track and hoisted the Mast Mate. Then the weather decided to offer a challenge, it got cold - in the 40's and windy - in the 20+ knots in February 2026. I'm not going to commit to climbing the mast 16 times in those conditions. So leaving the Mast Mate setup on the mast, I took a those couple of weeks off waiting on a weather window. 

Good weather returned mid February - and with it I came down with the flu ! Argggg! That took me out of the picture for another two weeks. Now we were within our next sailing club event, it's a big one - the Change of Command Circle Raft Up February 28th 2026. So I pulled the Mast Mate back down and put the mainsail back up. We participated in the Circle Raft up - rotten weather, so no actual circle rafting but we still had a good time with sailing friends on Lake Boca.

Now Peggy was getting a bit antsy about preparing the boat for the Insurance Survey that needed to be completed before renewing our Marine Insurance early May, this Year!  So I bit the bullet and hired a company to do the standing rigging change out. It's going to cost around $3000 for the work. I do have all of the rigging, so this should speed things up.

So, yesterday, Thursday March 5th, I went down to the boat and removed the Genoa from the Furler and withdrew the Furling line from the Furler drum. I also removed the shoddy horizontal support brace that was connected to the lower end of the Back Stay above the Bimini that connects to the Radar Pole on the Port side of the Cockpit. Not sure how I'm going to replace that brace but it will not be Aluminum nor will it connect to the Standing riggings.   

Today I'm taking all of my standing rigging supplies from Catalina Direct. I'm not certain of the ETA of the Riggers on Monday but I'll be down there by 07:30 unless I hear from them to be there earlier.

While down at the boat I checked each piece of the new rigging just one more time. The only thing that is slightly different from the OEM rigging, is that the Original Back Stay has a single turnbuckle just above the split ( which is just above the Bimini ) and the new rigging has no turnbuckle above the split but has a turnbuckle on each leg of the split. So when the backstay is put together, the length of the Stay is fixed and each leg of the bridle are adjustable. Not that we'll ever need to adjust them.

I also checked that the Dock 11Ov Power supply was working - we never use it as we have our onboard supply that easily meets our requirements on the boat.

On Monday, I will take Gasoline to run our Honda eu2000i generator just in case shore power goes out.

I think we're ready. No pressure - right!

Servicing our Exhaust Muffler

Servicing the Exhaust Muffler on our Catalina 34

In July 2016, our Aqualift Muffler had an issue and I serviced it (Here's the link), at that time, I repaired cracks that had formed between the Muffler body and the Inlet & Outlet tubes using a 2 part Marine Epoxy.

Well, I thought those cracks had reappeared, so I pulled the Muffler out to bring it home and inspect then repair.

I released the hose clamps from both the Hump tube and the Exhaust pipe and then gave the hump & the hose a sharp twist to break their hold on the tubes.

There's barely room to pull the hoses off of the muffler - I think that is due to the fact that when I last did this repair, I added a 1" piece of ply beneath the Muffler as the new Exhaust Riser reached further to Port, the 1" made all the difference.

With the hoses off, next I released the 4 screws that held that Muffler to the new piece of ply.

Struggling to get the Muffler out from the area beneath the aft berth, I was able to move the muffler out of the way of the screws that held the new piece of ply to the original and then slide that new piece out of the way. Then I was able to slide the Muffler aft and towards the center. I did touch the PSS ( shaft seal ) so some water came it, not much.

This shows the original ply base for the Muffler. the dark patch is probably from the Diesel leak we had last year. I'll clean up all that area before putting the serviced muffler back in place.

I added that ply back in 2016 and will replace it with a 3/8" ply base. That should mean that it will be easy to replace the muffler.

The new piece of ply will be fully sealed with epoxy before that gets installed over the top of the original ply.

With the Muffler out, I brought it home to service it.

Servicing the Muffler

Step 1: Wash it down with soap and water. I'm pretty sure the leak was from the Inlet side of the muffler but not where expected. Now I'm pretty sure it's from the Malformed Inlet Tube, it looks like it has a fold along the length of the tube, one that cannot be closed by just using hose clamps on the hose.

Step 2: I dried of the outside of the muffler and filled it with water, all the way to the brim of the inlet and outlet tubes. NO WATER LEAKED!

Step 3: Using a Dremel, I cleaned up the fold in the tube so that I could fill that fold and thus ensure that the hose clamp can fully close the Hump Hose around that tube. Then I sanded down the entire surface with 60 Grit paper, and use the Dremel to remove any lumps in the surface of the tubes. I did the same for the area around the drain tap.

Step 4: After the sanding, I washed the entire surface with Acetone, got out some Marine 2 part epoxy and filled all of the dings that needed it. Then let the Epoxy cure overnight.

Step 5: Second wash down with Acetone and time to paint the entire surface of the Muffler. ( A new one cost around $700 ). I am applying 2 or 3 coats of the Petite EZ-Poxy Modern Polyurethane Topside Paint, Med White, same as what I used on the Propane Cylinder holders last year.

This is after the crack repairs, sanding and the first coat of paint.

Looking good. Should be really easy to keep it clean. 

Another coat this evening after a light sanding with 600 grit paper.

Using this paint is really a pleasure.

Not sure I'll need a 3rd coat.

Hoping to go to the boat in the morning to do the clean up of the under sink area and re-install the Muffler.

I decided on flipping the Muffler upside down and applying a coat of the epoxy paint to the underside and adding a 3rd coat around the outside of the base, just to complete the job.

I'm really not sure why the lower edge is 'shaped' as can be seen here on the far right surface of the edge.

The Muffler was originally installed onto a piece of ply just about the same size as the outside edge of the muffler, it's FLAT, so why that weird cut on the underside of that edge.

The Drain plug is missing from this image as I removed it before starting the refinish process.

The drain plug is showing it's age, but is still functional. So I spent a few minutes cleaning it up with a handheld wire brush and a piece of 600 grit paper. Scrapped off some of the heavy build up and removed as much of the old Teflon tape as quickly possible.

It looks like a tapered thread but I'll still add several wraps of tape.

Finally washed it down with some Acetone and put it back in place in the Muffler.

Turned out pretty good. 

I really wish that the area beneath the head sink was as nice as the refinished Muffler. But I'm not going to spend much time cleaning it up. 

It will have to just enjoy the soap and water wash down and a bit of scrubbing before I reinstall the Muffler.

Current Schedule is to install it on Friday. Hopefully is not still freezing down here. I know it's SoFla but... Dang! it's been as low as 29ºF this week.  That's too cold to go up the mast to work on the standing rigging, but not too cold to work in the cabin.

Ok, install complete ( bar the shouting ) just need to screw the muffler to the base but my right angled cordless screwdriver battery was flat and spare was at home grrrrr.

It took a bit of maneuvering, but I got it done.

We ran the engine and a small leak showed that the hoses, both input and output were not quite tight enough. It only took a few minutes to fix that. But then we found ( ok, Peggy found ) water dripping from the Anti Siphon valve in the hose that leads from the heat exchanger to the exhaust riser nipple.

I removed the valve cover and the birds beak valve, all looked good and clean, it's not that old. So put it back and tightened the cap and the two hose fittings. Ran the engine again, this time for about 10 minutes while my leak sleuth checked everything again and it all looks good.  Plenty of water gushing from the exhaust. 

Cross this one off the list once I screw down the muffler, that should only take a few minutes than I can put the Aft Berth back together. Oh, refit the door too.

See you on the water --- soon!

Paul

Replacing the Raw Water Strainer

Improving our Raw Water Strainer

The current Raw Water Strainer setup

Our Raw Water Strainer is located in the cabinet below the Head Sink ( Arrowed in this pic ) 

To clear the raw water thru hull, we have to shut the valve, remove the two hose clamps that secure the short piece of hose to the Thru Hull, push a rod or sewage snake into the pipe where the hose was connected, grasp around the top of that pipe, open the Thru Hull to minimize the water ingress. Now I can push the rod or snake all the way down and out of the Thru Hull, clearing out anything blocking the inlet. Most often it's a piece of flotsam that got sucked up into the pipe.

Once cleared, next it's pull the snake out and close the Thru Hull valve, reconnect the pipe and secure with the two hose clamps. 

I would normally shine a flashlight through the strainer glass ( plastic ) to ensure the strainer is clear, if not, I would remove the glass and clean out the strainer.

Restart the engine and check for water discharge with the exhaust.

The New Raw Water Strainer

SEAFLO Raw Cooling Water Intake Basket Strainer is available on Amazon. Cost is $29. This is the one that has an Inlet and Outlet that fits 1/2", 5/8" & 3/4" Hose.

The benefit of this style of fitting is that the cop is easily removed and the Strainer is secured to the bulkhead rather than being held in place by the position of the hoses as in the existing strainer.

The idea is to mount the new strainer so that the open strainer has the natural water level just below the top.

That way, when the lid is removed, the water in the strainer does not overflow the strainer body.

Additionally, the body will be mounted so that it the intake hose connection is directly above the Thru Hull. Now to clear the pipe and Thru Hull, it should be just a case of open the lid and pull the strainer basked up and out, then run the snake down the inlet pipe and Thru Hull to clear the pipe. While at it the Strainer could be cleaned. Then just close the lid. All done.

Although there would be no need to shut off the Thru Hull valve, we make it a normal process to close all Thru Hulls whenever we get to the dock. The valves are frequently operated to ensure they stay useable.

The new Strainer does require the output hose to be connected differently from the existing strainer. So we have purchased 9' of Silicone Hose which is more flexible than the existing hose. It may require an Elbow joint to avoid the hose blocking access to the Depth, Speed and Water temperature transducer which we remove every time we get back to the dock.

 

Here's the schematic. As always, I'll use embossed hose clamps rather than the perforated type and there will be two clamps on each hose connection as this is sea water - ie. there's lots of it to flow in if a hose comes off of it's connection, but as mentioned, we close all of the thru hulls every time we get to the dock.

Estimated time for this project:

• Remove old Hose to the Thru Hull  5mins
• Remove old Hose to the Raw Water pump 20mins
• Put a clear hose on the Thru Hull and open the valve to find the Water Level and Mark on the bulkhead. 10mins
• Mount the new Strainer - Two screws into the bulkhead. 15mins
• Measure & Cut the hose from the thru hull to the strainer ( 5/8" hose connection ) 5mins
• Connect hose to the Raw Water Pump and thread it around the engine into the Strainer area under the sink and connect to the Elbow. 30mins
• Connect from the Elbow to the outlet of the strainer. 10mins
• Open the through hull - check for leaks.

That's about one and a half hours.  

Project Materials

• SeafFlo Strainer  $20
• 5/8" Hose $74
• 12 x Hose Clamps $12

That totals to about $105.

That's my job this morning, it's too windy to work on the replacement of the standing rigging today.

I'll update this post with pics of the completed project.

Ok, Job done! Here's the pics

This was after lowering the strainer so that the Sea Water level was just below the rim.

The Orange float ball is our Engine Control Panel Key. We keep it there so that we remember to open the Thru Hull sea cock ( valve ) before trying to start the engine.

It does seem that the inlet hose is bent, it is, I'll trim the hose by another 1/8" to remove that bend.

If you look closely, you'll see several red lines on the bulkhead, they were my trial marks trying to figure out the actual waterline in the boat. It took me 4 attempts to get it right.

Turns out I did not need the Elbow, the bend in the outlet hose is pretty relaxed.

This also saved 4 Hose Clamps - that reduces the number of "Gotcha's" when reaching in and getting snagged on those clamps.

I'm thinking of adding a P-clamp to hold the outlet hose against the bulkhead, that will make it even easier to reach the Depth/Speed/Temperature Transducer.

The bend in the inlet hose is clearly visible here. I can probably remove it by just sliding the hose up slightly on the Strainer hose connections.

Looking a whole lot neater.

The hose from the Strainer reaches behind the engine and is secured with a tie wrap.

Finally, the input to the Raw Water Pump.

Yes, I know, the pump is due a service. 

I did check the Impeller a couple of weeks ago, it is in great shape. But the Impeller cover does need a clean up and polish on the inside surface. I have a spare pump in my workshop ( that's the fancy name I give to my Garage where I do just about everything for the house and boat. )

Ok, as I said. Job done.

I ran the engine several times before settling on the height of the Strainer. I ran for about 15 minutes, good water discharge from the exhaust beneath the Transom. The water level in the Strainer is just at the lip when the cover is removed. There's a bubble visible beneath the strainer cover so it's easy to see if water is flowing.

So far I'm very pleased with this project.

Hope to get to the bigger jobs in the next day or two. 

Stay tuned.

Paul

Replacing Standing Rigging - Prep the boat

Preparing the boat for replacing the Standing Rigging. ( Pt ii )

( Link to Part i of this post )

Let's clarify the names of the Standing rigging parts.

First the Wires:

• Shrouds: Wires running from the mast to the sides of the boat, preventing lateral (side-to-side) movement.
• Stays: Wires supporting the mast in the fore-and-aft direction.
• Cap Shroud: Runs from the masthead to the chainplates for upper mast support, sometimes via the Spreaders.
• Lower Shrouds: Attached to the lower section of the mast to provide base support.

On our Catalina 34 Tall Rig, the lowers reach up to just below the Single pair of Spreaders and the Cap Shroud is held away from the mast by passing in a groove of the spreaders.

The method that we're going to use for climbing our mast involves a Mast Mate, ours is 50' long so it easily reaches our Mast Head with a few steps laying on the deck.

The Mast Mate has slugs that fit inside the sail track groove in the aft edge of the mast. It's pulled up to the mast head using the Main Halyard and then tensioned at the bottom to keep it taught. 

We needed a safety line running from the top of the mast down to the deck so that line was also secured to the main halyard.

To install the Mast Mate we first removed the sail slugs from the mast groove and moved the sail about a foot further aft from the mast to get it out of the way.

Next we had to ease the Lazy Jacks to prevent the Mast Mate catching them as it was pulled up the mast.

In the event of me being stuck up the mast ( incapacitated ) then Peggy would be able to lower me by easing the Main halyard on the winch in the cockpit.

With the Mast Mate and Safety lines rigged, next was to measure the tensions in the shrouds and stays. I used my Spinlock Gauge to do that and recorded the numbers in the RigSense app on my tablet.

The first shroud to be replaced is the Stbd Cap Shroud. In preparation for that, we used the Spinnaker Halyard to act as a temporary shroud. One end of the Halyard was attached to the Stbd Fwd Shroud turnbuckle, it then went up to the block at the front of the Mast and then back down to the Stbd Aft Shroud turnbuckle. Then to tension the line, we took a few turns of a spare line about 5' up from the deck and applied tension between the two ends of the line which gave us control of the tension of the temporary stay.

In this image, The Black line is the Spinnaker line secured at the lower ends at the Turnbuckles and the Red line is the tensioning line.

All of this prep took a few hours as we had to figure out which lines to use and how to tension the temporary stay.

We're all set for replacing the Stbd Cap Shroud - once the wind dies down!

The plan then is to ease the Stbd Cap Shroud Turnbuckle, then climb the mast, detach the top end of the Cap Shroud from the Tangs on the side of the mast just below the mast head, lower the shroud on a messenger line ( it would probably do damage if we just dropped it from the top of the mast. )  

With the shroud on the dock, we'll measure the new shroud and cut it to the correct length, make up the Hi-Mod connection for the turnbuckle end, then climb the mast and hoist the top of the shroud to the mast head and replace the fitting in the two tangs, insert and secure the cotter pin into the pair of tangs on the mast.

On the way down, stopping to remove the two forward shrouds, hoping to save climbing the mast unnecessarily. 

After replacing those three shrouds, we'll switch the temporary shroud to the port side and replace those 3 shrouds too.

At least, that's the plan. We'll see how it goes. It's definitely going to be hard work and we'll change it to do what we can when we can.

Wind is expected to be in the 20's most of this week. So hold tight till Wednesday/Thursday.

See you on the water...

(Here's the link to Part ii )

Paul

Back to the dock from the Haul out 2026

Getting Eximius back to the dock from Playboy Marine.

Despite the drizzling rain, and delay due to a train stopped on the tracks at Griffin Road, we arrived at Playboy Marine around 08:45 for a 09:30 splash time.

The Boat lift team were keeping the machine's engine cool as it was suffering an overheating issue. They had splashed a very heavy Diesel Fuel barge first thing that morning and that only made the overheating a bigger issue. They were confident that we would splash but perhaps not on time.

They raised Eximius off of the blocks so that the Patagonia team could complete the Anti-Foul paint on the underside of the keel and then left the boat hanging in the straps for about a half hour allowing the paint to dry before splashing.

Well, that all went well, we finally splashed around 10am. While hanging in the slings, I boarded the boat and verified no leaks, so they dropped the aft most sling and gave the instruction for us to reverse out of the slip. Easy peasy.

Once out of the slip, we turned East and headed down the Dania Cut then North towards 17th Street Causeway bridge, we were headed for the Pump-out facility on 14th Street.  We made a perfect 180º turn in the canal to go alongside the pump out jetty Port Side too.  Nobody to watch, that's how it is.

We connected up the pump out hose and activated the pump. Nuttin! We ran the pump twice but the tank level indicator stuck at 1/2 full. So we're figuring that there was either a blockage or a leak in the hose connection. We decided that we would go out 3miles next week for a dump run.

Perfect departure from the Jetty, we sprang the bow out and easily cleared the dock. At the East end of the canal, we turned North and joined the Intracoastal waterway ( ICW ) then onwards to Los Olas Blvd Bridge.

We were expecting the bridge to be under maintenance and that only 1 span would open as per the NM notice a week ago.  The bridge was fully open.

With the pedal down, we made it to Sunrise Blvd Bridge, Oakland Park Blvd Bridge and Commercial Blvd Bridge. 

Once past Commercial, we heard a Security notice on #09 that there was a Barge blocking the canal where we dock.  By the time we got to the canal, the barge had left and we docked without incident.

We were Pooped! This has been a long week, commuting daily to Playboy and working pretty long days. So we quickly secured the boat and headed home.

Before we left Playboy, we did notice how much of the Blue dust was laying on the boat, but by the time we got back to the dock, most of that surface layer of dust and airport grime had washed off ( the air port is about a 1/4 mile from Playboy ).

Nothing broke on the trip back to the dock - this is a good day.

Total cost for the stay at playboy and the work on the hull was under $4,000, plus a few incidentals - hull polish, cleaning cloths etc.  That leaves some money that we budgeted for the Haul out left for a few other projects - any excuse!

See you on the water.