Arrived Dale Hollow Lake

Nice quiet night last night in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. Got up this morning and had cereal for breakfast. Then on the road by 7:30am. Gas along my route was costing anywhere from $3.09 to $3.59. Highest I paid today was $3.45. That was at a Loves. Listed at 3.55, however with my Loves app, the gasoline is discounted .10. Mike had already arrived at Dale Hollow last night, and stayed in his boat in the parking lot, then launched this morning. Bill got here early this afternoon, and then I arrived at 3:30p. Bill and Mike were working on a trailer brake on Bill’s trailer. I’m not the only one that has brake issues! Bill had lost a brake pad I believe, and then the slider pin was stripped out and he couldn’t remove it. Fortunately, I carry a couple of spare calipers, so I gave him one. While they finished putting his brakes back together, I prepped C-Traveler for launch.
The drive through Kentucky is always scenic. I turned off the interstate at Elizabethtown, and took hwy 61 most the way from there. Hwy 61 is a country road. And as all Kentucky country roads, quite narrow. Narrow as in I put the outer edge of my right trailer tire on the inner edge of the white line, and the outer edge of the left tire on the inner edge of the yellow line. Much of the way, I tend to ride over the yellow line. Then when meeting oncoming traffic, I hug the right side listening to the rumble strip! And don’t dare move over any farther, as there is usually a lip on the asphalt, or a ditch! Always interesting to meet an oncoming truck. I think I actually suck my gut in a little to help. LOL!
I ran my kicker for a good 15 minutes today on the water, at about 85-90% throttle. All worked well. Still hard to believe that something as minor as a loose fitting oil cap would cause the fuel pump to not work. (The fuel pump works off the pressure in the crankcase.) So hopefully no more issues with the kicker now! This evening we are all anchored in a small cove off the main lake. Bill and I are bow anchored, and then tied stern to stern with only about 10 feet between us. Mike came up then and rafted on Bill.
New problem. Over winter I upgraded to a new chart plotter. My main VHF radio requires a signal from the chart plotter for its position for the DSI Emergency call button to work. (It sends a position report with the emergency signal.) The position is communicating ok. I also need the chart plotter to send a signal to my Yamaha digital gauges for the MPH and MPG readouts to work. This is not working. Both the VHF radio and the Yamaha gauges use the older NMEA 183 system of several tiny wires for communicating with the chart plotter. Everything worked fine with my old chart plotter, so I’ve likely hooked up the wires from the gauges incorrectly. This evening I cut the wires and spliced them with a wire tie reversing the gauge wires. I’ll find out tomorrow if that worked. Always something….Read more