A few pics from Key Largo!

[swill777]

We stayed at the Key Largo Kampground at MM 101.5 - Only $37 bux a night to camp, and an extra $10 if you want a boat slip. I found that my ring seal carrier on my starboard driveshaft was seized up to the shaft... I was able to loosen it and get it behaving like the one on my port shaft, that kinda floats... I also tightened up the boot on the SB side shaft to put more pressure on the carbon seal and ring carrier... funny, absolutely zero cavitation in the SB pump now.. all along I thought it was the broken vein in my pump, the shoe, or pump plate.. when it was this tiny breach in the carbon seal. Funny how that would make such a big difference.. Also funny how my hull stays dead dry now. Anyways the boat ran freaking great. Its a little hard to start sometimes after floating for a while with the engines off, but, after fiddling with it a bit she gets running. I rebuilt and cleaned the carbs as far as the fuel filter goes, but didn't change out the needle and seat. For now, I can't complain, she hauls ass and both engines purr. I rinsed it out with salt-away real good after being in brackish water to ocean to brackish for 2 days. Check out a few pics:

 

[boeing747arowair]

Bro looking good man i spend alot of my summetime down at tavernier right by where you were at. How did you like that campground.?

 

[rookie101]

Words can't describe just how jealous I am right now........:ack: That place looks awesome, thanks for the pictures.


Aaron:cheers:

 

[swill777]

The campground was great and an awesome Atlantic/Gulf access location. Of course you get the couple of camp weirdos like anywhere, but that just makes it even more fun! It was a great time down there, next time were gonna hit Islamadora. Another interesting thing is I saw just a few Seadoo boats down there... We got more looks than some of the fancy fishing boats, only because ours was unique and really stood out. It was funny seeing people point and crap... like what is that? Some old guy at the marina asked "what is that thing?"? I just laughed and told him it was a seadoo jet-drive boat.. You should have seen his face.. He said, "Wow, I bet is goes real fast". Ha ha

 

[kustomkarl]

That's a great place to go have fun...I love the Keys.

Karl

 

[boeing747arowair]

anybody ever been out to Alligator Lighthouse or any of the reefs or the sandbar?

 

[swill777]

We made it out to pickles reef one day, and slightly out past the reef... The ocean was super calm that day.

 

[boeing747arowair]

This is Alligator. If any1 has a chance to get out here and take the kids snorkeling... It is amazing! Its about 10 miles off of islamorada

And when you have water like this, life cant get any better! Beautiful Day out by Alligator Reef again

 

[swill777]

Looks cool man, we are planning on heading down to Islamorada next.. we'll definitely get out there, weather/conditions permitting.

 

[kustomkarl]

I have been on just about every dive site and reef in the keys. I'm a NAUI Dive Master. The clear water and tropical fish are truly amazing.

Karl

 

[Craigmri]

Swill,

I wish to nominate you for the 2009 Winter "Bast*** Of The Year" award, BOTY for short ;-)

This coming from a guy that lives in Florida too! I am certain there are canadians all over this site ready to blast you with ice-packed snowballs!

I tell you I'm drewling over your Cuda 250....I have my Cuda 350 on order and as soon as its off backorder I'm installin' it!

Craig

 

[Seadoopilot]

Its a little hard to start sometimes after floating for a while with the engines off, but, after fiddling with it a bit she gets running.

I will bet it is the float and seats are poor and the rocking allows just enough fuel to get past the seats to partially flood it . what do you think ?

 

[swill777]

Craigmri -- yeah man, the Cuda 250 is freaking great. $200 for a sweet GPS and depthfinder combo, pretty awesome. The screen is "OK", but if it was just a little bigger, it would be even better. But than again, I think this one fits perfect and a bigger one may have been more of a problem to mount. It took some experimentation with the transducer, which is mounted on the transom, as well. I had to mount it to a temporary block of wood, so I could move it until it worked the best. I also had to mount the bottom of it a little lower than the lowest point in the hull for it to work right. In addition, I had to angle it about 12-16 degrees from front to back (so the front is higher than the back) in order to get a bottom reading at cruising speed. I can now get a nice bottom plot even at 40mph. It is a great unit overall and even has water temp built in too.

Seadoopilot -- yeah man, I agree with you. Last time I just did a quick carb cleaning.. next time it's going to be a full rebuild on both. For now, she starts pretty easy most of the time, and its nothing more than a slight inconvenience. I'm probably going to leave it as is for this year and see what happens.

 

[Craigmri]

Transducer

Swill,

If you can clarify for me, your transducer is inside the hull epoxied to the bilge? If so did you use special epoxy or just the two-part clear stuff you buy at the home improvement store?

Craig

Craigmri -- yeah man, the Cuda 250 is freaking great. $200 for a sweet GPS and depthfinder combo, pretty awesome. The screen is "OK", but if it was just a little bigger, it would be even better. But than again, I think this one fits perfect and a bigger one may have been more of a problem to mount. It took some experimentation with the transducer, which is mounted on the transom, as well. I had to mount it to a temporary block of wood, so I could move it until it worked the best. I also had to mount the bottom of it a little lower than the lowest point in the hull for it to work right. In addition, I had to angle it about 12-16 degrees from front to back (so the front is higher than the back) in order to get a bottom reading at cruising speed. I can now get a nice bottom plot even at 40mph. It is a great unit overall and even has water temp built in too.

Seadoopilot -- yeah man, I agree with you. Last time I just did a quick carb cleaning.. next time it's going to be a full rebuild on both. For now, she starts pretty easy most of the time, and its nothing more than a slight inconvenience. I'm probably going to leave it as is for this year and see what happens.

 

[swill777]

Nah man, outside on the transom, all the way down where the V hull part meets the back, slightly to the left. I wanted the water temp feature so I had to actually get the transducer in the water. If I have a sec when I get home I'll snap a pic of the back of my boat. I used one of those stainless wire grommet things above the waterline for the transducer wire. If you don't care about water temp, then you can search for some old posts on this forum where people show pics where to mount the transducer in the hull, with epoxy, etc...

 

[Craigmri]

Swill

Swill,

I will be mounting mine in the bilge. I dont fish so I have no need for the water temp feature. Sorry to hijack this thread. Back to the Keys...

Craig

Nah man, outside on the transom, all the way down where the V hull part meets the back, slightly to the left. I wanted the water temp feature so I had to actually get the transducer in the water. If I have a sec when I get home I'll snap a pic of the back of my boat. I used one of those stainless wire grommet things above the waterline for the transducer wire. If you don't care about water temp, then you can search for some old posts on this forum where people show pics where to mount the transducer in the hull, with epoxy, etc...