For bowhuntr and RO519...
The KK Manatee has s single helm in the pilot house. Main salon and living areas are uncluttered with any helm station apparatus.
Single Volvo Penta TMD30A 90 hp...wheel is a 23 inch 12 inch pitch which I run at around 2100 to 2300 rpm. Temp stays 165 to 170. Occasionally open to WOT at 3200 rpm and close to 10 mph
Helm has large stainless destroyer wheel with hydraulic steering. Have combo unit - Autopilot, rudder indicator,GPS, Heading, COG ( course over ground) . Raymarine.
Have MFD ( multifunction display) chartplotter. Displays my Navionics electronic charts, GPS position readout, speed over ground, course over ground , depth readout, AIS information, triple screen sonar/fishfinder, Radar as well as various other data readouts. Raymarine.
Dedicated depthfinder with depth offsets, shallow water alarm, deep water alarm. Raymarime.
Bowthruster. Vetus.
Raymarine VHF with AIS transmit and receive, triple watch and MMSI capable.
Small back up magnetic compass.
Handheld VHF
ANDROID phone running Navionics, AquaMaps and Active Captain
Tablet with Navionics. AQUAMAPS and Google Earth open and running.
Paper charts if appropriate area
Notepads and checklists

Its a pretty modest set up but has served us well. I like the Navionics interface with the touchscreen on the MFD...bright display and clear and responsive. Have only really needed radar a handful of times but it is sharp, clear and you can clearly pick out ATONS and other vessels and shoreline features...but has a learning curve. Good as just in case tool.
Two pair of binocs...really helpful picking out marks at a distance and reading ATON numbers.
Helm has remote control pad for boat's stereo system with 6 zones and subwoofer....but it is probably the least used item on the whole boat. We have found we just prefer the quiet. But we CAN crank the tunes if the mood strikes.
Electronic panel with redundant switching down below in main salon.
Twin boat air horns with switch.
Hour meter. Only significant component I have had to replace on the Loop. Previous hour meter froze at 4300 hours....replaced two ports and about 12 running hours later
Gauges....Rpm, water temp, oil pressure and voltmeter....all original standard issue volvopenta instrumentation.
Five front windows are tinted glass. Center front opening for ventilation
Two Captains chairs and teak table. 3 sided padded settee bench seats with storage under
Full zip canvas and eisenglass pilot house enclosure to completely seal up weather tight or open as much as desired
Seven overhead LED pilot house courtesy lights
Flare and distress container
One of four onboard fire extinguishers

Think that about covers it.....
Welcome any specific questions
Pics to follow

This thread.

I do enjoy fishing....a lot ! But having said that...I have only fished a few times on this trip....but they were successful !!!

First off...gotta deal with having a fishing license for just about every state as you pass through...a couple exceptions...my TX license was good through Louisiana....and that can be a hassle and expensive.

Secondly, there just really isn't THAT much time available to spend fishing. Boat maintenance and cleaning, cooking, docking, anchoring, chartwork, communication with family, then add in sightseeing exploring and eating and drinking out....its a pretty busy day usually.

Fished twice in Louisiana bayous...one keeper size reddish was released. Fished about 6 times here in Canada and caught several chunky smallmouth. Great fighters in this cold water ! Thought I would get to catch some more pike ( my fav fish up here) but not yet....only have one or two more Canadian days remaining.

Not sure how many more fishing opportunities I will have coming down from here.....but a bottom line while at anchor in the rivers sounds time effective ! Catfish dinner !

Let me see about pics of smallmouth...

Did not have an underwater camera....the pics from the surface don't do them justice. Big big animals !

This is an incredible thread. Thank you so much for starting it!

Now THAT is living

Beautiful setup in the pilot house - everything you need in a very orderly layout. What a nice place to spend time underway. Thanks for the pics!

Heard about this thread from a fellow Ag at lunch this week, and it has not disappointed!! I'm looking forward to following the remainder of your voyage. I had never heard of the Great Loop, but as others have stated I am now very interested in it!

BearJew13 said:

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Now THAT is living

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Damn appropriate. One of my favorite lines from a movie is, "Get busy living, or get busy dying." Great to see someone busy living! Hope to be there someday.

OP, this is so so cool.

A lot of respect for what you and your wife are doing. What great memories!

Growing up in west Texas Balmorhea Lake was the only body of water nearby so boating never was a thing with me but this is fascinating.

I think this kind of thing and self contained RVing is pretty intriguing. Both allow for starting and stopping wherever and still allowing for a normalish life in between during retirement. I have a good friend that just took a job in Albuquerque to be able to live a pretty similar life. He relocated for a new job to corporate, but has the ability to work remote for a week or two due to his team under him being all over the country.

He bought an off road, self contained class B van. I helped him plan his own great western tour of the USA. He'll head out for a week or 2 at a time making stops in as many state parks, national parks / monuments, and BLM lands as possible along the route of desired travel (other tourist stops and cities). He basically stays for free or almost free at all and his generator / solar power the vehicle. Just needs to empty his black tank and top off water along the way and grab groceries where convenient. After a couple of weeks, pay for a month of storage somewhere and fly back to Albuquerque on Southwest or another budget airline. Show his face at work for a week or two and flay back out and pick up where he left off.

Only reason he moved to Albuquerque from Houston was it cuts 12 hours of driving to get anywhere worth going. I'll miss seeing him all the time, but we'll stop in Albuquerque a handful of times a year on our adventures and I can fly out and meet him anywhere.

The loop and other trips seem quite similar. You can drive / sail a boat, find a storage spot / marina and fly back to balance a vagabond / normal life. Pretty cool.

Pretty ordinary day on an extraordinary trip.

Not calm at morning like most days. West to northwest winds at 10. Forecast to become west at 15 around noon.

Coffee and predeparture procedures. Talked with a couple other Loopers undecided about whether to travel today and if so where. 4 of them seem to be planning g on an anchorage for tonight. Plenty of options for quiet bays to choose from so wished them well.

My plan is for a marina in Thessalon. Will probably be my last Canadian night. From Thessalon to Detour Village, Michigan. Have to call and check in with Customs and Border Patrol. Going to use the ROAM app.....which "SHOULD" mean a phone call and a short video interview and check our documents. We shall see.

Interesting that entering Canada did not cast a thing, had no interview or boarding. Only a phone call. But in order to reenter the US I had to pre-purchase a Border Crossing Decal and Permit - $32.62. Have to pay to come back into USA.

True to forecast, winds picked up. Waves increased to 3 and occasionally 4 footers but all on the nose. .awesome for a lumpy and unsteady ride but we maintained 6.5 knots/7 mph.

Arrived outside marina about noon....directed to slip...large berths...prob lots of commercials at times of year...but very few pleasure boats. Crosswind docking...tied up ok...Oooops....power pedestal non functional.

Roll up power cable , untie lines and move slip to one with functional power....and surprisingly one of only two 50 amp plugs in the whole marina.

$1.85 per foot. Nice bath house. Boaters lounge with couches and tables. Full kitchen if we want to use it . 8 loaner bikes to go into town a mile away. But like nearly all marinas the wifi sucks. Almost zero marinas in 4000 plus miles has a wifi signal that can be used onboard. In the office, sure...but on the boat it either says connected without internet or won't connect for more than 3 minutes.

We have a dedicated hotspot and use it. Simpler than messing with marina wifi.

Post trip chores. Check fluids again. Cleaned the bilge this afternoon. Tighten motor mount bolts....vibrate loose a bit after several hours. Get ice. Wash windows. Get out documents for tomorrow.

Pretty plain marina so no photos. Just another day....except probably our last one in Canada.

Rainstorm and thunder now. Hope tomorrow's forecast of light winds and sun holds up.

COOL BREEZE

Follow up/ addition...

All four of the Looper boats I talked with this morning and mentioned above....ended up here in Thessalon this afternoon....one of them laughed and waved...."We decided to follow you !"

And my hunch about commercial boats using this marina seems correct. There are tons of little self built cottages all over on these tiny rocky islands. Today two different truck loads of materials...dimensional lumber, windows, solar panels, generators and power tools, bags of cement mix...wete brought to the docks and unloaded by hand....about an hour later two different large heavy duty aluminum boats pulled up.

Boat style is mostly open with a forward door/ramp...think landing craft style...loaded up all the materials and took off. I asked and they said each weekend is another load and work on house then come back late Sunday and return home. Really cool island locations but logistics would be tough ! And FROZEN in winter !

The top 10 boats that completed The Loop.....not sure which year this reflects but it seems pretty consistent with my experience seeing boats out on the Loop

Dang, 5 days and 11600 views already…well done tailg8tr

No.
I try to head off and keep on top of issues.
Some minor issues will ALWAYS happen on boats.
Besides scheduled and planned/routine maintenance....
Twin belts on alternator wore down and started squealing.....replaced them both....I carry 6 belts onboard for the volvo main......my westerbeke diesel genset has a single belt....I carry 3 spares
I blew a 125 amp fuse by not being careful what I switched off before a shorepowered engine start....simple fuse replacement and lesson learned but it took a couple hours to diagnose it
Replaced house freshwater pump when it started to drip from a gasket....just swapped out pump and later replaced gasket so now I have a spare pump
The 12v hour meter froze up....took next two ports to find the replacement I wanted....some swap out
Push button activation on my bow thruster remote pad was quirky.....removed and used "DeToxIt"...great product for corrosion issues...reinstalled and works perfectly. ( Corrosion NEVER SLEEPS !) Have to hit spade/lug/press fit connections with DeToxit or CorrosionX every couple weeks.
Had a heat exchanger cap leak...removed and cleaned and reinstalled to stop leak
Tighten clutch on anchor windlass to increase pulling power
Pretty much it...
Lots of stuff done before it can become an issue....as in I am doing stuff nearly everyday....remove and clean or .....remove and lube.....or whatever
GROCO strainers removed and checked/cleaned weekly
100 hour oil and filter changes...have Reverso oil change pumps mounted to engine directly to remove oil quickly and completely. Same for Westerbeke genset.
RACORS ( I have switchable duals for main and separate single for the westerbeke genny) are swapped out every other oil change....antibio additive added to diesel every fill to prevent diesel bug/algae issues....a serious issue on some boats !
I have an electric fuel pump/primer installed to eliminate the pain in the butt of hand priming/pumping/bleeding the fuel system after fuel filter changes. Diesels DO NOTICE air in fuel lines and the electric pump is a great way to avoid issues !
Check battery SOC twice daily..
Have 3 group 30 AGMs for the House bank and two 8Ds for the start. 600 watt solar run through my Magnum charger as well as 125 amp alternator when running engine. Overnight use without genset and doing normal stuff...refrigerator running, lights, etc...usually 92 to 90 percent state of charge (SOC) by morning g before solar picks it up or engine tops it back up.
Lots of small things to keep on top of that many boaters kinda let slide....but it will bite you sooner or later if you do.

Yeah man, That TMD30A is a good motor.

Keep a close eye on the turbo. Those are good for a finite amount of hours. Idling for extended periods of time and extend time running clutch ahead will reduce the life of the turbo. Have you had any trouble with the turbo and do you know how many hours on that turbo?

Second thing I'd keep in mind is If you've got to tear into the cooling system for any reason it can be a pain in the ass. Volvo uses some pain in the ass o-ring seals that any sort of defect and it wont seal. This is especially the case with those external metal cooling lines. they may even be some sort of copper as I recall. So if you have to mess with that be very careful with the tubes.

Also in that regard I'd think about having a R/W cooler as a part of ships stores along with a complete R/W pump housing. Also it might be worth ordering extra brass screws for that pump housing. A tap, die and extractor suitable for use on brass. Probably have 2 or 3 impeller kits on hand as ships stores.

Your R/W pump housing has a seal and a bearing in it. Any amount of saltwater intrusion and that bearing will faill

Any sort of obstruction on your seawater intake strainer and you can burn an impeller. Any amount of time without water-flow can slightly melt the edge of impeller blade. Any sort of damage to the impeller blade or defect in the pump housing itself will chew and impeller and can cause all kinds of secondary damage.

That R/W cooler is susceptible to galvanic corrosion, but most importantly in warm water you are at risk of fouling your cooler with marine growth So between those two you are always fighting anything that touches seawater. On that cooler it seems like there are some zinc anodes which are mission critical. Probably have a set on hand as ships stores and would check that on scheduled basis.

But that engine is overall solid.

Do you have a Volvo marine transmission or is it something else?

Do you have a straight shaft? And also what kind of shaft seal do you have? Is it mechanical or packing?

I like your AGM setup. And the fact that you have two isolated starting batteries. In that kind of setup you want to make sure to charge both batteries but keep the batteries isolated as much as you can.

If you feel like spending some money. Snapon has a digital load tester thats essential if you've got that many batteries and batteries of different types. It's about $350 new, but I wouldn't hesitate to get one used.

This particular model has settings for flooded and AGM batteries so you get a good reliable reading on health of your battery. It gives you a CCA percent value onf your specific type of battery. Even if you have an installed system this is worth it for trouble shooting and peace of mind alone.

It's one of the best tools I 'd recommend for people that deal with batteries on vessels and other equipment.

What motor do you have on your tender?

Do you have a water maker onboard?

How is your steering set up? What type is it?

I'm nowhere near mechanical enough for this adventure. I'd have to hire you to come with us!

I've done my life all wrong...

bowhuntr said:

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Looks like you're pulling in right now - welcome back to US waters!

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It kinda reminds me of when you cross the Texas state line, even if you've still got 8 hours of driving or so, you feel like you're home.