5/28/2021
On Friday May 28th, we left for our Great Loop Adventure. We are going to be traveling the 6,000-mile Great Loop route aboard Nothing To Plunder, traveling the New Jersey Coast to New York, through the New York canals to the Great Lakes to Chicago, down the inland rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida and up the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway back to New Jersey. This trip will take us about one year.
4/27/2021
In preparation of spending time at anchor, Nothing To Plunder has gone solar.
Again, with a little help from my friends, we installed 300 watts of solar power to the boat. The system consist of 3 100 watt flexible panels from Renogy Solar and a 30 Amp MPPT controller. This system provides enough power to keep the house batteries charged and to run the 12 volt systems during a sunny day. This will allow us to remain at anchor all day with out running the generator. Before installing the solar, the batteries would only last about 4 hours, before needing to be recharged.
I could not have done the install without the help of friends. (Especially ones that do not mind working on the hardtop). First Matt Berg for cleaning and waxing the hardtop, I have only been avoiding that for 5 years. Then Kevin and TJ for doing the installation.
4/5/2021
My insurance company requires an out of water survey,* every five years. When I received my renewal notice last October, the notified me, that I would need this out of water survey done before my October 2021 renewal. Because we will be doing the Great Loop when the renewal comes up, I decided to have this done before we leave in May. I had Blair of Bugher Marine (www.bughermarine.com) do the survey, Blair surveyed my boat the first time the insurance company required it.
I was excited to see that the bottom was in perfect condition, all of my hard work last winter paid off. There were no blisters, and the paint job held up great. In addition to that the boat has actually gone up in value since the survey five years ago. Overall the boat was deemed in very good condition and there was nothing that needed repairs.
* A boat insurance survey include checks for general structure integrity, hull and propulsion systems, blistering/moisture, safety and standards compliance, and vessel value. Sometimes a insurance company will allow an in water survey other times they want the boat out of the water to make sure the running gear and the bottom are in good condition.
4/3/2021
Today is moving day, we moved Nothing To Plunder from her winter home D&S Marina to Bordentown Yacht Club. Yesterday we dropped my car off at Bordentown, so once we got there we had a way back to get Angel's car. Bill, Emily and Kevin joined us for the trip.
We left D&S at 10:30 and headed to Bristol Dock, to stop for lunch. In Nothing To Plunder fashion we had Bloody Mary's and Mimosa on our way to Bristol. Emily and Jana met us in Bristol. Lunch at Mill Street Cantina was delicious as always.
Leaving Bristol, Angel took the boat off the dock, and handled the boat like a pro. The boat ran great, after a long winter break. The sandbar on the approach to Crosswicks creek has grown over the winter, and has made the approach to the creek even harder. Once in the creek, Angel took the helm again, and docked the boat.
We will miss D&S but it is nice to be back to our summer dock. (Even if we are only going to be here a couple of weeks)
4/2/2021
After many years of planning and getting Nothing To Plunder ready, we are getting close to starting our Journey. Tomorrow we will leaving our winter home (D&S Marina, Tulleytown PA) and heading to Bordentown Yacht Club.
With the exception of detailing the outside of the boat and stocking it with supplies, she is ready to travel. On Monday she will be pulled out of the water for a insurance company required survey, and to make sure the bottom paint is still in good condition. After that is is just a matter of waiting.
During our adventure we will not have a schedule only a plan. RIght now our plan is to leave Memorial Day weekend, and head to Baltimore Yacht Club, for their Opening Day Weekend. After that we really begin our Great Loop Adventure.
The Great Loop is a boat journey thru 18 states, (hopefully 2 Canadian Provinces) and 6000 miles of waterways. Taking us from New Jersey around the eastern third of The United States. As far north as Michigan, back down to the tip of Florida. It will takes us around one year of travel to complete.
1/19/2021
It has been a very busy winter. The mild weather has made it easy to do some of the upgrades and repairs that I want to get done before we leave for the Great Loop in the spring.
I installed NEBO, a tracking device that will share my location with fellow loopers and friends. It will also email me the statistics of our travel everyday we travel.
The second upgrade/repair that I did was to replace the stereo. Our stereo only worked when it wanted to, now we can use it when we want to, and even change the station.
I also upgraded the windlass. While the original Good windlass functioned perfectly, I wanted a windlass that would handle a rope/chain rode. Also Good offers a fairly decent upgrade credit. While I was doing the upgrade I added foot control pedals at the helm, making it much easier to deploy and retrieve the anchor.
11/1/2020
It is time to move to our winter home. This year we will be spending the winter at D&S Marina in Tulleytown PA.
This will be our first winter there, but we have a couple of friends that have been staying there. One of the major advantages of staying here is there is water year round. When I stayed at the now closed Philadelphia Marine Center, I had to haul water to the boat in an 100 gallon tank. Here there is a hose run down the dock so we can fill the boat anytime.
D&S Marine is centrally located between Angel's and mine work. (Even though I only go into the office for 2 hours a week) While it is not downtown Philly, everything we could need is very close by. There are grocery stores, drug stores, as well as a Home Depot and a Walmart within a 10 minute drive. The one amenity that is missing is the marina has no WiFi. (They are installing it in the spring).
8/12/2020
A beautiful day for a trip from Kent Narrows to St Michael's.
8/11/2020
During our Chesapeake Cruise, we were able to tour a fellow boaters, new to him boat. While showing us his new electronics, he mentioned that he had all of his old Raymarine equipment that he was going to put on Ebay, and asked if we were interested in it. For a very reasonable price, I was able to upgrade my Raymarine E80's with E120's, add three ST60 displays, and install a brand new AIS. The best part was I able to sell the E80's to cover the entire cost of my upgrade.
8/6/2020
In early July, every time I filled the water tank, the aft bilge pump would run every 10 to 15 minutes. With a little bit of investigating I found a small leak in one of the corners of the water tank. The tank was made out of plastic, and a very odd shape. I reached out to a friend that owns a plastic fabrication company to get a new tank made. While making a new tank out of plastic was not feasible, Bill was able to weld the cracks as well as reinforce a couple of other areas that he saw that were weak. Fast forward to a week before we are supposed to go on vacation, and the tank sprung a new leak.
I call SP Metals, the company that made the new fuel tank, and explained the issue, and asked if there was anyway if I got the tank to them Monday, could I have it back by Thursday. (They needed the old tank to copy it). Once again SP Metals delivered. The tank even ended up holding about 10 gallons more. This was because the difference in how the aluminum tank mounted verse the plastic tank.
I have gotten very good at removing and reinstalling the Aft Cabin bed, Air Conditioner and Window. They all require removing to remove the tank and reinstall it. I also took the opportunity to add a second water fill to the boat. The fill was on the starboard side. This meant I had to climb over the dinghy to fill the water tank. By adding a second fill on the port side, it is easy to fill the boat no matter which side I dock on.
We also had Norman's Upholstery redo the headboard. Gone is the 80's fabric replaced with vinyl.
5/4/2020
So on April 3rd, I woke up to the smell of diesel in the boat. After poking around I found about 2 cups of diesel around the port fuel tank. I cleaned it up hoping for the best, but the next day, there was more fuel around the tank. Fortunately the fuel did not make it to the bilge pump.
Having heard from someone who had this problem, and from Sea Ray, I was told that the only way the tank would come out of the boat would be to cut the side of the boat out.
I started my research and found a company in Florida that would come up, and cut the side of the tank out, and rebuild the tank from the inside out. The estimate started at $15,000 and probably would go up from there. Time to do some more research. The second option I came up with was a bladder but that would require access to at least 1/3 of the top of the tank and to be able to cut the baffles out of the tank.. Once I started taking the boat apart to make sure I had enough room to do this.
Once I got the salon apart I realized that I could get the tank out. SP Tanks in Cape May NJ, made me a new tank, and had me back in business very quickly. The new tank was a much cheaper option then the bladder or rebuild. It was a lot of work but the tank has been replaced and the salon is back together.
3/23/2020
Part of my 2020 upgrades was to have the bottom sand blasted to bare fiberglass (Thank You All Surface Blasting, Morrisville PA). All of the blisters repaired than a barrier coat, and fresh bottom paint.
Once the bottom was down to clean fiberglass, I had about 45 blisters to repair. This was done by grinding the blisters to clean dry fiberglass, and filling with West System Epoxy.
After the blisters were repaired, I applied three coats of Pettit Protect Epoxy Primer. The next step was to apply two coats of Pettit Hydrocoat red, followed by three coats of Pettit Hydrocoat blue.
3/6/2020
Over the summer of 2019, I purchased a dinghy, and installed a Dinghy Caddy. While installing the Dinghy Caddy, I discovered the swim platform was cracked underneath, and most of the core was water logged. I was originally going to repair the platform, but after looking at it, I decided that a new platform, from Swimplatform.com was the better way to go.
The new swim platform sits about 4 inches higher off the water, and is about 18 inches deeper than the original platform. This gives me enough room to walk behind the dinghy when it is mounted.
9/18/2019
In preparation for doing The Great Loop, I bought a dinghy. It is a 10' Caribe inflatable, with a 15HP Mercury outboard. Since the dinghy had the mounts for Weaver Snap Davits on it already, I tried mounting with them. There were two problems with them. The first was the dinghy was a little two heavy for them, and the second was it sat to low to the water.
When that did not work I purchased a "Dinghy Caddy" (www.dinghycaddy.com). This has been working great, it takes about two minutes to launch the dinghy and about 5 minutes to recover it. So far it is working great.
5/13/2019
Out with the old, In with the new. Thank you Jo Bronson for making awesome curtains for Nothing To Plunder