My new (Florida) boat.

[Raquettedacker]

I know the ones you plug in an outlet don’t.. I have two in my shed and still get mice in there..

[Mac Attack]

I had a couple up north in my garage that work.
We had rats and when I plugged in 3 of them the rats disappeared.
I had 2 in the garage and one in the shed.
I did this as we were packing and stacking the boxes in the garage getting ready to move.
I didn't want "stowaways" joining us for the trip to FL.
The ones I bought weren't cheap and they have 3 settings.
I turned them on the highest setting.
Jeff's GF kept turning them down, saying that she could hear them, and she didn't like the sound.
I turned them back up and finally told her to stay out of the garage and the shed till Donna and I moved out.
The ones I bought had over 24,500 people rate them 3.7 out of 5 stars
Here's a link -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZH4LZYF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


For the boat, these are 12VDC units.
One is rated to cover the boat's area, but I bought two anyway.
These also have small LED lights that flash random to scare away critters.
I'm mainly concerned about squirrels and snakes.
Squirrels will chew the crap out of everything.
Can't tell you if they work but they had over 2200 people that rated them 4.2 out of 5 stars on amazon.
Here's a link -

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D118ZRJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I will use them because they are inexpensive.
Others have said to use moth balls.
I tried that many years ago and the mice still took up housekeeping in my boat.
Short of chaining a cat in the boat under the cover, I feel anything is better than nothing.

[Raquettedacker]

Thanks Mac I bought cheep ones..
 Can’t wait to see your first fish picture..

[iceman260]

Thanks Mac I will give them a try.

[Mac Attack]

Yea, they aren't a thousand dollars.
So if they don't work, no big deal.
And lord knows I haven't done enough wiring yet.   

The boat is back in our storage compound.
I'll bring it back here Saturday afternoon.
Sunday and Monday are going to be cooler at highs only in the low 70's, making it nice to work on it.
Especially lying under the console on my back.  lol
I will get everything finished to at least take it out on the water and test everything.
The plan is to take it out on Tuesday.
Kelly shows on Friday and she wants to go out in it for a ride.

When I finish on Monday I'll take photos and post them.
Also of the test ride on Tuesday.

[Mac Attack]

Wiring under the dash is finished.
Only have the lithium battery for the Terrova to do - tomorrow!!

The 2 units on the dash are an HDS10 and an HDS8.
The 10 I will use for sonar and the 8 I will use for charts.

The unit up front is an HDS8 and I can display everything or only bits and pcs if I want.

Everything is ethernet together and I'm also running a NMEA2000 backbone setup for data transmission.

Here are some pics I took -

[rgfixit]

Thought this was a fishing boat….not the SpaceX shuttle.

Good grief!

[Mac Attack]

Thought this was a fishing boat….not the SpaceX shuttle.

Good grief!

This is Donna’s pontoon.
But I can fish from it.

[Mac Attack]

My son Jeff wanted me to outfit it with newer technology.  Live, or even Carbon.  Heck, he woulda been cool with Gen3 touchscreen.

But I’m on a fixed income now.   

My thought here was to use what I’m comfortable with.  Gen2 stuff, connected with both Ethernet and NMEA2000 gear.  But jacking it up with StructureScanHD that will give me both sidescan and downscan in addition to my old 2D sonar that I’ve used very successfully over the years.

Trolling up north we fish deeper waters, rarely running less than 30-40 FOW, and generally deeper than 50-60 FOW.  Sidescan and downscan wasn’t as advantageous as simple 2D.  Especially when we pretty much looked for temp breaks and bait; not fish per se.

But down here I’ll be fishing shallow water.  Generally less than 25 FOW, and often less than 15 FOW.  So the sidescan  with be of significant importance and use.

However, I now need to learn, and read, sidescan and downscan.  We will see how this works out.

[Mac Attack]

I finished things today.
Came out pretty good.
I cannot find my grease gun and really want to get a shot of grease into the bearing buddies.
I really don't care for bearing buddies, but probably won't swap them out because I won't be doing any serious transport with this trailer.
I need my shed enlarged so I can bring all my toys home from the storage facility and put them where I can find things.
However, it won't be happening anytime soon.
We are still arm-wrestling with the insurance company over the settlement.

Kelly arrives Friday morning.
I really want to take it out for another test run before I take her out for an all day session.
We'll see.

[Mac Attack]

Going to take it out Thursday morning to test everything.

[Mac Attack]

Going to take it out Thursday morning to test everything.

Change in plans.
 

My neighbor, a retired priest, needs me to take him to the doctor at 1pm.
And I have 9am dental appt.

So when I take out Kelly, that will be the test run.

[Mac Attack]

Kelly is here.

It was decided we will go out in the boat on Wednesday.  No poles.  Just a ride.

Later that day, around 2:30, I have to take my neighbor to rehab again.  And it looks like every Tuesday and Thursday here on out for the next few months.  Yay!   

He’s a retired priest.  If I wasn’t such a lost case, I would think this might get me brownie points upstairs.  Lol

[Mac Attack]

We took the boat to the launch today.
Tide was major low.
Turned around and took the boat home.
Sucked!
We were stoked.
Tomorrow I have to take my neighbor to rehab in the afternoon, at high tide.
Thursday Kelly heads back north.

[Mac Attack]

Finally took the boat out.
Everything seems to work well.
I have to dial in the head units.
Awesome day - got up to about 78-79 and we had a nice little breeze.
We had fun.
No fishing was done.