Year: 2006

Mounting the fish finder was fun. I liked using what was lying around the home to come up with a way to mount it. The transducer usually is mounted on the solid hull of a boat but pontoon boats have no such place. I wanted to mount it so that it could be adjusted and in such a way that if it did hit a rock or something it would not break off but would be able to give a bit (like the kickup brackets provide for) The unit itself needs to be visable (duh) and close enough to me so I can push all the neat little buttons on it.

I got a lot of ideas from browsing the net. Here is what I ended up doing:

Take these items found around the house with the exception of the velcro strap

Put them all together:

The vecro strap will hold the mount on the pontoon. The transducer is mounted on the PVC pipe. Under neath the black cover the pipe is cut with two notches and connected back together with the spring. If it hits something solid it will bend yet the spring holds it solid otherwise. I cut the orignal hull mount so it slides into the pipe and is held by the same bolt that holds the spring. Stretching the spring out to align the holes was no fun. I put the lower screw in first to hold the altered mount and spring. Then I used a long strong twine tied to the other end of the spring to stretch it out to get the second bolt through. I used the bicycle tube to cover it because I was tired of gettng my fingers pinched 🙂

Here is a picture from the Bass and Tubes web site that gave me the idea:

Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning.

He told Bush that Three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone’s amazement, all of the color ran from Bush’s face, then he collapsed onto his desk, head in hands, visibly shaken, almost whimpering.

Finally, he composed himself and asked Rumsfeld, “Just exactly how many is a brazillion?”

Today the news bulletins and updates were all about FIRE. First the fires mentioned in my last post. Next a fertilizer plant in Solano County. Then the fire outside of Napa near Yountville. A small fire on Hwy 70 outside of Yuba City and many small grass fires throughout the area.

The Pentax is out of warrenty go figure – so I have to decide if I should take it in to be repaired or throw it in the dead do something about it later drawer.

Still working on the transducer thingy placement . …

The sky is an eerie orange if I were not so lazy I would drive to the river and get some sunset shots but I am lazy right now. Made some beans for dinner – life is good.

Catfish woke my up early this morning – no apparent reason. The news is showing miles of fire line. The first blaze started at County Road 82B and Highway 16 just before 1 a.m. The second fire started at County Road 14 at Highway 505. The third fire is burning at County Road 12A and Highway 505 north of Zamora. The fourth, burning at County Road 19 and Highway 5 is beginning to merge with the fire north of Zamora. There is another fire near Travis Air Force Base at a ferilizer company. The winds are blowing with 40MPH gusts. Amazing news video before sunrise – a world of fire as far as the camera panned.

Todays plans (silly me) are now changed. I was planning on setting up the pontoon and working on installing the fish finder and transponder. I thing the boat would take flight! I am disappointed as I motivated my sorry butt to the hardware store and robbed my piggy bank to purchase some PVC pipe, nuts and bolts, a spring, and a velcro tie down strap.

The OptioWP is off to the shop today. I think it is dead and will be sent back to Pentax repair – it is under warranty – but ya know how that can go.

Now a car fire just started a grass fire near the Sacramento International Airport