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.........................--- Outside Pictures Taken On First Trip ---
............--- From Ft. Myers Beach To Charlotte Harbor ---
.....................................................--- Boat Storage --May 2011 ---
The following pictures of the boat were taken on our maiden voyage from the previous owners slip under the bridge going over to Ft. Myers Beach on up to where we put the boat in storage up on the hard at Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage. At this point we had already made a couple changes to the boat while getting it ready to make the trip while it was in the slip at Ft. Myers Beach.
We had finished our 400+ mile Spring 2011 trip with the Mac and had taken some items off of it and transferred them to the Endeavour for this trip.
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The bimini on the boat is in need of replacement. We will use the frame and Ruth will use the old one as a pattern to make a new one from Sunbrella Ocean Blue, the same color we used on out Mac.
The previous owner had done a really nice job of refinishing all of the exterior teak on the boat, but hadn't gotten to the cockpit table, lower arrow, before selling the boat to us. The table raises and the two sides fold out. It will be a nice table and we used it a couple times on the trip.
Notice the size of the cockpit. Ruth is happy and feels very secure in it.
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The two top arrows point to the jib and main winches on the mast. Nothing fancy on the way the lines are setup on the point. It is all real functional and kind of idiot proof. Under normal conditions I can raise the main without the winch, just using it to pull it taught. The jib is now a furler Genoa, so the jib winch is just used to hold the Genoa up in the furler.
The bottom right arrow points to a 4 gallon and a 7 gallon Reliance water containers that we took off the Mac. It was good as on the first day out of Ft. Myers Beach the 100 gallons in water tank ended up in the bilge and we had to move it overboard. First I thought that it leaked out, but the tank was empty to the bottom and the water in the bilge was higher than the bottom of the tank that is housed in the bilge area under the sole. I think the pressure pump must of come on and there was a link in the tank and it all was pumped into the bilge. We will never know for sure what happened as once we got to the storage yard we pulled the 100 gallon aluminum tank out. We are going to replace it with 4 20 gallon poly ones that will give us more flexibility in storage and use.
The yellow jugs are diesel fuel. The fuel gauge showed under 1/2 full at the start of the trip and the tank is suppose to hold 55 gallons which should of been plenty to get to the storage yard 70 miles away, but at this point we didn't know if the gauge was working. The boat came with two jugs and we bought one more and filled them all 'just in case'. We didn't have to use them and the boat seems to get really nice fuel mileage. We ran most of the way at about 5 knots on very little throttle and about 1500 rpm if I remember right and I'm guess we got about 8-10 mpg at least considering the gauge was still over 1/4 at the end of the trip.
The red jugs were for the Honda 2000 generator, but we only filled it once. I ran if for almost one day trying to equalize the batteries trying to put some life back in them, but it didn't help. There seems to be something putting a pretty big draw on the batteries and they would loose charge very fast. We will put in 4 new 6 volt batteries when we return to the boat and I'll go over all the wiring and find out what is going wrong. The starter battery was brand new and gave us no problems.
The diesel started right up at all times and runs really well. It is leaking a little oil, but neither it or the transmission seemed to use any oil on the trip.
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Above you can see how nice all of the teak looks and it actually looks better than the pictures. The PO had also repainted the brown below the teak. Later as we change the canvas over to Ocean Blue we will re-paint the brown to blue.
The Endeavours 37's have this very distinctive coaming that starts at the back of the cockpit one one side and extends up over the cabin in front of the companionway hatch and back down the other side to the back of the cockpit. It is one of those things that either you like it or you don't pretty much. We like it as it really sets the boat apart and you readily know if you are looking at one or not.
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The boat has 3 hatches, lower arrow points to the V-Berth one. The left arrow points to the cabin hatch and the upper right arrow points to a hatch over the chart table/quarter berth area.
The bottom right arrow points to the frame for the dodger that was secured in that area for the trip. The canvas for it was stored below and is in bad shape. Again we hope to use it as a pattern for Ruth to sew up a new one. It is of a nice design that lets it attach to the bimini if so desired for full cockpit coverage and also has a bug netting divider that seals off the cabin from the cockpit with a bug screen if so desired. It zips in and out.
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The bow is really spacious compared to our 26 foot MacGregor and there is a lot of protection there with the double lifelines.
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The middle right arrow points to a 35 lb. CQR that came with the boat. I had it sitting on a plastic storage lid so that it wouldn't mar the deck. The chain/rode was attached to it and goes down into the anchor locker under where the Honda is sitting. The Honda was stored below under the quarter berth when underway.
When we bought the boat we bought a 35 lb. Manson Supreme as we have a 25 lb. on the Mac and love it. We are anchored on the Manson in the photo and for the whole trip. The boat also came with 2 25 lb. CQR's and 5 danforths of different sizes. We are keeping one of the 25 lb. CQR's and one of the danforths. On the trip I used the large blue plastic storage trunk for the rode for the Manson and really like it. The rode streamed right out of it and was easy to stuff back into it when weighing anchor. I'd like to put a windlass on the boat as I'm in my later 60's, but due to the location of the stock anchor locker it is not easy to do, but I have some ideas.
The top arrow points to the single anchor roller. We will add a second one to the port side. I really like the way the anchor lines are brought through the bow portals and tie off to cleats astern of them. I thought they might be a pain to use, but actually the couple times we anchored they were very easy to use.
The bottom right arrow points to the gas tank for the Zodiac Inflatable. It normally will be on the Zodiac's transom. Not sure why I didn't have it there for this trip.
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Above is a better view of the hatch over the chart table/quarter berth.
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The arrow above points to the rode bag for the larger 7/16 inch rode for our Mac. Not large enough for the main anchor on this boat, but we had it on board just in case we wanted to use the stern anchor, a smaller danforth that came with the boat. We most likely will continue to carry it with us. Besides the two rodes with chain and 200 feet of line that were on the Manson and the CQR the boat came with one more long chain, a short one, and another 600 feet of large 3 twist anchor line.
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Since the boat had been in a slip for a number of years it came with some large fenders. We try and anchor out all the time, but still will have to use fenders occasionally. Not real sure where we are going to store these. The starboard cockpit storage area under the seat there is huge and I think once it is reorganized I might be able to store 2 there and maybe all 4.
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The right arrow points to one of two oversized scuppers the PO installed in the cockpit. I hope we are never in a situation where we have towering waves coming on us from astern, but these along with the way the entrance to the companionway is laid out will help if that ever happens.
The left arrow points to one of the two cockpit winch handle storage bins. The cockpit is much larger than on our Mac and Ruth feels a lot more secure in it.
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The top arrow points to Captiva Pass at the north end of North Captiva Island and the south end of Cayo Costa Island where we anchored for a couple days on our way north. Lots of small boat traffic there.
The left arrow points to the Autohelm ST 4000 wheelpilot that came with the boat. The right arrow points to the compass location. The lens is sun damaged and we are going to have to figure out what to do about a compass. Not sure if we can get a lens or not at this point.
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The left arrow points to non-functioning depth and speed gauges. The middle arrow points to the traveler that is in exactly the same place as the traveler I made for our Mac. Below the traveler or the engine start key and gauges. The Hour gauge is not working, but the Oil Pressure, Temp, and RPM all work. The speaker to the right is for the CD player. I might hook it to the VHF instead.
There is also a new and very nice hot/cold cockpit shower head recessed into the starboard side of the cockpit under the seat there just aft of the stereo speaker. Not sure how often we will have hot water, but I'll bet we use this shower instead of the one in the head.
The right two arrows point to the starboard side 2 speed winch and track for the Genoa sheets. The winches were rebuilt and seem to be in good shape.
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The left arrow points to the lower part of the outboard lift which is hooked in the picture to the Yamaha 8 HP 2 cycle that came with the boat and that is suppose to run fine. While we were getting the boat ready in Ft. Myers Beach I found a second outboard mount and mounted it to the left of the Yamaha's mount. To keep it from turning on the railing I made up the PVC tubing support at the bottom (bottom left arrow). Then I mounted the 3 1/2 HP long shaft Tohatsu that we use on the Zodiac. We would like to have both outboards available for use on trips.
The Tohatsu is lighter and quieter, being a 4 cycle, but also slower. The Yamaha would be nice to use if we needed to get somewhere quicker in the dinghy. The problem we have is that I raised the transom on the dinghy to work with a long shaft outboard. We wanted the long shaft as it gave us a backup outboard for the Mac if in an emergency we had problems with the Mac's 9.8 HP Tohatsu.
We took the dinghy back home along with the outboards and we will try removing the transom extension I made and see how the dinghy performs with the long shaft and also try the Yamaha there on a local lake and then decide what to do.
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One item we wanted for sure on the boat was davits for the dinghy and the boat has them and they work nice. They along with the outboard lift will be a nice combination. Ruth is going to sew of a cover that will cover the tubes on the dinghy to help extend the life of it in the sun.
The left arrow points to the long range WiFi antenna with the Bullet 2 HP radio off of the Mac. It is stuck into the flag holder. The bottom right arrow points to a 5 step swim ladder that we bought and I added to the boat in Ft. Myers. To mount it I had to move the stern anchor rollers, bottom left arrow over a couple inches.
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The right arrow points to one of the danforths on the stern lunch anchor mount.
The boat had a non-working depth finder. We will replace it, but we had bought a portable Hummingbird in Marathon while out on the Mac, so that we could use in on the dinghy to scout out possible anchorages. I mounted it ...
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... on the Endeavor where it could be seen while at the wheel.
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The transducer for the Hummingbird, bottom right arrow, was mounted on the bottom of a piece of aluminum square tubing I bought in Ft. Myers and the tubing was clamped to the new ladder with hose clamps, top right arrow. It was about 8-10 inches down in the water. It worked well and we might run it there in conjunction with one more forward on the boat nearer to the bow. On our Mac for our Florida trips we had also installed a GPS Cuda 350 depth finder and put the transducer on the transom on the stern. Normally you want the transducer forward, but we have found that in most cases in Florida the water depths seem to transition to deeper or shallower much less rapidly than they do on the western lakes where we live where the water can go from over a hundred feet to less than 5 in a boat length. One nice thing about the transducer back there is that it is very easy to clean the barnacles from it while in the dinghy which helps to keep it accurate.
The bottom left arrow points to where the ladder folds with two steps below the hinge point. I'm going to make an extension that we can put on it to make it easier to use it while swimming.
One last thing while we are looking at the stern and that is the name is going to be changed to the Margaret Ann. My mom's name was Margaret and Ruth's middle name is Ann. The two most important women in my life!!