Fishing Rhino

The neutral safety switch is probably a micro switch that "breaks" the ignition circuit when the control is out of the neutral position. I'm guessing its a micro switch because the neutral safety switch in the diagram appears to have a "plunger" on the right side that will complete the ignition circuit only when the engine is in neutral. Again, I guessing that when that pin is depressed by the control (shift/throttle) only when it is in the neutral position. Same thing as on your car. If it's an automatic it has to be in park, or maybe neutral for the engine to start. If you have a standard shift, the clutch must be depressed for the starter to crank the engine.

Looking forward to seeing more progress. So far, so good.

I suggest a trip to the Merrimack River. It was peaceful and quiet, with good fishing, when Grampa took me there a week ago. Have no idea what it's like on the weekend, but we had the river to ourselves, save for a couple of rowing crews, and their "chase boat". There is a water ski course, which one would think is active on the weekends. However, it should not pose a problem, since it can be easily avoided. Our daughter in GA may have surgery in August. It is the only thing on the horizon thay could prevent my participation. Will find out if, and when, next week.

I'm going to throw one more monkey wrench into this conversation. Can you depress your key into the switch a quarter inch or so? If you can, that "extra" lead on the switch could be to activate the choke on the motor. You should have some way to activate the choke, be it pushing the key in or a separate switch. Traveller is correct about the wiring of the kill switch. It should be in the ignition lead, not the wire from the battery. Even with the kill switch in the kill position, the starter can be activated an the motor will turn over, but will not start. On my rig, when the key is turned on, a beep will sound to indicate the engine is ready to be started. If the beep is not heard, it means something is wrong. It could be the motor is not in neutral, or the kill switch is in the disabled position. It may indicate other problems as well, but those are the two I have experienced. Your rig may not have the "beep, all is ok" feature.

Sir Snook mentioned much of what I was thinking. Any repetitive action can become problematic, see tennis elbow, or carpal tunnel syndrome. If you've ever started an exercise regime, you've probably experienced sore and aching muscles and joints at the start. The calesthenics we were put through at the start of basketball season would leave us nearly crippled upon waking up the next morning. Gradually that soreness disappeared during the day. Good thing because we were put through the same drills at after school practice. Gradually our bodies became accustomed to the gruelling workouts and we'd wake up the next morning feeling just fine. The pain could be, as Sir Snook suggested, a genetic defect or other physical problem. It was the old, "no pain, no gain" philosophy. Cast in your yard with a practice weight, and retrieve using the same motion as when fishing. If the pain persists, see a doctor. You might be aggravating an existing condition. One would think you are too young to be plagued by a degenerative joint disease, but, it's not impossible.

The app is a waste. Anyone experiencing a genuine, life threatening emergency, should dial 911 and request help. An ambulance will likely get there quicker than you could get to a hospital, and be treating the patient quicker. The staff will be in contact with the ER and be treating the patient in accordance with a doctor's instructions, while enroute to the hospital. When you get to the hospital, they will be prepared with the appropriate staff and equipment ready to immediately begin treatment. Better than any phone app is OnStar, or similar program on your vehicle. Press the button with the red cross and you'll be dealing with someone who knows your precise location and will contact the closest emergency responder.

I did say they are routinely given for puncture wounds. Do you know why? Do not misconstrue my words to think that I agree with you, because I do not. A doctor who does not give, or offer, tetanus shots in such circumstances is playing Russian roulette with both his practice and his patient. All a doc needs is to have one patient contract tetanus because he did not recommend the tetanus shot, and he is subject to a huge malpractice suit. The same is true of all the testing that is done. To avoid malpractice suits, a doctor has to cover his butt and prescribe tests that his learning and experience tell him are not likely to accomplish anything. I speak from personal experience. I jammed my elbow into a sharp fiberglass corner. It did not break the skin, but it hurt like all get out. When the pain persisted beyond a couple of weeks, I decided to have it checked out. The doc took an xray of my elbow and it checked out ok. But the bones from elbow to my wrist faded to nothing halfway down my arm. He felt it was just an anomoly, so he took another xray. The same result. He still felt it was just a glitch in the xray, but to be sure there wasn't something serious going on, he ordered a full body bone scan which was done by the nuclear medicine department at the hospital. They injected me with a radioactive fluid and told me to come back in three hours, to allow the radioactive material to settle into the bones. The test showed everything to be normal, so I had a test that cost about three grand, just in case. Thank goodness for insurance. The problem is most folks have little or no appreciation or understanding of the responsibility and liability physicians deal with on a daily basis.

A tetanus shot is good for ten years. I hardly think they are getting rich on them. Tetanus shots are routinely given for puncture wounds, be it from stepping on a nail, or being stuck with a fish spine. It matters not what it was developed for. Many drugs being researched to treat one condition or disease are sometimes found to be helpful for other things. If one were to believe your post about the pharmaceutical companies and doctors one must of necessity conclude that both are evil and wicked. However when one considers that the life expectancy is 30 years longer than it was in the early 1900s, the medical community must be doing something right. Not only are we living longer, but we also enjoy a higher quality of life because our better well being makes it possible.

When I saw you posted a reply, it reminded me of the maelstrom we went through to get back to the ramp in Guntersville. A 25 hp engine would have got us back just as fast as the 200 on the stern. Was a great day but for the last two or three miles.

Ahhhh, but the question is, does she do windows?

Well, considering what a boss told me years ago, that statement is not conclusive. His comment regarding his wife went like this. "I wouldn't take a million dollars for her, but I wouldn't give you a dime for a dozen more just like her."

If you're on a budget, it's tough to beat a Nitro dollar for dollar. The other boats you listed may be nicer, be fancier, etc., but you won't catch one more fish from them. Your boat needs to get you from point A to point B, just like your vehicle needs to get you from point A to point B. A Chevvie and a Cadillac will both do that. The Caddy will be more impressive, have more features, etc., but it will not get you from one place to another more dependably. One more thing to consider. Overall, it is going to the the motor that needs the most attention. The Merc, Johnrude, Yamaha that hangs on the transom of a (fill in the blank) is the same motor that hangs on the back of a Nitro. I know, Nitros come with Mercs. The point is the motor is the component in any rig that is most likely to give you trouble, not the boat itself.

Pros 2 stroke: lower cost, lighter weight, more hp per pound. Cons: not as smooth, quiet, or economical to operate. The four strokes are getting pretty close to the 2 strokes as far as power to weight goes. As far as hp goes, I suppose there are some who routinely run around with the throttle pegged, but I don't know anyone who does. My boat is capable of 60+ mph, but I cruise in the 30 and 40 mph range. Once in a while I'll let it out, and run it wide open for a few minutes.

Channel 16 is the official hailing and distress frequency of the Coast Guard. It is used for calling other boats or the Coast Guard. When you make contact with another boat you need to switch to another "working channel". Channel 13 was/is used by commercial traffic such as tugs, freighters, cargo ships, etc. Haven't used a VHF since '97, but I suspect that most if not all VHF radios have a feature which monitors channel 16 (it was either an override, or priority feature), while tuned to another channel. If the Coast Guard, or anyone else uses channel 16, the radio will automatically switch to 16, then switch back to the channel it was tuned to. It may also have a scanning feature which monitors a few or several other channels. Because I sometimes had lobster gear set in a shipping channel, I would scan 13, along with the other channels we used for conversation. Initially, most of us used channel 6. But it became popular with recreational boaters. There was incessant chatter during the summer season, so we switched to a less used channel, which happened to be 8. Channel 13 was most important on foggy days. I'd see a large target on the radar moving along the channel in Buzzards Bay, and would call them on 13 to let them know who I was, what I was doing, and find out what they'd like me to do to stay out of their way. Those large vessels are not very maneuverable, and cannot stop or turn quickly. One bit of advice. Your conversations on the VHF can be heard by any and all with a VHF radio. Don't say anything you do not want the world to hear, from divulging a hot spot to personal matters. A VHF is much like a seagoing CB radio. We'd "hail" (call) each other on eight

I had two VHFs on my lobsterboat. I considered it a necessity for monitoring the Coast Guard in case of emergency messages. Could be a weather warning, a boat in distress or missing in an area, or aids to navigation that were "off station", or whose postition had been changed. While nice to have, in this day and age of cell phones, it's not as important, unless operating in an area with poor reception. or on the open ocean. Never been on them, but were I to fish any of the Great Lakes on a regular basis, a VHF would be a must have, along with an EPIRB.

If you "park" your car in a garage or some type of shelter, it's not a bad idea to keep your hatches open to prevent mold and mildew, not to mention the gases given off during battery charging. That's assuming the boat's shelter provides security. That was suggested to me by the dealer when I bought my first bass boat, when he found out it would be garaged when not in use. Here's another helpful hint. When the carpet gets soaked from rain or spray, a wet or dry shop vac is great for removing just about all of the moisture. I've removed over three gallons of water from the deck carpet on my boat when it got soaked by a downpour. The carpet is barely damp when finished with the vac. Do it in the sun, and it's totally dry just a few minutes later.

While weight may be a factor, it's the "thrust" of the engine that is taken into account when determining horsepower ratings for boats. There are all manner of "add ons" that increase the weight of a motor hanging off the transom. Even though it may be aluminum, the bolt on mounting brackets for Power-Poles plus the units themselves add several pounds hanging on the transom of a bass boat. My guess would be that you would sink the boat by hanging weight on the transom, long before you would break the transom. It isn't the hanging weight, it's the torque (twisting action) of the motor's thrust that is critical.

I use them to mark the outlines of shoals, the shoulders of dropoffs, and the outline of emerging lily pad beds. Most of the shoals I fish are fairly small. One in particular rises steeply from thirty feet of water surrounding it to a depth of less than ten feet. I'll motor across it from east to west, dropping a buoy at 12 or 13 feet at the opposite shoulders. Then, I'll cross it east to west midway between the first two buoys. North to south it's about a hundred fifty feet long. About 70 feet across east to west. The fish tend to be at different areas of the shoal on different days. When I find the sweet spot, the buoys allow me to return to that area of the shoal without having to move the boat into position on the GPS display. The same with marking contour lines and the outlines of weed beds or developing pads.

It has been my experience that when battery terminals become corroded it's past time to change the battery. I could tell when one of the batteries was headed downhill when I'd go below into the engine compartment of my lobster boat. It reeked of battery acid. No such odor emanated from good batteries. When they are on the way out, the alternator will constantly try to charge the battery, and it will gas off the acid fumes. These fumes and the residue of those fumes that coats a failing battery are what corrodes the connections at the battery posts. The residue is what appears to be a moist area around the battery caps. You can clean it off, but that is just treating the symptom, not the problem. You can purchase felt washers impregnated with a substance that helps to ward off corrosion. Put them on the terminal between the clamp and the battery. I replaced a five plus year old battery in my truck last year and had no corrosion on the posts. The need to frequently add water to a battery is an indicator that the battery is on its last legs, or there is a problem in the charging system.

Don't keep any tools on the boat. I do have jumper cables in case the battery that starts the engine has a problem. It has happened in the past and I had to remove the cables from one of my trolling motor's batteries and hook it up to the outboard. From there it was back to the ramp, get the jumpers from the back of my truck, switch the batteries back, jump the batteries to get the motor started, then run around a while to get the starting battery recharged. If I had a spare propeller, I'd have a wrench to remove the prop nut, then to tighten it when the spare prop is installed. Other than that, I wouldn't fool around with the motor on the water. Being the doofus that I am, I'd be dropping tools and/or parts in the drink. I do carry tools in the back of the truck, plus a spare hub and bearings for the trailer. Oh yeah, and a grease gun too. On all the waters I fish around here, the trolling motor can get me back to the dock. I can, and in most cases load the boat without using the outboard. From there, the rig will go to the shop, where they can diagnose the problem and fix it.

Not a computer geek by any stretch of the imagination, but you can try a simple thing that fixes a lot of computer glitches. Shut down your computer. Unplug it for thirty seconds, or more. Plug it in. Start it up. You can press the start button before plugging your unit back in which will help to drain any stored electrical charges. This will "fix" a lot of problems with other computer controlled products, microwave ovens, refrigerators, washers, dryers, etc. We've had two under warranty service calls where that's what the repairman did to get the unit up and running. Could also be a "corrupt" cookie, in which case you'll have to delete that cookie. Sometimes it's easier to delete all cookies. If you do that, you'll have to sign on to all sites you currently visit with your screen name or email address and password. Clearing your cookies removes all the user name and passwords you have stored to automatically sign on to web sites.

Have someone stand by with a video recorder. Are they standing by? They are. Tell them to focus in on your head. Lights, camera, action. Is it hot outside in Texas?

Now, if only they will come up with a way to link it to the navigation system in my truck, it will make my long drives to the road trips much easier.

Please accept my condolences. How long the pain lingers varies. Happy memories will most likely always make you melancholy. Be thankful for the time you had together. Consider that pain to be a blessing. Imagine those whose hearts do not ache when they lose a parent. I cannot imagine much that is sadder than that. Not to miss someone or hurt at their passing shows there was something seriously missing in their relationship, if there was a relationship. It is a time of conflicting emotions. Sorrow at their loss, and relief for the end of their suffering. I was very fortunate. My dad was 90 when he passed. He went to bed one night, and never woke up. He had heart problems so it was not unexpected. While he was always upbeat and cheerful in conversations with others, he hated it that he had become so dependent on others to care for him.

I'm too dumb to have a smartphone. My old dumbphone will take pictures. Don't do facebook or any of the social sites, where folks chat about what they did, and what they are doing. Ex wives/husbands or soon to be exes, do battle on facebook, airing dirty laundry for the world to see. Lookee ex, I've got a new "partner". So have I says the other. Then comes the nasty stuff. I have two relatives who are doing battle with their exes on Facebook. It's a sordid, sorry mess.