Dock Holiday Stowaway

Howdy everyone,

We just spent 5 great days out at the lake and an awesome time was had by all!

A couple of notes:

Thank you Ott's for the heads-up on the road art just before Paria. Interesting!

We had some problems getting the fridges to convert over to propane and tried everything. Thought the 10 gal tanks were empty (they felt light) but that was not the case. We did end up filling the three 5 gals and topping off the two 10s, so as of now all of the propane tanks should be near full. We found out you can run over to the State line fuel dock and get them re-filled there if you get in a pinch. I am not sure when the last time LP Tenders was contacted to swap tanks out, but they gave me the info for the refill at State line when I contacted them. The three 5 gals were empty. The final trick to getting the fridges to light was turning them off, then back on again and all was well!

At the dump station we found a stowaway on the boat. Lots of  screaming and laughs to be had, but check out the two on broom patrol, they weren't afraid! It is no longer on the boat, but "swimming" somewhere in the Marina.

The AC system seemed to function fine when we used it although it wasn't run much.

The tension wires were connected on the canopy up top.

That should do it.

Thank you everybody!
Mike and Lisa Hukill

Hi, All--

We came back a couple of days early, but had a wonderful time while we were at Lake Powell this week! The weather was cooler than usual for July--mostly below 100 degrees during the day, cooling to upper 60s at night. Monsoon season seems to be upon us, and we did have a wild and crazy thunderstorm one night. The other days, we could see clouds building with some storm activity but, other than some wind, the storms passed us by.

We brought a couple of eye-bolts as George requested last week. However, we could not install them as we brought 5/16 inch bolts, which were a bit too big for the holes already there. We would suggest that the next person bring a drill to widen the holes a bit--the bolts we brought would be much stronger than the ones that were there previously. We left the eye-bolts in the kitchen drawer to the left of the stove. If you prefer, you can bring smaller ones to fit the holes--I am guessing 1/4" would work.

Also, we noticed that the cable was attached to the other eye bolt in such a way that you would need another piece to make the repair. The cable is attached like this:



So, you would need a piece like a chain link to attach it to the new eye-bolt, kind of like this (although this is a fancier connection than you would need, I would think):

 

Sorry we were unable to make the needed repair, and we hope someone else will be able to attach it with this information. As far as other maintenance issues, we did notice that the A/C was not up to par, as others have mentioned. Also, as we were leaving, we noticed that the back sliding glass door is not locking properly due to a missing piece that should be attached to the door frame.

One other noteworthy incident that happened on our trip--this morning, we got swarmed by newly hatched queen red aunts that were ready to start their own colonies! They decided that the upstairs canopy would be a great place to congregate. Luckily, we did have a couple of outdoor insect foggers and were able to take care of the problem. So, just an observation that nature happens sometimes, and a can of bug spray can come in handy.

Lastly--and this has nothing to do with maintenance, but we thought it was kind of entertaining--on our way to the lake, we started noticing (after Kanab) that some road workers had some fun applying tar to the cracks in the road. They made several pictures with the tar in both lanes and sometimes on the road shoulder. We saw paw prints, snakes, ducks, and other designs as we were driving. You can see them on your way beginning around mile 38 and ending about at the Paria River around mile 20 or so. 

Happy boating to you all!

Kathie and Jim Ott 

Graff, July 11 - 18

We had typical weather for July with hot temperatures and late afternoon wind. We happened on a great spot on the backside of Castle Rock by talking with a group on a houseboat that was leaving the next morning. Since we had a number of coming and goings this worked great for us.

The boat operated without any problems. If the air conditioning wasn't working properly all the time we didn't notice. We checked the water level in the batteries and found them all full. They ought to be checked throughout the summer as last fall when checked it took several gallons to fill them. However, I believe the new battery charging system that was installed last fall may do a better job of not overcharging the batteries and drying them out. We also checked the oil in the generator and engines and found them all full and with good oil color.

We noticed the upper eye bolts for the guy wires that stabilize the canopy on the port side were broken and in need of replacement. We didn't get a chance to get to Page to get them. Hopefully the next owner could take some out and do that repair. I noticed that one of the uprights appeared to be showing signs of weakening.

We noticed that the bag in the vacuum cleaner was full and we changed it out. Our previous trip we found the bag to be overfull to the point that the vacuum would not pickup. We found that it was even clogged out into the hose. There are replacement bags on the upper shelf of the closet in the master bedroom.

We removed the slide by simply hammering out the large pin that attaches it to the mount. We found that the advantage of having access to the back of the boat for easy docking far outweighed having the slide in place. We left it on top so that it could be put back on if desired. I'm not sure if it will be feasible to remount the slide up and out of the way until this winter.

We had the misfortune of extending one of the come-a-longs too far and the cable came out of the hole that holds it in place. It took much much work to wrangle it back in.

Thanks for all that you all do to keep the boat maintained and ready for the next owner! From my angle, its been a good summer so far.

George Graff

Wilding 6-27 to 7-3

We had a great time out at Lake Powell this year! We found a great spot at the far north end of Warm Creek Bay that offered great shade in the afternoon with a good wind break. Weather was great with some typical strong winds in the afternoon from the West. The houseboat ran great. There does seem to be a intermittent problem with the rear (master bedroom area) AC unit. Before we arrived the previous owner had called me asking about resetting the back AC unit and I had forwarded him info on doing a reset. He did the reset and said that the unit was working again. When we got out there and turned the unit on it did work fine for a while (a couple of hours) and then it stopped blowing air. It sounded as if the unit was running but there was no air flowing through the diffuser.  After shutting the unit off and letting it set for a few hours, I turned it back on and it started to work again for a while but ultimately it did the same thing (stopped blowing).  The previous owners had checked the lake water intake and it was clear so I do not think it was a water restriction to the unit. As indicated the unit was running and the boat had water running through the water exit on the port side of the boat unlike when a water source is plugged. I wonder if it is the fan in the unit.

Maybe it is just me and I hesitate to say this as it is possibly common knowledge amongst all the owners but I have never been able to bring the trim up and down on the houseboat out drives. If any of you are like me, I stumbled on to it while on the lake this time. In order to raise the trim you need to hold the two upper buttons on the trim adjustment at the same time. As you push both buttons you will notice the gauge indicating trim start to move up on the correlating indicator above the buttons (and the out drive does raise) . To lower the trim you hold the lower button down and you will once again notice the gauge showing the trim going down. It was really nice to be able to raise the trim this trip as I came in to the beach. Hope this helps someone else!

I replaced the fire extinguisher in the kitchen and had to go get propane on my own as LP services did not come out and switch the tanks as requested by Sorensons