JdFinley.com

Fulltime RV Living Adventures

Home, again

The repositioning went well yesterday.  It took a little over three hours to motor from my old slip in Fort Myers Beach, up the Caloosahatchee river, to downtown Fort Myers. The boat ran perfectly – Thank You!! As usual, I forgot my camera – phone to the rescue.  They are not great nor of anything… [Read More]

STRESS!!

Sometimes it seems that nothing ever goes to plan.  I even had a pretty simple one this time.  Step one was to arrive at the boat and do some serious cleaning.  Interestingly, the shore water faucets had no water. No problem, I’ll use on board water. My battery bank was dead.  Ugh.  I plugged into… [Read More]

Arrival

It was a very long drive but I am in Florida at the boat. Lots of cleaning is planned for the next couple days. Hopefully lots of good info and adventure to follow. I’m not sure why but I am filled with fear and apprehension.

Zombies

If you love zombies, need a good laugh, and have some time to kill there is a GREAT thread on SailNet.com titled “Would a sailboat be a good place to be” Love the description of a two-stroke!! 🙂

Laptop Power

I have been attempting to determine the power requirements of living on my boat.  Most of it is fairly easy. The difficulty comes from my need to earn a living which I do using a laptop computer (software developer). I have been unable to determine exactly how much power is required for a laptop over… [Read More]

Engine or No

There seem to be certain topics within every subject that are impossible for people to discuss rationally. Engines and sailboats is a perfect example. Auto engines and airplanes… Wavy potato chips or smooth… Country music or rock and roll… I don’t enjoy confrontation or debate so I’ve learned to avoid these topics altogether. Too bad,… [Read More]

Swing Bridge

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Yes, I admit it – I could not stop once I started researching the Bascule type of bridge.  So, this is somewhat of a continuation of that post.  Bridges are amazing – maybe this is a little boy thing. They are big, heavy, mechanical structures most often (these days) made out of steel.  The engineering… [Read More]

Bascule Bridge

I was perusing a nautical chart the other day and noticed a bridge that did not have a raised vertical clearance listed. It was marked as a “Bascule Bridge.”  The following chart snippet is what I was looking at – specifically the center bridge. For some reason, I had it in my head that a… [Read More]

APRS

I was doing some thinking about the benefits of having a Ham Radio license after writing my previous post.  One of the things that came to mind was APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System). I had not thought of this since I was thinking of adding to my airplane so others could see my position/movement.  In… [Read More]

I am HAM!

Yay Me!! I took the FCC Amateur Radio Operator – Technican test today and passed it with 97%! I spent quite a lot of time studying for my Ham license over the last few months and I guess it paid off.  I used mostly online resources rather than books so I can attest to the fact… [Read More]