Now is a good time to do some maintenance jobs on your boat. The weather has been too rough to fish very much so productive time can be spent on your boat. I say this although the deer rut is going on.

The other day, I changed the oil in the lower unit. I would have helped if I had warmed the lower unit with a light or something before the oil change. It took forever for the old oil to drain. I did warm the new oil over the stove eye so I could just shoot it on in.  The drained out oil looked good. It was not quite clear, but was not black like last year, when it was changed for the first time in three years. There was no white discoloration present indicating no water had leaked in either through the plug or the propeller shaft seal. If water is present it might  freeze and break the lower unit housing. Ouch $$$. I let my motor all the way down to drain the last little bit of water out of the prop hub and any that might be in the water pump.

About every 5 to 6 days the batteries get charged up. My charger senses how much to charge them so they will not get overcharged. My batteries are getting a little weaker so taking care of them may extend their life some.  I think they are a little more than 2 1/2 years old. Checking the water in them will not hurt either.  If they need water, I use distilled, although I’ve heard some people say they like to use lake water. They probably get to replace their batteries more often too.

I sent my depthfinder back to the factory the other day. The sidefinding feature had stopped working about a month before. The diagnosis on the phone was that a transistor in the transducer had probably gone out.  Sure enough back it came with a new transducer. It had its software updated while it was there too.  It is sitting patiently in my bathroom until a warm day comes for me to reinstall it.   Instead of running the wire over the transom, it’s going through, both to save it getting stepped on and to get a few more inches in length.

I need to take everything out of the storage box and replace it in a little neater fashion but that’s another job for another day.