Descend Kingston Mills Locks in 4.5 Minutes

In the vain of one of our 2010 vacation videos, where the end featured a quick descent of the Ottawa Locks on the Rideau River System, we have put together a quick video of our down bound lockage of Kingston Mills Locks heading toward Kingston, Ontario in the summer of 2011. This is a 45min - 1 hour lockage, but here it is done in 4.5 minutes. Enjoy!

10 Ways Evernote Can Organize & Streamline Your Boating

Evernote is a platform to capture everything you would ever want to make a note of; from handwritten notes, e-mails, pages out of books, checklists, pictures, webpages, documents, audio notes, and pretty much anything else you can snap, write, or record. Capture anything from your life, and it will all stay in sync across all your devices. So what on earth could we do with this on the boat?

If you try to track and organize anything for your boat, you know how quickly those efforts get outdated, disorganized, and unmaintainable.  Do you have a drawer that is overflowing with this stuff, or if your keen you have it all put in large binders that has little bits of paper sticking out around it? Leave all that behind with Evernote.

1. Scan or take a picture of all work orders, and work progress. Need engine work or fiberglass work done? Take a snapshot of the work order, snap the before picture, the in progress pictures and then the state of the work when finished. A virtual, historical, pictorial record of all your jobs in one spot.
2. E-mail notes to your Evernote account. E-mail your Evernote account tasks, pictures, or text notes as you think of them on the go.
3. Inventory all serviceable items. Snap pictures of oil filters, fuel filters, batteries, flares, hoses, clamps, impellers, etc, along with noting the date serviced, and possibly the next service date. Also use text notes, or audio notes do describe what you need, and web clippings of replacement parts with prices for comparison.
4. Pictures of all of your boating services business cards and letterheads. Whenever you get service done, or foresee the use of someone, snap a shot of the business card, letterhead, magazine ad, or signage, along with a note on what you used them for or will use them for.
5. Track all your fuel usage and expenses. At the fuel dock? Take a snapshot of the receipt, throw it away, then save it to Evernote with more pics or text of the volume on the fuel meter, and the hours on the engines.
6. Save trip logs with pictures. Out on the weekend or on an extended vacation? Log your trips to Evernote with the trip specifics and snapshots of the trip. Record your engine hours along with it.
7. Winterization/Spring Checklists. Create checklists for all your winterization tasks for each part of your boat. The checklist feature even has an actual checkbox to check when the item is complete. What I have done in my winterization checklist is I have taken pictures of the off season storage procedure pages right out of my manuals for my A/C, engines, genny, etc. I have also attached web clippings from web sites and forum threads that have useful information and things to keep in mind when doing my winterization.
8. Catalog your next boat purchase research. Thinking of upgrading the boat? I know you are, you're a boater. Whether you or online and saving web clippings or pages to Evernote of the boats you like, or you are out and about looking around the boat yard and snapping pictures and taking notes, you have all that information in one place and easily accessible.  Saving audio notes is a great feature in this scenario. Save an audio note of your conversation with a broker (without him knowing of course), or record yourself doing a walk around of a boat while you talk about likes and dislikes.
9. Catalog service recall information. Every boat, engine and parts can have a series of recalls, service procedure adjustments, and different parts for those recalls. Keep these items in one place, noting what has been done one your boat, attach service bulletin pdfs along with it, and you will have your complete recall history online for your reference or for a potential buyer to look at to see how well you maintain your vessel.
10. Text searching on everything. Above and beyond the benefit of going paperless, there is the added benefit of having a searchable archive of all your notes. That's right, not only text notes, but Evernote will even index text in images, PDFs, or other documents. Imagine searching for all notes with the name of your marina, then it will quickly show you all the images or scans of work orders or receipts with your marina's name in it. That's pretty sweet if you ask me.

Whether on or off the boat, remember everything. www.evernote.com

For Sale: 2003 Carver 350 Mariner - SOLD

Year: 2003
LOA (w/ swimplatform): 36'7"
Price: SOLD




Description:
A beautifully kept and cared for, professionally maintained, freshwater Carver 350 Mariner. Fresh bottom paint, just buffed and waxed. Bright, open and airy, single level layout. Head with large shower stall is forward of the salon to starboard opposite of the expansive galley area.  Forward single stateroom with queen bed to starboard. Additional accommodations available by lowering the raised settee in the salon to port, or the opposite lounge to starboard. The abundance of seating makes this boat great for entertaining above and below decks. Easy access from the large cockpit to the upper single level deck. No climbing around ladders and narrow side decks here, with 4 large steps on either side leading up safely. The bridge gives a sport yacht feel with easy access to the very wide side decks for handling lines and ground tackle forward. This also gives you access to the best seat in the house; a lounge forward of the bridge for a front row seat to all the action. This boat is exceptional you will not be disappointed.

Specs:
Engines: Twin MerCruiser 6.2 MPI(425 hours)
Generator: Kohler 7.3 kW (100 hours)
Fuel Capacity: 246 US gals, 931.24 liters
Water Capacity: 75 US gals, 283.91 liters
Holding Tank Capacity: 20 US gals, 75.71 liters
Weight: 18,800 lbs (w/fuel & water)
Beam: 12'9"
Max Draft: 37"

Photos:

Summer Boating Is Almost Here

Summer is just around the corner. We can feel it in the air. The lakes are thawing, and the covers are coming off the boats.

To welcome in the 2011 boating season here is a movie trailer of what is to come for the C-Shel. This was done in iMovie 11 and was a lot of fun to create. Enjoy and see you on the water!