denwatson
Member
- Aug 3, 2010
- 74
- Boat Info
- 2007 240 Sundeck and before that 1988 Sea Ray Sorrento 23
- Engines
- 350 MAG MPI BravoIII and before that 5.0 Merc 260 with Alpha drive
I don't know, the first time I saw them, "EVIL EYES" is the first thing that popped into my mind. You know like something out of a scifi thriller or maybe the eyes on a robotic alien. And, if you choose to read this post, and if you have a compatible vessel, and if you desire, you can have your own pair of "EVIL EYES".
But first a touch of history to explain why we needed "EVIL EYES" in the first place. Our family, that is my Mom and Dad, and subsequently my own family has been boating for over fifty years. It hardly seems possible but during that time we have gone through eight boats, including three Sea Rays, and eleven RV's. It's kind of been our own stimulus plan but ours has worked better than the government's. But each time we put one of those boats in the water it was for one primary reason and that was to water ski. Some of us actually got pretty good, I still carry my old Connely TRC but it's more likely to be used as a paddle than a ski these days. It follows then, that we were always looking for flat water. Not glass, that can get pretty slippery, but flat water with just a little disturbance on the surface. We live in Southern California(by the way we are usually on the losing end of our elections), and all we have locally are a few overused man made puddles. So we have always had to travel for our water. We have tried most of the closest ones like Lake Mead, Lake Mojave, Lake Havasu and Lake Nacimiento. Oh, you can find flat water on all of those provided you are strapped into your ski and the boat is in the water idling when the sun comes up. In an hour or two you will be in complete chop because boats can go in any old direction they please on a lake and when their wakes start kissing each other it's over for the day. Even if traffic is light the first rustle of wind will stir at around 11:00am and by 1:00pm it's a blowout. So in the spring of 1974, we are sitting on my folks deck at Spring Valley Lake, CA, with an old family friend, who is also a boater and a skier, and we are complaining about bumpy water. He says "you've got to go to the Delta, best ski water anywhere". We all looked at each other and said "the what"? Amazingly, as native Californians we had never heard of the Delta. So he explained that is a network of 1,000 miles of rivers and sloughs. There are some photos below giving you an idea of the terrain and what kind of fish you can hook there. Levees surround farm land and offer protection from the wind. You are in a river so it's mostly two way traffic and when a wake hits the levee it's over no more wake chop! There are plenty of facilities and he gave names of marinas, campgrounds and most importantly restaurants. So we started to investigate this new possibility. If you will visualize a triangle with Sacramento at the Northern point, Stockton at the Southern point, and Antioch to the west that's pretty much the shape of the Delta. The whole thing drains out to San Francisco Bay and ultimately to the Pacific. It is mostly fed by four rivers, the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Mokelumne and the Consumne. For centuries this area was a virtual swamp complete with malaria carrying mosquitos. Then in 1861 California passed the Swamp and Overflow Act to encourage levee building for reclamation purposes. Subsequently, some three to four thousand Chinese laborers were imported to the Delta under contract to American developers. Their task was arduous, requiring them to work in waist deep water in an area in which malaria was still endemic. They cut drainage ditches, built floodgates and slowly piled up small levees. By 1880, over 88,000 acres had been reclaimed and it was the richest farm land imaginable. As reclamation began to slow and agriculture began to bloom the Chinese stayed on to work the farms. They had originally settled in the small Sacramento River town of Walnut Grove. In 1915, the Walnut Grove Chinatown burned to the ground. Part of the Chinese left Walnut Grove and arranged to lease land from a local landowner named George Locke. On this land they constructed a new town which they named Lockport, later shortened to Locke in honor of George Locke. The Chinese could only lease land because state law prohibited them from owning land. In 1952, that law was declared unconstitutional. During the Roaring Twenties an illicit amusement quarter started to develope in Locke featuring gambling parlors, speakeasies and opium dens. There were several brothels but they were owned, operated and "staffed" by whites. There were no Chinese prostitutes in deference to the respectable Chinese families in town. There are several photos of Locke including Chinese decendants celebrating holidays. Also an ariel photo of our marina. Did I mention restaurants? They have names like Wimpy's(great burgers and fries), Garlic Brothers(pasta and dessert), The Outrigger(two feet tall onion rings and Blue Moon beer with orange juice)and last but not least Al's Place in dowtown Locke. Bear with me we are getting close to the "EVIL EYES". Al the Wop's, as the restaurant is know to the locals, is more of an experience than just an eating place. Picture an ancient, tilting building with a ceiling covered in dollar bills. An old juke box twanging out country and a barkeep who is a third grade teacher working part time for Al's. When I ordered a Cuba Libre he had to ask me what it was. Here's the dinner: garlic cheese bread to die for, salad, platters of piping hot french fries and pasta, and a New York strip cooked to perfection with mushrooms. The menu has three items, large steak, small steak and pasta. There are some shots of Al's and one of the gang in front of the restaurant. That's me in the back row right with my arm around John. He was sitting out front all alone, forelornly smoking so we invited him to be the photo. He chuckled through the whole shoot, it was great. The meal combined with the history of Locke is an experience we enjoy with each trip to the Delta. We usually leave our marina around 5:00pm. It's about a forty minute cruise up the South Fork of the Mokelumne to the Meadows Anchorage and we usually have three or four boats in convoy. We raft up, climb the levee then descend down the other side for a ten minute walk to Al's. It's a tiny but well worn little trail through a jungle and the kids love it. The whole gig is good for three or four hours and when it's time to cruise home there is only one problem. It is dark outside. With a full moon it's not so bad but without that moon it is pitch black. The South Fork is a winding son of gun and since I know it and I'm the senior member of our expedition I get to lead. On our 1988 Sorrento 23 I installed a Perko rectangular stern light for the boats behind to follow in my wake.
We now have a 2007 240SD and I needed to figure out some kind of stern lighting for this boat. It occurred to me that the new LED technology would be worth exploring. There is adequate room under the blower vent panel for some hidden lighting. I decided on the Hella Thin Lite #343606202, available at Hamilton Marine for about $50. This light is waterproof and vibration resistant a very nice item as you would expect from Hella. I had some left over aluminum angle extrusion from a previous project and I mounted the lights to that, then used existing screws on the vent grills to attach the extrusion. See photos. I used the wiring harness for the anchor/nav light on the stern. Just remove the three screws holding the stern light receptacle, unplug the harness and pull the wires up through the hole. Tap in the wiring for the Hellas, tape things up, push the whole thing back down, re-install the receptacle and plug the harness back in and you are done! The lights work of both the nav and anchor switches and the lighting is great. It illuminates the platform and the wake is a luminescent blue and also reflects some light up into the cockpit.
Perfect for a romantic tete-a-tete with your partner. Put your feet up, put on some tunes and pour the wine, although at our age it's really more about getting our feet up. Take a look at the photos for the install it's really a simple add on and a great addition to the boat. Oh, by the way, it's also where you get your "EVIL EYES".
But first a touch of history to explain why we needed "EVIL EYES" in the first place. Our family, that is my Mom and Dad, and subsequently my own family has been boating for over fifty years. It hardly seems possible but during that time we have gone through eight boats, including three Sea Rays, and eleven RV's. It's kind of been our own stimulus plan but ours has worked better than the government's. But each time we put one of those boats in the water it was for one primary reason and that was to water ski. Some of us actually got pretty good, I still carry my old Connely TRC but it's more likely to be used as a paddle than a ski these days. It follows then, that we were always looking for flat water. Not glass, that can get pretty slippery, but flat water with just a little disturbance on the surface. We live in Southern California(by the way we are usually on the losing end of our elections), and all we have locally are a few overused man made puddles. So we have always had to travel for our water. We have tried most of the closest ones like Lake Mead, Lake Mojave, Lake Havasu and Lake Nacimiento. Oh, you can find flat water on all of those provided you are strapped into your ski and the boat is in the water idling when the sun comes up. In an hour or two you will be in complete chop because boats can go in any old direction they please on a lake and when their wakes start kissing each other it's over for the day. Even if traffic is light the first rustle of wind will stir at around 11:00am and by 1:00pm it's a blowout. So in the spring of 1974, we are sitting on my folks deck at Spring Valley Lake, CA, with an old family friend, who is also a boater and a skier, and we are complaining about bumpy water. He says "you've got to go to the Delta, best ski water anywhere". We all looked at each other and said "the what"? Amazingly, as native Californians we had never heard of the Delta. So he explained that is a network of 1,000 miles of rivers and sloughs. There are some photos below giving you an idea of the terrain and what kind of fish you can hook there. Levees surround farm land and offer protection from the wind. You are in a river so it's mostly two way traffic and when a wake hits the levee it's over no more wake chop! There are plenty of facilities and he gave names of marinas, campgrounds and most importantly restaurants. So we started to investigate this new possibility. If you will visualize a triangle with Sacramento at the Northern point, Stockton at the Southern point, and Antioch to the west that's pretty much the shape of the Delta. The whole thing drains out to San Francisco Bay and ultimately to the Pacific. It is mostly fed by four rivers, the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Mokelumne and the Consumne. For centuries this area was a virtual swamp complete with malaria carrying mosquitos. Then in 1861 California passed the Swamp and Overflow Act to encourage levee building for reclamation purposes. Subsequently, some three to four thousand Chinese laborers were imported to the Delta under contract to American developers. Their task was arduous, requiring them to work in waist deep water in an area in which malaria was still endemic. They cut drainage ditches, built floodgates and slowly piled up small levees. By 1880, over 88,000 acres had been reclaimed and it was the richest farm land imaginable. As reclamation began to slow and agriculture began to bloom the Chinese stayed on to work the farms. They had originally settled in the small Sacramento River town of Walnut Grove. In 1915, the Walnut Grove Chinatown burned to the ground. Part of the Chinese left Walnut Grove and arranged to lease land from a local landowner named George Locke. On this land they constructed a new town which they named Lockport, later shortened to Locke in honor of George Locke. The Chinese could only lease land because state law prohibited them from owning land. In 1952, that law was declared unconstitutional. During the Roaring Twenties an illicit amusement quarter started to develope in Locke featuring gambling parlors, speakeasies and opium dens. There were several brothels but they were owned, operated and "staffed" by whites. There were no Chinese prostitutes in deference to the respectable Chinese families in town. There are several photos of Locke including Chinese decendants celebrating holidays. Also an ariel photo of our marina. Did I mention restaurants? They have names like Wimpy's(great burgers and fries), Garlic Brothers(pasta and dessert), The Outrigger(two feet tall onion rings and Blue Moon beer with orange juice)and last but not least Al's Place in dowtown Locke. Bear with me we are getting close to the "EVIL EYES". Al the Wop's, as the restaurant is know to the locals, is more of an experience than just an eating place. Picture an ancient, tilting building with a ceiling covered in dollar bills. An old juke box twanging out country and a barkeep who is a third grade teacher working part time for Al's. When I ordered a Cuba Libre he had to ask me what it was. Here's the dinner: garlic cheese bread to die for, salad, platters of piping hot french fries and pasta, and a New York strip cooked to perfection with mushrooms. The menu has three items, large steak, small steak and pasta. There are some shots of Al's and one of the gang in front of the restaurant. That's me in the back row right with my arm around John. He was sitting out front all alone, forelornly smoking so we invited him to be the photo. He chuckled through the whole shoot, it was great. The meal combined with the history of Locke is an experience we enjoy with each trip to the Delta. We usually leave our marina around 5:00pm. It's about a forty minute cruise up the South Fork of the Mokelumne to the Meadows Anchorage and we usually have three or four boats in convoy. We raft up, climb the levee then descend down the other side for a ten minute walk to Al's. It's a tiny but well worn little trail through a jungle and the kids love it. The whole gig is good for three or four hours and when it's time to cruise home there is only one problem. It is dark outside. With a full moon it's not so bad but without that moon it is pitch black. The South Fork is a winding son of gun and since I know it and I'm the senior member of our expedition I get to lead. On our 1988 Sorrento 23 I installed a Perko rectangular stern light for the boats behind to follow in my wake.
We now have a 2007 240SD and I needed to figure out some kind of stern lighting for this boat. It occurred to me that the new LED technology would be worth exploring. There is adequate room under the blower vent panel for some hidden lighting. I decided on the Hella Thin Lite #343606202, available at Hamilton Marine for about $50. This light is waterproof and vibration resistant a very nice item as you would expect from Hella. I had some left over aluminum angle extrusion from a previous project and I mounted the lights to that, then used existing screws on the vent grills to attach the extrusion. See photos. I used the wiring harness for the anchor/nav light on the stern. Just remove the three screws holding the stern light receptacle, unplug the harness and pull the wires up through the hole. Tap in the wiring for the Hellas, tape things up, push the whole thing back down, re-install the receptacle and plug the harness back in and you are done! The lights work of both the nav and anchor switches and the lighting is great. It illuminates the platform and the wake is a luminescent blue and also reflects some light up into the cockpit.
Perfect for a romantic tete-a-tete with your partner. Put your feet up, put on some tunes and pour the wine, although at our age it's really more about getting our feet up. Take a look at the photos for the install it's really a simple add on and a great addition to the boat. Oh, by the way, it's also where you get your "EVIL EYES".
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