Somebody please shoot me, I’m going mad with technical issues!
What is it “they” say the definition of cruising is? “Fixing your boat in exotic locations”, true-dat! I’ve decided Splendid is just one big work surface!
However I think something is the matter with my brain? I don’t understand why it is I need to make, engineer, figure out everything for myself. I’ve been screwing around with this scuba/spray rig for a while and I cant get it to work the way I want, I’m getting frustrated. What I don’t understand is why I can set the pressure regulator at 40psi, the LP side of the 1st stage puts out 140psi, and I still have a few second refresh on the gun and the air pressure quickly diminishes? Why don’t I get a steady 40psi? Any input would help. Maybe I need a different hi-pressure regulator (3000 PSI) on the HP side of the first stage?
I did hook up my regulator/spray gun to my 12v sea-breathe hookah system and I 
get a really nice, consistent, 25 PSI which I seem to be able to paint with.The sea-breathe has a large inflatable air reservoir and I think this makes all the difference. I’ve never pulled the trigger on a spray gun before so this is all quite new to me. I ran a test on a piece of scrap plywood and it seems to be working well? My friend told me a different gun might be the answer to work with the lower PSI but I’m not spending any more money (can’t), and I’m really quite pleased with the results I got on the test. I can see it all now though, I’m a bit of a messy worker and I think I’m going to get overspray on everything! 95% of this job is fairing and masking and only 5% pulling the trigger.
It’s like my little Kubota project. I’ve put the whole thing on hold but I have all the parts now, and conceptually I know how I want it all to turn out, I just need to make it happen. I tell you, I can be my own worst enemy sometimes. I should have gone out and bought a gas powered air-compressor and spray gun years ago when I bought Splendid but I seem to have this overwhelming urge to do everything the hard way and re-invent the wheel. When I was a kid my mother used to say I was as “stubborn as an ox and had to make all my own mistakes”. It seems this behavior has continued into my 
adulthood.
I did install my new VHF and it seems to be working well, It’s the small things in life that make me happy :)
I’m all amped to fair and spray paint and its cloudy and raining, La vida es aci!
I can always go for a motorcycle ride :) I do need to try and find new brake pads, and soon! Yamaha stopped distributing the DT175 in the USA in the 80’s, but continued to produce and update the design well into the mid-90’s. They seem to be popular in the UK, and Australia. It seems to be the perfect bike for me however I need to make a few modifications. As my buddy Gary pointed out I need to change the sprockets to get a bit more top end out of it. I can also play around with the carb, exhaust system, and eventually I want different tires. I want less of a dirt bike, and more of a mini sport bike that I can carry around on Splendid. I’d like to be able to do a comfortable 65 on the road, I wonder if that is asking too much from my little air cooled 175cc engine? I have this vision of eventually being able to sail to a new country or island, offload my bike, and ride around documenting everything on video and photographs, kinda’ cool :) 
Well my coffee cup is empty and I need to find some rainy day projects to do. I may edit some video but to add to my technical difficulties I’m having some issues importing video from my new (used) flip camera into adobe premiere. It seems I need to wash it through another program first, ARRRG, is nothing easy anymore?
Peace, Love, and motorcycles on sailboats :)
– alex