My folks gave me a fish finder for my birthday. I think they are getting me back for all the bad things I did to them when I was younger or for not blessing them with a grand child As you can imagine, I was very excited when I opened the gift and saw that beautiful Hummingbird with a water temperature gauge, depth finder, and a slew of other options I am still trying to figure out (I am not sure, but I think I can order a pizza with this thing too). But before I could enjoy my new toy I had to install it in the SeaSprite. I wanted this project to turn out nice, so I told my wife it would take over twice the amount of time I actually thought it would take to install it. This insured I would not get flustered, interrupted, or try to go too fast! I forgot to allow for the inevitable time loss of doing anything (let alone wiring) on the SeaSprite.
I started out the project by deciding where everything should mount. I found a spot where the display could be seen by both the front fishing seat and the drivers seat with just a minor adjustment. The transducer would go on the transom according to the directions. The wiring could go under the deck with all the other red wires. The unit came with plenty of hardware and pretty good instructions. I had everything all thought out, and was only 15 minutes into the install.
I got out my drill motor and a bit and drilled the holes in the transom for the transducer. No problems there, so I moved to the display mount. After finding the spot on the console with the least amount of dry rot, I drilled a couple of hole and secured the mount.
I was really cooking now! Placement was well thought out. The holes were drilled and the screws were siliconed (I don’t think the bilge pump can handle another teaspoon an hour). Now all I had to do was a bit of wiring and I was ready to find fish!!! After accessing the area that contains the wires, my enthusiasm was dampened a bit. My wife gently reminded me that I had used 3/4 of my advertised install time…and dinner was getting cold.
The wiring in our boat is not as simple as it looks. You would think I could just splice into one of the many, many red wires, find a ground and be done with it! Nope, not a snowballs chance in hell was that going to happen. After a few hours, four blown in-line fuses (thank God for those!), numerous soldering burns, 13 feet of shrink tubing, and a bunch of grumbling later I was finally set. I had only exceeded my estimated install time (that I had already doubled) by two and a half hours.
I was ready for my first trip to the lake with my fish finder. Now, I would like to stop here and offer a bit of reality to those of you who are thinking of buying a fish finder. Dont do it! Stop thinking reality is that just because the fish finder shows there are fish under you, does not mean that you can actually catch them. This is truly a modern-day mental torture device. My wife, in her infinite wisdom, warned me that I was just going to become frustrated when I started using this bit of technology she was dead wrong. I am not frustrated. I have gone right past frustrated and gone right into deep emotional trauma! I KNOW they are there I can see them teasing me, laughing at me, mocking me!
{moscomment}
