Took a solo trip out to the 302 bank, which is around 35 miles offshore from San Diego. Weather was fine, only a light SW breeze, high overcast, but the swell was up: 4-5 feet, 9 second period. A good rough water test.

The engine ran fine for the most part, but the "Low Oil" alarm started going off occasionally. We couldn't consistently reproduce the problem. Sometimes it happened hitting the bottom of a swell, other times it happened when the boat rolled slightly to starboard when going over a big swell. Sunset Marine said to bring it it for a look. It will be a warranty repair. Recall that this problem appeared a while back, and seemed to disappear after a software update. But this was the first time we had been out in pretty rough water in a since the update. Disappointing, but they suspect a faulty pressure sensor.

The Simrad AP12R worked fine all day. We had it on most of the day (we ran a total of around 83 miles) without a problem. We did take it out of Auto mode whenever we hooked a fish (see notes in our autopilot article).

Fishing was slow on the 302, so we headed back in and fished the Coronados. The bonito were hungry! Dragging a green/gold Yo-zuri Hydromag was almost a guaranteed hit within 5 minutes. The fish were all fairly large, too - the smallest was 6 lbs, the largest 8 lbs. Tried fishing on the fly, with slim results (2 fish, although the largest of the day was on the fly). For some reason we could not get the fish to stay up on top, even chumming with live anchovies and a frozen chum bucket. This fish hit a small green/white FPF fly, fished deep on a leadcore shooting head.

Made a trip out of Mission Bay to test the motor and AP, and sneak in some fishing. Total trip distance: 73.7 miles The motor ran fine, 18.1 gallons of gas used (4.1 MPG), approx. 1 quart oil (72:1 gas:oil ratio). No idling issues.

Got a bit of a scare in the morning when we first tried to start the motor - it took 3 tries to start the motor. At first, we thought it was an engine problem, then we realized we had forgotten to prime the fuel line. So. . . in fact, the engine managed to prime itself and start after three tries. After that, the engine started immediately every time.

The Simrad AP12R autopilot did not malfunction, despite being on all day. We thought we noticed a bit of a drift to port when in auto mode, but nothing we would swear to. Oh well, maybe next time.

The fishing was good for small-to-keeper size Pacific barracuda, but not much else. We used the Butterfly jigs to can a few, used our fly rod for the rest. We also hooked what we suspect was a Black Sea Bass on the Butterfly jig, but we managed to pull the hook(s) out after about 15 minutes. One of the downsides of 50lb test Spectra.

When we got home, we removed the fuel-water seperator filter to check things out. No water in the fuel, and the filter top was bright metal, no rust. We did see a small amount of pale sediment when we emptied the filter into a bowl. We think is normal fuel crud, but we'll go by Sunset Marine to have them confirm it's OK.

Well...another conversation with Simrad Tech support. Their suggestion - leave the drive cover off, get a can of dust blaster or a spray coolant, and wait for the problem to come back. Check the LEDs to see if there are any diagnostics, then hit the circuit boards and see if the problem goes away. If not, hit the fluxgate compass with coolant. It's possible that the compass may be having the heat buildup problem, as there are electronics in there, too. Fluxgate compass replacement cost? Around $250.00.

Did the check as requested by Simrad Tech Support. It was interesting to see what kind of impact a wrench would have on the fluxgate compass. We placed a wrench right next to the compass, and the AP turned the engine, but only just barely.

We then took a small magnet and tried the same thing. It was quite startling - the AP compass began turning the motor when the magnet was 2 feet away!

Talked to Simrad Tech Support again. They asked me to go back and confirm proper operation of the AP by putting it in "Auto" mode, then seeing if the AP will change course when a wrench or other piece of steel is placed near the fluxgate compass.

Checked out the AP12R drive unit. LED flashed once when powered on, that's it?That should be normal. I may need to do this when the AP fails.

The Trojan batteries seem to be doing well. Their cell caps can be removed by hand, makes it much less painful to check cell water level.