Doin' This and Doin' That

 This past weekend (02-18-12) I finally got some serious work done on our electronics project.  Until now I've managed to avoid working on it as much as possible.  There's just so many really good excuses out there. 

On Friday I picked up a Navionics Platinum + card for the chart plotter.  Cool!  Now we're all set with 3D charts and tons of additional info.  I rushed home to try it out, fired up the display and plugged in the card.  Nothing.  Hmmm.  Maybe I should read the instructions.  I went into the manual for the chartplotter (a PDF file with 114 pages) and read through everything.  It says to go into the 3D application and set it up the way I want.  OK, where's the 3D app?  I spent hours going through the program but didn't see anything about a 3D application.  Grrr.

More importantly, whenever I plugged in the card I'd go into the menu and look around and after about three minutes the chartplotter would freeze up.  I couldn't even turn off the power.  I eventually figured out that when I pull the card out the chartplotter would reset itself after a minute or two.  If I left the card in it stayed hung up.  Bad card?  I kinda doubt it.  I'm thinking it must be a problem with the card reader.

Monday was Presidents Day so I had the day off.  I played with the chartplotter some more and tried calling the Raymarine helpline.  They were on holiday too.  I called MTS, the dudes I bought the unit from, and they sent a tech over right away.  I mean, the guy was walking down the dock in five minutes.  Now that's what I call great service.  The tech, Ryan, fired up the chartplotter and showed me how to set up a new application to be used for 3D charts.  Oh!  I see! That makes complete sense.  Too bad they didn't mention that in the manual.  Then he put the card in and the whole thing froze up.  At least it's consistent.  He also tried his own card and that froze up too so we were able to verify that the problem was in the chartplotter, not the Navionics software.  He also tried a factory reset and that didn't help it either.  In the end it was decided to send it back to the factory for repairs.  It's supposed to be back in my grubby little hands in about two weeks.

Since I couldn't play with my new chart software I decided to pull the wire for the radar and autopilot.  I started at the foot of our bunk in the forward stateroom.  All the wiring that goes up the mast runs into a compartment located here and is connected to terminal strips.  The idea is to make it easy to disconnect the wiring when it's time to pull the mast.  So this is where I began by adding another terminal strip to connect power for the radar.  From here I ran 10 gauge, 3 conductor wire (#10/3) to the DC breaker panel where we'll be installing a 10 amp breaker for the radar.  To get the wire pulled from the forward stateroom to the Nav Station required dismantling the starboard side settee and pulling the wire through three compartments underneath.  Two of these compartments contain the fresh water pump and the water heater so while I was in there I also did a quick visual inspection to ensure all was well.  It was.

Next I had to pull the control wire for the auto pilot and the data cable for the radar down through the steering pedestal into the compartment under the cockpit where the genset will eventually go.  This meant unloading the aft cabin's bunk (aka the garage) and crawling through the access panel in the aft bulkhead.  I had to go back and forth between here and the cockpit a number of times because the wires kept getting hung up inside the pedestal.  I finally used my trusty fish tape (click here for more fish-tape adventures) to get it pulled through successfully.  Once I had the wire into the genset compartment I combined it with the wiring for the rudder reference and the power cable (#8/2) and clutch (#14/2) for the linear drive.  I had to feed this bundle down into the trough for the propeller shaft and then pull it through a wire run into a storage bin under the floor in the galley.  From there it gets pulled through underneath the cabinets and into a compartment under the Nav Station.  This is where the course computer will be located and all the auto pilot components will tie into that.

I also had to find a place for the fluxgate compass (click here for Wikipedia's explanation of a fluxgate compass).  It's supposed to be located pretty much centerline in the boat to minimize the effects of side-to-side and front-to-back motion, but has to be away from large cast iron masses such as the engine, which is also pretty much centerline in the boat.  I think I found a good spot for it just forward of the fuel tank on the aft bulkhead of the bilge.

With the worst of the wiring out of the way I feel like I'm pretty much on schedule with this installation.  I still have to mount the radar and pull wire for it up through the mast.  A friend of mine just finished this job on his boat using a 20' extension ladder.  Our mast is a bit taller than his though so I think I'm gonna have to use a bosun's chair.  The biggest problem with this is that I'll need Cheri to haul me up the mast using a winch or maybe even the anchor windlass.  I found a better option here.  A guy up in Maine was selling a fairly new (used only once!) single-handed ATN MastClimber (check it out) for half price.  Using this Cheri won't have to destroy her arms trying to hoist me up and I'll have complete control over how fast I go and when I stop.  Best of all, no screaming back and forth.  Perfect!

While I'm waiting for the chartplotter to come back I attacked the cockpit with polish and wax.  After I laid on the polish I hit it with a power buffer and it really brought out the shine.  This poor boat had spent about eight years down in the BVI and all the fiberglass was looking very chalky.  Last year I buffed out everything but the cockpit so now I'm pretty much caught up.  The buffer really brought out the gloss, looks mighty nice.  I also tried out a 3M product for restoring plastic.  I used this on the bezels for the instruments and also on the line locks for the running rigging.  Wow!  Everything looks brand new!  That's really amazing stuff.

My biggest problem now is that the boat looks so nice I don't want to sell it anymore.