The Dude

Here it is February 28th already.  I've made some progress on my projects, instruments and a DC sub panel, but at this point I only have one weekend to finish up before the boat is scheduled to splash, March 15th.  I lose one weekend because we're heading out of town for a few days to visit with family.  I still need to paint the bottom which includes raising the water line and repainting the boot stripe.  The weather has not been cooperating and now I'm starting to stress out.  We looked into staying at the Inn for an extra two weeks and they can accommodate us for most of it but we'll hafta move around.  It's not easy being homeless.

I talked to the guy doing the cabinetry and he's relieved to have some extra time.  The business with the rudder really held things up so apparently the stress is universal.  It's nice to have company.

So far we've got the rudder repair completed and the auto pilot linear drive is in place.  I'm doing the wiring on that so it probably won't get completed for a while.  The genset is in place and the work on that is expected to be completed by the end of this week.  The unit for doing the oil change is mounted in the starboard cockpit locker.  That space is filling up.  That's where the linear drive is mounted as well as the controllers for the auto pilot and the depth sounder (what I've been calling the sonar).  This space also houses the two compressors for the fridge and freezer, the exhaust for the engine and the exhaust for the genset and the drain for the cockpit.  This locker is really deep and the floor is actually the inside of the hull so it angles down towards the centerline of the boat at about a 45 degree angle.  It's not too bad getting in but for an old geezer like me it's a challenge getting back out.  I need to run the return air duct for the diesel heater and I'm thinking of putting it through here.  As if there's room for that too.  I could build a step over top of it and then it'd be easier to climb in and out.  Another project for me to do in all my copious free time.  Or I could just keep filling it up with stuff.

The weather on Wednesday, 2-27-13, was supposed to be really nice, clear with mid 50's temperatures.  I decided to play hooky and try to get something done on the boat.  I could let everything else go except for painting the hull so I concentrated on that.  I got the new waterline taped off and started sanding the hull.  It took me four hours to do just one side and most of that was spent bent over, twisted around and kneeling in the mud while holding the sander over my head.  I had my mini shop vac hooked up to the sander but I forgot to wear a dust mask.  At the end of four hours I had to quit because every time I blew my nose it came out 70% copper.  What a dummy.

The galley is coming along now that the genset is in place, now that the linear drive is installed, now that the rudder is repaired.  The upper cabinets are starting to take shape and we're getting a better feel for how things are going to look.  Even better, you can get a feel for the amount of storage space we're adding here.  I'm just talking about the cabinets above the counter top here.  The old cabinets used to go up about six inches and then had a shelf above them that was limited in height by the underside of the deck.  We pushed the front of the cabinets out about 1.5 inches and ran them all the way up so there's no wasted space.  The cabinet dude built these so all the walls of the cabinets are vertical so we can have an adjustable shelf inside.  He's concerned about these shelves rattling so he's making them semi-permanently installed.  If we want to change the height we can but they'll be screwed in place, not just resting there.  There'll be pre-drilled holes for other positions.  This guy has all kindsa good ideas like that.  The first two pictures show the galley right before work started and then where we are now.  Check out the old double sinks (muy pequeno!).  The second shot shows the cutout for the new sink (muy grande!).  The cool-man new faucet will be at the lower corner near the plastic container.  There will be a shallow cabinet behind the stove, maybe for spices, and back in the corner to the right will be a cabinet for the coffee maker with a dedicated AC outlet built in back there so we can just hit "go" and have our fix.  Woohooo!

Cheri wanted to have a slot in the counter where she could store her knives.  The cabinet dude suggested having the counter raised about a quarter inch in that area so water wouldn't go down the slot if something got spilled.  This knife slot has the knives hanging down into the aft cabin so he boxed it in and made the bottom removable for cleaning.  To open it you press on one of the pieces of trim and it pops open.  That's it above the 5 quart plastic bucket.

The drawer we added beneath the oven is built with the back panel following the contour of the inside of the hull so there's no wasted space.  The cabinet guy also added a lip across the back of it so nothing can spill out when we heel over to starboard.  He also built in a latch that prevents the drawer from sliding out all the way on it's own.  The top picture shows how the drawer will fit under the stove.  It's designed to match the factory drawers.  In fact, he did such a nice job you can't tell one from the other.  Even the color of the stain is identical.

I've also asked him (the cabinet dude) to build a small cabinet above the nav station to house the radios (VHF and single side-band).  I'm re-organizing the gear located here and adding a DC sub panel to give me eight additional, breakers.  Moving the radios to their own cabinet will give me the space I need and leave some spare for future additions.

This guy is very talented and above all, very nice.  He asked me not to use his name here so from now on he's "The Dude".  Like, Dude!  That's a compliment!

Yardwork Update - Mid February

Things are really starting to move ahead with the boat.  The cabinetry for the galley is being assembled in the wood shop while some of the other work on board is taking place.  The genset installation has been waiting for the rudder repair to be completed.  In the middle of all that I asked the guys at Hinckley to do some extra work and that had to be orchestrated into the works.

The rudder repair (click here) held up progress because the post is right in the middle of everything, located just inches aft of where the genset will go.  The completed repair is now sooooo much stronger than what the factory had done.  The first picture shows the area after it's been cleaned up.  The G10 tube is epoxied in place and the stuffing box / mounting plate / sleeve assembly is ready to be glassed into place.  The next picture shows the bolt heads have been epoxied in position and the first plate is glassed in.  The final picture shows everything glassed in up to the top of the tube.  This is incredibly overbuilt which is fine with me.  It's a proven weak spot on the boat.  Not anymore!  I'm really impressed with the work done by the Hinckley yard.

When the rudder work was completed they installed the linear drive for the auto pilot.  I figured it was better to get this done now before the genset went in while there was plenty of room down there.  The installation of the linear drive was done just like the repair on the rudder - extra beefy!  They reinforced the shelf in the starboard cockpit locker where the unit was going to be mounted.  The glassed in a "U" shaped fiberglass support beneath the shelf and added G10 blocks on top to raise the unit to the correct height.  This linear drive exerts some serious force and the job they did here should be more than enough to stand up to it.

With this job out of the way the genset can be installed.  I stopped by the yard yesterday afternoon and they were in the process of hoisting it onto the boat.  Cool!  We're going by tomorrow (Friday) to see the progress.  I'll post an update with more pictures this weekend.

We've Got True Grit

Courage, determination, fortitude, guts, resolve, spunk, tenacity.  These are all synonyms for "backbone".  I've just learned of a new one.

Part of the work we're doing this winter involves laying in a NMEA 2000 networking cable ("backbone") and new instruments.  The "backbone" requires a bit of an explanation.  A while back the National Marine Electronics Association decided it would be in their best interest if they standardized communications between electronic components that are used on boats.  Good idea!  With everything using the same one's and zero's we can mix and match our electronics, using a Furuno chart plotter with a Raymarine radar.  For the consumer this was a really great thing as far as having a wider selection of gear goes but it was also great in that it simplified installation in a huge way.  Instead of having to run multiple wires for each piece of gear you can now run everything to a backbone cable that provides power and two way communication.  Some instruments will still need a separate power line but stuff like instruments can have one simple connection.  Not only that but our multi function display can interface with everything and control the radar, sonar and auto pilot from the same display.  It can also show information about other systems on the boat such as the engine, genset and battery bank providing information about oil pressure, temperature, rpm's, engine hours and power use.  And more.

Because of the backbone concept I decided to replace our Raymarine ST60 instruments (wind, speed and depth) which are probably original equipment from 2001.  The new instruments will all be Raymarine too.  Wind will be covered by the i60.  Functionally it's very similar to the ST60 but it will be able to communicate with the other instruments over the backbone.  A P70 will interface with the autopilot and share information with the multi function display.  We're also adding an i70 which is actually a small multi function display and can be programmed to display up to ten different functions.  We'll be using it for depth and speed but also to show rudder angle, genset and engine info as well as a number of other things.  This little display is so useful we decided to put a second one down below at the nav station which'll provide access to all the information on the system.  Right now if we want to know how hard the wind is blowing we have to go up into the cockpit to find out.  The basic controls, on/off, for the genset will be at the nav station but the gauges will be mounted in the cockpit.  With the i70 we'll be able to monitor the genset voltage, current, hours of operation, oil pressure, temperature and more from down below also.  A good example of these instruments talking back and forth to each other is their ability to change from day mode to night mode.  For night mode they have a red display that won't kill your night vision.  When you set up one of these instruments to display night mode they all instantly change over.

Another thing we're adding is an auto pilot.  This has a number of components including a linear drive which drives the rudder, a rudder position indicator which indicates the rudder angle, a digital compass and a course computer.  There's also the P70 controller up in the cockpit.  With the auto pilot we'll be able to set a course and it'll hold the boat to that compass setting.  We'll be able to go off and take care of other things while the boats sails itself.  Of course we'll hafta monitor it on a regular basis and keep an eye out for obstacles but it'll relieve us from the strain of having to man the helm constantly.  We'll have the freedom to fish, fly kites, take pictures, whatever, while the boat sails on.  Now that's pretty cool!  And another example of talking back and forth.....the rudder position indicator can send info to the i70 which will display the angle of the rudder.  This can be very helpful, especially when backing, which requires thinking in double-reverse-negative.  Or maybe that's just me and explains why I always run into things.

We're also adding an automatic identification system (AIS) , described like this:  "operating in the VHF maritime band, the AIS system enables the wireless exchange of navigation status between vessels and shore-side traffic monitoring centers. Commercial ships, ocean-going vessels and recreational boats equipped with AIS transceivers broadcast AIS messages that include the vessel's name, course, speed and current navigation status".  Nice!  It takes a lot of the guesswork out of navigating around other vessels and makes our boat more visible to others.  Bobbing around on the ocean waves we may not be seen visually or even show up on a radar screen but with AIS our location and name will be displayed and they'll know we're there.  If they're awake.

One other thing we're putting on this winter is sonar. It's actually a very nice fish finder that will give us a good indication of bottom features as well as fish locations, water temperature and depth.  We originally wanted a forward looking sonar but found that this is wayyyyyy out of our league price-wise.  I think this'll help to keep us out of trouble though.

Using the NMEA 2000 backbone will give us something else.  Our VHF radio has a feature called DSC which stands for "digital selective calling".  This is a semi-automatic way of placing calls on the radio.  You have to register with the FCC and be assigned an MMSI # which is specific to your boat.  This registration gives emergency contact information plus information about the boat and it's owner.  The VHF radio is connected to GPS using the NMEA backbone and in an emergency you can hit one button on the radio and it'll broadcast your information and location.  The Coast Guard monitors DSC as well as groups around the world.  With the GPS information you stand a much better chance of rescue than if you were just broadcasting a MAYDAY call.  In addition this DSC can be set up for personal use too.  You can do individual and group calls using MMSI #'s that have been pre-programmed into the radio.  If you're traveling with a group of boats (as we will be when we go to Bermuda) then you can keep in touch with each other using each of the boats MMSI #'s.

The new electronics available these days have really changed the boating world.  It used to be that if you wanted to go out in a boat you really had to know what you were doing.  You had to know how to read a chart, plot a course using celestial navigation, communicate with other boats using visual and audible signals, understand weather and more,   Now just about any idiot can go out on the water and drive a boat.  And they do.  There's a lot of these skills that I don't have yet but I'm learning.  I really like the huge amount of information you get with the new electronics.  What I don't like is the amount of learning required to use this stuff.  It's gonna take months to figure all this out.

Never, Ever, Never, Never Buy a Charter Boat. Ever.

01/08/13 - "Up until this past year we've been doing mostly repairs to all the stuff she had wrong with her when we bought her.  Let me tell ya, it is really rewarding to be making improvements instead of repairs".

I actually had to go and say that, didn't I?  Nothing like tempting fate.

I got a call yesterday from Hinckley.  They pulled the rudder to repair the blisters and found that the stuffing box had some damage.  Apparently Island Packet used stainless steel studs to bolt down the bronze stuffing box.  Two of the studs were badly corroded due to dissimilar metals.  One of them was just a shell with threads and was completely eaten away inside.  But there's more.  Once the rudder post was out of the way they also found that the sleeve, the metal tube the shaft runs through where it enters the hull, was cracked.  They removed the stuffing box, which includes the sleeve and a mounting plate combined, and found the area underneath the plate was leveled with several inches of epoxy and the epoxy was cracked in a number of places.  The fiberglass underneath that was totally soaked from seawater leaking in.  It was so soft you could press a nail into it.  The repair requires taking out the old epoxy and removing the mushy fiberglass, then building it back up again after it's all dried out.  Once the fiberglass is repaired we'll glass in a G10 tube that'll hold the new sleeve ("G-10/FR-4 is a thermosetting industrial laminate consisting of a continuous filament glass cloth material with an epoxy resin binder. It has characteristics of high strength, excellent electrical properties and chemical/water resistance not only at room temperature but also under humid or moist conditions.")  The epoxy will be replaced to give the plate a flat surface to bolt up to and new studs will be embedded in the epoxy but this time they'll be silicon bronze, not stainless steel.  We can build it stronger, better.

The Hinckley dudes believe that this was damage done years ago while the boat was in charter.  I'm absolutely positive it didn't happen since we've owned the boat.  It appears that when the rudder was hit it kicked the shoe, the support at the bottom of the rudder, off to the side.  This would have put quite a bit of pressure inside the sleeve from the angle of the rudder post.  The sleeve cracked, as did the epoxy.  The shoe must not have been off-center by much.  I didn't see it before it was removed but I did spend quite a bit of time around the rudder when I was inspecting the blisters.  It also wasn't noticed during the survey when we bought the boat, September '09, and I didn't see it during all the work we did that winter, January '10.  The survey did comment on a slight binding in the steering and also on the corroded condition of the stuffing box bolts.

This is a major repair and it falls right in line with the other damage (holding tank, engine heat exchanger) that wasn't noted in the survey.  We may still not be done repairing problems from this boat's life in charter.  It occurred to me that if we had bumped the rudder with the fiberglass in this condition it probably would have punched a pretty big hole in the bottom of the boat.  I think I've reached the point here where I can honestly say that buying a boat that was previously chartered is not worth it.  These boats get abused because the people who use them don't own them.  They don't care about the boat or what happens to it.  I don't think the charter boats get the care and feeding they should from the charter companies either.  Can you imagine buying a boat as an investment and putting it in charter?  After some years of service you decide it's time for your family to enjoy and you find it totally trashed.  This is how this boat was when we bought it.  All the interior teak was water stained from leaving the ports and hatches open.  The holding tank was blown out.  The heat exchanger on the engine was unserviceable, ruined from neglect.  The hanging lockers in the forward stateroom wreaked of effluent.  When we bought the boat we had a cushion in value of about $100k to make repairs, based on the selling price of other 420's versus what we paid for her.  At the time we thought we were doing OK, well within that cushion.  I can honestly say now that it wasn't worth the money, time and effort we've put into it.  What?  Me frustrated?  Nooooooo!

Let The Games Begin!

 Whitehall Creek

We moved the boat on Saturday, 01/12/13, from Herrington Harbour North to Whitehall Creek Marina, located just outside of Annapolis, where Hinckley has their yard.  We had moved everything we needed off the boat the weekend before so this was a simple drop-off job.  It was a beautiful day, clear sky with temps in the low 50's but there was no wind so we motored the whole way, 6.5 to 7 knots, on glassy water and arrived in three hours.  This marina is tucked way back there on the creek and I even managed to run aground in 12' of water (don't even ask).  "It's not my fault, it's not my fault"!  Not sure if that was actually said out loud or not.  The picture at the top was taken the next day, cold, damp and miserable.  We definitely picked the right day for this.

OK, so by the end of the first week we're past the point of no return.  The boat's up on the hard, parked high and dry next to the shops.  They have a pretty cool setup with a second floor deck around the building.  With the boat standing next to it they can put a gangplank from the deck to the boat for easy access.  Beats having to climb a ladder all day.  This is especially nice for the kind of work these guys will be doing, having to carry in cabinets, tools and bulky equipment.

In that first week they removed everything in the galley from the countertop up.  Once the counter was off we quickly spotted the problem with the freezer.  There's a gap between the hull and the side of the freezer box that was filled with expanding foam but it didn't go all the way up, leaving a 2" gap underneath the cabinet along the starboard side.  We suspected something like this because we'd been having problems with this cabinet being constantly wet inside and actually icing up at times.  We'll shoot some more insulation in there, the expanding foam type, and hopefully that'll solve our problems.  We actually dug down into other areas around the box and the rest of the insulation appears to be in good condition.  We also got a better look at some of the real problem areas of the cabinets and may come up with some better ways of dealing with them.

With the boat up on the hard we got our first good look at the hull in three years.  This is the original bottom paint, put on in April 2010 and it's looking really good.  We used Pettit Trinidad SR which is a hard, non-ablative paint, meaning that it doesn't come off with time.  Ablative paints are made to ablate (duh) so when a critter attaches itself the paint just flakes off and drops to the bottom of the Bay.  Keeps the boat clean but I gotta think it's gonna be hard on the Bay, all those little flakes of paint piling up over the years.  Except for a few areas around the water line and at the bottom of the keel where we plowed through the mud a few times the paint has held up really well.  We'll be raising the waterline about three inches because of the weight of all the junk we've brought on the boat since we moved aboard.  The area of the keel where we ran aground (more than once) is down to bare fiberglass and will need to be sealed with a barrier coat before being painted.  While I was getting a good close look at the hull the sun worked it's way around to the West and highlighted another problem area.  Our rudder has blisters.  I've never had to deal with this and had to look it up (click here).  Basically this is water finding it's way past the gel coat into the fiberglass.  Apparently there's a number of causes and a range of severity.  The repair is handled differently depending on the amount of intrusion into the layers of fiberglass.  There is a chance that this is just surface blisters and involves only the paint.  We'll soon know.  The rudder is being removed to repair a leak where the shaft enters the hull and the blisters will be repaired while it's off the boat.  The shaft for the rudder is so long they have to dig a trench in the gravel to get it out because the Travel lift can't lift the boat high enough.  This is called "the snowball effect".  Little problems turn into big ones.  Big ones turn into disasters.  Conversely, as the problems increase in size so your wallet gets sucked into itself simply by repeated opening and closing, becoming smaller and smaller until it implodes.  The sound this makes is usually mistaken by others for flatulence and the final result is much the same.  It stinks so you wrinkle up your nose and move on.  Get used to it.  You own a boat.

One good thing that we found was the paint we put on the propeller (PropSpeed) really worked!  It's been on there for three years now and only needed a high pressure wash-down to get the gunk off.  Hardly any barnacles at all.  That's just amazing!  The paint is pretty pricey but it definitely does the job.  Having a clean prop really makes a big difference.

Well, it's only been a week and things are really happening.  Some good, some bad, but at least this is a good time to be taking care of things.  We still have 700 days to go.

In the meantime.....plans are moving ahead for the rally to Bermuda (click here).  We're signed up along with 10 other boats and it's planned to happen in late May of this year.  We're taking three weeks off for this, figuring one week of non-stop sailing in each direction with a week to play on the beach while we're there.  Much of the work we'll be doing this winter will be getting the boat ready for this trip.  Much to do I assure you.  I'll tell you more in the next installment.

Time For A Change

We had looked into getting a different boat as a solution to some of the aggravations we have with this one.  The galley is nice but it's full of compromises.  Much of the storage here has areas that are difficult to get into.  The freezer is poorly insulated and is a huge power drain on the batteries.  The side-by-side sinks are too small for our dishes and pans and because of that, after-meal-cleanup is a pain.  The aft cabin needs more storage too or it ends up looking like a garage.  After living with it for three years we've thought of better ways things could have been done or at least done better for us.  We looked at some really nice boats but they all had design compromises in one way or another.  After a year of trying to sell our boat in a lousy "buyer's market" we decided it made more sense for us to keep our beautiful Island Packet and invest in some improvements to make this boat work better for us.  We've had friends suggest that what we're planning to do will not add any value to the boat and is just a waste of money.  I guess if we were planning to sell it any time soon that would be true.  The reality is that we're keeping this boat and will be using it in a way that will make it an intimate part of everything we do for the next ten or fifteen years.  We're investing not so much in the value of the boat but in the quality of our future.

With that in mind we've made a plan of attack and this winter is going to be very busy.  We had several companies come to the boat and give estimates on the work we'll be farming out, the stuff that's just too time consuming or physically out of our league.  We found that Hinckley Yachts in Annapolis provided the quality of work we wanted at competitive prices.  We felt the most comfortable with these guys too.  They actually respond to phone calls and e-mails and have a work ethic that's more in tune with the way we do things.  So many people in the marine service industry don't.  We had one very "respected" cabinet maker tell us how interested he was to do this job in the galley.  We tried for six weeks to get an estimate from him but he never returned phone calls or e-mails.  Not once.  With Hinckley you get a response within 24 hours.

Yesterday (1-7-13) we toured the yard, met the folks who would actually be doing the work and sat down with Jeff Talarico, the Service Manager, to nail down specifics.  We'll be moving the boat there next weekend where she'll be on the hard for two months.  We're now living in an apartment on the beach at Herrington Harbour South for the rest of the winter.

The galley work is scheduled to begin in mid-January.  We're doing a full-on renovation here including replacing the countertop with Corian and replacing all the cabinetry from the counter up.  The new cabinets will be extended in from the bulkhead an inch and will extend all the way up to the overhead.  We've found the existing shelf space above those cabinets to be pretty useless and having extra storage room inside the cabinets would be more beneficial.  Plus we estimate we'll be almost doubling the useable space in these cabinets.  We'll be adding a cabinet beneath the companionway (where the drop boards are currently stored) with two 3/4 depth slide out drawers.  We're converting the storage area beneath the oven to a pull out drawer.  That's always been one of those blind storage spots that ends up being wasted space.  Being able to pull it out will make a huge difference.  The lid for the freezer/ fridge will be split in two so you only open the side you actually need access to.  We won't be using struts on the new lids so they'll be able to open all the way back to allow easier access.  The struts are nice but they really restrict the opening of the lid.  We'll also be re-insulating the area around the freezer and fridge while the countertop is off.  The space for the micro-wave (removed - we didn't use it) will become a cabinet with tambour doors and a shelf inside and there will be a cabinet across the back of the stove, also with tambour doors.  The stove will be moved forward 2" and lowered 1" so the Corian piece on top of it will be flush with the rest of the countertop.  When the stove is in use that piece will slip into a pocket behind the stove.  We're also having a piece of stainless steel attached to the area above the stove (the underside of the deck) to make clean-up a little easier.  To the port side of the fridge will be a piece of raised Corian counter with slots cut in for knife storage.  The two small sinks will become one, approximately the same size.  The cabinet to the right of the oven will be converted to two drawers (three total with the existing one above).  The space inside this cabinet has proven difficult to use and we felt drawers would serve us better.  There will also be a corner cabinet to the left of the freezer that will house the coffee maker on a pull-out shelf.  This corner of the existing cabinet has been mostly inaccessible.  The area behind the fridge will become a cabinet for dishes and cups.

During this two month period we'll also be adding cabinets in the aft cabin where the existing shelf is, at the head of the bunk along the port side.  Hopefully this will be the answer to our storage needs back there and the aft cabin will no longer serve as the garage.  Another cabinet project at this time will be an addition above the Nav Station to house the radios.  We'll be reconfiguring the existing equipment panel here and adding a sub-panel for DC power as well as a display that's tied to the multi-function display in the cockpit.

We've decided to install a Northern Lights 6 kw genset.  This will also be done by Hinckley at the same time as the work on the galley.  It'll be located in the space below the cockpit floor, just aft of the rear bulkhead in the aft cabin.    The bulkhead will have to be bumped out a few inches but shouldn't interfere with the bunk too much.  We had considered several other makes but this was the best choice for us.  International parts availability, lower running speed equating to longer life and lower noise levels, ease of access for maintenance, and reliability were the major considerations.  I guess size played a major part too because this space is limited by the rudder post at the back and this is why we have to bump out the forward end into the bunk area.  The genset will be housed in a sound enclosure and mounted on a roll-out shelf that will pull out into the aft cabin to make maintenance easier.  We're also adding an automated oil change system that will pump out the old oil and then pump in the new.  This will also work with the engine, making this usually nasty job much easier to perform. In the space where the genset is going we now have a stack of 28 lead ingots.  It's been estimated they weigh around 1100 lbs.  Seems like overkill to me.  I was going to sell them to a friend but the guys at Hinckley suggested we hang onto them until everything's done and then we can use some to balance the boat out.  Good idea.

We replaced all our batteries and increased storage for the house bank.  For those who might not know......the house bank provides DC power for everything on the boat except the engine and the genset.  This means lights, refrigeration (major consumer!), water pumps, bow thruster, windlass, watermaker.  Uhm, pretty much everything.  When we've anchored out in the past our batteries would run down below 50% of their storage capacity in about 20 hours.  50% is the magic number for these and if you take them down beyond that you're shortening their useful life.  Considering that our batteries cost about $400 each it's a good idea to stretch 'em out for as long as you can.  When we bought the boat it had four 100a/hr batteries in the house bank and one for the engine.  That means we had 400a/hrs in the house bank with 200 a/hrs available to us between charges.  The freezer compressor cycles constantly because it's poorly insulated and because we keep it at 12 degrees F to keep the ice cream at the correct consistency.  That's important!  We could probably improve things a bit by running it at 20 degrees but then the ice cream is all mushy.  Some things ya just don't compromise on.  So, we replaced the four 100a/hr batteries with some new ones that are dimensionally the same but are rated at 125a/hr (Lifeline AGM type batteries, p/n GPL-31XT).  The compartment these are located in had some extra space so with a little hocus pocus we managed to squeeze in six of these babies.  Now our house bank is 750a/hrs!  Combine that with the new insulation around the freezer and we should be doing much better, well within the 50% range.

When we renewed our battery bank we also replaced our Xantrex Freedom Marine 20 inverter/charger with a Magnum Energy Pure Sine inverter/charger rated at 2800 watts and 125 amps.  Our charger works in three stages; bulk, absorb and float.  Each stage has a different rate of charge and is designed to provide the longest life for the batteries.  For our new battery bank the ideal bulk charge rate is 175 amps.  We couldn't afford the inverter with the mondo charger (4000watts/200amps) so we settled for the 125 and will supplement it with the 50 amp charger that came with the boat.  This means that I'll need to be pro-active in the bulk charge stage and shut off the little charger when the inverter switches over to a lower charge rate.  I monitor it pretty closely anyway and may set up an alarm to remind me.  This will be infinitely better than running the engine for hours on end while at anchor.  Instead we'll be running the genset at a good load and it'll be inside of a sound enclosure.  Ugh, quiet good!

While we're discussing power there's another facet to this whole thing.  We're adding two more solar panels.  Right now we have two 85 watt panels.  We'll be adding two 130 watt panels for a total of 430 watts.  Of course that's only under ideal conditions but just increasing from 170 to 430 should be a pretty significant increase in our solar charging ability.  Add that to our 400 watt wind generator and we may actually be able to keep those new batteries charged without much input from the genset.

These are big improvements for La Vida Dulce.  Up until this past year we've been doing mostly repairs to all the stuff she had wrong with her when we bought her.  Let me tell ya, it is really rewarding to be making improvements instead of repairs.  Don't get me wrong, we still do repairs.......

A few weeks ago we were sitting on our fancy new cushions in the salon.  That's right, we were actually hanging out in the salon.  We heard the water pump kick on and listened for it to shut off.  It didn't.  I pulled open the compartment where our water pump is located and it was merrily pumping our freshly filled water tank (250 gallons) into the bilge.  "Hey Cheri!  Kill the breaker!"  Our water heater is located in the next compartment (beneath the starboard settee) and I traced our leak to the return line.  The hose barb here is plastic, probably about 12 years old, and had broken off.  I set about removing the old fitting.  As I did this I noticed the supply line had calcium built up around it which indicates a leak.  I barely touched the hose and the fitting came off in my hand.  The plastic had turned to mush!  I replaced both fittings with 1/2" x 1/2" brass hose barbs.  Still need to go back and check the fittings for the water lines coming from the engine.  Be a real bummer to have those come off!  Also need to check all the other plastic water fittings on this tub.  I'm not real sure why they elected to use plastic but I am pretty sure I've lost confidence in it.  We're going with brass fittings for everything unless someone chimes in beforehand and convinces me not to.

So, we're headed in the right direction.  We got a little side-tracked with trying to sell the boat but we're back on track now.  By the end of the next two years we're gonna have a boat that provides comfort and safety, is pretty much self-contained and that will be able to take us anywhere we want to go, at least anywhere that's accessible by water.

< 720 days to go.