June 11, 2018
I flew to Orlando on a 6am flight and got to the boat around Noon.
Things looked good, the boat was dry inside, the Dehumidifier was
plugged in and all looked great.
I had lost my drill and hole saw at the security check point, so with a
new hole saw in hand, I cut a hole in the holding tank and was very
relieved when the bag I had stuffed inside did manage to catch the cut
out scrap of the tank. I had fears of this plug getting caught in the
dump line and really messing things up. I looked at multiple
stores for a 1" to 1" joint so I could extend the head hose, but the
only thing that I could find was a copper threaded fitting. All the 1"
joints were too big. I guess one inch is not always 1 inch...
I also cleared out the vent line, not sure what was wrong with it, but
it used to not work, and now it does, so that is something...
Tested things and it all looks good, so we are back in business.
We had a massive rain in a wicked thunderstorm.
I discovered my hatch cover ropes stretch when they get wet, so I need
to replace them, otherwise no leaks except for a slight drip in bow
pulpit repair (which was expected), and a mystery leak that shows up on
the floor of the bow port cabin right along the head bulkhead. Very
small, but likely from the stanchion above and leaking behind the wall
liners. The far bow hatch leaks where the seal has a gap, the covers
fix this, but without the cover, it leaks.
June 12, 2018
Got a good nights sleep as the rain did cool things down to around 75,
which was nice.
Worked on the inverter. Decided to tear it apart and make an external
on/off switch, and also re-do the power outlets as they are weird and
flimsy. Tried a few things, but finally figured out which wires were
coming into the power switch and jumped them with a switch. The first
attempt failed as the wires I used were too thin and caused a voltage
drop which triggered a fault. Had barely enough wire inside the
inventor to try again, and got it to work. Now the extension cord is
hard wired in as well. I then epoxied it to the floor so it is
permanently mounted.
I then cleaned the forward port bow head, and partially filled the tank
to check for any leaks. Seems to be in good shape. Bought some Dacron
line to tie hatch covers as the cheap line seemed to stretch a good
deal.
Attacked the windlass next. I wanted it to work with the engine off, and
looking at the wiring diagrams, if I moved one wire to a direct ground
it would work. Not sure how the engine was doing it, but after some
puttering, I got it going. I fused the line to ground with a 10 amp
fuse just in case. Tie-wrapped the old wire to the power lines going to
the relay.
Decided to "polish up" the inverter fix, so I pulled a switch wire to
the Nav station and also ran a spare wire for additional Solar
from the nav station to the main power bus bar. Like everything,
it took longer than I would have liked, but will be nice going forward as I can turn on the inverter
without opening the seat locker.
June 13, 2018
Fired up the Starboard engine, it started right away. Ran for a little
while and then put in anti freeze. Decided to run the engines every 5
months, and then in December. So I did not run the port engine, I will
do that when I come out in September. That will be 5 months since we
hauled and 4 months till launch, so a reasonable midway point.
Watched the battery voltage get over 14V with the solar, low current,
but seems like a waste and maybe hard on the batteries to be run so
high in hot weather. Also watched one of the plugs on the power pole be
taken for sand blasting behind me, this made me decide to go ahead and
install the Ardunio solar controller. Seems to work fine and my one
mistake was I should have made the female end of my 120v switched power
cord the long end, and have the male end match the length of the
Arduino power cord, this would have saved me one extension cord in my
setup.
I then decided to wire the Aurdino in using the UBS power plug and have it turn on the inverter using my new switch wires. This saves power as the Inverter is not always running and makes it so I did not need my 120V jumper. Had to reset the on off voltages due to using a different power source,
but I
got it sorted and it seems to work fine.
This frantic extra credit project and design mod killed a few hours and made an easy day pretty busy. We shall see how it all looks come September when I am back!
Tested the relay for the blower on the Starboard engine. It seems to
be bad. Took some photos and will get a new relay.
Ran all heads and shower sumps.
Have room for 4 foot by 64 inches of solar on back deck behind helm
station. If we did something funky we could go behind traveler, but
would need to build a base at outside end as the deck is not quite wide
enough. Solar we have needs 47" by 24" for mounting.
Decided to tape over many of the outlets for the boat and stick some
rags in other outlets so no bugs or critters try to get in. Decided to put on good hatch covers as the tarp was holding water underneath after rains.
Hot day, going home to a busy week. When I come back out to the cat,
the Strider sailing season will be basically done. The struggle is real
:-)
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