2022-06-04 Still at the dock - more projects - and laundry

Well, we are still here in Oriental at our friends dock.  Have spent a busy week doing projects.   It can be frustrating to work for 3 days on a single project, and when it is done, you have nothing visible to show for it, but that is how it has been going.

We ran new wiring from our engine rooms to our battery cabinet.  We upsized the wire, as we are wanting our engine alternators to charge our lithium battery bank directly.  This means more amps coming in when running the engines, which means bigger wires needed.  The wiring for starboard and port are done, but unfortunately our port alternator did not arrive yet, so we will finish the last bit of the project later.

Kris mostly focused on the new wiring including a new voltage sensor, router, fusing and buss bars,  revising alternator charge controllers, alternator alignments, engine cleaning, changing engine oil, putting on new raw water pump.

Starboard engine done.  Put in new switch that lets us operate alternator at 100% or 50%

Dean worked on a new boom support, and spinnaker block extender.  Also put in a new latch for the starboard forward deck locker, fixed some slop in the boom vang, installed new fire extinguishers, put new spark igniter in the stove, resealed around the stations where wires exited, new duckbill on toilet anti-siphon, reinforced our back step where an access plate was, installed new lazy jack lines and thimbles,  painted cockpit light covers and helped Kris with wiring.

Dean working on lazy jacks 

Boom tends to swing back and forth at anchor, making irritating noises.  Hopefully our new boom support will stop that.

Spinnaker sheet sometimes rubs on lifelines. Hopefully this extender will keep the lines away from boat and prevent the rubbing.

Now after 11 days we look back, and wonder what took us so long.   We did spend one day in town, getting groceries and supplies - stocked up, and our friends were so kind and let us use their van so we made good use of it, and dropped about $500 in groceries to stock up.  Also dropped another $400 on other items like a memory foam bed topper, new shorts for Kris, engine oil, and new electric toothbrush.

Out of our list of 146 items that we thought we might want to do, we completed 76 of them, have 25 items that will have to wait until we haul the boat, 6 we have decided not to do now, and to wait on, and 37 still to finish, with 10 of those sewing projects, and 9 just purchases.  One of the big ones left is the decision on whether or not to buy a new outboard for the dinghy.   Just hate to spend the cash.

We have done pretty good so far, only $3,000 on boat maintenance items - which isn't bad.  Of course doing all the work ourselves makes a big difference.

Being at the dock has been great, as the weather has been hot and humid, so air conditioning is a must.  Yesterday it finally cooled down and we could turn off the A/C and open the boat up, which has been great.

The property here our friends own, is nice, but the grass/weeds were getting tall, so we used their riding mower to take care of some maintenance, since they are so nice to let us stay here, it felt good to do something for them.

Dean still remembers how to drive a mower.  Kris got to pick up sticks from the previous evenings storm.

Had to chaperone this guy away from the mower.  Finally just gave up, picked him up and moved him to a safe spot.  

Laundry is done, boat is clean and now that our list is down, and our priority items have been taken care of, it is time to move north again.  Have one more package of material coming on Monday, and then we will be off.

Tools and projects put away, boat is comfortably livable again.

Plan to head out Monday or Tuesday - north on the ICW, up into the Chesapeake.   We plan on taking the Dismal Swamp route again, getting burritos at Big Boss Burritos in Elizabeth City, and pizza at Pizza Plus in Chesapeake, VA, close by the Deep Creek lock we will pass through.   - Hey you got to have things to plan on and look forward to 😀