TRAMPOLINE

Ultraviolet rays is hard on plastic, lines, and gel coat of boats.  We have gotten replacement lines and just replaced the trampoline. The manufacturer of the original tramp is still in business, Sunrise Yacht Products, so all we had to do was pick a color and they made it to the same size.  The old ones were unlaced and the new ones laced in place.  The old ones squeaked when you walked on them, the ropes were salt incrusted, and the new ones are quiet.

Kris lacing the new starboard tramp

2 new tramps all laced in

Dodger #2

When we bought the boat it did not have any dodger to protect the cockpit and people on the helm.  Lee and Dean found that out the hard way when they moved the boat from Maryland to Virginia and it became stormy and rainy.  They happened to get very wet and cold.

So one of the projects before the boat moved from Virginia to North Carolina Dean made a couple of temporary dodgers.  One was out of plexiglass that covered half and the other was out of see through shower curtain material.  Both had issues but made the trip much more enjoyable during the rain and wind.

Dodger 1, note tape between sides

Long term we need to make a real dodger but again time becomes short and we needed to improve upon the previous version.  Enter dodger #2  which is 30 mil clear plastic sewn to a plastic rope that fits into the track around the hard top.  Kris sewed the two together and today we went out and installed.  The dodger being full plastic makes it hard to bend and work with, that is why the real ones use Sunbrella for the majority of the dodger and just use the clear plastic for windows. 

This one is not perfect but will probably last the summer, fall, and who knows how long.

Kris hard at work, still cold

No dodger

Nice clear dodger

No dodger

Nice clear dodger

The Lithium Battery Changeover

On the boat you live by how much power you can make and how much you use.  To make power you have wind generators, solar panels, and generators being the main options.  The biggest draws of power are refrigeration, computers, and fans. If you have enough power then you add toasters, bread makers, hair dryers, hot water heaters, and other normally 110 volt household appliances that are luxuries on boats.    In between the power users and the power makers are your batteries. Having a large battery bank for storage of power helps tie you between how often you make power and power use.

Our battery bank was made of lead acid batteries that had an amp hour of 660 but you only want to use 50% of that so in reality it was only 330 amp hours of use available.   If we didn't generate any power we would use up 330 amp hours in 2, maybe 3 days.    We knew we needed to generate more power so we changed our solar panels and that doubled the generation of 6 panels of 80 watts each to 6 panels of 175 watts.  That would bring in about 300 amp hours a day.  Then we made the decision to replace our batteries to the lithium iron phosphate type which took our house battery bank from 660 to 1680 amp hours of storage.  The nice thing about lithium is you can use about 80% of it so in reality we have 1300 amp hours vs the old 330.

In the end we should have enough power to even make 

Captain Kirk or in the case Captain Kris, happy.

We had ordered the new batteries from China and then had to install the BMS, Battery Management System, on them.

boxes from China

2 cells per box

all unpacked and looking good

with the BMS installed

the new batteries all installed

Staying clean

Our boat has a Splendide washer/dryer built into the starboard vee berth.  It is not a large machine, it handles about 2 cubic feet of wash.  So doing a sheet, pillow case and a couple of tee shirts can be washed and dried.  That is when you are at dock and have 30amp 110 power it will work.  We are working on being able to use it off our new battery bank with just washing and then will dry outside on the life lines.

At least that was the plan until the unit stopped the other day.  We were working on our new invertor and probably had something to do with it stopping.  Worked through the options and it looks like it was just a surge protector that did it's job.  That sounds like a simple project but getting the unit out of its spot, turning it 180s, all in the vee berth made it more than just simple.  In the end we ordered the part and should be able to get it back together within a week.

"normal look"

Selling the "Man Van" (not sure that is politically correct)

When we came back from our voyage on "What If" we had to buy a vehicle to move all our stuff from the boat to a land home.  Looked at many vehicles and finally settled on a Honda mini van.  Now neither Kris or I were big mini van people but for hauling people and things it is tough to beat the versatility of a mini van.  Since Dean was the main driver it became known as the "Man Van".  It has seen lots of miles recently with the several trips back and forth across the country and has been very comfortable to drive and sleep in.  Since it will not fit on the boat (Ha Ha) it is time for it to move to new owners - and we have listed it for sale.  We cleaned it up and took off the orange Sunbrella (not in photo)  that was on the luggage rack and it is looking good.

We hope for a fast sale, and also not, as it is very convenient to have a car to use for errands while still doing projects.   Once it sells, then it is back to long walks for groceries.   We have tried to stock up on groceries and consumables, but we have probably forgotten something heavy that we will have to haul a couple of miles back to the boat via foot power - or do without.

A spot of weather

 Good News.  The engine started right up after the starter was replaced.   Kris did a happy dance.

Bad News.  The tach and oil sensor are not working.  The oil sensor we knew, and we have parts on order.  The tachometer will take a little work to figure out.    

Kris was going to work on the tach, but, it is cold outside - 50 degrees, and a bit of wind, so inside projects took the priority.

Short video showing how lumpy it got at the dock with 20 knot winds out of the north.

Some projects just beat you down

 It has been project after project time, as our date to sell the car and move the boat draws near.

We expect a certain amount of delay for each project, waiting on parts - sometimes ordering wrong part and having to re-order, unexpected issues and so on.    

There are other projects, that just beat you down.

We have been working on installing our new VHF antenna, our new cell phone booster, our new Wifi antenna, and our new GPS antenna.  All these go on our big aluminum arch on the back of the boat, and then the wires are fed through the aluminum tubes, down into the boat, under the bed, behind the guest stateroom storage drawers, and then up into the cabinet behind the TV into the respective control units mounted with power.   It is a time consuming project, but has been going well.  A couple of wrong fittings, fed one wire wrong and had to re-do, but all in all going well.    

A little bit of contortionism to get things hooked up, but all in all, progressing nicely.