Fuel Gauge

Don Gallant finally (after 14 or 15 month) got around to fixing the instrument panel for the Yanmar. Also he fixed the fuel gauge which has not worked in 15 years. I was usually, but not always, able to keep track of the fuel in my head. As I get older I can not do so. Besides where we are going running out of fuel could be a problem. The whole effect is very nice and looks new. The tachometer still does not work, but I have learned to use the sound as my tach.

Jan is doing a nice job on the wood. It is now perfectly clean after strip ease and two part teak cleaner. She is planning to use 6+ coats of Z-spar Captain varnish. White Pepper will look better than when I bought her.

Odds and Ends

I am making slow progress on the 'to-do" list and finding other problems to fix. I was able to get the Garmin 48 to talk to the EPIRB. I felt very satisfied when the EPIRB, a Rapid Fix 406 from ACR, let out a little bleep saying it was receiving GPS sentences. Now if we sink not only will we know exactly where we are sinking but so will the Coast Guard.

I finally got the Bahamas charts into the laptop on Chart Navigator Pro. I do not know why it had to be so hard. It took hours, and I just pecked the damn thing into working. I was disappointed the the charts are not vector and not nearly as detailed as the USA charts, but they should suffice.

I changed out the main halyard this morning and ordered the second reef line.

I am going the Blue Water now to finalize the purchase of the windlass and anchor chains. It will be expensive but necessary. I am going with a Lofrans Royal vertical manual two speed windlass and two combination rodes. Each will be 100' of ACCO 5/16" HT chain spliced into 150' of 5/8" nylon three strand. Of course one could argue for more, but we are only going to be anchoring in 20' of water maxi mun. If I ever that the boat into deeper water, I will have to buy more chain.

Jan is in NYC on vacation today and the weather is beautiful so I think I will take the White Pepper over to Ingleside Cove and try out all my new toys.

Honda Generator

I bought a Honda gasoline generator today. It is model EU2000 for 2000 watts. It is sleek to behold in it's red carrying case. It can lift it with one hand at 85 pounds. After buying a 3 prong to 30 amp converter at Blue Water, I plugged it in to the White Pepper through the usual shore plug. Regretably, it only delivered 8.5 amps at the batteries far under the rated 13 amp. Solar power will be needed. Still it willl be a valuable addition to the energy management plan.

Breakthru in electonics

Great breakthrough today in navigation electronics. I finally got the depth sounder solidly in place. I had to epoxy the transducer to the hull which was fraught with difficulty and then rove the cable and extension back to the Garmin GPS which will double as the depth sounder. After literally days of work it all fit together.

The autopilot, a wonderful 7 year old Simrad Robertson 22, is back up and running thanks to Joe and Roy of Joe's Marine Electronics. It just needed to be initialized; but silly me, I thought it was due to the new stainless steel water tanks. We motored in a 360 degree circle, and presto, it worked. Also Joe and Roy wired up the Garmin 545s GPS to the Simrad so that the autopilot will take us to any waypoint--remarkable. The autopilot is so crucial to our effort that I doubt we could do without it. It is worth at least 3 crew members, and it never eats, drinks, or complains.

The nav station has a new brace to prevent the lid from crashing down onto the laptop. It looks like a kid's shop project, but I can assure you it took many hours of thought and work. Anyway it is sturdy and fool proof.

I still can not get the Garmin to talk to the Acer laptop. The problem is that the Garmin puts out NMEA data down a wiring harness. I have been able to get the data from two wires into a 9 pin serial port which I soldered with great difficulty and clumsiness. Joe tested the 9 pin and says that the NMEA is getting down that far. However, the laptop has only USB ports and a serial port to USB adapter just does not seem to work. Ideas, anyone? I am resigned to using a separate GPS with a USB output.

All in all it was a good day today with many days of seemingly futile effort coming together. I am starting to think that the whole project is doable within the next 90 days.

New Batteries

Just finished installing the new batteries. They are three Oddessy brand AGM's labeled 3150 for the number of cold cranking amps. The constant electrical demands of the freezer just ate the old Orbital batteries. They were 35 months into their 36 warranty anyway. Each of the Oddessy batteries weighed 75 pounds and I wondered if I could even lift them into the box. If I could would the box hold the weight? I had rebuilt the box last year with Starboard. Fortunately I reinforced with just this possibility in mind. The floor sagged but held.

For the occasion I replaced the old leads with new 2 gauge ARCO wire and copper lugs--muy primo. Copper is so expensive now that I had sticker shock at Blue Water, but in a pinch when every last amp is needed I hope they are worth it.

My electricity management plan is to only use two at a time keeping the third battery completely off line. We will use battery #1 on odd days and #2 on even days. Then we will rotate among the batteries every month.

Never Buy a Harken Winch

Now that I am only working 2 days/week (Mon. and Tues.) I have time for some long deferred maintenance. First on the list is greasing the winches. Starting with the two Harkens on the starboard coach roof I proceeded counterclockwise. The Harkens are awful to maintain because they have to be completely removed from the fiberglass to completely service. Also some of the paws are exposed to salt water from below. These issues along with lack of "tightness" and just poor construction make me regret ever buying the winches. On the port side the new Andersen stainless steel winch is a dream to service and seems very well constructed. My only concern is that it only has four paws and they are low in the winch and also exposed to salt water. We will see how it holds up. The small Lewmar that fine tunes the main sheet seems to be holding up well. It is a clever, intricate design, and I wonder when I will not long be able to remember how it goes back together.

My favorites, however, are the wonderful large Barients that trim the foresails. They must be 40 years old by now. I bought them used in 1992 for $7,000. There are 14 paws and the gears are locked together in three stacks. The bull gear is eccentric and is engaged with a lever which is tricky to service. I am in awe of the designer and wonder who he is . Even the powers of the Internet may not be able to answer that question. The bull gear has a triple stack of paws (four each) rotating in opposite directions. It is fascinating to manipulate. The most amazing thing about them is that the paws are all inside the gears and buried deep inside the winch. They never see a drop of salt water and I am sure will last longer than the boat ever will. It is such a shame that they are no longer manufactured.

Wed. Nite 7-18-07

What was billed as the last Wed. night race did not turn out so. I will have several more at least until 8-1-07. Crew was Ellen and Jack, Steve and Jackie, Trent, Rick and his son Derek. The wind was brisk and felt great. We were the only finisher as Lone Star turned back. Once again I dispare of the future for Wed. Nite racing. It seems to be in a terminal decline.

The lashings at the halyard let loose so I had to be hoisted to the masthead after the race. No fun. I guess I will have to spring for some shackles this week.