Back At It

We are both working full time now so my goal of updating the website once a month is no longer. We are still working hard to get the boat ready for our departure but nothing very exciting, it’s all rather mundane.

Our foot-operated galley water pump had been leaking and finally broke so I pulled that out, cleaned and painted the wood and installed a new one. We finally finished the charcoal vent filter for the holding tank. Now the holding tank vent and the vented loop run to the filter and get vented outside the boat, it really works, there is no more smell in the boat! We also ripped out the watermaker wiring and replaced it with much larger wire. We installed our last two solar panels. We had the wind generator repaired and finally got that back on the mizzen mast. We found considerable corrosion on our davits and solar panel mounts so we removed, cleaned, and reinstalled them…which was no fun at all. And lastly…I sewed up the seams and replaced the registration windows on our dinghy cover and washed it. Not at all exciting but it’s progress and with every step we are more excited to get on with our journey.

The foot pump is mounted in the galley on the floor under the sink. This pump enables us to use our fresh water without using electricity, just step on the pump lever and water comes out at the sink. New and old:

Installed in the compartment under the sink:

We are so happy with this charcoal filter; there is no more smell from the holding tank. Both the vented loop and the holding tank are connected to this filter:

Watermaker wiring mess:

New wire is much larger and able to handle a larger amp load:

We built a frame over the bimini top to mount our last two solar panels. Now we have a total of six panels:

Mounted and waiting to be wired:

In order to run the wire from outside to in, we had to drill more holes in the boat. We used this watertight wire deck seal:

This all clamps together and screws into the side of the boat making a water-tight seal:

Wired into the combiner box. The box takes the electricity from all the panels and sends it to our charge controller and ultimately the batteries:

Solar panels complete:

Wind generator back on and it works great! No more vibration!

Found lots of corrosion on our davits and the solar panels mounted above them:

Off come the solar panels…absolutely no pics of that evolution…

Davits off:

Lots of corrosion:

…more corrosion…

…and more corrosion:

Brasso works well on stainless steel:

All clean:

Davits are clean:

We also ground off the corrosion under the solar panels:

Since no one really looks under there (except me), I decided to spray this rubber coating on them and see if it prevents any further corrosion. All I need it to do is be water-tight like the label says:

Coated:

Davits cleaned and back on:

At every attachment point, we applied water-displacing corrosion preventative compound. Solar panels back on:

Ripped off the dinghy registration plate windows:

New 40-gauge windows and all the seams re-sewed:

Right now we are working on replacing the head, cleaning up the interior wood, and buying tons of spare parts, oh and getting some navigation charts!