August 24 - In Hot Water, Again, or, Cruising is Boat Repair in
Exotic Locations.

Well, I wouldn't say that Cape May is an exotic location, but it
beats the middle of the Atlantic. When we left you, we expected
to go sailing again, and be in Sandy Hook by the time you read
this.

However, in the interim, you may also recall that we had no
water. We also had a leak in the rudder post, where the part
which is supposed to keep the water out of the boat where the
rudder post comes in wasn't doing a very good job. That's not an
emergency, but as long as there are other things to attend to,
that's a relatively easy one. The attending to part is that our
spare water lines were stored under the bed, which is also where
the rudder post can be found.

Conveniently, it's also the location of the steering gear, which
would allow me to check out our prior autopilot/power steering
repair. The occasion of the water lines is the presumption, as I
was able to isolate that water was coming out of the engine room
floor area in a place which had all the supply lines (buried
under the floor), that we had a rupture in one of the lines
running from the galley to the engine room. All of that was
exposed when we took apart the engine room flooring to make our
wreck repairs, so I had a very good picture, including some taken
during the rehab, of what that looked like in my mind. I'd been
convinced that one of the original plastic water lines had
ruptured, been cut, or somehow otherwise let a free flow of water
proceed out of our tank and into the bilge.

However, in a very convoluted story and position of which I'll
spare you the details, I discovered that those lines were intact,
and, instead, there was a failure some place in the engine room
of a hot water line. Again shortening the story, I made that
repair in a very contorted position, but it's all working again -
so I can be in hot water in my shower tonight!

While I was in the engine room I attended to a couple of other
minor and small maintenance items, and, since it was very hot due
to our having moved anchorages, was very glad to be outside where
the breeze is still very cool, when I was finished.

And, also while I was in the engine room, Lydia went off in the
dinghy to take a non-functioning wind machine (tells what
direction and force the wind is at the top of the mast) off to be
UPSd to the manufacturer for repair, to be returned to us in NY.

Since I didn't need the water lines I got out of the bed, I put
the bed back together after I'd put away the lines, addressed the
leaking rudder post and checked on the autopilot. All is well in
both regards, now.

I'll spare you the rest of the stuff we puttered on, but the
reason, really, that we didn't leave was that the weather looked
pretty crummy in the morning, and the forecast was still for sort
of lumpy going, along with some relatively brisk winds. However,
the biggest reason is that tomorrow (today's date) promises much
better winds and waves, and we got to do lots of "cruising" -
boat repairs in our exotic location. We quickly made the decision
to take advantage of a better weather window to do some repairs
as well as get more rest, though that's about all we've done in
the time we've been here, so it will be easy going for us as it's
only a day's (overnight) sail up to Sandy Hook.

So, we finished our chores, and, as we were headed out in the
dinghy, what should appear than another Seven Seas Cruising
Association boat, about to anchor. They're Commodores, however,
whereas we're lowly Associates. They've been cruising full time
since 1983, have a 14 year old daughter aboard, and have just
graduated a son from the US Naval Academy. You bet they're proud
parents.

As it happens, they're going in the same direction as we, and
will likely be leaving about the same time. We had a lovely time
getting to know them a little bit, and we're sure we'll hear more
from and about them.

Lydia had been a bit depressed by the failure of the water and
instrument and the other minor stuff, but was greatly heartened
by my rather simple (if convoluted in achievement) solution to
the water problem. She's also starting to accept that any 30 year
old systems are likely to require attention. She's also become
more aware of the fact that most of our instruments were put on
the boat 15 or more years ago, and likely will need replacement,
if not service, along the way. The reality of the prior owner
having many receipts where NEW instruments had to be sent back
under warranty also brought home that a marine environment is
very unforgiving, and stuff sometimes doesn't last as long as we'd
like.

And, finally, while in the engine room, I noted that the heat
strips for the wind generator's diversion (send overcharging
power to the heat strips, not the battery when it's full) dump
were hot. As the battery was very well down, this was very
confusing. That would explain the high drain we'd been having
that we couldn't figure out. So, I disconnected the heat strips,
and suddenly, everything works, again. The solar panels keep up
with the daily load. The wind generator, as little as it's making
without our being at sea, is enough to charge the battery. And
our battery no longer takes a dive every time we turn something
on. In the very overcast conditions that persisted all today, we
were making 15 or more solar amps, well over our usual load at
anchor; in sunny conditions, we'll have much more, and any wind
generation we get will be a bonus.

So, all in all, a great day, and I look forward to being in hot
water again tonight (our engine makes very hot water, which means
we don't have to use more than a smidgen to make the cold water,
which isn't very cold, warm enough to enjoy the shower).

With any luck, the next you'll hear from us will be from Sandy
Hook.


L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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"You are never given a wish without also being given the power
to make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

Skip,

Who makes the power diversion controller? I've had the same problems (note
the "S" in problems) with my Xantrex C-40 and finally went a Morningstar
TriStar controller, which has functioned MUCH better.

-- Geoff

P.S. Unless you've got a lot of wind and sun for a long time, you won't be
using the diversion mode!

On Aug 24, 7:14 am, "Roger Long" wrote:
Am I reading this right? All of the charging and alternator belt problems
you and Larry were chasing around and entertaining us with endlessly were
because power was being improperly diverted to the strips?

--
Roger Long

No, I still have to (again/more) realign the alternator bracket. It's
in line but twisted - it will require an s-curve in the aft bracket to
bring it in line.

Geoff: Yes, it's a Xantrex C40 (well, was - I'll not do it again - see
my reply to Dave Skolnick in the loglist). I'd thought I'd specified
to John (Hotwire enterprises, the vendor and installer) that I didn't
want Xantrex stuff, but it was in the time of the inverter
discussions. That said, our new shorepower charger is an X, the
better of the two in that range when I went to replace the monster
which had been in there, so we'll see how that works out. If it craps
out right away, I'll take it back to worst, but since I'll use it so
infrequently, we might not see a failure for several years!

Most likely it got wet at some time along the way; I don't think the
controller was the problem all along, because I don't think the
strips were hot, all the time. Likely it was just the long-term
neglect/abuse the batteries had been seeing, and it took some time to
bring them back up by exercising them regularly.

Back to the diverter, perhaps it was that, after all, which was giving
us grief. However, I think the controller went TU only recently.
That said, things are well with the battery and charging systems,
now. The tweaking I still have to do on the alternator isn't
preventing it from sending us lots of amps, but the twist in the
orientation of the pulley is going to kill the current belt; I know
how to fix it, and will, so that problem will have gone away as well.

The problems cited in this most recent post are sort of par for the
course, I think, and other than a joke about the hot water (and, of
course, the bit about having no water aboard that we didn't carry in a
jug), even that was just one of those things. During our refit, I
employed a kid to make up many connections in the ER while I was doing
reefer building. That was one of his; the nipple through the
compression fitting wasn't long enough, and the extremely hot water
softened the plastic enough that it blew it out. Just redoing that
joint fixed that problem. Not mentioned in all the other more
significant stuff way earlier was another of his joints which leaked.
I fixed that one, too, but it was when the ER was nearly empty, making
access much easier!

So, we'll continue our cruising - likely there will be less exotic
places than Cape May, but it makes a good tag line :{))

L8R

Skip, off to Sandy Hook in nearly calm forecast winds and small seas.
We'll see how well they do this time...