| Falcon's Log 18 |
| August 25, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida The instrument lighting is RED!!! Go figure. Never thought to check, but it makes sense, and my 'slapped together' dimmer works great. I still need to mount the coolant overflow tank for the engine, and I heard an odd noise last night while running the engine - a squeal, I thought - which could be the new alternator belt, or the toothed serpentine belt rubbing inside the newly 'four-bolt' mounted belt guard, or who knows what. After I mount and service the overflow tank, I'll run the engine much longer today and see what I can find out. You DO realize that Falcon is a bottom-cleaning away from being able to leave here, don't you? Oh, yeah, I have to calibrate the tachometer, too. On to the list. 1.) Mount coolant overflow tank. Done 2.) Tie up and secure all wires and cables around engine. Done 3.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 4.) Connect Groco pressure switch. Done 5.) Hang top corners of aft water tanks. Done 6.) Clean up dock and boat. Working 7.) Calibrate Tachometer. Done I've also been testing stuff related to getting the ceiling done. That is starting to get my interest because I have foam and rolls of material underfoot everywhere. It's almost ready to go. Now, to do some work on Donny and Barb's pages. Got a good start on the Donny/Barb pages and Paul helped me calibrate the tachometer. I'm not convinced it's accurate, but it gives me a reference and that's all I really need. I don't know how Columbus ever found America without a tach. The squealing was the alternator belt. I tightened it and will have to replace it with some kind of super duty version, or get a double groove pulley for the alternator and have double groove engine and water pump pulleys made. Jim, on the Morgan pilothouse, said he had a neighbor who might help me out there. |
| Everything is working just fine. I re-installed the tach and tied up all the wiring and may even have found a solution for the 'where the hell can I put this stupid coolant overflow bottle' question. Right now, it's outside the engine room on the bulkhead beside the engine. I may just have a cure for that in an old aluminum pivoting TV mount, where I can swing it into the engine room for travel and all that, but swing it right out for servicing or access to the fuel filter. I'll have to mull that over some more. Meanwhile, I still have to clean up the boat ( dock is done ) and get those tanks done and the water pump pressure switch. It's 3:45 and I'm about done for the day - I think - maybe not - I'm still cleaning and organizing. I spent a little time talking to a guy from the Fire Department on the dock. He was doing a routine inspection of fire fighting standpipes and fire extinguishers. It turns out he's partners with someone on a Morgan 33T Sloop. Other than some cleaning up, eating and drinking plenty of water - and, of course, plotting my NEXT course - I'm off duty for the afternoon. Or, evening. Whatever. |
| August 26, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I got up at 5 AM because 'why not - I'm awake' and besides, I went to bed early. The inside of the boat is still a mess and I should do laundry today and just clean up. I've also decided to hang a few more wire clips - I should put a picture of one of those things here somewhere - Up in the bow area to facilitate lacing the heavy line from the distribution panel to the watermaker. I'm also going to lace the Groco pump power feed beneath the computer desktop to prevent having to make a penetration through the galley counter top right next to the sink. It just seems like a better idea. I'm up to date on posting Don and Barb's E-mails. There are other things I'd like to do to the website to 'clean it up' a little, like putting some of the side stories that I plastered into the logs in better chronological order or something. I also need to make a better job of the Specs page, and it's beginning to look like I should make a special, separate page for Links. We'll see how it goes. I also have to catch up on my wire labeling. I let that slide while I just finished up the engine stuff. Not good. Once the geriatric stage overtakes me in 20 or 30 years, I won't know what wires go where. Or, I may forget where the boat is. It's 6 PM and it has been a slow day for me. I've enjoyed it immensely. The laundry is done. I've run the engine again and bled the injectors while it was running and the last ( #4 ) unit cleared and started running at idle ( finally ). I've done some cleaning in the boat and talked with Angela ( The Seafood Shack office manager ) for a while in the laundry room. She is also from Massachusetts and a real nice woman. Eddie and Sandy went to Annie's for supper and I gave them some money to bring me back one of Annie's famous gut-buster cheeseburgers. I just have to have something tasty to eat. I also think I have to check the glow plugs in the engine. I might have burned them out during the starting drill on the first day. They are the fast heat type and can't stand too much time on. They aren't expensive, and I think I have some spares anyway. Eddie and Sandy couldn't bring me back a cheeseburger, so I went into the Seafood Shack and ordered a great one. Best cheeseburger on the coast at a bargain price. It's 6:45 PM and raining a steady, windless rain with big, heavy drops. Perfect sleeping rain. Until just when I was typing that and a nasty lightning bolt almost made me jump out of my shoes. It should pass soon. |
| August 27, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida The weather reports all call for lots of rain and some violent thunder cells today, but we'll see. It has been SO weird lately, with a front just stuck almost right over us going diagonally from Tampa to Jacksonville, producing lots of rain and lightning. I can't say it has actually hindered me much - the cloud cover is nice - but the bouts of rain do dampen things. :-) I took a bunch of photos of the inside of the boat last night. It's just about time to begin the finishing in here and I want to have some photos for 'before and after' shots as it progresses. Some of the giant lumps of 'stuff in my way' are the materials for finishing the interior and I would dearly love to be done moving those things around in the boat. It seriously poured like a cow peeing on a flat rock after I closed off last night. Gratefully, and I couldn't be more serious about this, there are ZERO leaks in Falcon. Every last tiny little drip has been addressed and fixed. Of course, I DO still have the two side running lights to lead inside. They are each just a 14 gauge pair and will only need a small hole, but I'll need to seal it well so it won't leak FOREVER because if it does, I'm not apt to notice until it's done serious deck-rot damage. Okay, I suppose I have to make a list. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Lead in running light cables and seal. Done 3.) Check and replace engine preheaters as needed. Parts Ordered 4.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 5.) Install bilge pump relays and finalize circuits. Working 6.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. 7.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. 8.) Cut paint around 'painted shut' aft deck hatches. Done 9.) Install last 4 wiring 'clips'. Done 10.) Install shower sump pump. 11.) Reroute VHF power to Engine buss and connect. Done 12.) Install lighter plug on dinghy bilge pump wire. Done That's more than enough. Some things are just on there because I might stall on something and need something else to do while I think about it. There are more things I'd like to put on the list, but they can wait. Everything is moving along nicely. You will NOT FREAKIN' believe the inside of this boat that I have been living in for YEARS. I don't believe it and I live here. You'll see in the 'before/after' pictures later on. It's like living under someones kitchen sink and all the household cleaning supplies are still there and every time you want to change position you have to move something and sometimes the damn sink leaks. But it's fun - don't get me wrong. Well, it's better than living outside. Okay, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Yes, I started right off on something not on the list so I added the items and finished them. The dinghy had water in it ( rain ) and I had to pump it out. It's 1 PM and I just returned from West Marine where I picked up the 5 gallon ( actually 4.35 gallons ) jug of West epoxy resin. I also stopped at the mail room and got the Allied Electric panel meters I ordered and a couple of awesome cards from my sons families. They both have little boys now - Aiden and Logan. Logan is brand new and has considerably more hair than me. Aiden is two and can outrun me. Leigh, my daughter, has three girls, Mikayla, Corrine, and Arianna, ages 10, 9 and 7. I just took a run to American Discount Auto Parts and ordered the 4 glow plugs for the engine. Same price as the lowest priced ones I found on line and no shipping/handling charges. I can pick them up tomorrow morning. I also went to Home Depot and got the electrical connectors I need to install the bilge pump relays. I can't believe it's only 20 past 2 PM. It seems like it's been a long day already. The overcast and sprinkles have left and the sun is shining once again. It's hot and muggy and not easy to work in. The work I did in the bow today was hot and stuffy. The price you pay for a water-tight bow is a lack of ventilation. I still got the work done, though, and one of the other jobs I can now add to the list is to lace the rest of the cabling throughout the boat for all the rest of the electrical systems and devices. Also, now that I have the distribution box panel meters, I can begin laying out the panel itself and put that construction in line on the list. I should really get started on the finishing of the cabin ceiling. |
| August 28, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida They are still predicting a lot of rain today. Thia weather pattern is nothing like the 'usual' Florida weather for this time of year. Grin and bear it. At least my work is all - or 'mostly' - inside the boat. Cutting wood and grinding become a weather problem, but I can work around it. I've decided to run a section of 3/4 inch PVC pipe in the upper rear corner under the computer desk as a conduit for the 8 gauge Groco pump power cables. That way, I can still make a good epoxy fillet in that spot for good strength and replace the wiring or add another if I ever have to. It's a little bit of a pain in the ass, but not much. The time is coming when I will need to build whatever structures are left to be made inside the boat so I can fiberglass them in and begin the 'lower' stage finishing. These include: 1.) A cabinet/counter in the head that will house the Village Marine watermaker. 2.) The combination ice box/chart table beneath the electrical panel. 3.) The stove counter and cabinet opposite item #2. And eventually: 4.) The engine room lid/companionway ladder. There are other little things ( maybe not so little ) like shelves and drawers and cabinet doors, but the big ones really DO need to get done. Now, for todays list. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Check and replace engine preheaters as needed. Done 3.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 4.) Install bilge pump relays and finalize circuits. Working 5.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 6.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. 7.) Install shower sump pump. One of the first things I'll do today is to run down and get those glow plugs and finish the engine work. I should also complete the bilge pump relays and get something going on the 'dryer' pump. The reason I call this the 'dryer' pump is because it sucks out the very last drops ( not quite, but VERY close ) of water out of the bilge. I want a dry bilge, where bacteria doesn't grow. Well, this has been a fun morning. I started by picking up the new glow plugs and proceeded to do the change on the engine. Yeah, well, no deal. It was impossible without removing the alternator, the entire injection system ( minus the injectors themselves ) and while I was doing that, water was leaking onto my foot from the raw water pump. Perfect. Just freakin' perfect. This is also exacerbated by the geared pulley on the injection pump just flat refusing to come off. I had a puller so tight it was squeaking and I was cranking on it with one eye closed and a severe squint on the other when it finally popped. One of the glow plug holes tried to cross thread and - yeow, cold front with lots of wind and rain just slammed into us, straight out of the west - anyway, I had to clear a small defect and carefully start that one. Once started, it went in smoothly, as did all the others. I re-installed the fuel injection, the timing belt, blah, blah, blah, then removed the raw water pump. Well, you'll just laugh your asses off - I know I did. It wasn't the raw water pump leaking, it was the tiny fitting near the radiator cap where the overflow bottle connects. Yeah, yeah, that's funny. So then, I check the four old glow plugs so I can keep the one or two good ones for spares, guess what? They are ALL good. No, no. I'm sure. I even burned myself on one, just for good measure. Naturally, I think there must be something wrong with the glow plug solenoid, but a test for voltage at the glow plugs when activating it says otherwise. Despite all the signs that said the glow plugs were bad, it was a pure miss. Mind you, I went over the subject on line in the VW Diesel forums before I finally went out and ordered them. It was a slam dunk. Wrong. Five hours of almost wasted time, plus the cost of a new set of glow plugs. Oh, well, at least I know. And I DID correct the mounting of the big alternator, and I'll be fixing the rusty fasteners on the raw water pump, and fixing the overflow nozzle. Rats. Okay, so I dropped about 367 parts and tools into the bilge because I am rapidly improving my 'dodder' quotient because that's just what retired people do to kill time in the afternoons waiting for the early bird specials to be served. Anyway, it has inspired me to move item #6 up to the top of the list. Lunch and then more work. I ate and struggled with the fitting for the raw water pump and the outlet side of the inlet strainer, finally giving up for a bit and watching the last hour of 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse'. Then I went to Home Depot for two lousy fittings - $10 - and stopped at Taco Bell and ate 5 tacos. I think they ought to have a thing, you know, where, if you order 5, you get one more free for a six-pack. Anyway, got back here and put everything together, using the fitting I just bought to make the inlet water line from the inlet strainer to the raw water pump, short, tight, and out of the way - making plenty of room for the soon-to-come dryer pump. Oh, and yes, of course I started the engine and it busted off ( started ) instantly and without clouds of smoke, so changing the glow plugs made a profound improvement. Go figure. Okay, I'm done for the day. Worked hard all day without hardly nicking the list, but some days are just like that. |
| August 29, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I couldn't stop last night, so I pulled out the Groco pump because I have to get that filter mounted between the pump and the water tank manifold. It's all going to work out JUST FINE and I discovered that, not only did I have a PERFECT sediment filter for this location in the truck, but I also have the one to put on the dock hose to filter the water coming into the boat from shore. Very nice. |
| I got a little sticker shock when pricing the filter cartridges for these at Home Depot yesterday, but considering what they do and how long they last, they're worth it. These two filters in particular are strictly for cleaning up all the water either coming on board from dockside, or entering the pump from the tanks. It's possible that I may, at some time, incorporate a rain catching system and I'm not sure yet how to, or even if I can, filter THAT water before it goes into the tanks. I hope I can. Rainwater is not always as clean as we'd like to think. Especially if it's running down off my 'catch all dirt and bird poop' sails. Yes, I KNOW it doesn't sound appetizing. That's why I figured I'd only catch rain in the two aft tanks and use that water for washing clothes and the boat and hosing the salt off me. The two forward tanks are for 'sweet' water - meant for drinking, cooking, showering, etc. On to the list. |
| 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install bilge pump relays and finalize circuits. Done 4.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 5.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. 6.) Install shower sump pump. 7,) Double check engine timing belt tension and re-install belt guard. Done 8.) Finish installing pre-Groco filter and re-mount Groco and filter. Done 9.) Finish windlass power wiring. 10.) Complete windlass remote control device. 11.) Label fuel selector valve positions. 12.) Install 3/4 inch PVC under computer desk. Done It has been POURING for the past hour with no sign of letting up. I just went to Weather Underground and there is a long, thin line of clouds forming over the gulf and running directly over us. It's almost like science fiction - the clouds are forming about ten miles off shore and dissipating about ten miles inland. The 'train' is only 1 to 2 miles wide at it's widest, and the Seafood Shack is bulls-eyed, dead center in the middle of it. Geoff and Henry's cars disappeared from the parking lot yesterday when I returned from Home Depot, so Geoff is back and Henry is gone for good. Along with his odd little dog. Talk about bookends. The rain has let up a little so I can open the boat up a bit and try to get something done. |
| I ran outside to get the conduit and was going to just let it dry before installing it, but then I had a problem. I wondered if there was enough wire in the pieces returned to me by Warren. Warren needed some 8 gauge wire for his windlass and I loaned him some - when he returned it he said it was 20 feet of each ( what I gave him ) but it was actually only 10 feet of each ( true Warren ) - it's JUST enough to do the Groco pump, so there's no extra to do the bilge pump relays, which was the whole point of doing this first in the first place. So, it's done. Now food and on with the show. Oh, yes, and remember the giant spider in "Return Of The King"? You know, the one that tried to eat Frodo and Sam. It got wounded and scuttled off. Remember that? Ever wonder where it went? Under my computer desk. I had to clear it out before drilling the holes for the pipe. Took an AK-47 and several hand grenades. The wire is already laced through. Now I can finish the Groco pump and more of the water system as well. |
| The raw water pump IS leaking. It stopped yesterday because I removed the belt and pulley, relieving the side pressure on the worn bearing. I'll have to see if I can either get a kit for it, or buy a whole new pump. The problem is, a new pump is about $350. My forward progress here is going to grind to a halt if I run into too many more unscheduled expenses. I have to do some more Internet research to see if I can find a good rebuild kit for this pump. |
| August 30, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I'm still a little rocked by the need to spend another $300 right now on a raw water pump. The main reason is, there is no possible solution for the failure of a raw water pump at a critical time. If I am working my way to shelter in heavy weather and the pump fails completely, it could mean the end of the boat and me. Yes, of course, I could rig the Groco pump with the windlass remote, turn on the pump and fit a hose from the open sink faucet to the raw water engine inlet, then use the windlass remote to feed just enough water through the raw water channel to prevent overheating. It would work for as long as my fresh water held out. The problem is, I would need to rig it, which would take at least 15 minutes if everything worked right, and all through the process I would be cursing myself for a fool for not simply replacing the damn pump. So, there it is. I have to do it and keep the old, obsolete unit as a spare. It leaks, but it still works. Rats. Oh, well. I no longer have enough money to get the boat hauled and the bottom done. No big deal. These things have to be done and I'll certainly be able to save the money I need by the time I do the job. You might notice that I'm complaining about the money and not the pump. The pump was used when I got it in 1986. You just can't whine about it only lasting another 23 years. This pump is the predecessor to the 'obsolete' version of the pump I am replacing it with. I hope this new one lasts forever. At least it's a straight bolt-in replacement. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 4.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. 5.) Install shower sump pump. 6.) Finish windlass power wiring. Done 7.) Complete windlass remote control device. Done 8.) Label fuel selector valve positions. Done Randy is working on 'Moondream', his 39 foot Corbin right next to me. He has decided not to sell it now and instead wants to finish fixing it up. He's going into the water today to clean his prop and will clean mine as well. In exchange, I'll climb to the very tippy-top of his mast and reeve a halyard back through it's block. I'll be able to run my prop and gearbox afterwards. Working is moving along nicely, but my back is sore. I must have pulled or twisted it somehow yesterday, struggling with the conduit or under the sink with the Groco. One way or another, I put a rink in my lower back and it's making me move like Henry did when he thought he was walking proud. You know the walk - don't make like you don't. Finished all the windlass wiring only to have the windlass slow down seriously in the 'UP' direction and pop the circuit breaker. At the very minimum I have to drain the oil and pull off the motor to see what's wrong. I've rebuilt the thing before and it's not complex, but it is another pain in the ass and it demands fixing. Rats. I took the windlass completely apart and found nothing wrong - so far. Gratefully, all the main ( read that, 'expensive' ) components are fine. I'll go over them carefully as I reassemble, but must now go into the motor itself and see if there isn't something amiss there. Hopefully, it is something minor and inexpensive and can be corrected quickly and easily. I'm confident it can. Randy couldn't get my old prop off, but he cleaned it and it works fine. He wanted to put the nut and zinc back on, but I'd rather wait a bit and get a dive service to come over with a real prop puller to scrape the entire bottom and put my new, good prop on the boat. I'm not going to do that until closer to the end of the month. I'm still going up his mast to reeve the halyard - he did the work, after all - fair is fair. |
| The inside of the Ideal windlass motor after all the burnt, black gear oil drained out. It is in need of some serious TLC. All this equipment from Ideal is simple, straight-forward, and meant to be rebuilt. This one piece of equipment is my single favorite on the entire boat. With my little homemade remote switch, I can deploy or retrieve the anchor from anywhere on the boat, including the helm, and I love it. I wrote an email to Ideal sort of explaining the problem and asking for parts prices and direction ( in case there are other parts I should change or fix while I'm this far into it ) and I hope to hear back from them this coming week. Man, my meager safety stash ( really, my haulout savings ) are taking a beating this week. No matter. At least I have it to spend. I can just scrape the bottom every week or so until I have enough to haul out. I did make some good headway today, but my back is so |
| sore I can hardly move. I'm serious. It's difficult to walk. It's just sore and stiff from wrestling with that conduit yesterday and then doing all the work I did today without allowing it to rest. It'll heal. It always does. |
| August 31, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I have to get the gear and bearing off the windlass motor this morning, as well as removing the brush assembly from the other end, so I can carefully and thoroughly clean all the components and see if I need to order any more bits and pieces that I don't know about yet. My back is still pretty uncomfortable. I'm going to try some aspirin this morning and see if it helps. I need to see todays list so I can start getting my head around the items. I can't order the raw water pump until tomorrow. Randy cleaned the prop yesterday and I started the engine and tried the gearbox - which worked fine - and tried spinning the prop up pretty good - which also worked fine. This engine/gearbox CHURNS some water, I'm telling you! I think I'll have the diver just put the nut and a new zinc on and leave it for now. I can change it myself when I haul out. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 4.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. Working 5.) Install shower sump pump. 6.) Lace all remaining electrical cabling and wiring through the boat. Working Maybe I should be adding things like 'Struggle with raw water pump', or 'Flounder with Windlass', but those are maintenance items at this point and not matters concerning the 'finishing' of the boat project. Espin called last night when I was in bed and I had to ferret out a flashlight to find my upper plate so I wouldn't sound like Moms Mabley on the phone. I let him think I was sleepy so he wouldn't start ragging on me. He has completed the sale of his boat and will be back here by the end of the week to start the search for a new one. That should be fun. He likes to bring me along so I can say things like, 'No, no, you don't want that. It's like Falcon. Look what Falcon has done to me.' Then he gets scared and looks for another. I've got to climb Randy's mast sometime this week, but I may start easy by just getting everything set up first, then just go over and do it when it isn't steaming hot or getting rocked by wakes. I think I might have spotted a tiny leak in my sink the other day. We'll see. I like it - it's a good sink. I just took a ten mile trip to get solder flux. I got a container of each, plumbing and electrical. I'm all over the place right now, mainly because I'm doing so many things at once. I dug my climbing gear out of the dock box and all the webbing as well. The climbing gear is to climb Randy's mast and the webbing is to edge and reinforce the mesh net for under the engine. I already took the climbing rope to Randy's boat and suspended it from the masthead on the spinnaker halyard. When I'm ready to do that it will be set to go. Right now, it's about 1:45 on a very hot and muggy afternoon. Maybe later when it cools off. The windlass motor is completely dismantled and I'm waiting for my check and a reply from Ideal. I've been sorting and stringing wire inside the boat. It's fun, but not that "ha ha, I'm laughing my ass off" kind of fun. It's more like that "this root canal is almost over" kind of fun. |
| Above is the engine bilge net. It's enough oversize to droop nicely beneath the engine and catch anything I drop from now on. I'll finish it with grommets around the edges and use some hooks and some large-headed screws to suspend it. Maybe even just 4 hooks and a bungee cord laced to the edge. I'll test some stuff and decide. It's 6:05 PM and I just came down from Randy's mast. I think I might be very nearly done for the day, but there is the problem that I now have ALL the wire sorted and ready and a drawing made of all the wires in the boat, so it's possible that I might find myself lacing wire and cable here and there during the evening. Things are really beginning to happen fast now and I'm sometimes finding it hard to stop. That is both the blessing and the curse of living where you work. |
| September 1, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida In 12 days it will be a year since I started this 'Cruising Log' without having started Cruising. At least it's not too far off. My check is in the bank, so it's time to order the raw water pump. I will also order the new dual belt pulley for the alternator. Getting the other two pulleys for the crankshaft and engine recirculating pump will be more difficult, but I'll find a way. I can also call Ideal and order the motor parts in another day or so. I have to get everything really clean and see what I need for sure. I will also invent and incorporate two devices for the windlass. One is a water trap that hangs below the gear case and screws into the drain plug hole. It will have a glass bowl and drain valve to drain off water when I see it in there. The second will be a gear case vent at the top with a wad of bronze wool in it and a catch bottle in case oil escapes. Items to work on down the road. The minimum I need now is a good motor. I got a lot done yesterday and I'm glad to get Randy's mast trick out of the way. Of course, my back is still stiff and sore and I expect my stomach muscles to make some complaint about the climb yesterday - they usually do - but I can't complain about the lifestyle because it's the activity that keeps me healthy and in shape. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 4.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. Working 5.) Install shower sump pump. 6.) Lace all remaining electrical cabling and wiring through the boat. Done!! I should really just order stuff today and keep going on the things I'm working on. Ordered the raw water pump and the alternator pulley. Total cost for everything is about $305 - not bad at all. Also had a few minutes of conversation with Dave from East Coast Battery ( these are THE people to go to for battery and alternator supplies, work, and information ) and he told me the Balmar regulator I have has functions to limit the output of the alternator so as to avoid early failure of the unit. Cool. I made a work drawing of the wires I'm running so I'd have something to refer to as I pull one and then the next. It's actually going pretty good. I also just received an email from Ideal and called them and ordered the parts I need. It came to $94.80 without tax, shipping, etc. I didn't ask about those. I mean, what would be the point? I'm going to get the stuff no matter what. Anyway, that works out for me again. You can't beat Ideal - fixed for around $100. I've been lacing cable and connecting wires all day and I'm nearing the end. Both of my energy and the number of wires left to string. Yeah, that's the word. I knew it was there somewhere. Anyway, I did all the longest and hardest first to make the best possible use of the wire I've held onto. I need to take a rest for a while and finish it up in an hour or two. It's 4:30 PM now. |
| All the main wiring in the boat is done. There are still some immediate connections to do and there are several items that will be mounted in and around the electrical panel that are not yet accounted for, but these are minor things by comparison. There is the 4-channel amp to feed the four speakers, the battery charger, the ST6000 Autopilot, the inverter that makes AC out of DC, and probably one or two other things. Small jobs easy to wring out when I get to them. The two drawings above are the schematic I did on Corel Draw for the wiring. As I did each wire, I changed the color to red. As I got near the end, I worked harder and harder to find the right size wire ( all wire is oversize whenever possible ) in the right length. |
| In these pictures, there are things that I wish I could describe accurately, but I can't. The clips are packed full all around the boat. My back is killing me. The boat is a mess of cut pieces of wire that need to be picked up and tossed into the scrap copper bag. The piles of extra wire outside are now truly 'extra' and will be put into the truck with the last 320 pounds of lead and brought to Scrap All in Sarasota. All around the boat there are places where I need to cable tie the big bundles of wire. But, it's done. Another big, intimidating job is done. I want ice cream. |
| September 2, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida Today I have to clean up the mess I made dragging wire around everywhere and cutting and stripping and blah blah blah. Putting those 'blahs' all in a row freaks out the Spelling/Grammar checker here, but I don't care. That's right, I'm a bad boy and I scoff at spell checkers. I'm going to get a faux leather jacket and a wash-off tattoo. Then it will be time to make the first pattern for the fiberglass panels and cut and install the first piece. That piece will be going on the inside port aft cabin bulkhead adjacent to the electrical panel and chart table. It's where the battery charger, inverter and auto pilot will be mounted and it's time to mount them. I also have a couple of other circuits that I'd forgotten about that I need to run wires for. One of them is the NMEA GPS location signal that needs to get from the GPS to the VHF radio. Another will be a selector switch that will allow me to connect the cockpit speakers either to the computer, the cockpit VHF radio, or a plain automotive AM/FM unit, should I get one. I don't have one right now, but it's a good possibility, so I'll provide the option now. To the list. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. Working 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 4.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. Working 5.) Install shower sump pump. |
| The hard drive where I stored all my writing and the information for publishing and the cover art mysteriously died. No electrical storms, no impacts, nothing. It just died. And not while running, it simply refused to turn on. I tried everything and finally gunned it into the trash. It cost about three hours of my time this morning and would have REALLY pissed me off if I didn't have the most important stuff backed up. Still, I lost A LOT of work and material. Anyway, I got the pulley from East Coast Battery. They are unbelievable. And, I already pulled the old one and put this one on, but, I still have some work to do. The pulley is a larger diameter, so the tach will have to be re-calibrated, and the adjuster arm no longer fits, so I'll have to remove it and step under the village Chestnut tree with the other blacksmiths and beat it into submission. I also cleaned up the boat some and started on the patterns, as per picture left. I'll make that full - the entire bulkhead - but I only have enough fiberglass for the top 4 feet or so. Meanwhile, I'm backing up everything on the computer and getting ready to strip it out and start over again from scratch. It needs it once in a while. I won't replace the old 80 Gig hard drive that ate the big one, I'll just make complete dual DVD backups of everything and transfer over to a much newer 250 Gig unit. I still have 3 500 Gig and 2 250 Gig, more drive space than I need. The computer is another thing I need to spend some time straightening out before I leave here. |
| I got 100 more pounds of lead separated and into Eddie's car and I got about 150 pounds of extra wire stuffed into my truck for the trip to Scrap All. Eddie has an electric impact hammer I can use tomorrow to finish tightening the alternator pulley. It's 9: PM and I'm just finishing making another chart and going over more of the wiring so I can order whatever final parts I might need to complete the electrical panel. I'm going to have to make a few minor modifications to some of the wiring I've already completed so I can have those circuits available at the control panel with switches and fuses. To simply have a fuse holder in the engine room will be a huge pain in the ass is a fuse blows in a busy situation. It's only a couple of circuits and I really have to do it. I'm a little wore out now, so I'll watch a little TV and go to sleep. That damn hard drive wore on my good nature pretty hard. I darn near worked up some spit and let fly. |
| September 3, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I've started off this morning designing the electrical panel. I'm just getting started but I immediately see the need to complete some ideas - work out probabilities and finalize a few extraneous little notions that might become a pain if I don't. For example, one of the big ones: I have 6 speakers installed on the boat - 4 in the main saloon ( as if there were other saloons ) and 2 in the cockpit. Rather than deal with amplifiers in every device I want to feed to the speakers, I got a nice, simple but powerful 4 channel automotive amplifier, which I will feed whatever I want to listen to into. So, I have two semi-complex switching issues around the amplifier. On the input side, I want to be able to select the TV, the computer, and have room for an automotive radio/MP3 player and possibly, the aft VHF radio. On the amplifier output side, I want to be able to either switch TO the cockpit speakers from one of the pairs inside, or just include them with the others. It would also be nice to just be able to switch the cockpit VHF to the cockpit speakers, independent of what a guest or grandchild might be watching on DVD down below. That's one issue. Secondly, once I get everything sorted out and functioning properly - the issues with the raw water pump and windlass will not be the last - I'll want the option to connect various electronic components with the NMEA-0183 protocol to try things out. For instance, sending a heading signal to the autopilot. That's later on down the road, but I want to consider the possibility of needing a bit of space in the electrical panel. The list. 1.) Make patterns for fiberglass panels. Working 2.) Make and install all remaining border pieces in ceiling. 3.) Install 'dryer' bilge pump. Working 4.) Make and install engine bilge catch-net. Working 5.) Install shower sump pump. 6.) Tighten alternator pulley and make new belt tensioner. Working 7.) Dig mastic out of truck to attach first fiberglass wall panel. 8.) Cut out and hang wall panel. 9.) Mount and connect Inverter, battery charger and ST6000 Autopilot. It either rained or threatened to rain all day today. It's still going on. I borrowed Eddie's electric impact gun ( 350 ft lbs of torque ) and tightened the alternator pulley, then chased dual crankshaft and water pump pulleys all over the world via the Internet. No help. I did discover that the crank pulley lists for $145, which is a real eyebrow raiser. I'm going to see if I can get these things used off dead engines. I also struggled unsuccessfully with the alternator tensioner bracket and, while I wasn't able to complete it today, I did come up with a viable solution. So, what did I do all day? I worked on the computer, and with the camera, and I began the design of the electrical panel. |
| The actual color of the panel will be closer to this blue in the text boxes that are actually meant to represent two opening doors that will have all the switches and circuit breakers mounted on them. They will be hinged on the outside edges and latched in the center, making working on the electrics very easy. |
| For some reason, the colors from Corel Draw to Corel Photopaint to IrfanView Photo Optimizer to Yahoo SiteBuilder do not translate well at all. This is the color I started with and that weak Teal is what it ends up like. Anyway, this is what I've done with my day. The drawing is actually 30 inches by 20 inches and has all the dimensions on it. You'll see it when it's done. |
| I got food so I won't have to eat potatoes tonight and tomorrow. I just noticed - through an email tracking code - that the raw water pump has already been delivered here. It was yesterday noontime when the woman called to be sure they were shipping what I wanted, and it got here today. The pulley fro East Coast Battery got here in a day, and the raw water pump from Keenzo got here in a day. |
| September 4, 2009 - Seafood Shack Marina - Cortez, Florida I had this done hours ago, but the minute I did something ( I forget what ) the computer rebooted and I lost it. |
| I picked up the new pump this morning to ogle it and there it is, stage left. List is $435. It cost me a little under $300, so I can't complain. This is a new model with an impeller kit available and that's a much better situation than I had with the old pump. All in all, it was worth doing. Just wish it could have been at a different time. I have one of the headaches this morning, but I took the pill so it isn't bad and I'm getting work done. I'm going to post this now and get back to it. Unbelievable - the parts for the Ideal Windlass motor are here. There MUST be shipping advantages being given to high volume users to get business in this economy. The prices are great and the service is FAST! I have been concentrating on the electrical panel so I can start laying it out and cutting the holes. I've also done some |
| other odds and ends around here, but I've just about finished all I'm going to do as far as the engineering drawing. |
| Now, I have to get back to actual work on the projects and get a leg up on some of these jobs, and I STILL have to find some engine pulleys. I just went on a pulley-finding mission and did some asking around at 1.) one of the biggest and best auto repair places in town, and 2.) the only VW dealership I know of around here. No deal at all, no chance, give up, cannot get the water pump pulley anywhere. $95 and several weeks will get one with a different part number that MIGHT be the same size from the dealer. The big wrecking yard in town says, "I don't know if we got any of those out there, but you're welcome to look and take it off if you find it, then come pay for it." I KNOW I had at least a couple of those pulleys extra when I was in Naples. I've got to empty out that truck again and check whatever buckets of parts I have left to see if I'm making a big fuss searching for something I already have. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to have to investigate the 'have them made from aluminum' option. I picked up a few more brass plumbing fittings from Home Depot and went through the 'Self Checkout' line and the same thing happened that always happens when I bring brass plumbing fittings there. The machine pulled a gun on me and demanded MUCH more money than the fittings were worth. I started wire-brushing and cleaning the components to the windlass motor and will have that system back together again tomorrow. I finally tightened the squealing belt on my trucks power steering and air conditioning. That's much better now. I found a place on line where I can order just about any size or shape of any of hundreds of metals and alloys. It appears that I can get the two pieces of T6061 Aluminum alloy to make the pulleys for about $65. If Jim's neighbor will really machine them up for me for low to no money - or something reasonable - I will have a fabulous set of dual pulleys, as well as a newer, better, lower ratio drive for the new raw water pump. I've been making blueprints for the pulleys today. Any good machinist will want accurate, complete prints to work from. I can't get too ahead of myself before it's confirmed, though. |