During our Caribbean cruise we found several areas on the boat that need a refit. One of the first things we replaced was our inflatable dinghy. The one that we used in the Caribbean had gotten holed by our Monitor windvane when we foolishly left it tied off the stern. The repair that we were able to make typically lasted for a few months and then began to leak. A repair guy in the U.S. Virgin Islands told us that the repairs last longer if they are done in an air conditioned environment. Since this wasn't possible on the deck of our boat we just did the best we could with what we had. When looking for a replacement we decided on AB inflatable with an aluminum bottom rather than the more common fiberglass. We picked it because the bow is higher than the typical fiberglass hulled inflatable. As we hoped the higher bow has turned out to provide a drier ride. The AB inflatable was capable of handling a 15 hp outboard, so we traded our old Honda 9.9 hp in on a new 15 hp. We went with the larger outboard because in the Caribbean we had some long dinghy rides that would have been reduced timewize with the larger engine.

The next area we decided to improve was the cover insulation of the refrigerator and freezer compartments. While in the Caribbean heat we had to resort to placing a blanket of insulation over the covers to keep the condensation down. This complicated removing items from either box while at sea. To fix this problem we had Glacier Bay make us two custom sized vacuum insulated panels which we epoxied to the underside of the covers. These units have eliminated the condensation and as a side benefit slightly reduced the daily runtimes of the refrigeration compressor. To further improve the refrigeration system we enlarged the cooling water plumbing to the condenser. This necessitated replacing the thru-hull, seacock, hoses and fittings in the condenser's raw water plumbing (raw water is the term used to descibe seawater). Enlarging the raw water plumbing has also reduced the daily runtimes of the refrigeration system. Since the compressor, motor and condenser are in a closed compartment where heat build up is obvious, we installed to small DC muffin fans to evacuate the heat while the system is running.

With the refrigeration system done we moved on to our individual comfort. We had Canvas Designers of Riviera Beach replace all of our interior cushions. We decided to go with a vinyl covering for improved water resistance during offshore passages. To deal with the inherent stickiness of vinyl cushions when it is hot we have cushion covers made out of interior grade Sunbrella. The only cushion that we didn't have Canvas Designers replace was the mattress in our stateroom. For this we decided to try a Tempurpedic foam mattress that was custom cut per our measurements by Tempur-Marine in Saginaw, Michigan. They provided a comprehensive measurement kit, cut the mattress and refitted its cover perfectly. The difference between our old mattress and the Tempurpedic has been well worth the investment.

Our exterior (white) canvas for the dodger, bimini, sailcover and dinghy cover was the next project for Canvas Designers. Since the old material was prown to showing mold/mildew and difficult to keep clean we decided to look for a better alternative. Canvas Designers suggested Stamoid for the dodger, bimini and dinghy cover. As for the sailcover we used Sunbrella. The Stamoid on the dodger and bimini has a double sided vinyl coating in white that has held up well to the Florida sun. The dinghy cover, which initially was made with only a single sided vinyl coating has since been replaced with double sided Stamoid. The double sided is the best because it is easy to clean and if you put the IMAR UV protective cream on it as recommended it will last a long time. Right now the dodger and bimini are going on 5 years and the dinghy cover was replaced this year. We also replaced the sailcover this year. This time we decided to replace the white Sunbrella with Captain Navy Sunbrella. Bob, of Canvas Designers, told us that Captain Navy Sunbrella wears like iron so we went with it. Based observations here at our marina he appears to be correct. As a general rule, Mike Ericson the owner of Canvas Designers told us that if your going with Sunbrella here in Florida the darker the color the better. If your going with a vinyl coated fabric the lighter the color the better. Also a final note, if your tired of having your canvas restitched every few years, make sure your canvas maker uses Gortex thread the next time you have your canvas done. Canvas Designers used Gortex thread on our canvas and we have had no need for restitching.

To help us in our quest to become more energy independent, Canvas Designers built us a stainless steel solar panel rack for our bimini. This gave us a location to start addressing our energy generation shortfall on Foggy Mountain. During our one year cruise in the Caribbean we typically had to run our engine at least one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening to keep our batteries charged. On our new solar rack we installed one 85 watt and two 80 watt Kyocera solar panels. Additionally, we replaced the two 63 watt panels that we had on the dodger with two 85 watt Kyoceras. With this configuration we have gone five plus days without before having to run the engine. This is without factoring in the potential contribution from our windgenerator. Which brings us to our next upgrade. Our Fourwinds II windgenerator served us faithfully both on passage and at anchor in the Caribbean. When we heard that Fourwinds now offers a brushless generator we decided to upgrade. Additionally, we decided to go to their three bladed Red Baron windgenerator since it had less of a tendency to shutter when the wind changes direction quickly.

To make sure that all the newly generated energy gets to where it is supposed to efficiently we replaced and upsized all the primary (battery cable) wiring for the house and engine start batteries. At the same time we installed fuses in the house battery output cables. Back when Foggy was built in 1982 if the battery switches were within a certain distance of the batteries fuses were not required. We installed the fuses for added safety. Still in the area of battery energy, we decided to upsize and improve our inverter. After doing some web research we discovered an inverter that had great reviews from the alternative energy folks. Based on these reviews we decided to buy a Trace 2500 Power Conversion Center with a true sinewave output. This unit provides us with all the AC power we need when we are living on the hook. Our 80's vintage ferroresonant battery charger died so we replaced it with an inexpensive modern one which also died and subsequently has been replaced with a more expensive one that will handle input from 120-240 volts at 50 or 60 Hz. Many times during our cruise we would wonder if we had enough battery power to watch a video. But we didn't have any way to monitor the DC input to the inverter. To address this problem we installed a Blue Sea Systems DMM (digital multimeter) that not only allows us to monitor the volts and amps being drawn by the inverter but it also has a low voltage alarm just incase the movie is too long.

We have found that as a cruiser living on 12 volts, you need to be able to monitor as many aspects of your 12 volt system as possible. The system that we used on our cruise was called a Quad-Cycle, produced by Cruising Equipment back in the 80's. With the Quad-Cycle we could monitor voltage from the house batteries and the engine start battery in addition to amps going to and from the house batteries. Addtionally, ours also had an optional alternator regulator and the ability to monitor the output current of the high output house battery alternator. As great as this system was we decided to replace it due to its age, we figure it had been installed since the mid 80s. For battery system monitoring we chose the Mastervolt BTM-III that has all the same monitoring features of the Quad-Cycle plus amphour and per cent of battery capacity remaining (basically a gas gauge for the house batteries). Between the readout from the Mastervolt and the display for the Blue Sky 3024i solar panel regulator we can tell exactly how much current is being pumped into the house batteries. We left the engine alternator setup as it has been for years, one small alternator to charge the engine start battery and a large frame alternator with external regulator to charge the house batteries. The Quad-Cycle's regulator controlled the large alternator in the old system. To replace it we chose Ample Power's SAR-V3 (Smart Alternator Regulator) which has the all important temperature compensation that the old regulator didn't have. This regulator also monitors the voltage in the house battery bank, if it meets certain criteria it has the ability thru a solenoid to send some charge to the engine start battery. This gives us some redundancy, that we didn't have with the old system, if the small automotive size alternator fails to charge the engine start battery. To monitor monitor the large alternator's output we installed another Blue Sea Systems DMM. Since batteries don't like heat, we installed cooling fans in the house battery box. The fans run when the engine is charging the batteries and/or when the solar regulator senses that the house batteries are almost at full charge. With the solar regulator the fans have tended to come on at the hottest point of the day, this is a good thing. We also installed temperature sensors in the house battery compartment to keep an eye on heat build up there. We think heat contributed greatly to the eventual death of our house batteries during our Caribbean cruise.

After taking care of energy supply we moved on to energy conservation. We replaced all of our running lights with LED units that require fraction of the of the current used by the old incandesent bulbs. For the lower lights we installed Hella units and for the masthead tri-color/anchor light we went with an Orca Green unit. All of these were easy to install and the energy consumption is truly negligable. For interior lighting we replaced most of the halogen lights with LED models. On our Alpenglow overhead lights we replaced the red fluoresant bulbs with a LED upgrade offered by Alpenglow. The Alpenglow lights are beautiful units, we have ones that are over 15 years old and they still look and work great, check them out.

In the engine room we replaced all the wiring to the large house battery alternator. After deciding to retire the ten year old 200 amp large fame alternator to spare status, we replaced it with Ample Power's 200 amp model. To improve engine cooling we replaced the old intake thru-hull with a scoop type and replaced the seacock attached to it. And while we were in the area we replaced all the raw water cooling hoses. On the fuel side of the engine we installed one of the best pieces of equipment that we have found to date, the Filter Boss check them out on the web. With the Filter Boss our fuel gets filtered thru one Racor filter, but if that filter starts to clog the Boss sets of an alarm. To keep the engine running you can switch out the clogged filter by flipping a couple valves on the Filter Boss and you are now running on the clean backup filter. This should allow you to replace the clogged filter at a more opportune time and place. As a further enhancement to the fuel system we incorporated fuel manifolds that allow us to polish our fuel using the electric fuel pump in the Filter Boss. Great piece of equipment!!!

We now come to the area of electronics and navigation. We replaced our 80's vintage B&G instruments with B&G's H1000 system. Removing the multiple cables that connected the old instuments together and replacing them with a single cable was a pure joy. We can setup the H1000's digital displays to show up to four different types of information. This gives us the capability to see information in the cockpit that we had to go below to the navstation to see with the old system. This will help during those rough times offshore when you want to limit your movement because of the difficulty involved. The latest piece of high tech equipment that we added is a SeaCas AIS receiver. With the SeaCas's LEDs we can see if there is a vessel transmitting within range of us, at which time we can bring up our laptop and track them using our MaxSea navigation software. This unit was very easy to install and the company is very customer oriented. Networking all of our navigational equipment together was a breeze with our utilization of a ShipModul's MiniPlex42BT (BT stands for Bluetooth). With this unit we have the B&Gs, Furuno radar, and three GPSs networked together. With the unit's Bluetooth output we can have navigation information sent to our IPAQ PDA in the cockpit. This isn't something that I think we will use very much because the IPAQ can only run Maptech Pocket Navigator which can only read Maptech charts. So if we're entering a harbor that we have a Maptech chart for it works great, otherwise your out of luck. As mentioned earlier we are using MaxSea navigational software and have found it very easy to use and integrate. One of the things that it integrates well with is the displaying of GRIB weather files that we receive from Sailmail. We decided to install Sailmail so that we could send and receive emails from the boat. During our Caribbean cruise we relied on local internet cafes to access our email. We installed a Pactor modem to connect our our laptop to the ICOM 710 SSB radio. This setup has worked well in testing for the last three years. News from our friends in the Caribbean told us that there is more and more WiFi available in Caribbean anchorages. So to further enhance our communications we installed a Syrens Lite WiFi system which has an external antenna to increase its range. Our sole connection to the internet here at the marina for the last two years has been thru this unit. It was simple to install and setup on our laptop.

The next area that we tackled was the rigging. We had Florida Rigging replace our 80's vintage Harken roller furling system with a new Furlex roller reefing system. Florida Rigging also built us an upsized headstay to install the Furlex system on. Then we had them add a much needed turnbuckle to our backstay. For whatever reason the original backstay didn't have a turnbuckle possibly because of the hydraulic backstay adjuster. This arrangement would have prevented us from properly tensioning the rigging if the backstay adjuster failed. Now with the new turnbuckle we have eliminated that possibility.

On our cruise we had a PUR 160E watermaker that performed well providing us with plenty of that tasty desalinated water. During the refit the plan was to pickle the unit and use it on our next cruise. Prior to installing the PUR we had also looked at the Spectra watermaker but didn't buy it because of its cost. There smallest unit at the time was somewhere around $7000. So we decided to go for the $3000 PUR unit. After talking to some firends that had had a Spectra for several years we decided to give them another look. When we found that their Ventura 150 model was more in our price range we decided to get one. The beauty of the Spectra is that it has half the energy consumption of our old system. Twice the amount of water for the same amount of energy, sounded good to us. Also gone are the chemicals as long as you do a freshwater flush of the system every five days.

Safety at sea and at anchor is the next area that we addressed. It's always a good idea to know a what is going on below your waterline. To do this properly at an advanced age, holding your breath and diving down is probably becoming less inviting. So you probably put off doing it unitl the next port or next month or hire someone to do it for you. Since we like to do as much of our own maintenance and can't hold our breath as long as we could in our teens we decided to buy a SurfaceDive unit. It's basically a compressor run by a 12 volt motor connected via hose to a dive regulator. The SurfaceDive comes in its own dive bag and is a sweet unit. Whiel sailing unexpected jibes of the boom are going to happen if you sail long enough. They are dangerous to anyone that is in the way of that boom screaming across the deck. To help combat this danger we installed a Dutchman Boombrake. So far it has worked as advertised and I fellow Valiant 40 sailor swears by it. To make reefing the mainsail faster and easier we replaced the non-selftailing winch with a an Andersen selftailer. It should make reefing at 3:00 AM much easier to accomplish. The next entry in this catagory is the modification of our emegency tiller to allow its connection to our Monitor windvane. We decided to do this because we were concerned with having to use our emergency tiller during an offshore passage. The original configuration would have required us to either handsteer, with the tiller, or use the autopilot. We decided to change the Monitor's control line configuration to allow the Monitor steer via the emergency tiller. Our old life harnesses had been retrofitted with inflatable lifevests. At the time the vests were not US Coast Guard approved. When we learned that there are now approved inflatable life vests we decided to upgrade. We purchased two Mustang Survival vests with an incorporated safety harness. These are more comfortable than our old ones and in addition they have an improved automatic inflating mechanism that is supposed to eliminate unexpected inflations. To complement our new life harnesses we decided to upgrade our jacklines from the old nylon webbing to a stronger more UV resistent polyester webbing. The jacklines were custom fitted to our measurements by Halsey Sailmakers, they did an awesome job.

Finally we have the area of entertainment. Pam and I like to watch movies. When we went on our last cruise we had a collection of movies on VHS tape. Some were pre-recorded and some were recorded off of TV. VHS tapes don't hold up very well in the hot humid marine environment found in the tropics. Additionally, VHS tapes take up a lot of room. After we returned to the states in 2002 we found that DVD recorders were becoming popular. We bought a DVD recorder and recorded what movies that we could from our VHS library. Unfortunately, some of the tapes were unuseable having fallen prey to the environment. Now we have rebuilt a decent video library on DVD. DVDs are great because of their minimal space requirement (compared to VHS) and their better tolerance of the tropical marine environment. In the Caribbean we watched our videos on a 9" SONY TV that was bolted to our salon table. The SONY served us well but widescreen movies with the black bars on the top and bottom made the 9" screen really small. When the flat screen LCD TVs came out we took the plunge. LCD TVs are great for sailboats because they can be mounted on a bulkhead where they basically take the place of a picture.

Well that's a summary of our refit. We have made a lot of changes, we are anxious to find out if they were good ones. We hope you are interested to find out too. In January we will be looking for a weather window for our return to the Eastern Caribbean. We hope you will follow our travels.....