We got alot accomplished this weekend but nothing is finished yet. Saturday Christines Dad (Paul) and two sisters came over to help out with boat stuff. Well I think Ashley and Erin just came over so they could text their friends "I'm on a boat MF!"





A three and half inch hole has been drilled into our companionway bulkhead (see headline pic). It was a lil scary, but with good coaching from Paul, she was able to make a nice clean hole! She then applied the epoxy and sealant and screwed the autopilot display in. It looks great! Now she is just waiting on the wiring from the wheel unit.



So after extensive research I finally decided to cut the Transducer wire to avoid drilling a larger hole into the cockpit floor. I took Pauls advice and sliced a small tube open to use as a custom grommet. We sealed it in and ran the gps wire, transducer wire, and autopilot wire all through the pedistal guard and through the cockpit floor. It barely fit, but its nice to have a tight hole to prevent water from getting in. I still have to seal up the large hole I drilled up top in the pedistal guard.

I bought a soldering kit and watched some youtube videos to learn. I successfully soldered an extension cable for the gps wire and connector pieces on the end, but i wasnt so fortunate with the transducer wires. The transducer wire is three seperate 22 guage wires (very small) and it was hard to get them to stay connected to each other and my soldering technique could use some help. But i'll try again when my patience returns. The good news is that we tested the Garmin before cutting the wire and it worked great. I even put the transducer in the water and the depth looked good. No fish hiding around our boat.

On Sunday we finally changed the oil in our diesel engine. We have a Yanmar 3GM30. We bought this spiffy lil machine that connects to any power drill and when you pull the trigger it sucks out the oil in one tube and spits it out the other tube. That was the easy part, the hard part was actually accessing the engine. Our engine compartment is so small, I believe if I gain any more wieght ill never get in again. I should probably do a good stretch beforehand next time too. We changed the oil, the transmission oil, and the oil filter, with minimal mess.




This pic is from the summer, and the entrance seems to be shrinking...


We hadn't started the engine since November so it took awhile to get her to start, about three tries. We still don't know if we are utilizing the glow plug properly, so we are working on learning more about that. Paul even recommended that we do a voltage check on the glow plugs to make sure they work. But the engine eventually kicked in and we spit out all the antifreeze that was sitting in there.

Upon trying to buy a new filter for our primary fuel filter we were told that our current fuel filter is a fire hazard and not Coast Guard approved. Apparently the plastic bowl will melt easily and is only meant for outboard engines. We trust our West Marine so we took their advice and ordered a new Racor 500 series filter. That is the fuel filter everyone was raving about at the diesel seminar so we kinda wanted it anyway.

Here is our current fuel filter.


Here is the new one on the way!



We get hauled out on Thursday so changing the primary and secondary fuel filter will have to wait till we are back in the water. We also still have to change the coolant, air filter, and water impellor. Our diesel is getting a full make-over!



For more holey pics click here, HOLES

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