Brooke Smith
02/22/2011, DELTAVILLE, VA

Well the boat is still winterized and I'm thinking about UN-winterizing soon. Have been trying to repair a broken window. But, the cold has slowed everything I try to do. I have several things that need attention out of the water. So, that's coming soon.
One of the most wonderful things about boating is meeting fellow boaters. Deltaville Marina has MANY transient boats for the fall spring migration of the snow birds. We met the crew of Gromit at our marina in October 2009 and have been following their journey on sailblogs as well. They are a family and are living a dream. Check http://www.sailblogs.com/member/ketchus.
One of their blogs caught my eye about a had made ukulele. They had really great pictures. Long story short they purchased for me a ukulele in Huahine French Polynesia and mailed it to me. Through the magic of paypal I paid them in Canadian dollars for the ukulele and postage. They purchased the ukulele in French Polynesian Francs I think. After some crazy currency conversions all was done except for the wait 3-4 weeks mail. Who knows how many inspections at customs etc had to occur. Well they bought it and shipped it January 24, 2011 and I got it today February 22, 2011. It is in fine shape and the box had more stamps on it than you can imagine. Wow from the other side of the world from people living on a sailboat to my house in Mechanicsville, VA.
I'll post a few pics

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Brooke Smith
12/18/2010, DELTAVILLE, VA

OK, It was 21º last night on the boat. The water temperature ~ 35º is so cold in the marina that the heat pumps cannot extract much heat out of the water. One is working and the other is actually freezing the water.
There is snow and ice on the deck. So, I guess we will winterize today.

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Brooke Smith
12/01/2010, DELTAVILLE, VA

Wednesday December 1, 2010
I have wondered why my 55amp alternator never puts out more than about 20amps. I have turned lights and all kinds of inverter loads and the amp- meter never reads more than about 25 amps. SO, I traced the alternator's output path.
Looks like at the alternator, there is a #8 size wire that had a failing crimp connection. Fixed that and no change in amperage out of the alternator. So where does the other end of the wire go? The other end of the alternator wire went to the wiring closet behind the helm to a screw terminal. The other side of the screw terminal went to the dash amp-meter with #10 wire (30amp capacity!). The other side of the amp-meter was wired with #10 wire down to another screw terminal and then to the common side of the battery switch. I have not been able to measure the resistance of this path of about 20 - 30'. But, That is a crazy path to get back to either house or starting battery. Kind of backwards going from the switch towards the batteries. I will probably purchase a shunt type amp-meter and wire the alternator to the starting solenoid battery connection. This would be less than 3' and would have basically no loss from the alternator to the starting battery. Of course the cool Blue Sea Systems 120 A SI* Automatic Charging Relay (ACR) will take care of charging when the alternator is operating and isolating the house battery when the motor is cut off and the alternator stops.

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Brooke Smith
11/15/2010, Stingray Point Area Chesapeake Bay

Sunday the 14th of November, 2010
Better fishing. Fished the famous 2R area off Stingray Point from about 10:45 until 4:45. Caught a 19" at 2 PM and another 20" at 4pm . Jeff Buck and Bob Smith were the fishermen and I ran the boat and fished some. I believe Bob Smith wound in one and Jeff the other. Great weather and calm out there too. Lots of boats and few fish reported on the radio.
Boat ran great. I ran it wide open out there 2500 RPM. We trolled at 600 750 RPMs until 4:45 we we ran back in. The Lehman didn't mind the long troll at all. Just a great day.

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Brooke Smith
11/04/2010, DELTAVILLE, VA

The new +12VDC terminal block.

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Brooke Smith
11/04/2010, DeLTAVILLE, VA

The new Blue Sea Systems Buss -12VDC

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