In my last log entry I indicated that I was not finished with spring boat work and I expected it to take at least one more weekend. Judy is working now; at least through tax season. Her hours are long and it is difficult to make it to the boat on Friday night unless we arrive really late. That's not too bad because the conditions are still a bit raw for any serious sailing. Judy suggested that I might want to take a vacation day and get some of the spring chores out of the way. Work had been fairly intense lately and we had done a lot of work remodeling a bathroom. I needed a break. Everyone knows the old adage about a bad day fishing being better than a good day at work. That was my attitude all week. I kept watching the weather forecast hoping that somehow I could "wish" it better. Friday was forecast for a 60% chance of rain and Saturday was 70%. Needless to say, watching didn't help.

Thursday April 3, 2008
When I left home at 4:30, it was raining and 45 degrees. These were not exactly ideal conditions for a weekend on the boat. I almost turned around a couple of times but I noticed that the further I drove the warmer it got. The thermometer in the little Toyota rose steadily during the trip and the rain slacked off as well. I figured that even if it was raining the forecast for lower seventies would make it bearable especially since most of the work I had planned was inside the boat. By the time I reached Whortonsville it was 65 degrees, fully 20 degrees warmer than when I left home, and it was not raining at all. Things were looking up. I unloaded just what I would need overnight, turned in, and slept like a stone.

Friday April 4, 2008
On this day, 26 years ago, Judy and I were blessed with the birth of a fine son. Matthew and his lovely bride Amber now live near Boston. We don't get to see them as much as we would like, but they are planning to fly south in a few weeks and we are really looking forward to a visit.

I had slept very well, which is a big deal for an old guy, and went into Oriental for breakfast and to check my email. This is a vacation day after all. When I got back I went to work on the project of the day, which was to add a second battery to the electrical system. When we anchor out we must be very careful not to run the battery down. We don't have refrigeration or anything fancy but it seems that even running 12-volt lights (including an anchor light) and a little fan tends to discharge our house battery before morning. The Catalina 30 comes with two batteries. One is dedicated to cranking the engine; the other is what I call a "house" battery dedicated to everything else. Of course the boat doesn't know the difference. We switch batteries manually as required. We switch to the cranking battery to get started and to "both" while motoring so that the alternator can charge both batteries. While at the dock our built in battery charger charges both. After doing some research, I discovered that I could boost our "at anchor" power capacity by adding a third battery. More specifically by adding a second battery in parallel to the existing house battery. The starting battery works fine since it is only used for cranking. It was a good time to make the change. The existing house battery was on it's last legs. Last year it would not hold a charge as well as it should and in my experience, when a battery starts getting weak, it won't be long until it's toast. My research indicated that adding the second house battery was the simplest solution. It would not require any special circuitry and would "look" like a single battery to the charging system and it would double our capacity. I also learned that the batteries should be as close to identical as possible. I had purchased two series 24, 12-volt deep cycle marine batteries last weekend so all I had to do was install them, simple, right? Well not exactly.

Ours is a 30-foot boat. Compared to a runabout it's pretty big but almost every inch of space is spoken for. I needed to locate the new battery as close as possible to it's mate because long battery cables are very inefficient. The existing house battery lives beside the starting battery under the navigation station. There is no room for an extra battery. Fortunately there was enough room for a second house battery less than 6 feet away under the quarter berth. All our batteries are just like the one you will find in your car. They are filled with liquid and need to be relatively level at all times. This is a challenge in a sailboat. There are almost no flat level surfaces on a sailboat, especially in my chosen location. To make matters worse, a battery is essentially a square box. Have you ever noticed that in the old World War II movies, when you see a sailor headed for a ship, he was always carrying a duffel bag, not a suitcase? There is a reason for that. There is no place to put a square box on a boat. If your friend invites you to his boat for the weekend, don't show up with a suitcase. Bring a duffel bag that can be stuffed in an irregular space.

Anyway, it turns out that mounting the battery in relative level-ness was not as bad as I had anticipated. The 2x4 scrap lumber I brought from home were converted to brackets to support a plastic battery box. I was able to fasten one end of the box to a bulkhead by using a 10" length of 2x4 and two stainless steel machine bolts. I used acorn nuts on because the ends of the bolts were exposed to the cabin. I attached a simple wooden wedge to the battery box on the other end. I only needed to support the inboard corner. Fastening directly to the box eliminated fastening to the hull. In my experience, the fewer holes you have in your boat's hull, the better. When I was sure where the new battery was to be placed, I measured the length of the new battery cables that would connect the two house batteries. I left the dock for my second trip to town. About an hour (and $100) later I returned with 2 shiny new 6-foot battery cables. One was red and one was black, all with nice swaged connectors. All marine electrical equipment is expensive. These cables were marine grade and grossly oversized, made to my specifications. In a direct current circuit, larger cables have less power loss.

I did the electrical hookup and was satisfied that everything was working as advertised. The last step was to put a coat of white enamel paint on the raw wood parts. This was not totally necessary but a white part in a white bilge does not look so out of place. The final placement of the new battery would be delayed until tomorrow.

New House Battery


The next project was one that I was really dreading. Our water heater has been on the fritz for several months. There is a combination switch / breaker on the AC control panel. Lately, when we pushed the power on, it would only stay on for a minute or two then the breaker would trip. As far as a diagnosis of the problem there were two obvious possibilities. I'm sure there are less obvious causes but I chose to ignore them. It could be the breaker or it could be the heating unit. Of the two, I figured the heating unit to be the more likely culprit, although the breaker would be easier to replace. I was armed with the proper replacement element ordered from the manufacturer. Changing the element on a water heater is not a difficult task unless of course the water heater is at the bottom of a cavity about 4 feet deep and two feet wide. There was no way I could get to the element's location without venturing into the cavity. I am not a small man by anyone's estimation. Getting my bulk into the cavity was difficult enough but the only way to reach the business end of the water heater was for me to sit on it and bend over to access the element. After a major wrestling match, I finally got the old element out. The bad news is, it really didn't look that bad. I was hoping to see a big crack, or some other disfigurement. After another wrestling match I got the new element in with no apparent leaks. After refilling the water tanks, I pushed the switch. I waited about 10 minutes and the breaker did not trip. This was a good result but unfortunately, when I returned later the breaker had tripped. I'm really not sure if the unit was the entire problem. I turned the switch on several times during the evening. It would stay on for a while, then trip the breaker. This is a major improvement but I may not be finished yet.

Water Heater


When I turned in at about 10pm I left the water heater running just to see what it would do. I didn't sleep very well. That happens sometimes to old guys but it is unusual for me especially when I'm on the boat. The weather was a little strange. After I went to bed, I woke up because I was too hot. I opened the hatch over my head, just a crack. The air was cool and it felt good. The wind was really whipping but I knew if it started raining I would be among the first to know.

Saturday April 5, 2008
I managed to get to sleep sometime after midnight. Promptly at 5am the bottom fell out. I woke to water splashing in my face. I closed the hatch, pronto. I figured there was no real reason to get up since I would get soaked if I left the boat. I dozed until about almost 8 when the rain slacked enough that I could get to the car. I went to town for coffee at the Bean. On my way back I stopped at the Village Hardware store to get some hose repair parts. I met a fellow from Badin, NC, which is close to home. We talked about mutual acquaintances and what was going on at home. The rain was pretty much continuous but there were breaks here and there. I retrieved my painted battery brackets from under the bathhouse. The paint was dry so I could continue the project. All the holes were drilled so finishing was not a bit deal. I put the brackets in place and bolted the battery box to the front bracket and put a generous bead of silicone caulk on the rear bracket to keep it from vibrating against the hull.

When I finished, it was raining like crazy. I had put up a boom tent, which allowed me to work near the companionway. I dashed to the car for the equipment. I needed to change the transmission oil. Considering the number of hours that we actually use the boat in a year, I doubt the oil needed changing but I know I didn't change it last year so it was due. When the oil came out it was pretty and red just as it should be. I used my hand pump to remove the old fluid and replaced it. I then pumped the new fluid out and added fluid again. I usually do this to remove more contaminates. It actually takes only about 1/3 of a quart so there is not much fluid involved. I would really hate to call the towboat just because I neglected doing something as simple as changing transmission fluid.

While I was standing on my head (so to speak) changing transmission fluid, I checked the zinc in the heat exchanger. It will need to be replaced soon but it is not an emergency. I also noticed that one of the stainless steel hose clamps I used when I installed the new heat exchanger (several years ago) was not stainless steel at all. If it had been it would not have rusted. I had two nice heavy hose clamps on hand so I replace the old ones. It was a good time and it actually made changing transmission fluid easier since the heat exchanger was not mounted at the time. While I was dealing with the nasty little hand pump, I pumped a small amount of oil out of the engines crankcase. When I changed oil last time, I had not noticed that I had overfilled by about a pint until the job was done. Convention wisdom is that you should never overfill a crankcase because the moving parts could actually "whip" the oil with air so that the oil pump cannot pump it.

Pumping oil of any kind always makes a mess. I spent some time cleaning up and putting the boat back together. I ran the heater in an effort to dry the cabin. I enjoyed homemade stew and cornbread (a repeat of last night) that I brought from home. I took a shower and enjoyed resting in the warm dry cabin.

I was pleased that I had completed everything I had planned for the weekend. Southern Star needs a bath to get rid of the winter grime and spring pollen but that won't keep her in the slip. The required maintenance is complete and it's time for our little ship to swim again. Hopefully the next log entry will be about sailing even if only a day sail.

My friends John and Jerri are in town. They invited me for breakfast on Sunday morning. I will of course, attend if I can find them. I hope I get a tour of their Allied Princess.

Sunday April 6, 2008
After another less than perfect night's sleep, I woke early and headed to the Bean for my first cup of coffee before searching for John and Jerri's condo. You can imagine my surprise when the first guy I saw on the porch was John and his friend David. The problem of finding the condo was solved. After breakfast at the condo I finally got the nickel tour of the Allied Princess. I had been following her refit for some time but she had lived in Georgia until recently, so I had never seen her. The refit seems to be going well but there is still plenty to do. Of course there is always plenty to do on a boat. The Princess is a stately old girl and I think she will serve John and Jerri well.

In closing I want to thank my readers. I have been getting more feedback than usual. Please understand, four or five contacts a month is a lot. I noticed that some are fellow Catalina 30 owners. I suspect these are a result of the Mainsheet Magazine article, although the website was not listed. In any case, I am delighted. Getting an email or having someone sign the guest book, or leave a comment on the log entry just makes my day, and I appreciate each one.

I wanted to mention my most distant contact. I received an email from a gentleman in South Africa. He was very complementary and had been reading the log for some time. He did complain however that I did not make entries often enough and that we need to go out in stronger winds so that we could gain more sailing skill. I replied that I agreed 100% and we would try to do better.