56 days and counting.......

Damn! I am running out of time! Especially for the RHSP part of the year's sailing program - only 10 days 'till our strart on the 13th and there is still so much to do!

Fortunately most of the "beastie" stuff is done. All I really need to do is hook up the computer and rig the rest of the antennas - DSC for the SSB, GPS and WiFi for the computer, and the satphone. I'm pretty sure that most of that can be done this saturday. In fact none of it really has to be done before we leave in 56 days for the US.

This has been an expensive year.


06/25/2008 06:17:54

Getting closer....closer...closer

Starting to get sweaty palmed about getting everything done in time for the start, but I think that we'll just make it with the necessaries for RHSP and the rest in time for the great departure at the end of August.

We had intended to do some more sail training on Thursday night, but one of the crew is not avaialble so we will take the opportunity to work on the the boat, getting some final stuff done since the Admiral and I will be off to Ottawa for the long weekend to visit my parents. I am hoping to get the last of the sail track put up for the storm tri-sail and the last of the work done on the electronics below decks. Then next Wednesday, after we return from Ottawa, I will install the new winches on the cockpit coaming to be used for the mizzen staysail and spinnaker if we ever get one.

We have found the last of our crew from a very unlikely source. A lady, who appears to be very friendly and committed, who is a professor of biology in a university in Indianna, has agreed to join us for the trip. Given that the rest of us work together and have known each other for years, it will be great to have a fresh voice and new stories for conversations during the three days of watches.


06/22/2008 06:17:54

(great Sighs of Relief)

Over the weekend I rewired all the instrumentation back to the panel in the cockpit. As I think I may have already mentioned elsewhere in this blog I have been adding electronics one or two a year for the past eight years. Problem is was that for the first five of those years I was posted to Ottawa and flying home to visit family etc on weekends and for holidays. What that translates to is that I would be in a great rush to install each piece of kit as I would only have a day or so on the weekend to do it and each year I couldn't rememember what I had done as far as wiring was concerned the previous. Result? A real monkey's breakfast of cabling coming back to the cockpit. I had fourteen seperate sets of cables from two to eight wires each coming back to the panel. Each instrument had its own power cabling. Every instrument that wanted to talk to the GPS either came up to the cockpit to connect or was wired down into the cabin. With the install of the new GPS and the FLS I decided to sort out the quagmire once and for all. I ran one 12VDC source up to the panel; set up a buss for the GPS behind the panel and another for it below in the cabin. There is now one main on/off switch on the breaker panel and all instruments that needs power connects to the bus. Everything on the panel that wants to talk to the GPS does so right there. The four things below deck that want to "see" the GPS are the computer, the VHF radio, the SSB, and the AIS receiever. They are all connected to the GPS bus below deck. We have gone from fourteen seperate cables to seven! Why did I do it any other way?

I have fired up the CP180 GPC and the Echopilot FLS. Damn are they nice! The 180 is slightly smaller than the 160 that we had there before, but it has a whole whack more features, and the FLS - well! I don't know why everyone doesn't have one especially if you are planning to gunkhole into strange and unknown waters or if you, as we will be, are going down the ICW. Depending on conditions it can show you the depth and bottom out 300+ feet in front of you. That's not much if you are honking along at 7 knots, but if you are poking your bow into a strange harbour under power at 2 to 3 knots, it's plenty of distance to give you a chance to take some action. Not only that but it can see buoys or logs or other boats in front of you too. Neat!

06/18/2008 06:17:54

A huge undertaking has occurred and mega boat bucks spent. NELLEKE now has a new house bank with 460 AHrs at 24V as opposed to 260 AHrs. We have replaced the 6 gel batteries with 8 lead acid golf cart batteries ganged together to form 2 x 24 V cells. When detaching the old batteries and installing the new ones I found one possible reason that the old system wasn't working as well as it could have. One of the batteries was N/S which pretty much puts a significant strain on the others. I am testing the remainder and have three friends who need to augment their battery banks, so I'll pass them around.

This coming weekend should finalize 90% of the stuff that I need to do prior to RHSP and get a start on the stuff that I'll be doing once I get back before the great Exodus. The biggest step forward this weekend will be the abilitiy to finally put everything away and square away the below decks situation.

The Admiral will be thrilled!

06/11/2008 06:17:54

Great minds never rest. We have removed the diesel generator from the hold and have it on the market for sale, used. Then I had the cunning plan to increase the number of solar panels but have discovered that they would cost upwards of $1600US. I then realized that if I could get a smaller, gas generator to install in the deck lazerette I could make do with the existing solar panels and wind generator combination especially when I get more south with reliable sunshine and winds. The smaller genset would only be required as emergency or to power a hooka for divning.

On the prowl.

06/08/2008 06:17:54

Finally! A nice weekend to get something done!

The liferaft has been inspected and re-installed and my wallet is lighter by $850. What a scam! Oh well. The Admiral is more comfortable knowing that we will have that insurance aboard, and I am certainly more comfortable knowing that she is happier.

We have installed the running forestay for the mizzen staysail and I am looking forward to trying it out. I'm not yet sure where on the toerail to put the block for the sheet but I do know where we will be putting the new winches on the cockpit seatbacks. Fortunately we already have the winches so there will be no extra cost there.

And finally, we have removed the genset. We never really used it and we will now have the space for the new batteries that will be making up the house bank. Accessible space I might add and if we find that we absolutely must have a gen for emergencies, I can get a small gas one somewhere.

Yahoo! We may even get a chance to get out in the boat for a weekend before we get started in RHSP and retirement.

05/29/2008 06:17:54

The last blog entry by this title has been added to so many times that it is starting to take on the characteristics of a bad novel. Better start a new one to continue for a while.

I have so many projects on the go at present it is difficult to decide which to work on when I go down the the boat in the evenings. Sometimes the weather determines a subset that I have to chose from, and sometimes the availability of an assistant dictates which particular project I will be working on that day. For example, when I have good weather and an assistant, I take advantage of the good luck to go up the mast and work on the mast steps.

I have some projects that Barb has volenteered to do. She has taken on getting the instrument panel ready. Until last year all my instruments were mounted in a home made wooden pannel which in turn was mounted on the binnacle. This was not a particularly good idea but I was too stubborn to admit it. First, it wasn't too sturdy and second it ready messed up the compass deviation, but even with these two major faults it would probably still be there except for the fact that during the Marblehead Race last year, one of the crew leaned against it and ripped it off the mount. I was able to repair it at sea, but it made me realize once and for all that it wasn't one of my more shining examples of craftsmanship. To fix the problem, I bought a commercial instrument panel and mounted it on the mizzen mast, still in front of the helm but far enough away from the compass to have minimal if any affect on it and out of the way of stumbling crew. Barb has been painting up the wooden clamps which hold it to the mast and they are starting to look like they are part of the plexiglass pannel.

Also, as all the instruments were added over a four year period, the system will greatly benefit from a complete rewiring. To say the least I will be able to reduce the number of cables running back to the pannel. Right now they all have their own power leads and in some cases the GPS NMEA outputs run from the GPS to the cabin and then back to the pannel to connect to the other instruments. Now I will be able to consolidate everything and do some proper planning for the wiring. Long overdue but better late than never.

The new watermaker is something that I will be very interested in getting running. Of course I won't be able to properly test it until we are out of Halifax harbour, according to the manufacturer, but once it is properly installed that will be a small concern.