The summer is screaming by and we have been busy. The heat and humidity of a South Florida summer have been a challenge. We ended up keeping Light Reach in the water in Lantana for two months while we worked on her. That turned out well with the heat as the marina has a lovely pool of which we took advantage. Boat projects have taken a good part of our time. The lockers have all been emptied and cleaned. The teak interior has received a new coat of oil. The stainless has been polished. While I worked on those tasks Scott put in a new water pump. No easy task as he had to hang upside down and maneuver around the water maker to reach it. The changeover solved the problem and we can now build up pressure enough for the pump to turn off as it should.
In between lugging things to the condo and researching and planning the installation of the batteries we discussed our plans to head North for a much needed visit to family and friends. We had decided the idea of a motor home wasn't going to work our this year. Scott was reluctant to drive the Miata north again, finding it cramped and uncomfortable the last two years. We just happened to be down in Delray one day picking up some things at Trader Joes. Yes we still need fresh provisions even though we have been trying to consume the goods we hauled to the Bahamas and back !
Across the street from TJ's was a Toyota dealer, should we stop and look? What could it hurt, right? Well about 4 hours later we drove out with a new to us Lexus coupe and my sweet little Miata was a memory. She was a lot of fun but just not practical for our needs right now. Someone will get a wonderful ride. We in turn have a roomy vehicle with a large trunk and back seat.
Back to the batteries, we were fortunate that we didn't end up with a fire. The old battery was hot! And bulging on the side closest to the bulkhead. It had a completely shorted cell. Yikes, very scary. We needed to get it replaced ASAP, not daring to leave the bilge pump off while we were in the water. Scott did his research and carefully measured our available space, conferred with Roger (Dancin Down Wind) and came up with a plan. That capacious trunk in the Lexus was going to come in very handy.
We replaced the 1 house monster battery with 4 105 amp Group 31 batteries. That increased our house capacity by 222 amp hours to a total of 420 amp hours. Nice! The operation was not without its drama. As we were lowering the last battery through the center hatch the handle broke and the battery fell with one truly awful thud. It put a major dent in the center console table and left a gruesome dig in the cabin sole. Fortunately no one was under the 67 lb battery when it fell and we were able to return it and get a replacement. Not so much for the table and the floor which will suffer with permanent scars. The four new batteries fit in the same locker as the current house battery with the addition of a modification bracket to hold them in place which we had fabricated by the marine service shop next door.
The old battery was a 131 lb monster. We hired the same folks who fabricated the bracket to remove it from the boat. Not an inexpensive project between batteries, cables, brackets and removal of the old battery.
While we were at it we replaced the starter battery since it was the same age as the house and getting toward its end of life. And the captain bought a new battery testing toy to make sure they all stay charged and happily balanced.
Next up was taking the sails off and getting them cleaned and repaired. We found a loft in Stuart that could do the work for us. On a brutally hot day we got the sails off, flaked and loaded into the car. They're currently out for cleaning and repair. Both sails suffered from the salt and sun of the Bahamas and clearly needed TCL to insure they last as long as possible.
While we were in the islands the gimble mechanism on the stove broke making it impossible to lock the stove into place. That was a real nuisance when you didn't want the stove to swing. The Captain found a manual on line and was able to repair it. Thank goodness, they no longer make the stove that is in Light Reach and I definitely did not want to replace it.
When we had the boat surveyed before we bought her the surveyor told us the cockpit floor had some issues. The cockpit floor in a PSC 37 has 4 large bolts that attach the floor to the boat creating a hatch. This hatch can be lifted out to give access to the engine. Wonderful for easy engine access but not such a good design for keeping water out of the cockpit sole. Water gets under the hatch where it is not sealed around the bolts and seeps up into the fiberglass core causing delamination.. We had been in touch with Pacific Seacraft who could do the fix at their factory in North Carolina. Scott wasn't about to take the boat to North Carolina but devised an idea for making a temporary hatch cover to put in place. After measuring everything carefully we picked up the necessary wood, paint and weather seal from the local big box store and created the cover. Using the current hatch as a template we drilled the holes for the bolts and glued foam weather seal to the temporary hatch. It fit into place beautifully.
With our list of chores down to what we would do after being resplashed in the fall we turned now to getting a place for her to be hauled for the remainder of hurricane season while we head North.
The picture is of our beautiful new battery bank. The new bracket encloses the fourth battery, the other three fit in the bracket from the old one.