The new year has arrived and Dave, our trusty electrician, is back at it, putting Wilparina's electrical systems back together. The new circuit boards are nearly ready to be assembled. Dave built the teak panels (above) that will soon hold the new circuitry.

The price of copper wire is pretty high these days. As we get ready to reconstruct the battery bank, it is important to note that the thick electrical cabling associated with the batteries (2/0 AWG) costs 8 cents AN INCH. So rather than string the cables from the batteries, to the main battery selector switch (what we call the BRS or big red switch) and then back again, we are going to use remote battery switches. We'll also upgrade our propane on/off switch with a new version that includes a propane detector.

Behind the new electrical panel, the fresh water pump has been removed. We're going to install a new fresh water pump beneath galley sink. We also pulled out the manual bilge pump that's attached to the aft bulkhead and faces into the cockpit. This needs to be rebuilt or replaced, and then re-installed.