Kicking back on the Time and Tide
May 14th, 2016
We spent some more time at the boat in early May. Moyia tried out a new wood oil on the interior teak that had a blend of both orange and lemon oils. Very nice results and had a much less lingering scent. For those of you wondering, we don’t own any stock in the oil company.
I went about photo-cataloging, verifying equipment model numbers and ensuring we had the corresponding manuals in the unlikely event (yeah, right) that I’d need to repair something. I did uncover that our current MFD (multi-function display) was an upgrade/replacement during a visual inspection of the mounting holes which started when I was trying to figure out why I had manuals for two different MFDs.
Not all the photo-cataloging was equipment related. Both Moyia and I take photos for replenishment of critical supplies. The photo above shows that our liquor locker in the Commonwealth Yacht Club is in dire need of new stock!
With the changing of the seasons we started getting the overnight dew on the boat which quickly dried once the sun had risen. Note the footprints on the deck…..
A sodden Old Glory waiting for the sun to dry it out and flutter in the breeze once again.
Some of the goslings that were swimming back and forth this week.
We’ve had an intermittent issue with our freezer/refrigerator the past few times on the boat. Sometimes the compressor would run fine or not run at all. After jumping out the thermostats on previous visits and having the compressor run fine (but no cycling on/off), I replaced both thermostats with no improvement in the situation. This past trip and much more troubleshooting, I found a broken wire hidden in the insulation a few inches back from one end of the run. It was making a connection at times, just not all the time. I also wired the spillover fan, which pulls cold air from the freezer compartment into the refrigerated side, on to its own 12v power so each side operates independent of one another. The system is pretty sweet as it has a diagnostic panel and uses a very small three phase compressor.
The weather was great during our stay and we spent many hours outside cleaning the boat or relaxing. The was also the Kentucky Derby which is a really big deal here in Kentucky. A a party with many of the women in big colorful hats happened at the CYC.
Another task was to replace the 8 ohm L-pad (volume control) in the salon as the original one was skipping/crackling badly. I also sketched out the 6 speaker circuit (salon, aft cabin and cockpit) as each area has its own volume control and had a weird series/parallel circuit to keep the total resistance under 8 ohms. A couple of the speakers are getting a bit fuzzy so I’ll replace these. The control in the cockpit had a mud dauber nest placed on its backside but still worked surprisingly well. We’re set up to connect to local radio, Bluetooth from our phones and Sirius satellite radio. Sirius is our “go to” source for a light jazz mix called “Watercolors” which we were introduced to when we lived in Geneva (Florida) back in the 90s. At that time we connected with various satellites using a large, rotating dish and technology has made it so that the Sirius “dish” for our boat fits comfortably in the palm of my hand.
We took the boat out of the slip to pump out our holding tanks and then ran off to the main lake to do a bit of sailing. We were cruising in the channel just out of the marina when the engine overheat alarm went off. We have trained for just such an event (not!) and quickly moved off the main channel to anchor and rest our now adrenaline-pumped bodies. We let the engine cool while Moyia made new friends which each closely passing boat and I looked everything over below with no obvious problems being apparent. Once the engine cooled, we fired her up and limped back to the slip at a slow speed all the while watching the engine temperature gauge. I had initially thought that some pieces from the previous impeller had gotten through the piping and blocked the heat exchanger but this did not turn out to be the case. The belt for the engine coolant pump and alternator had just started to slip enough to allow us to run the engine at a near idle but not at a cruising speed. I tightened up the belt and all appears to be well with the exception of having to clean off a fine dusting of rubber belting. Another lesson learned and one more thing to put on my list of things to check out before we travel south.
Meanwhile back home, spring is almost over and lawn season has begun! I printed a bird house for some of our wrens. One of our clematis vines was being a show-off and it was time for my annual re-blading of the trusty rider mower deck.
The bed of broccoli is hitting its stride, just need to keep the caterpillars off of the plants.
