Work, Work, Work

That seems to be all we do but we are boat owners. The boat was neglected for about a week while I did some work for another cruiser on their travel trailer. But as soon as that was done it was right back to it. The electrical system will be an ongoing project for a long time. The battery bank is getting expanded so that has been a priority. The batteries were just sitting on a shelf when we bought the boat so a bit more secure system is needed. Building a box to hold them has been on my list for a while. It is now finished and I took the opportunity to clean up and paint a bit more of the bilge area and the adjoining engine area. Eventually the entire engine room will get a fresh coat of paint. The first photo here is the area in front of the engine and where the bilge pumps are as it looked when we took possession of the boat. the second picture is the progress made so far. Not finished, but much better. The additional photos are the process of re-installing the start battery box and a new starting battery. We went from a small 24 to a heavy duty truck starting battery. The engine should like this much better.




The Follow-Me-TV unit we have used for the satellite dish is a holdover from our sailboat. This system, now called Track-IT-TV, has performed very well for us on the sailboat so we brought it over to the trawler. As always, the mounting location needs to be open no matter what direction the dish is pointed. We needed to get it up and over the bimini top for a good view of the sky. After some thought I settled on mounting it on a 4 inch PVC pipe attached to the flybridge rail with hose clamps. If this works out then a more permanent attachment will be done. The coax had to be run from the dish to the entertainment center. This was accomplished by running the coax through the bulkhead over the aft window in the main cabin where the TV is mounted. A thru-deck cable cover was used to finish it off on the outside and make it watertight. The coax is then run up through the inside of the 4 inch PVC and out the top to the LNB on the dish. The Track-It seems pretty secure and puts the dish just above the bimini top. The only issue might be the mast at some points while anchored but we will have to see how that goes. On the sailboat we had 2 masts and it was only very rarely that it interfered with reception. If this works as we hope, additional supports will be added from the hand rails to the PVC pipe just under the Track-It. A lot of extra coax is bundled loosely inside the PVC pipe to allow for the dish to turn without stressing the coax. The power wire and adjustment cable still needs to be run to the inside of the boat later in the week.

I have found that the amp gauges at the lower helm and upper station are not working. I really have found no benefit to an amp gauge on the engine so since the previous owner put a voltage gauge at the lower station, I will replace the gauge at the upper station with a volt meter also. Another item added to the list. During all of this we actually got the boat out of the slip for a short period on Saturday. A front was coming through so as soon as we got under way the winds came up and the rain started so we made it a short run. As soon as we returned to the slip, secured the boat and plugged the power back in, the wind dropped and the rain stopped. Very typical.

And of course the work on the teak continues. The lower hand rails are done and look great as does the side door. The cap rail is now under construction as is some of the trim from the flybridge. My next 3 big projects will be to complete the shower in the forward head, install an oil changer system and also a fuel polishing pump. The electrical for the windlass still needs to be finished but we are waiting for the rest of the parts to finish that. We are hoping to make a big dent in these projects in the next few weeks. We will keep you posted.