Monday, May 2, 2016

Battery power

Power woo hoo!

With the batteries fully charged, we put them to the test this evening. Pegs wanted a hot shower and our only means of heating the water was running the inverter. 

So... 10 mind of DC to ac inversion and we had hot running water woo hoo!
The system drew 118 amps compared to nah Nutting doing on the old batteries. Running the engine for 30 mind should recharge. I'm stoked. Here's a pic as peggy came out of the shower 
😂 we're good to go.

See you on the water. 

Sunday, May 1, 2016

May Cruise 2016 - Prep

May Cruise -2016

We planned on a short Cruise this month. Commitments and getting the Batteries upgraded cut the cruise down to a single week. So we plan on just heading down to Miami and hanging out near Nixon's with some sailing in the North end of Biscayne Bay returning home on Friday. The Kids are keeping an eye on the house for us and our neighbors are always on the ball, so we keep them informed of our plans.

The boat is ready: Sunday Night time to pick up a friend at the airport and fill up the spare diesel tanks just in case. So Monday all we have to do is head down to the boat load up the food, and cast off in time to get to the first bridge after 9:30 as they stay closed during the morning and evening rush hours. 


This will be our first decent sail in several month, so we're looking forward to the 53 mile journey down to Miami on Tuesday. The Wind is forecast to be from the East, ideal for that trip. We have our clothes packed, bedding is on the boat, the only thing to do on the boat is top up the aft Fresh Water tank - 10 mins max.

Here's our sailing area. The screenshot is from my Samsung Tablet running Navionics HD. At the top is Port Everglades, we plan on heading out to the Ocean early Tuesday Morning after a night on Lake Sylvia.
Here's looking towards a peaceful night so that we get our early start.
Monday afternoon/evening will give us the chance to check that everything is secure for Sea.

See you on the water.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

New Batteries Installed

New Batteries - Installed - And charging

Well, it looks like we'll make our trip South with the new Batteries installed and charging seems to be just fine.

The new Batteries have power post in a slightly different orientation so the old Series / Parallel cables did not fit. A trip to West Marine and Boat Owners Warehouse and I had the bits to make new cables.

It took longer to get the bits than to actually make up the cables.  But they do look good and the Crimps are top notch.

By the end of the day, the new Battery connections were in place, tested and the charging circuits restored.





Today I installed the Galvanic Isolator

It's mounted on the aft face of the Head bulkhead. It's connected inline with the Earth/Ground wire from the shore power plug. 

In keeping with my plans to label all new electrical wiring, the GI wires are labeled and everything is tie-wrapped to keep it neat and tidy.

On a side note. The Port side cockpit locker is big enough for me to get into and then room for a couple of stowaways!

While at it, I cleaned out all of the old junk webbing, lines and hoses before putting everything back together.

By the time I left the boat afternoon today, the electrics were 100% back together, we're better protected from Stray current that would risk corrosion of our Prop & Shaft etc. So now I just have to tidy up the Cabin before we are ready to load up for our week's trip down to the Bay.

Tomorrow (Sunday) I'll mount our new Swim Ladder extension that I drilled and cut this afternoon. Also mount the new Starboard Outboard Motor Mount ( I just don't fancy having to re-varnish the wooden OB Motor mount that came with the boat last year.)

So Peggy & I went to the store this afternoon for a Provisioning run. Tomorrow it's just pickup some Diesel - we'll take 15 Gallons with us to cover the planned trip if we have to motor all the way there and back.

Tonight, we cooked chicken and prepared 4 meals, tomorrow we'll cook a Pork Tenderloin in the Slow cooker and that will be all of the dinners taken care of. Plan is to leave the dock early Monday before the bridges close for the morning rush hour traffic.

Perhaps this trip we'll get a few videos and pics of us actually under sail. So far the weather forecast is good for the entire week. Keep our fingers crossed.


See you on the Water.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Fried Batteries

We have been nursing our boats House Batteries for the past year, but they have finally given up the ghost. They are boiling off electrolyte faster than we can add it! Just a week after a top up, they drank another 2 gallons of distilled water! So, time to bite the bullet.

Searching around the web and researching the quality of batteries to use, I figured on a budget of $150 for each of the 4 6v Golf Cart Batteries. I found some at Sam's Club but not available in Florida, but at just over half price I considered having them ready for pickup out of state and making a weekend trip somewhere - it would save $300. But that didn't fly.

Then, when leaving the local Home Depot, I stopped at Batteries Plus just to inquire about their offers. They had batteries that met all my required specs for $85 each (plus tax, disposal fees etc.) So I picked up 4 of them on the spot with the caveat that if they did not fit then l could return them. (Didn't think I could measure the old ones in situ.)


Next step is to remove the old batteries and clean up the Battery Bay.

1st Battery is Out!

Here's the 1st battery out. That hole is in the cabin seat base. The previous owner had cut that out so I guess he had replaced the batteries after adding the seats.
Note the corrosion muck on the top of the battery. Not visible from the top is the fact that the sides of the battery were a bit bowed, swollen from the pressure inside during charging.

I didn't take pics of the various braces that I had to remove to get the battery out. One thing is certain, the batteries cannot move around when braced in place, and if the boat was thrown into a nasty orientation, then knowing the batteries would remain in place is a good thing. But I have no intention of every testing it out.


3 More to go!

Getting the 1st battery out was the hard part, the other three are just a case of connect the lifting strap and haul up. I figure the batteries weigh about 55lbs each. So moving them from the boat to the truck is a careful process. Don't want to slip either on the boat or between the boat and dock, especially as there is an $18 core charge on each battery that is refundable when I return them to Batteries Plus.







Battery Bay Cleanup

With all the batteries out of the boat (ok, the starting battery is not being replaced, that's pretty new). Time to clean up the Battery Bay.
The base is shaped to receive the original 2 12v Batteries, but the 4 6v Golf Cart Batteries has a higher power density as well as the fact that they nearly fill the entire battery bay. It's a tight fit.







Clean up - Done

I didn't expect it to clean up this easily nor this well. The atharwtships braces have been cleaned and the corrosion residues polished off.
The base is covered with a piece of plywood, it's stained but not damaged so just dried out and cleaned up before putting it back in place.

Time to take the dead Batteries home.





Shiny new Batteries

Got them in place, but not connected yet. Short trip to the boat today to load the batteries and do some clean up. 
These Durecell Batteries weigh in at 65lbs each and that 10lbs is a good extra chunk of lead, so I'm hoping they'll last.

Of course, maintaining and not abusing the Batteries is the way to extend their life, so the boat's electrical system is getting a bit of an upgrade too.

Part of that upgrade is to ensure all of the terminals are strong, clean and properly labeled. The labeling is part of my on going efforts to improve the quality of the electrical system and make it easier to work on the system when needed. So all of the Battery terminals have been cleaned and are ready to be labelled before reconnecting the Batteries to the boat system.

Electrical Upgrade

The upgrade consists of several steps, 1st is to construct an accurate wiring diagram that reflects the true wiring setup on the boat at present, it will actually be two diagrams. One a schematic showing what's connected to what and the other a physical diagram showing where the parts are and where they are connected. It's going to be a busy weekend.

Already determined is that there is no Galvanic Isolator installed on the boat. This could give cause to galvanic corrosion of metal parts in or surrounded by water. That includes the Prop, Shaft, Cutlass Bearing, Metal Through Hulls as well as Engine parts that are subject to salt water (like the heat exchanger) - A Galvanic Isolator is on it's way.







Second issue is the means of charging the two sets of batteries - #1 - House Batteries (that's the four that are being replaced right now) and #2 - Starting or Emergency Battery (that's a 12v battery that appears to be in good shape and holds it's charge pretty good)

To prevent the batteries from discharging to each other when not charging, I'm installing an Automatic Charge Relay (ACR) that will automatically connect the 2 battery banks when a charging current is apparent and disconnect them at other times. It also disconnects the two banks when the Starting Battery is being used to start the engine, this prevents voltage spikes being delivered to the boat's electronics.

Installing the GI is pretty straight forward, just cut the earth/ground wire from the shore power connection inside the boat, strip off the ends and connect them to the GI mounting the GI in a dry location. Should take about an hour to do that.

Installing the ACR is a little more complex, as it also requires the wiring to the two battery banks and the charging circuits. That demands that the wiring diagram is done first. So that's high up on the list. it will be a busy weekend!

And it looks like the Weekend will start early, Dan the diver is available to clean the boat below the waterline tomorrow at 10am. So I'll get an early start on the diagramming.

See you on the water.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Drop that mainsail!

After completing the move of all the (main) lines back to the cockpit so that I don't have to go on deck to put in or take out a reef, I lubricate the Mainsail Track in the Mast with Zip Tech.

He're how it worked out.

Sweet!

See you on the Water.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

My 1st Double Braid Line Splice.

During my Navy career, I leaned that you had to blow your own horn before someone else used it as a spittoon!

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been working on moving all of the mainsail reefing lines back to the cockpit so that I don't have to go up on deck to reef the sail. Like most monohull sailboats, Eximius demands that a person (normally me) goes up on deck to put in the mainsail reef to reduce sail area in anticipation of worsening weather. Going up on the deck is not the best place to be out on the ocean, but the way the lines were positioned on Eximius, it was a requirement. So we would normally put the 1st reef in place before we headed out and we would shake them out if the weather proved light enough to put all the sail out, for us, that's about 16kts, we like the boat upright.

During this job, I took the extra step of replacing the almost new Main Halyard. I had replaced just a few months ago, and used the old line as the template for the new, but the old line was a good fit in the line clutches and I was reluctant to replace the line with something smaller, which is what the owners manual indicated should be used. RTFM! The Main Halyard line is $2.07 a foot and it's 119' long! expensive! So I replaced it with the line size from the manual. In addition to the line itself, there's also the cost of having a shackle spliced into the end of the line where it connects to the top of the Main Sail. That's a few bucks too!

This time, I bought the tool for doing the splice myself, and here's the result - Did I hear a Horn blast!

This is my first ever Double Braided Line Splice EVER! And it came out just too cool!
The line is 3/8 StaSet Double Braded Line, the shackle was from the original Halyard.


See you on the Water.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Zippered

The Bimini, Dodger, the piece that goes between, and all of the side panels that make up the enclosure around the cockpit of Eximius are all Zippered! That's the good news, it means that we can remove them if we have to! (Ok, all but the Bimini as it has our Solar Panels atop of them, bolted through!)

And those zippers are probably at least 10 years old, I'm guessing some are much much older (Eximius will be 30 next year), so some of them get a little bit grouchy when it's time to exercise. I have had to resew a couple of them because it was so difficult to get the zipper to move along the zip that the force actually tore the stitches out.

I mentioned this to a good friend, owners of Spruce Goose, Joyce Klein, and she is a diver that works for a company that sells dive equipment online. This weekend, Joyce gave me a tube of Zip Tech and suggested it might make a difference.

According to the label, the lubricant does not contain any silicone or paraffin wax, both of which I have seen in other products. It's like a large lip balm

Well folks, it works! The first zipper that I lubricated using zip tech  when from a stubborn, already broke the zip tab, pain the butt zipper to an ooooooh, this is easy zipper!

With that success, I applied it to all of the zippers on the boat Dodger, they all responded, I'm sure I could hear them saying thank you!

I checked their price compared to Amazon, Dive Gear Express is better!

Zip Tech is certainly easy to use, I just applied it to the closed zip surface and then opened/closed the zip a few times, it got easier and easier as the lubricant worked into the zip. Then I wiped off any surface residue. The lubricant is a white solid and as I wiped it on the zip surface, the zip left a groove in the soft lubricant, so I turned the tube about 90 degrees each time I wiped a new area of zip. I probably used about 1/4 tube to lubricate about 20' of zippers, but really can't tell how much is left in the tube, so I'm ordering a tube from Dive Gear Express. From now on, each time I have to operate a previously unused zipper, I'm going to lubricate it with this stuff. When I lube the boat cushions, I'll be really careful to wipe off the excess, don't want it getting onto any clothing, although we haven't had to clean it off anything yet.

I would give this product 5 stars, reasonably price, good size, does the job and easy to stow aboard, won't adversely affect the zipper plastic or metal and will make opening or closing the zips sooooo much easier.

Thanks for introducing me to this zipper lube Joyce.

See you on the water.

Update April 3rd 2016
In preparation for an upcoming race, I have been working on leading all of the lines aft to the cockpit, including the Main Halyard (the line used to raise the Main Sail to the top of the mast).

Having completed the project, I raised the sail and tested the process of putting in and taking out the 2 reefs to reduce the sail area in anticipation of worsening weather. When I dropped the sail back down to the boom it stopped halfway down due to friction between the mast and and the sail slugs that keep the main sail secured to the mast but allow it to be hoisted and lowered.
Having done all this work to reduce the necessity of going up on the cabin top  to adjust the sail, it was disappointing to still go up on the cabin top to stow the sail.

Then it occurred to me, perhaps the Zip Tech would also lubricate the sail track? So I applied some of the lube to a cloth and inserted that into the track and raised it up the mast like a flag. A couple of times up and down and I felt it could be ready to test.
I raised the sail to the top and dropped it, quite an improvement, repeated the process, it got better. In all I treated the mast track 4 times, spreading out the lube along the length of the mast.
The result:


Pretty impressive.

I have purchased 2 more tubes of the lube from Dive Gear Express, here's a link to there website. FYI am I not affiliated in any way to Dive Gear Express, just good friends with Joyce Klein & Mike Megarity.

Thanks again Joyce.

See you on the Water.