Our sailing experience on a 1987 Catalina 34 which we named 'Eximius' which google showed as the Latin translation for 'Special'
We hope that our posts will help others looking to take their boat beyond the local waters as well as provide entertaining reading.
I'm a Brit, so my view of entertaining may not match yours ;)
See you on the water.
The Journey Starts Here
Paul
Grab a jug o rum lads, be quiet and let me tell e a tale anded down years ago as best I recall.
They say that you're never alone at sea, it don't matter ow big your ship, it don't matter how big the sea, it don't matter ow long you've been away from ome, you're never alone.
Av you ever gone for'ard on the deck when the wind as been blowing ard an you av to old tight just to keep your feet on the deck an you felt that feeling you aint alone? Well you isn't! Es watching you! Hey, Cook! when you're below cooking up a feast, yea, I know, a feast at sea might not be fancy like at ome, but you know when you're tryin to make it so. Well, Es watching, E knows when you put that bit o extra spice or when you splash in a dram of rum. You're not alone!
Ever bin up the stick an out on the yard? One and for the boat and One and for yourself right! When you're up there with the ship tossing abawt, working at pulling in that reef, it's a might scary if you want to feel that way, it's a might exciting too. Not many folks ashore could do that, they don't know what it takes to keep a ship under way, but E does! and E's watching, E knows!
Naw, you dogs that have been aboard more than one deck know that not every skipper is the same, they all ave their quirks. Some shout, others whisper, but they're not alone either, Naw, they're not alone, even though they ave no one looking over them cept those that are ashore and looking for the ship's return to port, with all the crew, an the skipper knows that all you dogs av someone. But the skipper is not alone, naw! E's keeping an eye on im too, E knows when the skipper shouts, when e curses, and when e gives the nod cause you did good up forward, when the food is like a feast an when you step dan from the yard an get your feet back on deck. You all know ow good that nod feels. Well, the skipper knows e's not alone, e knows that someone watching im!
If you're aboard any ship, no matter if it be alongside tied up and nearly empty cus the crew are ashore, no matter if she's swinging at anchor and you're on watch trying to keep warm an everyone else is below under the lamps while you're big eyed under the stars. And it don't matter if you're working the ship in heavy seas an everyone else is busy. No matter where on the ship, no matter the time o day or the spot on the sea, E's watching! E knows if you're doin good, E knows if you're slacking.
Ow do I know this? Well lads, I know! I've spent more n a few Chistmas' away from ome, not all of em, but a good few, an each year around this time, E let's you know that E's been watching. It might be a bit more or a bit less grog, it might be a bit warmer or cooler, it might be a bit extra strength when you're pulling that line, it might be grin from the skipper when things are a bit heavy.
You can thank im! Cus E's been watchin, E knows when you did good, E knows when you didn't.
When we are anchoring, I stand at the bow and Peggy is at the helm with the engine running (we have not 'sailed' to anchor yet.) And communication from the bow to the helm is fraught. Peggy is beneath the Bimini and I'm 30' away in front of the Mast and the Dodger is in front of the Cockpit, so a clear line of sight is often obscured. For example, when I need Peggy to put the boat into Neutral, I tap my head, and when she sees that signal, she is supposed to acknowledge, just a simple (OK) suffices, but sometimes she'll reply 'Neutral!' But, if she does not see me, then I can have a sore head from banging it furiously with one hand while trying to hold the anchor chain with the other hand or foot. If she does not see me, or I don't hear her acknowledgement, it gets frustrating and, typically, I turn, Whistle, and bang my head again.
Santa came early this year!
Peggy has been pushing for us to get headset communicators for over a year, but I thought we could get pretty good with our hand signals during anchoring and navigation around blind corners on the New River.
We saved over $500 by not going to the, now extinct, Strictly Sail Miami (saved the Hotel cost) so, logically ;) we had some spare $$$.
Eartec Wireless Headsets $335 from Amazon (prime - no shipping cost)
So I took a break from painting our home exterior to open the box and check it out.
Very comfortable, but I think I'll add a lanyard just in case they get knocked off when I'm at the bow.
I didn't think my glasses were normally tilted, and have to try them out wearing a hat to cover those locks.
Very neat dual battery charger, but why did they not include a 12v or USB power cable to the battery charger?
The Output of the Power supply is 5v and the input to the Charger is 5v (surprise!) and the Battery input is 4.2v
So it would seem simple enough to make a 5v USB charging cable so that we don't have to plug the charger into an Inverter aboard the boat.
We tried them out at home. With me working by the Pool Pump (it's too cold for the Noisy AC system to be running) Peggy could hear me above the sound of the TV and I could hear her very clearly outside. There was not really any wind, but there was absolutely no background noise! So far I'm impressed.
Plan is to check them out in earnest next week (when it warms up a bit) as we have to go out for a dump trip.
See you on the water.
Paul
Update - December 20th. 2017
We used the EarTec for the first time yesterday and again today, and I'm totally impressed with the quality of the Communication system.
1st use was leaving the dock. The headsets paired right away and we could almost whisper to each other and be clearly heard anywhere on the boat, inside and out, with the Engine running. The degree of stress reduction was amazing! Because of the ease of communicating, we both were passing much more info about our actions and requests that stress levels were down, like to Zero! We had the headsets tethered to our shirts using a short lanyard that I made from some thin line. There's nowhere on the headset to attach a lanyard, so I just tied a loop around the head clamp (not sure of a better description of the side of the headset that does not have the earpiece.) I am totally impressed with the improvement in communications. So for communication quality and effectiveness, I give them a 10 **********
We both wore our headsets from leaving the dock until we had the sails hoisted and were making way to our destination, we turned them off at that point - There's no Off switch for the Remote headset. but holding the top button (of three) in for 4-5 seconds shuts it off. As the manual instructs, the fact that the button is not illuminated it does not mean the set is turned off! So the procedure to turn the Master headset off is simply to flip the switch on the underside of the battery compartment, and on the Remote, hold the top button in for 4-5 seconds.
Later in the day as we were preparing to anchor, we both donned our headsets and turned them on. The master is straight forward, just flip the switch on the underside of the Battery compartment to 'on'. To turn the Remote headset on, press the top button, the blue LED will flash as it pairs to the Master and then turn solid once pairing is complete. Ours paired right away and again the audio quality is excellent.
At the end of the day I removed the batteries in order to charge them, there's no method of charging them in the headsets. Removing the battery is simply achieved by pressing the small button on the underside of each headset, the battery bay door flips open and the battery can just fall out, no fiddling to try and get them out, easy.
After inserting the batteries into the battery charger, I plugged the charger into our small 450watt inverter, it's a smart inverter and will shut down when there is no load in order to save battery power.
That's great, but the EarTech battery charger does not draw enough current to hold the Inverter on. So it immediately shuts down, which means we cannot charge the batteries on the boat. Grrrrr.
Eartec makes a 12v adapter but not a USB adapter and I have several USB Sockets on Eximius, so I'm going to make one. As it only connects to the Battery Charger and not the actual headsets, I'm not concerned about damaging them.
As mentioned before, the 110v Charger adapter has an output of 5v dc which is the typical power output of a USB charger.
A quick google search found the wiring for a USB connector, and the Charging adapter has it's diagram same as shown below.
Here's my drawing of the Adapter wiring. Easy.
Now to make the Adapter (not rocket science)
I found an Un-used USB charging cable in the Garage. Cut the phone end from that and opened the ends.
Then cut the EarTec battery charger cable leaving about 18" from the Plug end and cut that cable open.
Matched up the +ve & -ve wires, positioned some heat shrink over the thin wires and the outer wire covering. Soldered the wires and shrank the heat shrink.
Cable complete, not pretty, I didn't have the appropriate Black Heat Shrink so used Red.
Checked out the connection using an AVO to make sure I got the wiring right. Plugged into a USB Charger wall outlet adapter. Confirmed 5v dc at the plug end.
Looks good.
Plugged the new Adapter cable into the Battery Charger, inserted the two batteries. It showed Red (Charging) on both. Left it for 10 mins and charging is complete.
Added benefit, don't need to pack the Wall adapter that came with the EarTec kit.
With the new Charging Adapter I'm happy that I can charge the batteries on the boat without having to run our 2KW Inverter which probably uses more power than the charger just to turn on.
Mr Happy. I totally recommend the EarTec headsets, get a pair, I'm sure you'll love them.
While on our weekend trip in Biscayne Bay, I noticed that the Bolt that holds the Boom Gooseneck fitting is badly corroded, if that failed, then the front end of the boom would not be attached to the mast and would slam about trying to damage all sorts of things, including the Mast!
That long, vertical bolt doesn't look so bad, but up close I thought the lower end just above the nut looked very worn.
Changing it out should not be a big deal, but as it supports the weight of the Boom, Sail, Sail bag and the strain imposed by the Boom control rigging (Main Sheet, Vang, Reefing lines #1 & #2 and the Topping lift) I'm going to secure the front end of the boom before removing the bolt.
I'll just wrap the Main Halyard around the Boom, Bag with a Loop onto itself.
I would also like clean up the surfaces and apply some Super Lube to the two surfaces at the top and bottom of the fitting.
I have the bolt (ACE Hardware) and just need a Rain free day to do this, I'll use my Dremel to polish the whole assembly.
Here's what the threaded part of that bolt looks like.
Not as bad as I thought, but heading in the wrong direction.
The bolt is 3/8" x 5" with a Nyloc Nut.
New bolt (thanks ACE Hardware) installed.
Install was almost as anticipated. Once the bolt was partially removed, the gooseneck fitting pushed forwards against the mast plate. I used a big flat head screw driver to ease the lower bracket away from the plate and popped a spare short bolt in the two holes at the bottom of teh gooseneck to hold that part in place.
Then eased the bolt out of the top and inserted the new bolt.
What a great weekend - Friday through Tuesday, we learned a lot this trip so we're really glad we made it.
Departure - Friday Nov 24th.
The day after Thanksgiving. Due to the tides, we decided to head away from the dock around 10.30am. I had already gone a fuel run, getting 15 gallons of Diesel and 5 Gallons of Gasoline for the Generator & Outboard, but we decided against taking the Generator as temperatures over the weekend were forecast to be in the 70's / 80's and being cooler at night. We still took the Gasoline as I keep a 1 gallon portable tank on the boat, small enough to refuel the Outboard engine with ease.
Peggy prepped the Food & Bedding so we quickly loaded the truck. I took along our beach cart to save trips from the Truck to the Boat.
We navigated down the New River, called the bridge tender before we could see the 11th Street Swing Bridge and it was open by the time we got there. It was an easy motor down the River.
Once anchored, we dined on Chilli for dinner, a quick freeze a meal.
Detour - not again!
Yes, again! During breakfast, I realized that I had not included some of my meds in our kit, no choice but to go home and get them.
Choices: Go back to the slip and drive home - Tides and Bridges dictated that would have to be later in the morning - too long. Go up river to Sailboat Bend, tie up and get Uber to home and back - again, too long. See if we can tie up at Bahia Mar and get Uber to home and back.
I called Bahia Mar on #16 (switch to #68) and asked if they had facility to allow me to tie up for a couple of hours. Not sure if they recognize the name of our boat, but they responded that we could tie up North of the fuel dock. So we quickly pulled the anchor (actually I got the engine running, pulled the anchor and went back to the wheel getting us underway while Peggy was still below sorting out the cabin. We tied up at the dock about 10 minutes later, scratching the hull slightly (hope it will buff out) on their wooden dock edge. Requested a Uber ride and walked up to the Bahia Mar entrance to meet him.
Requesting an Uber from the Dock is not the best way to get a ride - walk out to the entrance and request the ride from there. When I requested the ride, the Uber app incorrectly identified my location as being at a residential community just North of the Bahia Mar, probably because there are no residences at the Dock! It took the Uber driver about 10 minutes to navigate what would have only taken him 2 if the App had correctly identified my location.
Chirs (Uber Driver) did a great job. We chatted all the way to my house and then he waited while I picked up a few things (you know it's always more than one thing!).
N.B. Uber Round Trip Option
Upon arrival at our house, Chris, Uber drive, closed the ride and I tried to book a new ride back to Bahia Mar. But, despite that Chris was sat in his car at the end of my driveway, he was not selected as the driver, so I cancelled that request. Tried again, same thing, cancelled again. Chris suggested he should exit the App and I should try to request a ride from inside my house. Tried that, same thing! Grrrr.
Second N.B. There is no 'Return Trip' option in the Uber App - I confirmed this with an email to Uber help.
Hear's the reply from Uber:
Hi Paul,
Happy to explain. There is no feature in the Uber app to request a round trip ride.
After requesting a ride, connect with your driver to let them know you would like to take a round trip. If they agree to take the round trip, be sure to enter the address of your first destination in the app. When you’re approaching your first destination, update the app with the address of your final destination.
Please note that because you are altering your destination while on-trip, the quoted price will not apply.Because I didn't know that (nor did Chris) Chris offered to take me back directly.
We got back to the Bahia Mar around 10:15am. Peggy had finished prepping the cabin, taken the garbage ashore and was ready for departure as soon as I got back.
We motored away from the dock at Bahia Mar, under the 17th Street Bridge and out onto the Ocean. Beautiful day for a sail, Otto von Helm did most of the steering, we just had to make a few minor course adjustments in order to go around the hundreds of fishing boats that were anchored over every available reef!
Wind was offshore hovering around 10 knots or less most of the time. It was a relaxing sail, about time!
We kept an eye out for Duet (Bill & Colleen), guessing they had spent the day at Fowey Rocks bug hunting, but no sign of them. We motored past Government Cut in Miami down to the channel just South of Bill Baggs State Park lighthouse, then we motored up the Channel keeping to the deeper parts. There was a very busy crowd on the Beach on the South side of the Park.
Turning up on the West side of the Park, we passed No Name Harbor and the few boats that were anchored off, then Westward in order to keep in the channel and finally North, up towards Nixons Anchorage.
There had to have been over a hundred boats, many of them blaring their boom boxes and thudding the airways around the anchorage. But, typical of Miami, we expected they would depart at Sundown.
No sign of Duet, so we anchored on the North side of the anchorage. I figured they had spent Friday afternoon at the anchorage and decided they would head south to the Boca Chita or Elliott key area to get away from the noise.
Before Sunset, Duet called on our Cellphone, they wondered if we were in the area. Bill informed me that they were on the outer limits of Nixon's Anchorage, up on deck, I could see their hull and black sail bag, so I waved. It had been a long day, and I didn't feel like re-anchoring, so we agreed to just hang out and call in the morning.
As the Sun went down, Miami Lit up. It's a beautiful city at night. Click on the pic to see the big picture. I should really get Peggy to take better shots, she's a much better photographer than I.
It was a pretty quiet night once the power boats departed. We dined on Chicken & Sauce a bottle of wine and a Tot o Rum.
Slept pretty good, very pleased with our progress today.
In the morning, the boom was swaying in the wind and squeaking with each swing.
I investigated the squeak, turned out to be due to the Gooseneck Securing bolt (the long vertical bolt in this pic)
It's pretty corroded. I applied some Super Lube and that stopped the squeak, but that's a critical bolt - will replace that next week.
While preparing for the morning sail, I decided to inspect the Furler Drum which I repaired just over a month ago, the line was bunching up at the bottom of the furler making it tough to furl in the sail.
Easy solution, I moved the block (the one on the rail to the left of the Furler Drum) up by about an inch. That moved the angle of the line parallel to the drum base. Problem solved, it's easier than ever to furl in the Jib.
Note the corrosion on the tang that is below the Furler connection! More on that later.
Bill & I had agreed to spend Sunday night off of Elliott key Harbor. We sailed off the anchor in the morning and passed Duet which was getting the crew up for the day 😏
It was another great day for a sail.
I chose to tack downwind as the wind was directly along our route. We initially headed over to the West side of the Bay putting the wind off our Starboard quarter (as can be seen from the Wind Instrument) It was a great sail!
We watched as Duet hoisted their sails and turned south, it looked like they were running downwind, they have an advantage but we kept our course.
When we tacked (gybed) over to port, we passed ahead of Duet, that surprised me, I thought they would already be ahead of us.
They stayed mostly on the West side of the ICW line down to the Featherbeds Channel, we continued to sail off the wind slightly, it's far more comfortable for us than sailing dead downwind. (But wait till we get our new spinnaker up and flying.)
Wind had piped up to the low teens by the time we got to anchor. Bill & I decided it was not a great night to raft up. They came over to offer a dink ride along the shore, but we were not really feeling the need and decided to just have dinner onboard that evening.
Turned out it roughened up a bit after Sunset.
The pic is just one of several that I took hoping to get a good one. I posted it on Facebook noting that I was glad it was not a mile further North else I would have been worried. (Turkey Point Power Station is up that way!)
1st test of our new Griddle on the Stove top (have only used it in the Oven up till now) and it works like a charm, fit's like a glove and I love it!
I boiled the Spuds and Green beans, then finished them off on the griddle. Meanwhile I cooked the small Filet Mignon and then added some Almonds to the cooking beans.
Turned out really good, the griddle came seasoned, but it's taking a few uses to complete the process, hardly any smoke at this point compared to that when we first used it in the Oven.
Despite the bumpy night, we slept pretty good.
In the morning we motored off the anchor and headed for the Feather banks with a destination of Nixon's.
I don't have any more pics of that trip! Pity, because we had plenty of time!
After passing the Featherbeds, I set the Auto Pilot for a course back to Nixon's, but got tooo comfy letting Otto steer. Peggy & I were discussing the number of fishing traps on our course. I mentioned that I had found a Crab Trap in the locker that came with the boat and pulled it out.
Just as I was reading the instructions, out of interest, Peggy exclaimed - We've Stopped!
AGROUND!
Yep, we were solidly aground on Black Ledge. Wind in the mid teens, sails with a single reef set, but pulling hard and we're going nowhere!
Checking the tides, we were at Low Tide and rising, that's the good news. The wind was trying to push us towards the center of the ledge and we were about 170' from the shallows West of it.
I wish I had a pic that showed me hanging out on the end of the boom! I had moved the Main Halyard to the end of the boom and secured that so that both the Halyard and the Topping lift were supporting the outer end of the boom. Then, with a line attached to the end of the boom and led back to the Port side winch, we eased the Traveler and the Mainsheet so that the boom could swing out all the way to the shrouds on the Port side. With a loop of line on the end of the boom, I put my weight on the loop and swung out as far as the shrouds would allow. Well, that did nothing! The good side of that is that our boat is really stable, the bad side of it is that it did nothing to lean the boat over so that we could raise the keel off the bottom. So Peggy pulled me back aboard - just in case you're ever tempted to try it, it's damned hard work hanging off the boom even with a loop for my feet.
We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the tide to come up and gradually the depth gauge read above 4' 4", when it got to 5' I pushed the engine to very slowly turn us towards the nearest edge of the ledge, within a few minutes, we were free.
Lesson Learnt
When using the Auto Pilot, make sure that we're aware of when we need to change tack. Our GPS has a feature where we can mark a boundary line or area, so it would be easy to put in an area where the the GPS would alarm us that we need to check things out. Somehow I think we'll be using that feature a lot!
We motored the rest of the way into Nixon's anchorage and found Duet already nestled in for the night. We've been to Nixon's several times now, but tonight we had a real problem anchoring. Each time we set the anchor and backed down to dig it in, it just dragged along, failing to dig down into the sandy bottom. Normally our Delta Quickset Anchor has no problems digging in, but tonight we tried 4 times without success. Finally I suggested that we move further to the East in the anchorage to test the bottom there. As we moved over to that side of Nixon's, a 47' Catana Catamaran pulled in even further East and they dug in right away. We dropped the hook, backed down as the anchor chain was paid out and it dug right in, WooHoo!
We were pretty pooped, and when Duet called he offered to dink over to pick us up for dinner aboard Duet. They had the Lobster, we had the Filet Mignon, so we packed the cook gear up and Bill came over in his Walmart Dink, which seems to be a pretty good deal so far.
Over on Duet, I opened the Wine and Colleen brought out the Cheese, Crackers and Rum. Big shout out to El Dorado Rum! That stuff is so Smooooth! I wonder if Jeff from Cheshire Cat will read this and guess where the Rum came from 😎
Bill took us back to our boat in the dark, his boat light stuck to the top of the motor, wind picking up and it was forecast to rise up to the low twenties overnight. It did! At two o clock in the morning our Anchor Alarm sounded, a quick look showed that we were drifting South and had already drifted 180' (alarm set to 150') but it looked as though the anchor had dug in again. I turned on the Nav instruments and checked the wind speed, it was up to 28knots directly from the North. But the anchor had dug in, it held for the next 20 minutes. I had reset the anchor alarm and knew that we could drag South about a half mile before hitting the shallows on the South side of the anchorage. I elected to keep watch and suggested Peggy goes back to bed, fully dressed she did and was ready to help out if we dragged again. The wind subsided after about a half hour, we hadn't moved other than swing as the wind moved us in an arc to the East and West of our anchor point. The GPS showed a nicely bunched up track indicating that we were just swinging and all was well - for the time being.
After an hour, I felt confident that we were set and I too went to bed, only to be woken up at 6:30 by my phone alarm in prep for the start of the trip home.
Tuesday morning I refueled from our portable diesel tanks and we left about 30 minutes after Duet, they were considering going up to Port Everglade on the outside while we had decided to go up the Ditch (ICW)
We motored off the anchor and headed out towards the center of the Bay before we turned to go North and follow the route for the ICW to the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The wind hit 26 knots several times and we were both glad of our decision to go up on the inside.
Colleen called and advised that they too had decided to take the inside route.
This is not the first time we have taken the ICW up from Biscayne Bay. The ride up the outside would have been exciting, but perhaps a little too much so.
On the route up we had to push the engine some of the time to make the next bridge and other times we had to dawdle wasting time in order to not have to sit doing donuts in front of a closed bridge.
We did plan each bridge, so it was unexpected when we had to delay for nearly 30 minutes South of West 79th Street bridge. Our Waterway guide book reported that the bridge was open upon signal, but when we called for an opening, the bridge tender replied that the bridge next opening was on the half hour, apparently they have changed the opening from 'On Signal' to 'On the Hour and Half Hour'.
As we passed Dania Beach Blvd bridge there was a 2 1/2 knot flow against us, we crawled past that bridge, but once past we kept an eye out for the Dania Beach Cut Off canal. We'll be heading down there in a few weeks (January) to have the boat hauled out at Playboy Marina for some hull cleaning and a few other jobs.
The New River was not particularly busy and we easily navigated the bridges up to the junction between the North Fork and the South Form of the New River, then as we approached the last bridge on our route home, we saw that the 11th Street Swing bridge was open before we called and we had not heard anyone else call for an opening. Still, we called them on the VHF radio but got no reply. We carefully approached the bridge and noticed that the roadways on either side of the bridge were blocked off - seems the bridge was undergoing maintenance.
Peggy took the helm as we passed the bridge and steered us up the canal towards our dock.
As we approached the dock, we felt the first few drops of rain. I still needed to hose the deck down because of all the mud that was left from the anchoring demonstration the night before.
We've pretty much got the process of unloading the boat down to an art form. I take care of the topsides, wash the deck, securing all of the lines. Peggy completes the bagging of bedding, food, clothing and laundry while I moved the truck from the parked position to the load position nearer to the front of the house and then load the bags, fuel cans, coolers, etc. etc. By the time I have everything ashore, Peggy is set to go and all I need do is secure the boat - Close all hull valves, check the electrical panel turning off everything but the bilge pump supply, setting up the damp rid and moth balls (they seem to help deter pests like rodent's and lizards), lock up the cabin, ease the dock lines and a quick check that everything is ready to leave so that we can go home.
All of that was done by 5.15pm, yep, Rush Hour! But by 6pm we were home, unloaded the truck and headed for a shower before dinner at home.
Exhausted, but what a great weekend!
As usual, we found a few 'GotADo's and we'll take care of them on Monday, including taking the boat for a dump!
This post is to just keep track of the issue we noticed again this last trip.
Here's the overview
We motored up the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW) on Tuesday, some of the bridges are just far enough apart that we can only make them if we push our speed up a bit. That means running the engine at around 2,000 rpm for about 15 minutes. We monitor the Engine Status by checking the Engine Control panel about every 10 minutes or so, but after about 4 hours into the trip, I noticed that the Engine Tachometer was reading 0 - ZERO but everything was running just fine. And that is the issue that I'm addressing here.
More Background.
On Friday, I noticed. that there is about a 1.2 volt drop from our electrical panel to the instrument system. For example, at one point, the GPS was showing 12.6v when the Digital volt meter connected to the Bus Bar in the Electrical Control panel is reading 13.8. That's voltage drop is too high, so I need to address that, but it's important right now to consider when diagnosing the issue.
While motoring at around 1,000 rpm, the Tachometer would drop to zero and at the same time the engine sound would alter, I'm guessing it was due to a reduction in Alternator Load because the voltage display would also drop to around 12.7v (it was be higher when the Tachometer actually displayed the engine rpm.). Every few minutes, the Engine sound would alter and at that time the Tacho would correctly show the current rpm. This repeated itself, even with no throttle alteration at all, almost consistently. When we throttled up (Tach showing 0 rpm) to around 2,000 rpm, the Tach would come back on line and show the current rpm, and the voltage display at the helm (GPS) would also go backup to around 13v.
Conclusions
My current (no pun intended) conclusions are that there is an issue with the External Regulator and possibly the wiring of the regulator to the Alternator.
Here's my reasoning:
When the Alternator is charging, there's a greater load on the engine, and the voltage display shows the charging voltage.
When the Regulator reduces the charging voltage, it may be turning off the control voltage to the Alternator completely, thus also removing the voltage that is used to sense the Tachometer input.
The wiring from the Regulator to the Alternator was just replaced last year when I did a complete engine harness upgrade, but that could still be an issue.
Further Research
I'm going to inspect the Regulator connections, both at the Alternator and the Battery voltage sensing connection. I have no reason to suspect the connection at the Engine Control panel as the issue is very consistent and a bad connection would either be open or intermittent, and that's not the case.
I do have a spare Regulator and intend to wire that up at some time, as it also is connected to the Link charging system that we have onboard.
Meanwhile, if you have any ideas on this issue, they would be welcome.
We have 3 Fire Extinguishers on Eximius and 1 at home (I know, where are my priorities?) and recently we found the details of the Kidde Fire Extinguisher Recall and decided to check out ours to see if they qualify.
Here's the process that I went through to see if any of our Extinguishers were subject to recall.
Step 1: Check to see if the model is subject to recall
Here's the Chart that helps identify the Extinguishers with Plastic Handles
And here's the chart for Push Button Extinguishers
Our Home Fire Extinguisher is a type FA5G and that is subject to recall.
Step 2: Check to see if the model serial numbered item is subject to recall
Here's the online form, it took only a minute to complete the first part of the form.
Clicking on Next take you to the form where you add your particular product info.
I added the home model to the form and submitted that.
That's it.
A few days later I received a replacement Fire Extinguisher and instructions for returning the old unit.
I copied the process for the three extinguishers from the boat, but neither of the two FA5G models were subject to recall.
The third extinguisher from the boat is not in their list! But then again, it's a 1987 Extinguisher, and it might show that it's fully charged, but ... well, what do you think?
I don't think much extinguisher powder will come out this thing.
We'll head out to the store and get a replacement.
Time to update the Service History and add "Inspect Fire Extinguisher" to the list.
We're loading the boat for our 5 day trip starting this weekend.
The last time I had to go up the mast (replacing the damaged Wind Transducer at the top of the mast) I noticed that there were two rivets missing on the Port Side that hold the Lower Shroud Plate to the mast. It's obvious that there were never any rivets in the empty holes, so they have either been missing since the boat was built, or the plate has been removed and replaced sometime, how long? Who knows, and we have owned Eximius for 2 1/2 years and we never noticed their absence.
I only found this issue because I was inspecting the mast as I descended as I do try to take the time to check things out whenever I can, perhaps I should be a little more deliberate.
Anyway, the solution is pretty easy. Drill the 2 vacant holes to the correct size for steel pop rivets, coat the rivets with Lanocote, and pop in the rivets. Of course this has to be done while held up to the mast in my Bosuns chair about 20' off the deck.
I know! that water looks awful.
This pic was from my position at the Spreaders. I used my standard method to climb the mast - Bosuns Chair, 2 halyards tied off at the base of the mast - one for my feet & seat, the other a safety line. Prusick knots on 3 lines, slide them up or down the halyard with my weight either on the Seat or the Foot straps.
On the deck is our Dink with drill set sitting atop of it. In front of the dink at the bow is Peggy - just making sure I'm safe.
The reason for climbing the mast. The two new pop rivets are installed (Top left & lower right) with a view of one of the Prusick knots tied to the Main Halyard.
I hadn't realized that the shroud plates were secured by a huge bolt that runs right through the mast, the Rivets only hold the steel plate in place, I'm guessing that plate is just to take the strain off of the bolt where it passes through the Aluminium Mast, the metal of which is about 3/16" thick at that point.
Selfie view of my climbing gear. The thin white line is my tool bag lifting line. I pulled the bag up once I was secure at the spreaders.
I secured the foot straps to my feet by tying my sneaker shoe laces around the straps to stop the straps coming off of my feet, that has happened in the past and is a pain as it's really tough to reach down to your feet when suspended in the climbing rig.
Our neighbors on the other side of the canal are on vacation, and have family house sitting, so I was their entertainment today.
Had to take a selfie on a day like this. Sorry for the grimace, I was concentrating on trying to lean back for the pic while keeping my balance with my feet against the mast.
Sure is a nice view from up here.
On the way down, I checked out our Steaming Light and Deck Light. I think that installation includes a whole tube of silicone caulk, grrrrrr!
The lense of the steaming light is very opaque! I can see a replacement in my future, that's going to take a lot of effort as there really is a ton of Caulk plastered all around that lamp.
I think it has been modified as that type of lamp typically has the deck light built into the bottom of the lamp fitting. The existing deck light is probably Halogen (big amps) and very bright-too bright to look up at. The Steaming light is not so clever, I can tell it's lit, but not sure if it's visible over the appropriate distance. I'll probably end up drilling out those pop rivets that hold the steaming light in place and replacing the entire fitting.
What do you think? Original?
It's a cluster buck.
Future fun up the stick.
Even worse than I thought!
If you click on this pic and zoom in, you might be able to see that the 'New' deck light is wired into the old composite fitting that had it's deck light removed.
Grrrrrr!
With the rivet job done, I lowered myself down to the deck. Easy Peasy.
I can sleep at night now not worrying that the mast will fall due to missing rivets.
Probably it was not an issue, but I feel better now that the missing rivets are in place.
See you on the water - we're heading down to Biscayne Bay this weekend, just in case you're in the area.
