Cabin upgrade Pt. III ( New Table)

New DIY Cabin Table

It has take over a year to complete our new Cabin Table on Eximius, but it's finally finished.

Here's a link to the early build articles Part 1 & Part II

Just in case you didn't know, we're in South Florida - and there's this thing 'Global Warming' happening. Well in Florida, that 'thing' is really obvious, it's warmer and the sea level is rising, we regularly have bigger floods and that's despite the grass suffering from a lack of rain.  The long and short of it is that it's been too warm to work with the resin -  until this week! November 2022 - the outside temperature was in the mid 60's. I quickly pulled the project out of storage and set to work. All it needed was a sander to remove a few tidbits from the surface and neaten up the edges, flood the surface with clear resin and use the heat gun to flatten where needed.  I followed that with a coat of grey outdoor paint on the underside.

Build complete.

Before

After

Installing the table was easy.

The old table is connected to the central rising post with six screws and the post top is secured to the post with a single screw that forces a metal wedge against the post to keep the top steady.

A couple of minutes with my electric screwdriver and the top was off.

Laying the new table top on top of the post mount, I adjusted it's position so that the Starboard edge of the table was parallel to the edge of the seat. Then it was simply a case of screwing the table from below. Really easy.

Here's the result.  I would give myself about an 8 out of 10 on the production, but it's artistic, so it'll do just great.  Will probably make a fitted table cloth to cover it for when I do projects in the cabin.

Now to work on that forward bulkhead.

Another Project completed.

A stitch in time

A sailors Stitch in time

Sailors know that wind can pop up really quickly and if your sails have a weakness then the wind will find it and find it quickly.

After our last trip, I noticed some broken stitching on the Genoa Sunbrella cover, about half way up the forestay. That's an 'in' for the wind to make a very expensive tear in the sail while out on the water. I have to fix that early.

So after recovering from the hectic party weekend with our friends from the HISC sailing club, we went back down to the boat and lowered the sail.

First I released the locking line that prevents the Furler from turning and thus prevents the sail from unfurling, then I released both of the Jib sheets, flaked out the Jib Halyard and released the furling line. Then went forward to pulled the sail down flaking it along the deck and on top of the inverted dinghy. It came down pretty smoothly. Then Peggy & I rolled it, not so easy, so that it would fit inside the sailbag.

We ( me ) had left the Aft whip secured to the Bimini when we left for the weekend party, it ripped out of the dock mount and needed repair. So we headed home with the sail stuffed into its bag and the Whip secured to the bed of our F150 ( towel wrapped around it where it touched the truck roof and secured with a few webbing straps.) Of course, Peggy wasn't so happy about us taking I95 back home with the 14' whip tied to the truck, but I persuaded her it would be just fine.

It was, we got home and I proceeded to plan the repair to the sail and the whip. 

Next morning I cleaned up the split end of the whip and mixed up a few ounces of resin. With a cheap paint brush I spread the resin into the open wounds of the whip and then closed it up using a half dozen old hose clamps. Then I setup my Sailrite Sewing machine and moved stuff around in my garage to handle the huge sail. While inspecting it to locate the area of stitching that needed resewing, I realized that the original Thread was no Tenera nor any other type of PTFE thread and that about 20% of the sewing on the Sunbrella cover had deteriorated. 

Meanwhile, Peggy called me from the laundry room that the washing machine was broken. Of course that's more important than the sail, I can do that anytime.

Figured out that the Washing Machine Pump was either not working at all or barely working, The tub was not emptying.  Off to google and the search for a fix. It's a common problem and Amazon has the pump for just $26. Google's YouTube had many videos showing how to replace the pump, not quite the same model as our machine but each of them pretty well had the same process. So I ordered the pump on A Prime.  Back to sewing.

Further inspection indicated that I should really restitch the entire Sunbrella cover, that's the full length of the Sails Leach ~44' and Foot ~ 13.5' That's a lot of stitching but my Sailrite machine is up to is, I have sewn bigger pieces. There's just going to be a lot of canvas laying around my garage as I try to feed it through the Sailrite Sewing Machine ( it's an LSZ-1 ) 

I spent a couple of hours sewing. The LSZ-1 handles sewing the sail with ease. The sail is pretty thick, there's a minimum of 1 layer of Dacron with One layer of Sunbrella which folder over the leach or the foot so that's a total of three layers. Then there are the overlaps in which case there are 6 layes - 2 of Dacron and 4 of Sunbrella. Sewing all of those was a breeze, each of the Sunbrella segments needed 3 rows of Zig-Zag stitching a line parallel to each edge of the Sunbrella and then a set of diagonal reinforcement lines about every eight feet or so.  The Leach required at least 280' and the Foot required 81' of PTFE Thread. I use Sailrite's Lifetime PTFE thread. It's difficult to get the tension right, but worth the effort.

Halfway through the sewing, Amazon delivered the Pump - that's the same day that I ordered it. First thing the next day the pump replacement floated up to the top of the Honey Do List. It only took a couple of hours to take the washing machine apart, replace the pump and put it all back together. Total Cost $28.76, that would probably have cost us at least an Arm if not an Arm and a Leg if we had a tech from Kenmore come out to fix it, and it would not have happened in just a couple of hours.

With the Washer out of the way, back to sewing. I was able to complete all of the restitching  of the Sunbrella and I looked over the stitching of the Sail itself. It looks like they did use a PTFE thread for sewing the Dacron, phew! because that is a lot of sewing to restitch that!

The final part of the sail repair was to inspect and restitch the webbing at the Head, Tack and Clew of the sail. Thankfully they all look very well sewn and not in need of restitching. However, the  thickness of the Sunbrella, the Dacron and the Webbing is just at the limit of my choice of machine needles. I'll call Sailrite in the morning to see which is the best size needle to use. I broke one today just as I was starting the backstitches at the end of the second piece of webbing on the Tack of the sail - I thought I would try it out, just too heavy for my needle.

Ok, Stitch in time is done, also fixed the Washing machine and the deck Whip, not bad for a couple of days work. 

Looks like a really wet week ahead of us, so we'll fold the sail up and put it back in it's bag till later when we can put it back on the boat. We're planning on heading out for a Thanksgiving Friendship Cruise with our sailing club and, of course, there's Thanksgiving on Thursday that week before the cruise. So we have most of a couple of weeks to get the boat back in order.

Till then.

Stay safe, and we'll see you on the water.

Installing Orion DC-DC 12/12 18Amp TR Smart Charger

 Orion DC-DC 12/12 18Amp TR Smart Charger Installation

Here's a link to why I'm doing this, basically it's to charge our Start Battery.

Overview of the Orion Charger

The Install was pretty easy.

Mount the Orion on the bulkhead below the other Victron equipment

Drill a hole through the bulkhead for the wires from the Orion to the Start Battery

Make up an empty Fused wire for the +ve connection from the Orion to the Multiplus.

Make up the wire for the -ve connection from the Orion to the Multiplus

Inset the fuse and power up the Orion - Update the firmware and the program for AGM battery ( see note below ) then power it down ( remove the fuse. )

Makeup the Fused wire from the Orion output to the Start Battery +ve

Makeup the wire from the Orion output to the Start battery -ve.

Insert the Orion input fuse

Insert the fuse at the Start Battery

Monitor the Start Battery status on the VictronConnect App on my phone.

Notes:

1. At present there is no way to view the Orion Smart DC/DC charger on the VRM. I did read where someone had installed a Smart Shunt into the -ve connection from the Start Battery to the Orion but have not figured out if it's worth it yet. There's also some issue as the Orion is an "Isolated" charger, but the Start Battery and the House Battery share a common ground. More research to figure that one out.
2. The Preset Charging Profiles in the Orion do not appear to support AGM batteries except for Tubular batteries. However, Selecting any of the AGM type profiles and editing the profile switches to a User Defined Profile. We looked up the Duracell AGM SL178 charging profile and updated the charger's profile with those numbers.
3. Although we cannot see the status of the Orion in the VRM we can see it via Bluetooth at the boat. Also, we can see this:

We did a test start of the engine today, 1st time using the new battery. What a delight, it virtually jumped into action. After 90 seconds the Tacho showed that the Alternator was running. We were on shore power and the VictronConnect app showed that the charger was in Bulk mode, a short while later, it dropped into Absorption and finally into Float.  Looks like I made the right decision.

See you on the water - We'll be taking the boat out tomorrow for the weekend.

Update on the Balmar MC 168 Install

 Update on the Balmar MC 618 Install

The install is complete.

It's really difficult to keep the wires very tidy. But I was able to keep the fuse in an easy to access spot.

Note the Old external Regulator is re-mounted just forward of the new Balmar.

I emailed back and forth with PKYS about cutting the Battery and Alternator Temperature Sensor cables to improve the wire management. 

If you do cut these, it's a good idea to leave at least 2" of the Red and Black conductors beyond the outside sheathing, it makes inserting the Spade connectors onto the Balmar terminals. I had to recut my first attempt which kept them short and it was basically impossible to make the connections.

Having completed the install we had a few 'Pre-Flight' checks which are very clearly documented in the Balmar Manual.

I did note that the Engine Control Panel Tachometer drops to Zero during programming. That caused some concern as I had read on various forums that the Tach would not work when it was connected to the Balmar rather than directly to the Alternator. Once the Balmar saved any changes and dropped out of Programming mode, the Tach started reading correctly.

The only changes that I made in the default programming were:-

1. Changed the Belt Load Management setting to 70%
2. Set the Delayed Start from 1 second to 90 seconds.

The reason for #2 is to reduce the load on the Starter. This has a useful but unintended consequence. When the engine is started, the Balmar does not turn on for the 1st one and half minutes. The consequence is that the Tach does not display! But as soon as the Balmar passes it's 90 Delay start, then the Tach does start up. I find this useful as when the engine starts the Tach should read zero and 90 seconds later it should show the current RPM.

I wanted to set the delay to 2 minutes, but it takes forever to cycle through the programming steps and I just ran out of patience at 90 seconds ( which takes about 3 minutes.)  But 90 seconds is fine.

So, that completed the install and programming. We checked that the thru hull for the raw water was open and started the engine. Because of our dying starter battery, it took 3 tries to start the engine. See my last blog entry about that battery update.

At this point I'm very pleased with the install. We're taking the boat out for a multiday trip next weekend, that will involve at least 8 hoiurs of motoring and plenty of pull on the house battery capacity. 

Now, if the new Victron DC/DC 12/12 18Amp Smart Charger arrives before the weekend, I'll probably install it while we're on the boat :)

See you on the water.

Charging the Start Battery

Charging our new Start Battery

Purchased a Duracell 12v AGM SL178 Battery to replace our 5.5 year old battery ( same make and model)

We found that our old battery was not being charged unless Shore Power was connected to the boat.

We had issues starting a few times recently and figured we should take the battery out of the equation.

The old battery will spend retirement in our Home Generator which has a long dead battery. Used the old Generator battery for the Core Charge recovery.

We need a reliable way to charge the start battery. Our House batteries ( 4 x Trojan 6v T105 Batteries in 2S2P configuration for 12v 450Ah.) and I decided to go for the Orion TR Smart 12 | 12  18 Isolated DC to DC Charger by Victron. 

Just adding to our Stable of Victron System equipment :)

The Orion can be used as either a Charger or as a Converter ( ie. stable DC output ) My plan is to use it to charge the Starter Battery from the House Battery. From everything I have read, it should only go into charge mode when the Input V ( House Battery V) is above a set limit ( set using the VictronConnect App ) and when the Starter Battery V is below a set limit ( again, set in the App )

So basically, this will mean that the charger will try to charge the start battery when the house battery voltage is above it's float value and if the Start battery is below it's Absorb value.

The House battery V goes up when it's being charged. ie. If the engine is running, the Multiplus is charging or if there is sufficient Solar to charge the House Battery. 

If that concept is incorrect, then there are other choices such as a manual switch to turn the Orion on, or the Engine Detection System override which would turn the charger on when the Alternator is running. 

Whichever method I end up using, it should involve keeping the existing Alternator to house Battery connection. I plan on upgrading our House Battery bank from Flooded Lead Acid to LiFePo4 batteries later this year/ early 2023. Their cost has dropped significantly in the past 5 months. Right now the Chin Batteries are looking good.

This diagram is modified version of the one in the Victron manual for the Orion.

This shows the Source ( Input ) supply being the House Battery and the Charged Battery being the Start Battery.

The Start battery is just a couple of feet away in a straight line, perhaps 6' around the bends from the other Victron Equipment. So I plan to install the Orion on the bulkhead adjacent to the Multiplus.

That will enable a short run of cable to the Positive Bus Bar and the Negative Bus Post, for the Input cables. The output will pass through the bulkhead adjacent to the Multiplus into the locker where the Start Battery is located.

I'll mount a 20Amp fuse on the +ve Bus Bar to the input of the Orion and a 20Amp fuse inline of the wire from the Orion to the Start Battery +ve.  The Start & House batteries share a common -ve. Victron don't make the 18Amp Orion in a Non-Isolated version and I understand that it's ok to join them, so there will be a wire from the -ve in and the -ve out to the -ve Bus post.

I'm curious to see if the Orion shows up in the Victron VRM if it does, then I should be able to view the charging history online. That would be cool too.

Ok, waiting on the arrival of the Orion, I have everything else. The max wire size for the unit is AWG6 

The Wiring calculator shows 14AWG but I'll use 10AWG.

Universal M25-XP Alternator Support Arm Failure - Again

Twice in the past 7 years, I have purchased a pair of OEM Support arms for our Alternator on our Universal M25-XP Diesel engine, I have one left and have no reason to think that it will last as long as the others, in other words, failure is imminent. 

When they fail, they break near the top attachment slot and, luckily, it has not been a disaster. When they break, the arm falls down about an 1/8" of an inch, not much, but enough for the arm to rub against the Coolant piping and the potential rupture of the pipe and consequential loss of engine coolant. That could be a disaster.

I went to a local machine shop and described the problem and taking the last remaining arm with me to use as a template.

My request was to double the thickness of the arm from 3/16" to 3/8" and to expand the width at the slotted end by a 1/4" They did a great job.

The Gray arm is the original

The Original is laying on top of the new arm

Just spent a few minutes cleaning the surfaces with a nylon sanding pad, clean with Acetone and  then a couple of coats of spray High Heat Resistant Rust-oleum paint followed by a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum Metallic paint ( just happened to have some of that on the shelf) .  

L-to-R Original, Primed, Finished

Should be able to get down to the boat on Friday to install one, the second piece will get wrapped with clingfilm and stored on the boat with all of the other engine spares.

They were not cheap! The new arms cost $150 for one and $200 for two, but they now have a Drawing of them incase anyone wants one or two.

If you want one ( or two) reach out to them. The invoice number is 25326 for reference.

Tropic Marine Products

217 SW 29th Street

Fort Lauderdale FL 333015

Phone: 954-779-7038

I'm not getting any compensation for promoting these, but I know that so many Universal M25-XP owners have had similar issues.  

See you on the water.

Installing a Balmar MAX Charge MC-618-H External Alternator Regulator

Installing a Balmar MAX Charge MC-618-H Regulator

Our existing External Regulator is a backup unit from when the Zantrex Power Management System was installed, now replaced with our Victron Power Management System. The old external regulator does not have the features to protect our Balmar 6 series 100A Alternator nor does it consider the battery temperature nor the Battery Voltage. The Balmar MAX MC-618 does ( The H indicated that it is supplied with an electrical harness.)

I purchased the regulator from PKYS online and was surprised that it's cost was competitive with Amazon and it's delivery was at least as good, it arrived early.  When it arrived, I thought I had the wrong item. I sent an email to PKYS explaining that they had sent the wrong item.

But!!! As you can see from the picture above, it's identified as a MAX Charge MC-618 not as an MC-618-H, I found that the label on the underside of the regulator shows it's a MC-618-H I and sent a follow up email to PKYS apologizing for my mistake.

I read through the manual again and realized that I didn't order the two Temperature Sensors, Duh! I placed another order for them. After placing the order, I called PKYS just to make sure they didn't react to my first email regarding the wrong item. They actually picked up the phone and responded to my query. Very helpful. The order for the two temp sensors arrived a day earlier than expected ( ordered Monday arrived Wednesday )

As I mentioned, I read the manual. It's online but I downloaded it and stored it in my 'Manuals' folder for future use. I'm going to print it to keep  on board with my other manuals, just in case I'm ever out at sea and no net connection.

Ok, Onto the Installation.

My plan is to keep the existing dumb regulator as a backup, it works, just not very efficiently.

Here's the rough process:

• Install the Regulator ( 4 screws ) adjacent to the old regulator.
• Run the wiring harness into the engine area and connect to the Alternator
• Run the Alternator Temperature Sensor wiring to one of the Alternator Body Nut-n-Bolt
• Run the Battery Temperature Sensor beneath the engine area Port side into the Battery bay just forward of the Galley forward bulkhead ( about midships )
• Run a cable for the Battery Voltage Sense wire alongside the Battery Temperature sensor cable.

Sounds pretty straight forward. Next it's time to program the regulator. I'll need to turn the engine ignition on for that. But first I have to do a bit of work on the Alternator housing.

On our 100nm trip to Lake Worth and back over the Labor day weekend, the engine kept showing intermittent RPM although it sounded great and was running very steady. 

Turns out it was the Drive belt lose again!  I went to Broward Bolt and got a few of these Nord-Lock washers used to keep Turbo Units on cars & trucks from shaking lose. 

I need to adjust the belt tension and lock the bolts in place with these washers.

FYI, I make a point of going to Broward Bolt as soon as I need any type of bolt, nut or washer! 

1560 N Powerline Rd, Pompano Beach, FL 33069

The staff are awesome, they have never been out of stock for anything that I needed and have always been really helpful. Must admit, when I first went there a few years ago, I was expecting they would be expensive but happily surprised that their prices are very reasonable. They are not sponsoring me at all, I just feel the need to promote really good customer service. Give them a call next time you need Nuts, Bolts or Washers ( and drill bits, hole saws and two part epoxy mixes - the type in Tubes like Caulk ) (954) 960-1740

Here's the wiring diagram for this project.

OK, we're headed down to the boat in the morning, I'll try to take a bunch of pics of the install and Alternator Tensioning.

Completing the VHF Antenna Cable install

 Back up the mast to complete the install of the VHF Antenna and gWind Transducer cables.

Now that the VHF has tested out ok and the gWind transducer is providing wind data to our Navigation System, it's time to complete the work on the Masthead.

So it was back up the mast today. No rain expected ( ok, none after 10am) but plenty of Sunshine. Steffi Shiffer came down to the boat to collect the left over material from the chair cushions and backs that I made for her last week. Peggy & Steffi were chin wagging while I prepped the gear for climbing the mast.

Today's tools included the Heat Gun, 100' Extension Cable, Pliers, Snips and Knife plus the Safety Harness and Bosuns Chair along with the two ATN Ascenders. Materials required were Heat Shrink tubing, Dielectric Grease, Butyl Tape, and Zip ties. Add a bottle of water for refreshment. I was also going to replace the blocks for the Lazy Jack system and apply some Rescue Tape to the end of the starboard side of the spreader, I got the port side of the spreader done last week.

It's always a struggle to don the Safety Harness, my solution is to sort it out while it's laying on the dock and then pick it up with one of the shoulder straps in each hand and lift it up over one arm and then pass the other arm under the second shoulder strap. Then connect the two parts of the chest straps and finally reach down and pull each of the leg straps up between my legs and connect them to the two side clips.

With all of the tools and materials sitting on the top of the inverted dinghy on the foredeck, I sit in the bosun's chair and strap into that. I use a additional strap to pull my butt into the back of the chair so that the chair does not slip bac when I stand in the leg straps stirrups. 

Next I attach the two ascenders to the Halyard that I have tensioned ready for climbing, I'll have to get better at tensioning that line. When I put my weight on the ascenders, it stretches and thus loosens.

Now fully dressed ( where are the pics Peggy? ) I load up the tool bags on each side of the bosun's chair. Clipping the Main Halyard to the end of the Safety Harness shock cord, Peggy takes up the slack and I hook into the Ascenders, one attaches to the Bosun's Chair the other to the Leg Straps with my feet in the Stirrups. Finally ready to climb. 

Peggy takes up the slack as I ascend the mast.

When I get to the Spreaders, Peggy secures the safety line and I reach out to the tip of the spreader. Ok, I can reach it! All I need is my knife and the Rescue tape they are in my tool bags. I lean out with the tape in hand and quickly wraps the tip of the spreader with the tape, cut it with the knife and stretch and wrap the last few inches of the tape around the spreader. Job 1 Done.

Ok, moving up. Peggy takes up the slack and I climb up a couple of feet to the Lazy Jack blocks on each side of the mast just above the Spreaders. The Starboard block had failed, the 'plastic' sides had cracked and allow the Line to ride up over the sheave and then jamb between the sheave and the metal sides of the block. I quickly installed the new all Stainless steel sided blocks, running the new lazy jack lines would be a job for on the way down.

Again, Moving up. Peggy takes up the slack as I climb the remaining distance to the top of our mast which is about 51 feet above the water line. Took a break halfway there for a refreshing drink of water. 

Once at the top, I got to work. First was to put dielectric grease on the VHF Antenna Connection to the Antenna Cable. I slipped a piece of Heat Shrink over and past the end of the cable, applied the grease to the thread of the Antenna Connection, completed the connection and tightened it using the pliers, then slid the Heat Shrink over the connecting ferrule. Calling down to Peggy, she attached the power cord and the Heat Gun up to via the Messenger line ( Spinnaker Halyard) and I sealed the Antenna Connection using the heat gun, that should keep it in good condition for a few years.  

Next, I added strain relief to the gWind Transducer cable with several Zip Ties. I should have put an extra piece of heat shrink over the VHF Antenna cable before the piece I had put on to seal the antenna to cable connection, had I done so, it would have been easy to run it down the cable just to the point beyond where the Antenna Cable passes through the hole in the Masthead. I didn't ! So I sliced a piece of heat shrink lengthwise and wrapped around the cable, sliding it down into the hole where the cable passed into the masthead. I secured it with a couple of zip ties and then applied some heat with the heat gun, just enough to melt the glue. 

Last job was to seal the holes around all of the cables where they pass into the Masthead. I rolled up some Butyl tape into a thin rope and used  that to seal the holes around the cables. 

All done, just needed to take some pics.

The old wind transducer base is still on the mast head. It's through bolted, so no way to get it off without having the nut end drop inside the mast and it would be just my luck that that nut would jamb into some line and cause a problem.

Time to go back down to the Lazy Jack Blocks.

Peggy eased the Safety line as I climbed down using the Ascenders until I was level with the blocks.

Using the messenger line, Peggy passed up a piece of line that was precut ( used as a messenger line when I pulled the old wires out of the top of the mast) and the end of the line for the 2nd lazy jack.

Turns out the old messenger line was too short, so I had Peggy tie a knot in the other line from the drum of line that was on the deck, then I pulled up that line until I got to the knot. Cutting the line below the knot, I pulled up on the other line as Peggy unwound more off o the drum. With enough line fed through the new blocks, I had Peggy tie another knot in the line by the drum.

All done, time to climb down the mast. The temp (according to my cell phone ) was over 100º F up at the masthead, it felt like it. I was ready for a break.

We had lunch in the Air Conditioning of the Cabin. Back to it, tide up all of the tools and the gear and lines.

Tools - Good

Gear - Good

The Lazy jack lines - Good - well half were good, the Stbd side lines were secure but  the port side lines decided to run through the blocks - how nice and easy it ran! 

That means I have to go up the mast again on Friday to fix the lazy jack lines.   Grrr. At least it will keep me fit.

Getting better at climbing the mast, it went a whole lot easier today.  Both new Lazy Jack lines are not run through the new blocks on the mast.

I can cross this job off the list. The Service history log is updated.

There are no projects that would stop us going sailing, plenty of projects still on the list, but none that impact our sailing options. So we're planning.

See you on the water.

Paul

Final Part of the Victron Power Management System Install

Mounting the Victron GX 4G LTE Modem & GPS Antenna

The Victron system installation has been working great for nearly a month now. It communicates with the Victron VRM on the Internet via a GX 4G LTE Modem. That has a small Stick Antenna and I was not happy with having that in the open down in the cabin, too great a risk that someone might nudge it and thus disconnect us from the net or worse, damage the modem. I had a Remote Antenna from a Wilson Cellular Extender that never worked well on our previous boat so I replaced the Stick Antenna with the Extension Antenna - Worked great when I left it just sitting on the shelf above the Nav Table until verified it worked ok.

Similarly, the GPS puck which connects to the 4G LTE Modem was just sitting on a shelf above the Nav Table,

The Pic shows the two cables from the GX 4G LET Modem (that's the unit with the blue light) 

Today I relocated the Antenna and GPS Puck to their permanent location. 

All I have left to do is run the wires from them to the LTE Modem. That should tidy up the installation significantly. I also replaced the 5m Network Cable from the Cerbo GX to the Victron Mk3 - USB interface with a .9m cable and, again, vastly improves the cable management.

Just to brag a bit, here's a screen shot of my Laptop at home showing part of the VRM data display.

Next job on the boat is to loom the new VHF Cable and the new gWind Transducer cable into the existing looms to secure them in place.  We're close to taking the boat out for an overnight really soon.

So, "See you on the Water" is not an empty promise. 

Replacing the Masthead Antenna Cable - a Friend Indeed.

 Another trip up the mast, 3rd time in a couple of weeks.

Before getting ready to climb the mast, I had secured the lower ends of the two wires we were replacing with Heat Shrink tubing to individual messenger lines - 1/4" Braided Poly line. The tubing hot melt glue did a good job of join the tubing to the wires and the line.

Getting better at climbing the mast, the new Ascenders from ATN work really well, especially when they are attached at the correct length from each other to suit my body length.

My Dock Neighbor, Doug, took a bunch of pics while he was lazing in his Pool and I was the local entertainment.  Peggy was too busy managing the Belay Line ( safety line ) at the winch in the Cockpit.

I was wearing my Safety Harness, Bosun's Chair, tool pouches. Long sleeved top with Hoodie ( something around SPF 50 ) hard soled shoes. In my tool bags were a Cordless Drill, a bunch of lines ( for use as messengers, safety lanyards to prevent tools taking a dive, etc.) Pliers, Needle nose Pliers, Drill set, Self Amalgamating Rescue Tape, Bottle of Water, etc. etc. I probably was pulling up about 180lbs when climbing. 

The good news is that it is so much easier now that I have the process down. Even Peggy noted that I reached the top a lot quicker this time and I spent much less time getting kitted out before starting the climb.

Once at the top I got to work. Step one was to remove the Silicone caulk that was covering the VHF Antenna Cable, the old Wind Transducer cable ( original from when we purchased the boat but unused as the old transducer was broken ) .

With the Silicone out of the way, next it was time to pull the old wires out of the top of the mast. The VHF antenna cable had about a foot of wire above the mast head. The Old Transducer wire only had about 2" of wire sticking out of the mast head. I tied a line to that wire, then I called Peggy on my cell phone and she started to feed the Transducer wire up through the hole at the base of the mast.

Gladly, the wires pulled up out of the top of the mast quite easily, I was able to pull about a foot of wire with a singe reach. As the wire came out, I let it dangle down from the mast. With the top of the wire secured with that line I tied earlier, the weight on the line was only about 1/2 the total weight. Once a wire was all the way out and the Messenger secured to the mast head, I dropped the wire down to the deck. To prevent freaking out Peggy, I  advised her that I was doing that so that the sound of something clattering down onto the cabin top.

Next task was to make a new hole in the Mast head large enough to pass the new VHF Antenna Cable. The cable is 3/8" dia, so I drilled a 1/2" hole close to the original hole. Then I drilled between the two holes and cut out the sliver of metal (Aluminum) between them so that I could move the VHF Antenna Messenger line between the, small, original, hole and the new 1/2" hole.

Using the cell phone again, I called to Peggy to pass up the Antenna Cable and the Transducer cable. I had not wanted to carry them with me when I climbed the mast, it was another 15lbs - the Antenna cable is 90' long and the transducer cable is 82' long.

Peggy attached the rolls of wire to a spare halyard and we pulled them up to my work station 52' above the water.

I had trimmed off the outer sheath of the VHF cable before climbing the mast. I used the Rescue tape to join the messenger line to the VHF Cable and had Peggy start to pull the messenger line out of the hole at the base of the mast as I feed the Cable down into the new hole in the mast head.  The first 30' went well, but it more difficult for Peggy to pull it out of the mast base. 

I called my Son, he lives nearby, and left a message asking if he could call me back when he got the message as I needed some help on the boat. Next I called a sailing buddy, Atilio. He has the same model boat as Eximius and he lives just a few blocks from the Boat. Without hesitation, Atilio dropped everything  ( it was Saturday ) and drove down to help.

With Atilio ( Hero ) down in  the Cabin, he was able to pull the messenger line as I continued to feed the cable into the hole atop the mast head. Eventually, with a bit of push and pull at both ends, we got the connection from the Messenger line and the VHF cable out of the base of the mast. That left another 40' of cable, I could only imagine the sight of the wires & messenger lines down in the cabin.

Once the VHF cable was fed down the mast head with about 18" to go, we stopped and I attached the connector on the end of the cable to the VHF Antenna. One job down!

Atilio was ok to stay a while longer so we repeated that process with the new Wind Transducer cable. It was a lot easier, probably because it was a lot more flexible. There were a couple of places where it required a significant pull on the Messenger line, I'm guessing that it was as the messenger/wire joint was passing the rivets that hold the conduit through which the cable pass down the inside of the mast to stop them getting chafed by the mast internal halyards. So I have a slight concern that the wire it ok, we'll find out when we go back to the boat on Wednesday/Thursday (weather dependent) 

Atilio passed me the new Wind Transducer and I pulled that up. A couple of minutes later, it was installed and the Transducer cable was connected. 

I secured the cable to the Transducer support tube with a piece of line. I'll add a few Zip ties later. 

I'm really pleased with progress this far.  I had anticipated several possible issues, like: Not being able to pull the lines up through the mast head, The messenger lines separating from their cables, cables getting stuck inside the mast and a whole lot of other issues including what would happen if I had a medical issue while up the mast. That last item I just cast off. Anyone could have an issue while climbing, at the top or while descending. Rig could fail. How about the sudden urge to go to the bathroom! That's the scariest thought. 

Fortunately, none of those fears came to fruition. I'm lucky in that I don't worry about those things when I'm on task. My usual practice is 'Just Deal with It', a practice that has served me well during that past 73 years.

At that point, everything was done at the mast head until I have done the testing of both the VHF Radio and the Wind Transducer data at the Nav station at the helm.

Peggy & Atilio moved out to the Cockpit and prepared to lower me rather then me having to climb down the mast.

As I descended, I caught my feet on the aft side of the Mast Spreaders and had to perform a bit of gymnastics. Further down a bit further, my right leg got snagged on a line and time for more gymnastics. Note to self, next time have someone check as I'm descending that I'm not going to snag a line. It's a lot easier to avoid a snag than it is to practice Aerial acrobatics to get out of the snag.

Back down at the deck, I was sat on the dinghy and it was easy to get out of my climbing gear. Once free, I went aft to thank Atilio and we all went down into the cabin to see how it tuned out. 

As we talked about boat projects ( there's always more projects ) I wound up the cables  and tidied the boat.  After a snack and more fluids, we were ready to quit for the day. Atilio, our Hero, saved me from having to climb down the mast and back up later to get this far. His help was a game changer! Thanks Atilio!

So, Thanks to Atilio for helping out today, and thanks to Doug  and taking the pictures.

We tidied up the boat, secured all of the lines and headed home - calling Annies Pizza en-route to order a Calzone. We stopped there and picked up our lunch.

So, the status of the project:

The VHF Antenna Cable is connected to the VHF Antenna at the mast head.

The New Wind Transducer is installed at the Mast head and the Data / power cable is connected.

Both cables are wound up in the cabin. 

The VHF cable has to be loomed towards the AIS Antenna Splitter and have a new Connection made up to the end of the cable when the length is known.

I'll leave some slack near the mast base so that I can cut the cable when I have to pull the mast. I'll add an inline connector so that future disconnects are possible without having to extract the cable from the loom. 

The Wind Transducer cable has also have to be loomed up to the Garmin GND10 and the new connection made up to the cable. As that connection is easily assembled or disassembled, I'll make it up to the cable before looming it to the GND10 and just make it onto the end of the cable, then connect it to the GND10 - just so that we can test the cable. We should be able to see the wind data on the Garmin Instruments.

The last thing, assuming that everything works as expected, is to return to the mast head and close up all of the cable holes. I'll use Butyl Tape to do that.

Ok that's it for now. 

See you on the water - Sooner is Better! :)

Refinishing the Non-Skid on deck

Refinishing the Non-skid deck surface.

The Non-skid on deck of Eximius is crying to get refinished and it's time.

Sometimes, things become a lot easier when I take the time to write out the details of the job, and that's why I'm writing this post. Of course, it might help others and that's a benefit. if you would rather read about some of our cruising antics then skip this one, but if you need to refinish your boat deck, it may be worth the read.

Port side Anchor Locker Cover

Stbd midships deck

After discussing the project with the guys from Catalina Yachts, I concluded that the following is a process I can handle.

As the non-skid is a diamond embossed surface and the masking tape will not affix so neatly, I anticipate that it will be easier to refinish the areas outside of the Flat Grey and Grey Non-Skid first and then refinish the Grey flat and Non-skid areas second.

Get the materials.

• 3M 233+ High Performance Masking Tape
• 3M 2090 Scotch Blue Painter's Tape
• TotalBoat Dewaxer & Surface Prep.
• Awlgrip Polyester Urethane Topcoat Base Quart
• Awlgrip Awlcat #3 Topcoat Brush Converter
• Awlgrip Flattening agent
• Scotch Green Pad Scouring pads.
• Paper towels - lots of them.

The epoxy paints:

The 545 Epoxy Primer will be used where necessary. I could only find it in 1 gallon cans and coverage should require about 1.5 Quarts, I'm sure I'll find a use for it elsewhere on the boat.

Refinishing the regular (flat) areas of the deck.

This is probably the difficult part of this project. I'm leaving the hardware on the deck in place but making sure that it's well masked off and any chips or hairline cracks repaired as necessary. 

Step 2: Prep the Deck

The non-skid on the deck could be original, it's a diamond pattern however, the finish is badly worn due to frequent foot traffic, in some areas there appears to be roller marks. ie. Swaths of the surface color about the width of a paint roller are obvious. In other areas, the surface is actually worn away - particularly, the tops of the Anchor Locker Covers. On those covers, the underlying fiberglass strands can be seen. The good news is that the covers are solid fiberglass so there's no risk of damage below the fiberglass. The rest of the deck is in great shape, it's just that the non-skid surface is worn away.

I spoke (online chat) with guys from Jamestowndistributors.com and they were very helpful, they even had a guy that had done a technical course with Alwgrip, so my confidence in their help was high. Matthew sent me a link to the document that covers the Alwgrip application process if very granular details. (link to manual) 

The preparation sounds pretty simple but the manual indicates that there's a few tests that should be done to ensure really good adhesion. (It's on Page 17), so I'll be doing that test on the worst part of the deck. I expect the job will require priming, hence the addition of the Primer to the list of materials.

• Mask off the area to be processed.
• scrub the area to be painted with the Scotch Green Pad Scouring Pads, it's a lot of work. 
• Apply Alwgrip Primer.
• Apply 2 coats of Alwgrip Paint with flattening agent ( prevents glossy finish)
  

The good news is that the deck can be processed in clearly defined areas, so it does not have to be completed in a single step. I'll break it down into 13 areas. 6 Port Side, 6 Stbd Side and the Center panel above the cabin access cover. The 6 areas are listed below. Each area is demarked with a plain finish strip between the Non-skid areas. All of the Non-skid areas have edges of the same color but plain finish.

1. Anchor Locker Cover
2. Foredeck 
3. Mid deck 
4. Aft Deck 
5. Cabin Top

Ok, so all the products are in and I have the plan, but have to wait till it's cooler, so plan is to do this sometime after September. So stay tuned :)

So, the weather seems to be cooling down to below the mid 90ºF and I should be able to start this project. Plan is to bring half of the anchor locker cover home and practice in the Garage - why risk overheating at the boat, a week or two and it should be much cooler.

The paint has sat in the garage for quite a while, so I'll have to give it all a really good shake up.

I called Jamestown Distributors and they confirmed that the products should be ok even after two years but are only warranted for 12 months.

I brought the Port side Anchor Locker Lid home and followed the plan: Came out great. Issues? Yes, the brushes can only be used once. So I purchased half a dozen 2" brushes after the 1st natural bristle ( twice the price ) was useless after one coat of primer.

Oh! Always needing paint stirrers, I found if I cut the metal and bristles off of the dead brushes, they handles make really good paint stirrers for quart cans! 

I did buy some can 'Spouts' but they really didn't fit the quart cans very well so I used painters tape to create a pour spout that was really easy to clean up.

Priming and painting took 5 coats and mixing small quantities really doesn't work very well but when I work on the main deck areas then I expect the mixed quantity to be more cost effective.

This photo shows the two Anchor Locker lids reinstalled after 2 coats of primer and 3 coats of top coat.

The difference is remarkable! There is no indication of the damaged surface whereas the deck area immediately aft of the lids clearly show the damage.

Click on the image to zoom in.

Update on the areas to be worked on.

Each side has 6 defined areas that should be able to be processed using about the same quantity of primer and topcoat as I used for the anchor locker lids - that's because I could not mix a very small amount and get the ratios correct and the lid undersides were also refinished.  

I have a quart of primer, a quart of primer converter so that's a half gallon of primer mix.

Also a quart of topcoat base and a pint of topcoat converter, a quart of topcoat flattening agent. That's over a half gallon of top coat.

I also have a quart of brush reducer which is mixed at about 20% for both the primer and topcoat.

So I'm pretty confident that I'll have enough to finish the job.

I have a bunch of sewing jobs coming up over the next few weeks so the deck finish will be on hold till at least the 2nd week of December. ( Boat is going into the yard for a bottom paint -- etc. the first week of December. )

3/8" & 1/2" Template Marking Device

 Making a Template Follower

I do quite a bit of Sewing: Biminis, Dodgers, Screen covers, Tank Covers, lots of Cushions and a plenty more. One consistent issue is marking the covering material to be 1/2" greater than the template for the Foam on a cushion.  

If I place the foam or a cardboard cutout, as a template on the material and run a sharpie or chalk pen around the foam ( or cardboard cutout ) then the Fabric is the same shape as the template, but I need to add a 1/2" seam allowance. If the edges of the template are straight lines, then it's easy to just use a ruler. If the template has a curve, then I can use a bendy rule but it's awkward.

I cam up with the idea of making a Template Follower

The concept is simple. Insert a Sharpie pen inside of a tube, then hold the tube vertically against the template (Foam or cardboard cutout) laying on the material to mark up. Then move the Template Follower around the edge of the template, the tip of the Sharpie marks the material.

The Follower is easily made: Just cut a piece of 1/2" Pex piping about 1" long ( it actually needs to be long enough to allow the Sharpie to be inserted into one end such that the tip of the Sharpie is protruding from the other end of the Pex by at least 1/8" of an inch. Then that piece of Pex is pushed inside of a piece of 1/" PVC Piping about 4" long such that the PEX protrudes about 1/8" from the PVC Piping.

That makes a 3/8" Template Follower. A 1/2" PVC pipe connector will slip (tightly) over the 1/2" piping, so I simply cut a 1/2" PVC Piping Connector in half across it's diameter and with that slipped over the 1/2" PVC piping, it converts to a 1/2" Template Follower.

Victron GX Touch 50 Menu

This Post is based on my Victron System, a system with other components will be somewhat different.

The new Victron Power Management System that I recently installed on Eximius has an extensive system management menu on the GX Touch 50 Display/Control panel. It has well over 300 Menu options and navigating through the menu in order to find a particular setting or info display page can take hours! I built the spreadsheet included in this post to assist me in locating any setting or info included in the Menu System.

Note. My MultiPlus 12/3000/120-50 120V is named 'Eximius MP3000

I hope you find this useful, please leave any suggestions on improvements in the Comments.

Here's the Menu Structure

Notes:

If an item in the spreadsheet is White Text on a black Background, that reflects the top item of the current Menu. In the real menu, that line also may show the current status of the display. 

My display includes the Location Icon, the Connection Type and Bars and the current time. 

 

Try searching for a Menu item using your browser's 'Find' option 

( Chrome = Ctrl+F )

eg. If you're looking for the 'Reboot' menu item, Press Ctrl+F

Then type in 'Reboot' (no quotes) and the word 'Reboot will be highlighted wherever it appears.

I have found this info really useful as I navigate around our new system on our Sailboat. The sheet was constructed by navigating each of the Menu item as displayed in the VRM Remote Console. The actual display on the boat is almost identical but functionally it's the same.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  If you would like to have your own copy of the spreadsheet so that you can modify it yourself to match your system components, just ask in the comments and I'll send you a link to share the Google Sheets file.

See you on the water!

Paul

ATN Ascenders

Using ATN Acenders

I have climbed Eximius' mast quite a few times, the most recent was this past week when I decided to replace the rechargeable battery in our Garmin gWind Wireless mast head transducer. 

The outcome of that trip up the stick was that it's not the battery so I need to see if the transducer can be repaired or replace it with a Wired gWind Transducer. 

That means I have to do at least two more trips up the mast more likely three.

The method I use to climb the mast is using the following setup.

1. Secure the end of the Spinnaker Halyard to the base of the mast and cinch up on the other end at the cleat on the Mast.
2. Secure the end of the Spare Halyard in the same fashion.
3. Detach the Main Halyard from the Mainsail and secure that end to the Bosun's Chair.
4. Tie a Prusik Knot using a 1/4" line onto the Spinnaker Halyard
5. Tie another Prusik Knot with another 1/4" line onto the Spare Halyard
6. Don my Safety Harness & Tether, attach the free end of the Tether to a Carabiner on the Main Haylard end.
7. Tie the ends of one Prusik Knot line to the Bosun's Chair D rings
8. Tie the ends of the other Prusik Knot Line to the Foot straps Loop.

With the Chair and safety harness setup, I then position the Prusik Knot from the Chair to a point as high as I can reach and sit down in the chair.

Next I hook the foot strap loops one over each foot and move the prusik knot to about 6" below the other Knot.

Now I adjust the attachments of the Prusik knot lines to the chair and foot strap loops until I can sit in the chair and then stand up in the loops.

Ok, now ready to climb the mast. Peggy will tail the Main Halyard on the winch as I climb the mast.

Climbing the mast is a task, the biggest part is shifting those Prusik knots one after the other. Each time I may have to partially release the loop of the Prusik knot in order to allow them to slide up their Halyard. That means that the maximum distance between the knots is determined not by my ability to lift my feet in order to raise the knot, but the distance that I can still release the Prusik knot's loop.

That way, the distance I can move up the Halyard with each move is restricted by the use of Prusik knots.

And that probably the reason that many climbers use Ascenders, quicker, easier and less exhauting.

Searching the web for a pair of Ascenders, I found that ATN, which is a Company is just down the road from where we keep the boat ( ok, about 15 mins away ) has them. So I stopped by to check out their 'Ascenders' 

I meat Etienne, very nice guy, very busy but graciously took the time to show me his Ascenders and explain their use and features.  

His store is a hive of activity, they make Spinnaker Sleeves ,Mast Climbers, Catamaran Trampolines, Storm Sails, Spinnaker 'Tackers' and much more. His team where all busy and he had a significant amount of jobs in progress. 

Etienne showed me how to attach the Ascenders to a line and explained how he has his own Bosun's chair system which incudes the Ascenders.  

I had watched the YouTube video of his that shows how to climb a mast single handed using his system. It's impressive, however, I don't think I'll go up the mast unassisted. I'd hate to have any kind of issue up the mast and have to come down to sort it out. Much easier to have a deck assistant that can send up something when needed via a messenger line.

So I purchased a pair of the Ascenders, took them back to the boat and checked out that I had memorized the process that Etienne demonstrated. I did, it's pretty straight forward.

The next day, Peggy came to the boat with me as I had to go up the mast to retrieve the non-functional Wireless Wind Transducer.

Getting up the mast was actually more difficult then using the Prusik knots, but I figured it out it was my fault. I had set the lower end of the fixed halyard to the forward cleat. That meant that I had nothing to hold onto when climbing, but more importantly, I had the Ascender to which my foot strap was attached too high, that meant that I had to reach up really high when raising the Ascender that was on my chair. As a result, my feet would swing out really far and it would take a lot of physical effort to move the upper ascender.  I confirmed this later when back on the deck. I'll attach the Foot loop so that it's Ascender is about waist high when standing on the deck and the Chair Ascender about face height when standing on the deck. That way I can sit down and easily raise my feet, taking the weight off of the foot loop ascender and making it easy to just slide up the Halyard. No need to release the prusik knot, the Ascender slide up easily when there's no weight on it.

Ok, so next time, I'll adjust the Ascender positions before attaching the Chair and the Foot loops to them.

Despite my error, I was able to climb the mast and it was a whole lot easier when I was above the Radar Reflector and able to steady myself with my feet on the Mast. But best of all was the fact that I could now easily stand with my head and shoulders well above the Masthead. As I have to do quite a bit of work next week when the new Wind Transducer and the new VHF Antenna Cable arrive and I have to go up the mast again. Oh the joys of boat work.

I do plan on adding to my Bosun's Chair a secondary harness that eliminates the chair seat slipping up my butt when I stand in the Foot loops. Not a modification to the chair itself, just a simple pair of adjustable leg straps to keep my butt firmly in the seat.

Ok, so a big shout out to ATN, I feel very confident in the Ascenders, there's no chance of them detaching from the halyard and there's no need for a fixed line with a simple bitter end as the Ascenders clip onto the bight of the Halyard.

Next time up the mast, I'll try to get Peggy to take some pics as I prepare for the climb.

See you on the water - assuming I fix the Wind Transducer and that we don't have any of the 'H' type of weather events. 

 

Fixing the gWind Transducer

Our gWind, Wireless Transducer failed during our trip to Biscayne Bay over Memorial day weekend, I guessed that it was the Battery and ordered a replacement online. Yesterday ( June 27th 2022) it was time to replace the battery.

I took my phone with me when I climbed the mast, but sadly, it was in a pocket that I could not get to when wearing my harness and in the Bosun's chair. So the pics are some that Peggy took down on the dock.

I'm pretty sure that the Main Halyard sheave at the top of the mast needs to be replaced as neither Peggy nor Mike,  club buddy that came down to help out and provide additional safety, could pull me up using the winch! So I did my usual practice of climbing the mast: Using a pair of prusik knots on two separate halyards, one tied to the Bosun's chair and safety harness  the other tied to the foot straps. Using them I can sit in the chair, raise my feet and then raise the foot strap prusik knot as high as it will go (about a one foot stretch). Then I stand up in the foot straps, taking the weight off of the chair, raise it's prusik knot, sit down and repeat. If I move the seat knot up by close to 1' each pass, then it takes about 40 moves to climb the mast. In reality, it takes a lot more, probably eighty moves as some of them are only a few inches while trying to maneuver around the shrouds and especially the last couple of feet.

Once I had gotten to where the foot strap prusik knot it as high up the halyard as it can go, that's about 8" from the top of the mast, then I can stand up and my shoulders are above the top of the mast and I can reach pretty well everything up there.

This time the plan was to climb the mast and replace the gWind Transducer's battery. The transducer is held in place by a clever bracket and nut system. Simply pull off the clip that stops the nut from unscrewing, unscrew the nut, pull the whole transducer arm forwards and slightly upwards. It takes less than an minute to release the Transducer.

With the Transducer on my lap in the chair, I used a #1 Philips head screwdriver to undo the small screw that holds the battery cover in place. It was easy to lift off the cover, unplug the old battery, plug in the new one and replace the cover. The insides of the Transducer looked pristine so no apparent water ingress which is a problem with the heavy rains that we get here in South Florida. 

I did note that the Solar Panel on the top side of the Transducer was 100% opaque, completely white! I'm guessing that means that the Transducer is not going to charge the battery. We have had wind data on our Nav system on every night trip, so the battery is just there to cover the times when there's no solar power and normally, rechargeable batteries are at least partially charged when new.

Less than a minute to reinstall the Transducer and call down to the team ( Mike & Peggy ) down below and ask them to test the system.

Sadly, that didn't go well :( 

With the Nav instruments powered up, the display lit up showing that it was powered but the data came on but only for a few moments. It showed wind angle info ( True Wind and Apparent wind Directions) but no wind speed, after a few moments the data disappeared. If we reset the Nav instruments, then it would pretty much repeat that scenario. 

I've been in the Bosun's chair I was ready to get back to deck level. Going down was a lot easier, I Mike & Peggy used the winch to haul the main halyard and take all of the weight and I eased the two prusik knots, then they eased the winch and as I moved down, I just moved the prusik knots with me.

They stopped lowering me when my feet were able to get on the spreaders. From there I freed the line for the lazy jacks that was stuck between the sheave and cheeks of the block attached the mast above the spreads. I need to replace that block ('blocks' as there is one on each side of the mast )but it's free right now so we can adjust the lazy jacks.

So, my thoughts.   If the solar power is zero, then the battery will run down within a day or so, but if there's any solar power getting into the battery, then it should charge up within a day or too also.

If it's not a Solar/Battery issue, then it's the gWind and looking at the reviews on the web, that's a strong likely hood. Under normal conditions, it's not unusual for the wind data to just disappear for a few minutes and it normally comes back if we reboot the system which we only try if the data does not return within about 5 minutes.

Options:

• Check it today and all may be well.
• Replace the Transducer with another gWind Wireless = $750+tax
• Replace the Transducer with a wired gWind = $650 

It's nuts that the wireless Transducer is so much more than the wired unit, as the wired unit has so much more in the Kit 

Using the wired unit brings me back to why we used the Wireless model originally: Running a new wire up the mast is a significant job.

Other things to consider.

If I do end up replacing the Transducer, and if I go the Wired route, then I might as well replace the VHF antenna coaxial at the same time, the existing coax has a much higher power loss than a decent cable and that would improve our VHF communication range both for Transmission and Reception.

Ok, first things first. Go down to the boat and check out the status.

A day later: 

The system is still not delivering data from the Transducer.

I spent a good while on a text chat session with Garmin this morning. From that chat I conclude the following:

#1 If the transducer is the older generation then I'm out of luck and will have to purchase a new item that's $750 plus tax.

#2 If the transducer is a new generation, then I should be able to get an out of warranty exchange, that's $350

#3 If I replace the Wireless Transducer with a Wired unit, I should be able to connect it to the GND 10 and disconnect the no longer needed WSI Box (the Wireless Receiver).

The Wired Transducer will cost about $650.

I'm leaning towards the Wired Transducer and replacing the VHF Coax at the same time.

Time to get busy and earn some boat bucks.

See you on the water, even if I don't know the wind speed & direction.