Instruments Now Working

Sunday was also Australia Day (Think USA 4th of July) so I took the day off from the renovation work.

I spent an hour at the boat trying to mount the wind and depth instruments on the teak panel that I had sanded and varnished over the previous few weeks but one of the 3 wires to the depth instrument broke at the connector.  I returned to the boat with Brenda and Stephen late in the afternoon to see the fireworks display over the Fremantle Harbour area and I had a quick stab at crimping on a new connector but managed to hash it up, so I put the work away and enjoyed the evening.  And a pleasant evening it was, in the comfort of the cockpit of the boat in the clear summer night, chatting with the people in the next boat, glass of white wine in hand, nibbling on light snacks, with the boat well positioned for a great view of the fireworks. 

Lowrance and Trimble GPS's Working OK

But all was not lost with the boat preparation.  During the evening we checked out all of Pachuca's navigation lights and found them to all be OK, including the deck light.  We also ran the refrigerator to chill the drinks and verified that it is OK.

This morning I returned to the boat and located a set of 20 of those precious hard-to-get tiny connectors for the Raymarine equipment.  Peter of Maritime Electronics had replaced all of the 4 connectors on the wind display and I decided to replace all of the 3 connectors on the depth display.  That all went well and within an hour I was getting wind and depth data both on the display and on the chart plotter.  I then turned on the venerable Trimble and Lowrance GPS's and found them to be working OK.  They had been on Pachuca when I purchased her and somehow had survived the 5 year circumnavigation.  Before leaving the boat I flushed the marine head and found it to be squeaky but working OK.  Flushing the system with a few drop of olive oil in the toilet water stopped the squeaking and gave a smooth action on the pump.

The last repair job that I am aware of is the radar, and I will telephone Maritime Electronics this week to see if the new cable has arrived.

Wind Instrumentation Working, Radar on Way

I met Peter, the principal of Maritime Electronics at the boat on Thursday.  He had brought a spare masthead unit but started by looking at the electrical connections at the panel.  I had missed something.  I had connected 3 wires to the wind display but had not noticed a 4th wire, which had sheared off at the insulation so was showing no wire or connector.  Peter replaced all of the connectors and voila! I had wind speed and direction.

He then climbed up the mast to look at the radar with me managing his safety line at a winch and his assistant managing the chart plotter and passing up tools.  Peter found the repair work on one wire that had been done in Argentina, which had parted.  He joined up the wire, climbed above the radome so that he would not be cooked, then asked his assistant to begin transmitting.  The radar came up OK and worked fine.  Peter has ordered a new cable and will contact me when he is ready to make the swap.  Fortunately I routed the radar cable with practicality rather than appearance in mind, and from my recollection of the cable swap in Honolulu I figure that we can do the task in about an hour, particularly since I will be doing the pre work of loosening all of the cable ties.

We discussed the fact that this was the second cable failure since the radar unit was installed in 2007 and his analysis confirmed what I had already figured out.  I had gone to the trouble and expense of having the mast removed so that a conduit could be installed for the radar cable, the idea being to eliminate points of chafe and ensuring a long life for the cable.  So far so good.  However, after the radome was installed with the cable passing directly across from the opening at the mast to the dome, Edgar the rigger complained, and I'm not sure if the problem was interference with the inner forestay or the effects of pumping of the mast with the radome that high.  (The mast is so heavy that I have never seen it pump.)  So the radome was moved down the mast which necessitated the removal of the baby stay and worse, resulted in a U-bend in the cable as it passed up the mast, out through the opening, then down to the radome.  Peter could feel the entire weight of the cable as it passed through that opening. He will do what he should have done when he first installed the radar: put a heavy sheath around the cable to protect it as it passes through the mast.

When the radar is repaired the boat will be 100% ready for sea as far as I can tell.  All major systems are ready, e.g. sails, rigging, electronics, engine, refrigerator, stove.  In the past few months I have visited the boat at every opportunity and have removed all superfluous equipment so that it has plenty of room and is ready for provisioning.  The gas cylinders and diesel tanks are full.

Bunbury Cruise here we come!