Two More Days

Yesterday Jak began the day by looking into the problem with the BEP Voltage Sensitive Relay Module - the piece of equipment that ensures that the House receives charging from the alternator when the Starter bank reaches 12.8V.  I could not find any documentation on the unit but fortunately was able to find the installation guide on the Web.  Jak was soon able to identify a missing wire (probably severed during the fire and removed by me during the cleanup) and in short time had the module working.  We started up the engine and immediately the module sensed that the Starter bank was "full" and allowed charge current to pass to the House bank.

Second Cigarett Lighter Plug

Jak then turned his attention to the installation of a second cigarette lighter plug that I thought was warranted for the navigation table, both for capacity and redundancy.  Jak went across the street to Seamar and purchased a marine grade plug and soon had it installed below the existing one.  These plugs will supply power to the laptop at the navigation table, which is indispensable to my Sailmail communications.

The fluxgate compass that gives heading information to the autopilot had stopped after the fire and as expected we found that a section of its cable had been burned and severed.  I sent a query to Raymarine regarding the feasibility of either re joining the 5 individual wires with solder or replacing the entire cable.  Their response was to purchase a new compass.  I have ordered the compass ($146.99 plus shipment) for delivery to Marina de La Paz.

We had been discussing the usefulness of having a GPS display at the binnacle to replace the $600 Trimble repeater that lasted only about 3 weeks in the tempestuous Southern Ocean.  I have ordered a Garmin 152H  (https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=156&ra=true) that has a 4" grayscale display and a built in antenna.  It meets a waterproofing standard of 30 minutes at 1 meter below the surface.  The total of this order came to $321.00 and delivery will be to Marina de La Paz.  After it arrives I will remove the Trimble repeater, set up electric power for the GPS, then engage a stainless steel man to make the required changes for mounting the unit securely on the binnacle.

Port Battery Held Down

Starboard Battery, 1 Batten and 2 Straps

During our wiring work Jak noted that the battery hold-down setup on the port side was pretty weak.  Restraint of batteries becomes important were the boat to - dare I say it? - roll over.  It would have been much simpler to have designed proper restraints when these batteries were installed in New Zealand but that was not done and months later I did my best to retrofit some straps.  Anyway, we came up with the idea of putting boards across the top of the batteries and this we did: two boards across the top of the port battery, one board across the top of the starboard battery where the strap setup is fairly strong.

Almost as an afterthought we began work yesterday afternoon on the engine exhaust outlet.  We had decided that installing a 2" ball cock valve was the only foolproof way of protecting the engine from the ingress of water up the exhaust hose.  Jak has such a valve on his boat and it has worked well for him.  This will add the complication of always having to be sure that the valve is open before I start the engine, not to mention the regular lubrication and working of the valve to make sure that it does not freeze up.  But I'm willing to pay that price for the certainty of no sea water ever reaching the engine from the rear.  I will come up with some fool proof procedure to avoid the calamity of starting the engine with either the exhaust or cooling water valves closed.

Blue Sea Through Engine Exhaust Port

We tried to get away with just the valve and a hose adapter but discovered we could not match the existing thru hull fitting, which meant that I had to purchase that too.  The fittings and some clamps and sealant totalled a whopping $286.

The existing exhaust thru-hull fitting has no backing plate - the skin fitting is fixed solely on the fiberglass hull with no support.  That may have been OK with the current setup but we figured that the loadings from turning the handle to open and close the new valve would require the use of a backing plate.  This led to the task of finding good wood or, we thought, possible "starboard" for the job.  Starboard is attractive because it is tough, relatively easy to work, and does not degenerate.  Then there was the problem of tools.  I would need a plug-in electric drill  and some hole cutters. 

Thick Starboard and Pieces To Be Fitted

I got smart and went to the morning coffee table of the Palapa of Knowledge, Truth, and Wisdom for advice.  I got advice on where to get the wood.  When I mentioned starboard one of the men told me that he could supply me with a piece for thick starboard.  Another told me that he could lend me not only the drill but possibly hole cutters of the required size.

This afternoon I was given a fairly large sheet of 1" thick starboard.  I only need to cut out a piece 4" x 4" and will return the rest.  Purchasing a sheet of the material would have been extremely expensive.

The new thru-hull fitting has a slightly bigger diameter than the old one, so we will have to do hole cutting through the hull, about 2' above the water line.  We plan to launch the Zodiac so that one of us can work from outside the boat.