Its Hot, Damn Hot.

We left the boat at 1:00 in the afternoon to go do laundry, and it was 36 deg C. down below, now that’s not really working weather. And, it was cooler in the boat than on the dock. I will admit that the generous donation from our friend Pat (aka. Cabbage), of a wind scoop over the front hatch, and moving docks has made a huge improvement to the circulation of air down below.

My apologies with the slow blogs. There is lots being done, but with the heat, and the exhaustion, there is no time or energy in the day for bloggin. I posted a small update from my Blackberry yesterday, but it was more like a status update to Facebook then it was a blog entry. Silly perhaps, but I was really sun f^@$ed. That’s my excuse, and I am sticking to it.

We are about three weeks away from leaving the dock, and about 3 months away from finishing the refit. We won’t be ready, but we are leaving anyway. I wish the boat was better prepared, but we’ll survive. Many of the projects will just have to get completed along the way. Unfortunately we will have to carry the supplies with us, and the boat is already starting to get a little heavy, especially in the stern. Ironically, about half of the lockers are still empty.

I mentioned in the last update the we had finished the bimini, and I know there are a lot of people curious about how we got a bimini on a Bayfield 29. Truth is, it was really easy.

The key was getting rid of the traveller on the aft rail, and moving it to just in front of the binnacle. The next step will be to mount the solar panels so that they extend the shade past the edge of the bimini to complete the sun shade. Way back in the winter I had made swivel mounts for the solar panels, but they don’t seem to work to well on the boat, so I am reengineering them right now. The mount will likely be more stable, but will lose some of its manoeuvrability.

We installed the chart plotter that we have had for about 2 years now. It works great, and although the position is open to the weather, I personally prefer it at the helm. I just need to make a nice cover for it. That will have to wait until I get parts for my sewing machine since I broke it working a sail for a friend.

We also installed a Raymarine X-5 Wheel Pilot. The boat came with an old Autohelm 3000, and it worked well, but it clutters up an already tight cockpit, plus you just never can tell when something that old is just going to give up the ghost. The new X-5 takes up much less space in the cockpit, and provides nicer control. As an added bonus, when the autopilot is engaged, it provides enough friction on the wheel that it can be left for short periods of time to fend for itself.

After installation the autopilot needs to be calibrated. So we left the dome, and drove out passed the breakwater. The engine performed fabulously, and after figuring out that the motor wires were backwards on the wheel pilot computer, the calibration went well. We shut off the engine and sailed home. Not much wind, 5 knots, but we were making 3 knots, so that is pretty good for a Bayfield. A good day.

Then Saturday when I performed my monthly check on my batteries, I found my three very expensive, brand new Trojan batteries boiled dry, or close enough to it. It took 4 litres of water to top them up. Under normal circumstances the batteries would be garbage, but these are Trojans, and it is starting to look like they may have survived the ordeal. How, I don’t know. I charged them up and we have been monitoring them very closely, with the battery charger turned off. Fingers crossed….. What happened was that the little 6 Amp Guest charger that we bought, although “smart”, gets stupid when there is a load on the battery bank and will continue to charge at 14.1V, which, if given enough time will completely boil a battery bank dry. Commonly called overcharging. With no load it goes down to a 13.3V float charge. Live and learn.

Also have most of the wiring finished. The mast lights are all wired, and working. The radios are up and running. I installed a red light over the Nav station that we use when we are not home, makes it easier to figure out where were stepping when coming aboard. I also installed a small light over my bunk for reading. The screws were so small that I had to use a pair of micro tweezers to hold it while I used a jewellers screw driver to put them in.

Its coming, I could use a break in the weather. Maybe 24 deg C in the daytime, 14 deg C at night, cloudy, and no rain, for a week. Does anyone have a favour they could cash in for me?