The instructions on the Xantrex installation manual says that these two wires (yellow & brown) should be twisted to reduce noise interference. Originally, they were not twisted. We thought this may be the cause of incorrect readings on our starter battery charge, but that wasn't it. After twisting the cables, the problem is still there.
We had the starter battery tested, and the battery health came back at 50%. So we started looking for a new starter battery. Our fist choice is Mastervolt, but there is a limited sales network here. We may have to settle for our second choice, a Trojan 31M AGM.
Our new sails are here from Port Townsend Sails and our old sails are in consignment. Our friend Matt helped Geralyn bend on the genoa while I was trying to figure out how to remove the broken tap from the boom. This genoa is smaller than our old genoa. This one is 120%. 100%, being from the headstay to the mast, the sail goes past the mast 20%. Our old genoa was 135%, and didn't have the luff foam, which gave it a funny and not very efficient shape when reefed. The main is drastically different in that it is not integrated with the stackpack and lazy jacks. With this new setup, the mainsail, lazy jacks and possibly stackpack, will be independent of each other. Also, our old mainsail had three reef points. Our new main has only two, but they are deeper reefs, so that the second reef is where the old third reef would have been. We like this better because the old third reef had to be set from the mast. Possibly the last place you want to be when you're setting the third reef. Now we can set reef 1 & 2 from the cockpit. Another big difference is that our new main is loose-footed, so the foot is not attached to the boom. Can't wait to get the lazy jacks installed, so we can go for a test sail. We tried dowsing the sail without lazy jacks and it took Geralyn and I 15 minutes to flake the sail.
I feel like I dodged a bullet. In my eagerness to mount the lazy jack hardware, I started mounting padeyes into the bottom of the boom. We have a Selden boom, and it has our reefing lines inside the boom along with some blocks that give us 2:1 purchase when reefing. I thought if I cut the fasteners down so that they were just inside the aluminum, I wouldn't run into any of the internal reefing controls. On the second hole of the first padeye, I broke the tap inside the boom. To make matters worse, the broken tap prevented the second reefing line from moving. The tap broke flush to the surface, so there was no way to get it out by reversing. Finally, I had the idea of pulling on the reefing line really hard to dislodge the tap. It worked. When I pulled the line out of the boom, I could see the tap had gone into the line, but not the blocks. I didn't want to leave the tap in the boom, so we coaxed it out with a magnet, since the boom is aluminum and the tap hardened steel.
I think if I continued mounting the padeyes, I may have done permanent damage to the boom. Luckily, I had the idea to contact Port Townsend Rigging. The folks at Port Townsend Rigging suggested a boom slider that goes in the bottom groove of the boom. That way, I don't have to drill any holes and compromise the internal reefing system.
We have neglected our blog a little, and here's why - it's fall Chinook salmon season on the Columbia River. We have put in some hours with a line in the water. Geralyn caught this one. It was delicious!
Our old Tides Marine Strong Track was looking quite tired, so we ordered a replacement. The company has all their orders on file, so if you give them your track number, they can pull up your order and provide any assistance or replacement. Tides Marine has really impressed us with quality and customer service. This is our new track.
We removed the sails in preparation for removing the sailtrack and bending on new sails. Removing the sail was a little involved because the stackpack and lazy jacks were all integrated. We like the stackpack concept, but we're not sure about it being sown to the sail. We may go back to a stackpack someday now that we have options. Bliss really looks strange without sails.
Our forward berth portlights are clear, so they don't provide much privacy. There's also no way to shut out the sun in the morning and we didn't want to use curtains. We looked into some very expensive magnetic panels that go over the portlight, but decided to try a cheaper option for now. This film is made by Gila and it provides privacy, UV protection, and shuts direct light out. It also comes off pretty easily with a soapy solution. We're pretty happy with it so far. We like being able to see out of the portlights, so we probably won't do all of them, only selected ones throughout the boat.
We have a Yanmar 4JH3E 50HP diesel. The manual calls for oil change every 150 hours. We knew the previous owner had changed the oil right before selling the boat at 460 hours.Our engine just passed 620 hours, so we decided it was time to change the oil. Rather than try to drain the oil out of the drain at the bottom of the engine, we used a manual oil pump inserted into the dipstick hole and sucked all the oil out (6 Qts). This is much easier than trying to fit something under the engine and prevent spillage everywhere. We took advantage and replaced the oil filter, which should be replaced every 300 hours. While the lubrication system was drained, we decided to try and fix another problem that we have been having with our oil pressure gauge. If we've been motoring for a while, the oil pressure gauge will slowly dip into the red. The first time, it happened on the way to Portland from Seattle, which was unnerving. After checking the oil, and playing with the throttle, we decided it was either a oil pressure sender problem or a wiring harness problem. The oil pressure sender reads the oil pressure at the engine crankcase and sends a signal to the gauge in the control panel in the cockpit. We bought a new oil pressure sender and replaced the old one. During our test motor yesterday, the pressure read correctly over an hour of motoring. Success! I'm glad it's not the wiring harness. We also replaced the secondary engine fuel filter. It needs to be replaced every 300 hours, so we will replace it next time the oil filter gets replaced. Since we had the engine compartment open, we also decided to replace the water pump impeller. There was nothing wrong with it, but with it's age unknown, we decided to replace it anyway. After careful inspection, we decided the old one was still in good condition, so we put it back in the spares kit in case of an impeller failure. An interesting note: When we purchased the boat, the spares inventory showed two secondary fuel filters. While doing spares inventory, we noticed one of the fuel filters was the wrong type for any application on board. So while we thought we had two spares on board, we really only had one.
Our Lighthouse 1501 anchor windlass should be serviced every three years. Last weekend, we intended to service the clutches and the motor, but we spent a whole day just trying to remove the clutches from the shaft. Everything was rusted together. We sprayed PB Blaster and let it sit, then came back with the rubber mallet and coaxed all the pieces apart. While trying to remove a rusted keyway from the shaft, the key got loose and bounced off the deck and into the water. We thought of going after it, but decided to write the manufacturer for the part. A few days later, they sent a new keyway free of charge!
Our emergency tiller is quite rusty. I found a local outfit to completely strip and clean for $30. I'll have them strip, clean and prep for painting, so I can paint myself.
Our Furuno chart plotter has an anchor watch feature that you can set in the cockpit and at the nav station independently of each other. What's nice is that it draws a diameter of the limit you set. That way, you don't have to guess what to set it to. Our first night at anchor, we set .010nm (60ft). The anchor alarm went off in the middle of the night and we woke up, flashed the spotlight and tried to determine if we were dragging. The location indicator for the boat was hovering near the edge of our swing radius. After deciding that we were not dragging, and that our swing radius was set too small, we decided to set the anchor watch to .020nm (121 ft). Below are our anchor alarm circles for 2 different nights. The red marks inside the circle are our tracks from swinging at anchor.
On our way back to Hayden Island, Geralyn made this beautiful and delicious lunch. It's a recipe from a Jaques Pepin cookbook that we like; Fast Food My Way.
We found this cool little anchorage called Martin Slough, on the north side of the Columbia. The approach is a little shallow, but no problem at this time of the year, with the river near flood stage. There were a few boats in the anchorage already, so we picked a spot we thought was far away from the other boats, but once we had let out our anchor chain, we thought our swing radius was too close to a trawler. We didn't want to worry about it, so we raised the anchor and dropped it again about 100 ft back. This time, we landed pretty close to shore, but after monitoring our swing, decided it would be ok. Our Furuno chart plotter has an anchor watch feature that you can set in the cockpit and at the nav station independently of each other. During the evening, we set both so we could hear the alarm in either the cockpit or in the cabin. At night, we set the anchor watch at the nav station only, to conserve amps. We also have a handheld Garmin GPS that has an anchor watch, so if we are worried about dragging anchor, we can set the handheld anchor alarm in the forward berth as well. Depth was 30ft, so we let out 200ft of scope (almost 7:1).
