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Date:Fri, 11 Aug 2023 16:39:00 GMT
Last Minute stuff
Fixing what needs to be fixed...
The last couple days has been spent cleaning up, fixing last minute stuff
and preparing the boat for a passage. I got the rudder feedback unit in
from Defender and put it in today. The original was a simrad RF300 that
was an analog unit directly wired to the Autopilot. I replaced it with an
RF25 that is NMEA2000 that way I have a rudder position indicator even if
the autopilot is turned off. I had to rewire the connector to nmea2000
from simnet. I carefully soldered each wire and heat shrinked it. Then I
wrapped foil around each pair of wires to separate them from the power
wires (NMEAstandard) and then replaced the foil around the entire bundle.
Then I put heat shrink around that and finally wrapped it entirely with
self sealing stretch poly tape. It looks nice and works great. I tested
it this morning and re-aligned the rudder and auto pilot. Then I pulled
out all the old wire going to the auto pilot and put back everything I had
pulled out. You have to empty both lazzerettes in order to get access to
the rudder feedback and the auto pilot.
Then I started working on the tachometer and broken glass on the engine
instruments. I replaced the polycarbonate/lexan and put in new machine
screws and nuts rather than the original wood screws cut off. I got a
used tachometer that worked for a few tries but then died again. It's
hour meter didn't work either. So I'll have to order an new tachometer
and I think I'm going to get a separate hour meter as well.
For the time being I proved that the alternator is working for a tach
sending unit. My alternator is very old and I priced a new one at $450
and it has to come from France. It's about 8 weeks out.
I'd like to go for a test sail this weekend before we leave but it depends
on how well I can clean up the boat by my self. I'm getting itchy feet
to be back on the water. It feels like forever since we were on the
open water. I can't wait! We are planning on extended off shore this
time so I will be testing the remote blogging feature I programmed.
Everything should still work. ha ha... we will see.
enough for now. I'm off heading for a shower and lunch.