scavenger hunt for the day - boatyard specializing in electrical

Each port it is fun to try and find the obscure things that we need, things such as: duct tape, fuel filter, propane, post office, atm, teak scraper, battery 28L 6 volt for my obscure headlight, kitty litter unscented!, bungie cords, cruising to maine book, auxiliary extension and the list goes on.  Today we were in the market for a boatyard that knows their stuff about electrical and can get us finished by Oct 10th.

We set out to the chamber of commerce a nice place with wifi and fast wifi too!!!! we googled boatyards etc... we wrote out list of things to be done... I'll include that list at the end of this email for those sailing nerds that read this blog. to back up before breakfast we prayed for guidance, how are we to find what we are looking for but then again God has provided us with amazing summers in sailing and a bubble of safety around us why not help with the right boatyard.  sure enough as we sat in the wifi place a sailing couple came up and he just had his electrical done 45 miles from here.  we added that name to the list.

Ben called 5 different boatyards in the area while I did accounting stuff. (hey Melissa it all balanced the first time.) out of the boat yards Bill from Rockland called us back right away we sent him our list of fixings and he said it would be done by oct 10th.  One other placed called us back and he was not sure we could get it all done.

half of the equation is done. here is the other half... it seems there are no one way cars from rockland like there was from mt desert island airport.  grrr we have looked and looked.  we might have to rent a car to portland or rent a car to mt desert. just to rent a one way car home to mpls.  if anyone knows of a better way... we have a cat so that limits us to driving.  last year my daughter drove to pick us up. now she is working and jason has school... still hunting on that issue.

So tomorrow we will provision and say goodbye to Mt Desert island... it will be sad. tomorrow is thunderstorms, then thursday we will sail to Mt desert rock to see whales on our way back to rockland to Ocean Persuits boat yard. So you will not get a blog until friday.

after our wifi we went hiking on another trail... it doesn't matter which trail you go on they are all spectacular in their own way... mossy... or piney... or cliffy... or blueberry-y...sticky...scenery ocean view-y... mountainy,... etc... no words can describe hopefully Ben's pictures have been good.

it will be good to be sailing again in two days, to get there we will be sailing into the night too, but out from the lobsterpots... i hope!...

Thanks all... I'm so surprised at times who responds to this blog it makes me smile.
I'm smiling big!
Pam

here is the nerdy list

Looking for repairs:

Electrical

1.     We have a phantom Drain on our system. We’ve had 3 professionals

a.     One guy said it was our alternator (so we turn off the breaker when we are not using our engine and still the drain stays the same… our alternator does have a “humm” when it sits idol?)

b.     One guy said it is our “heart” system (AC inverter). It is an old system. We know something is wrong with it… when it is turned off the system is still “on”.  Our electrical panel light’s now and again glow faintly and the reverse polarity light glows too at times.

c.      One guy clipped a few wires and sent us on our way and still the drain continues…

2.     Batteries – power usage

a.     We know we will need to get batteries that match our new inverter system… we are looking at  400 amp/ hours or so.  We do not use much electricity and in the past 2 years we have only used electricity for the electronics. No house lights or refrigeration due to the drain.

b.     We are looking at the possibility of adding solar although we don’t have a bimini.  We were wondering about the “soft roll out kind” where when we needed it we could attach it to the dodger or the deck.

c.      Our electrical goals are to sail using our running lights and chartplotter/radar and occasional refrigeration and not have to motor so often as now we run our generator every 2 days even when we don’t use any power while sitting at a mooring.

d.     We use a Honda generator to run every other day so we don’t have to use our engine all the time, we are wondering if you know if that is true sign or modified sign as one electrician said that might be a problem too. We would like to continue to use our generator for a back up.

3.     Course computer

a.     We just had a new garmin chartplotter (5208) put in and it did not talk with our old auto helm.  We purchased an autohelm display raymarine but it seems to “act up” not being able to stay on course like it used to. The technician said it was cuz our course computer is too old to speak to all our new equipment and also it was installed in a non-traditional way he said.

4.     The Head

a.     Our head seems to become pressurized after not very many pumps (20 or so) and then it seems to fill our bowl with gray water or sea water. The system has a smell and we have new hoses two years old and people have told us they are the right kind. On two occasions we have had black water pumping out from our vent. It acts as if it is 9/10^th full by the handle is hard to pump and it will not stay in the down closed position.

5.     Email and weather fax for our SSB.