Ides of March

This has been an eventful few weeks since our holiday sail. Brad got our replacement 4G radome and new VHF radio antenna installed on the mizzen and so far everything is working great. While he was up there we also had him seal all the holes the wires go in so hopefully the aft head will no longer have such a wet floor after every rain.

I don't think I mentioned it, but the last of the cabin sole work got done in November just before my trip to India. Everything looks so much nicer with the old carpeting gone. Of course there is still a throw rug/runner outside my office door (the engine room) for obvious reasons.

New cabin sole walk-thru

This past weekend we got the porthole in the forward head replaced so there are only 3 plastic portholes remaining. We intend to spend one weekend day in the near future replacing the two starboard salon portholes then say the job is done. The last one, the one in the galley, is just too difficult to get to. We would have to remove the stove and dismantle a great deal of cabinetry to get close enough to replace that one. Since it is not accessible for light or ventilation anyway, it would only have been done for looks. So 13 stainless steel portholes installed, two to go!

Along with the porthole, the forward head shower pan also got a going over. Cate was not happy that the new cabin sole just outside that head got moisture under the varnish and was starting to darken. Julio took up the molding around the shower pan and found there were big gaps in the 30-year old sealant. So now one crack in the pan has been fixed, the sealant all around between the pan and cabinetry has been replaced, and a new waterproof finish put on the pan and surrounding molding.

More goodies arrived this week so I will shortly be busy replacing the Xantrex C-60 controller with the new Blue Sky MPPT Solar Controller, installing an inverter remote panel, wiring the new VHF antenna to the cockpit radio, and taking out a lot of now unused cables to clean up the wire bundles in the engine room.

The date has been cast. I officially retire on the Ides of March. We will probably hang around the local area for an extra month or so to get the last of the stuff installed and tested. After that we are free to go where the wind and sails take us.

 

Kudos to Navico support

Our Lowrance/Navico 4G broadband radar had failed just before the holiday break.  I had discussions with their tech support about possible problems, then, when bringing it down from the mizzen, we found it sloshed!  Problem found.  We got an RMA and sent it off to the Navico repair center but since we bought it in March, we expected to have to pay for repair.

A few days ago a brand new unit appeared on our door, um, dock step ... with no charges!  Now to get Brad to haul it back up the mast.

CapitalOne - friendly warning

When I got back from New Delhi, India last month I was surprised by a $4.95 foreign transaction fee for each purchase I made on my credit card.  Knowing that shortly most every transaction would be foreign, I decided to find a credit card that didn't charge that fee.  I settled on the CapitalOne card with 1.5% rebate, no foreign transaction fee, and no annual fee.  I was happy with the terms and credit limit so I signed up and got two personalized credit cards headed our way.

Before the cards even arrived I got a call from the CapitalOne fraud division.  They wanted to know if I really was who I said I was, and if I had indeed meant to open an account with them.  I verified my personal details back 60 years and said YES and told them why I decided to switch.  We chatted a while and I hung up thinking they must do this with every new account.

The cards arrived and for two weeks we moved all our day-to-day purchases to that card.  Then I ordered the Blue Sky MPPT solar controller, an almost $500 purchase.  CapitalOne fraud division called the next day to ask if I really wanted to make that purchase or had my account been hacked?  I said YES, I really wanted to order that part and in future, please expect boat parts to cost some money. I also related my angst over the necessity of repeated phone calls, especially once we start cruising and using sat phone.  She said there should not be any more phone calls from them and said "enjoy your travels".

Now today, a mere two days after the last call, I get yet another call from the wizards at CapitalOne fraud division.  This time wanted to know yet again if I was who I said I was and did I really want to open an account with them.  Ach!

I do not suffer fools well.  It might be that the CapitalOne fraud division is located in a state that has newly allowed marijuana use, I really don't know and at this point I really don't care.  All I know is that I do not have the time, patience, or cell phone/sat phone minutes to hand hold the idiots in that group each and every time we try to use that credit card.

We have (tried to) cancel that brand new CapitalOne account and are shifting back to my prior card. Anyone have recommendations on reputable credit card offerers with no foreign transaction fee and rebates?

Update 1/4/2013 10:00am: Just now I received yet another call, this time from the CapitalOne Executive branch.  The message they left said they "wanted to touch base and  see how they might be able to assist me in the future".  I just do not care enough to waste precious cell/sat phone minutes to hold their hand.  They are such a sad bunch.

Update 1/8: The executive branch person called once more today, again leaving a message offering assistance and demanding I call her back.  But finally this evening the account status has changed to Closed.  The entire ordeal lasted 3 weeks. 

Our Happy New Year cruise

Horizon got to shake her sea legs for the first time in a while and we got to spend several days on the hook to start wringing out her systems.  It was pretty chilly for Florida with highs in the 40's and 50's.  Since the oven is our sole source of heat, Cate worked her magic keeping us warm and well fed over several days making Christmas ham, pop-overs, pecan pie, oatmeal bread, escalloped oysters, dilly cheese and chicken and other (obviously non-fattening) entrees.

Point Desoto, Manatee River

Things that worked well this time:
1. The Torqeedo electric outboard purred like a champ!  It is so light and easy to lift on and off the dingy and runs with absolute quiet.  Of course 3-4 HP is not going to get the dinghy up on plane, but it is great for tooling around an anchorage.
2. The Lighthouse windlass smoothly brought up the 60# CQR and 3/8" all-chain rode but I did have some problem keeping the foot switch activated and may end up moving that for easier access.
3. The deck washdown system got a good workout cleaning mud off the chain and anchor.
4. The Rutland 913 wind generator worked fine in winds over 15 kts to keep our house batteries nicely full - unfortunately the wind only stayed above 15 for one of the nights.  Even with the KISS isolation mount we still get some sound of revving airplanes but it is not objectionable and will always be an alarm of rising wind.
5. Unhooked from cable, we were surprised how well the mast mounted TV antenna worked.  Now if we only had enough surplus power to use the TV a bit more...
6. I keep finding new and great things the Lowrance HDS-8 chart plotter does so well.  We are starting to settle down to a fixed set of pages and detail data that make navigation so much easier.
7. The marriage saver headsets augmented the hand signals nicely with only a rare one finger salute thrown in for good measure.
8. Purists may scream but we really enjoyed sailing "jib and jigger", under jib and mizzen sails.  As a test we never once raised the main and Horizon still moved nicely and was extremely controllable.

Things that needed help:
1. While the solar panels worked, they just do not put out anywhere near what they should.  They are 30V panels and the Xantrex C-60 controller just wastes too much power feeding a 12V system.  We have already ordered a Blue Sky MPPT controller to eek out every last drop of power from the panels.
2. The existing batteries hold even less power than I thought.  We have decided to go with Trojan lead/acid batteries instead of AGM's.
3. Our 1800W sinewave inverter is wired in the AC side but still needs the two battery cables run.  The only form of AC we had available during the trip were square wave inverters that most of our boat electrical items just do not like.
4. Likewise the Link battery monitor is only partially wired in and cannot yet be fully used to monitor the system.  Replacing the house batteries will be the perfect time to add all the incidentals like moving the rest of the engine room grounds to the bus bar, adding the big battery fuses, and generally cleaning up the 30 year old daisy-chained power distribution system.
5. The ancient Simrad W-32 wheel pilot did not work well at all and we may be moving a Simrad hydraulic autopilot higher up the wish list.  Along with the heading sensor on a new autopilot would come other benefits such as overlaying chart display with radar and showing MARPA vessel trails.

Untested:
1. Our Navico/Lowrance 4G Radar was not one of the things we could use since we had to send it back for repair.  It had stopped working a month or so ago and when we brought it down from the mizzen mast, it sloshed!  Factory seals were still in place but water got in somehow.

While I spent some time working in my office (the engine room) we did get lots of quality time jigsaw puzzling and reading months of magazine back issues and just chillin' - all endeavors that will be much more common after my retirement in a few short months.  Just a little more work and we will be so ready :)

Another Academic Achievement

This weekend Cate put another academic feather in her sailor's cap.  She is now Cate "Skippy" PhD, ADC, and now CCG (Clown College Graduate :)  She successfully navigated the arduous 2 month Caring Clown course offered at Suncoast Hospice.  Yesterday was her graduation.  We are all so proud of her!  Okay, maybe it wasn't too grueling or arduous but she sure had fun!  I think next is bar tending class ... that will serve us well in the cruising community.

svHorizon.com is live

At long last I spent a little time and updated svHorizon.com to describe this Morgan Horizon instead of our Rafiki Horizon.

Forward cabin sole is done

We finally finished the forward cabin sole, I think 3 weeks after starting.  After the last piece work, Cate gave it 5 coats of Epifanes RapidCoat and man does it look nice!  We have now started the aft cabin...

Before with carpet

After

Before I forget, last weekend we got the old genset out of the engine room.  I still have to clean up the area, give it a fresh coat of paint, then start mounting watermaker and washdown pump, and ...

Empty 4.5' x 3' space!

Genset in transit

Cabin sole and solar panels

We had some real movement this past weekend on the forward cabin sole.  The individual plywood pieces have all been laid along with the teak joints between, and everything bonded in place with Sikaflex 219.  Julio will visit one final time to plane the joints flush and then we can sand and varnish.  

This has turned out to be a much more involved process than we ever expected and takes 4 full days of work to get to the varnish stage in each section including the full day Sikaflex cure time:

• Day 1 is filling low spots and leveling the subfloor with lots of sanding to give a flat bonding surface.
• Day 2 is bonding the pieces of veneer plywood to the subfloor making sure the holly stripes all align.
• Day 3 is chiseling clean edges between the plywood pieces and fitting and bonding the teak joints.
• Day 4 is planing the joints flush with the plywood pieces and attaching trim molding. 
• Days 5-?? will be complete general sanding then applying coat after coat of Epifanes Rapidclear varnish.

So far we are still working on the first section, the forward cabin.  We still have the aft cabin section then the much simpler walk through section.

Solar Panels

This weekend we got our two new Hyundai HiS-S240MG solar panels mounted but I will need to do some more work on the bracketing to make sure they cannot flex and that there is sufficient air flow underneath them.  I hope by next weekend we will be ready to complete the wiring then throw the switch and see just how much power we can realistically expect from 480 watts of solar panels.

Birthday girl

Send in the clowns

Missing her days as a starving student, Cate has taken up a new educational endeavor - Clown College. We wish her luck and hope she can keep her GPA up :)

Last week Cate reached the ripe old age of 39 and some months and we have been going all out to celebrate the event.  One of her presents was a Torqueedo 1003S electric outboard.  The built-in battery runs for 30 minutes to 3+ hours depending on throttle, it breaks down into 3 easily toted components, and the entire unit weighs only 29 pounds - making it easy for Cate to toss on and off the dinghy.  When I did the 5 year cruise from San Francisco to Tampa we seldom stayed in port so gasoline for the outboard was always an issue even though probably 75% of dinghy use was within a mile of the boat.  The Torqueedo should handle those short distances fine and can be recharged from Horizon's electrical system maintained by the 480 watts of solar panels and wind generator.  That saves the limited gasoline supply for our 15 HP Mercury outboard.

Cate's other birthday present is a work in progress and definitely "some assembly required".  Horizon's main salon has the traditional teak and holly sole but the v-berth, aft cabin, and connecting walkways were all carpet covered.  Cate wanted wood throughout so we started asking lots of questions at boat shows.  We ended up buying wood veneer plywood from Teak Decking Systems in Sarasota, FL with a teak and holly pattern that sort of matches our current cabin sole.  Julio has finished the leveling and smoothing process for the first section, the v-berth area, but with the RNC madness (closures, restrictions, etc.) it will probably be a couple weeks before we can get the new flooring glued and trimmed then varnished in that section.  As always, corralling the cats to keep them away from fiberglass dust and other toxins is a perpetual problem with these kinds of projects.  Speaking of RNC, where else but Florida would we be prohibited from carrying umbrellas or light bulbs downtown during the RNC welcome weekend but wearing a sidearm is perfectly fine.

Air Conditioning

The new self contained 16,000 BTU Marine Air A/C unit is now installed in the big sail bin forward and it works great keeping the main salon and v-berth cool even in the August Florida heat.  That, and the small window unit aft, has allowed us to reclaim a handy bin and permanently remove lots of copper tubing and both of the big 20+ year old 1.5 ton A/C compressors.  Once we find someone who wants a rusted frozen diesel genset in exchange for helping us get it out, the entire back half of the engine room will be empty for mounting new gear.  I am so itching to get that VM LWM-200 watermaker out of the back of my car!

Sailing again

We did get Horizon out again for a few hours two weekends ago and it sure was good to get the sails shaken out and have no problems.  We definitely need more of those.  The diesel tank got another 40 gallons on the way back to the slip so we now have an almost full tank and still not a drop in the bilge.  I can stop worrying about a leaky fuel tank.

Horizon gets out

Matrimony

All work on Horizon stopped for a few weeks while we packed up and moved the family heirlooms back to the far cold north, helped as best we could with final preparations, then were honored to attend an impressively glitch-free and most beautiful wedding for Cate's daughter Maureen and Johnny Falvella.  Congratulations!  (And you guys brew some awesome beer!)

One more of the wedding party :)

Horizon goes for a jaunt

Recovery took a week but we shook the dust off and finally got Horizon out of her slip.  The hydraulic steering worked flawlessly (though the nut behind the wheel caused some consternation) and has not leaked a drop since we topped everything up a month ago.  I think that issue can be considered a closed chapter.  We do have some new minor engine system gremlins but those we can work on at leisure.  We also started filling the diesel tank, 40 gallons each time we go out until the 120 gallon tank is topped off.  We have not yet had the tank full so if there is a leak, we will hopefully find out with smaller quantities and not be surprised by finding an entire tank full in the bilge.

New air conditioning

When we bought Horizon, she had two aging 1.5 ton A/C units with separate compressors and evaporators.  One unit originally cooled the v-berth and main salon using a single 18,000 BTU evaporator and split air duct, but that unit never worked for us because of leaks in the long refrigerant lines.  The other unit also cooled the main salon using an 11,000 BTU evaporator and the aft cabin with a 6,000 BTU evaporator.  Although that unit worked okay, the age meant low efficiency, the circulation fans were noisy, the sea water pump ran continuously, and it just could not cool the main salon well since the thermostat was in the aft cabin.  With all the recurring cooling water problems, we recently installed a tiny window A/C unit in the aft cabin companionway for use at night, and only turned on the big A/C during the evening.  That worked great for power consumption and the limited sea water pump running time helped slow barnacle growth in the main A/C cooling filter system.

We are now in the process of replacing the dead forward A/C system with a new self-contained 16,000 BTU unit mounted in place of the old evaporator.  Our expected benefits will be quieter operation, digital temperature control in the main salon, and a sea water cooling pump that cycles with the compressor to greatly reduce barnacle growth. 

Space complex

With those changes we no longer need the two big A/C compressors taking up space in the engine room and since the genset has been frozen solid for who knows how many years, we are planning reuse of that entire 6' x 3' flat space behind the engine.  The current list for that area has the VM NF-200 12V water maker, the deck washdown pump, and possibly a HookaMax 12V dive compressor.  The remaining space may have captive closed shelving for tools and non-combustible spares for the engine and other systems.

Movie time

We have been accumulating movies on DVD for a decade and have quite a collection of over 200 movies.  For cruising we got a LaCie ruggedized impact and water resistant 1.5TB hard drive to hold our DVD and music collections.  Of course ripping DVDs to the hard drive is mind numbing and it takes about 35 minutes per disc but doing that will save about 8 linear feet of DVD shelf space.