Maintenance and upgrades, 2010

Jan 4 - Installed additional varnished teak spice rack plus a varnished teak knife/utensil rack in galley.  Installed flashlight mount in aft cabin.  Replaced existing pinewood fuel can rack with newly varnished teak rack.   


Jan 7 - Tracked down blown fuse in Espar diesel heating system, and with the assistance of Pat Adsit, installed new fuse box and fuse.  Replaced broken AA battery holder for stove lighter on Force 10 and cleaned out the oven burner orifice.


Jan 19 - Bottom cleaned and shaft collar zinc replaced.

Feb 4 - Added cruising spinnaker with ATN sleeve and tacker to sail inventory.

Feb 7-10 - Titusville, FL.  Alternator not charging the batteries, a problem that was intermittent in the Chesapeake last fall.  I thought the problem rested in the batteries, but they tested positive them in Daytona Beach.  Now, after a full day motoring down to Titusville on Feb 6, we realized the problem had to be the alternator.  We got a slip at the Titusville Marina and located Phil Scanlan, Mim’s Mobile Marine Service, who agreed to come out and check the alternator for us right away … on Super Bowl Sunday, no less.  It was definitely bad, so the next morning Phil ordered a replacement and on the Feb 8 he came out and installed it.

We departed Titusville on Feb 9, and just a couple of miles down the ICW, we realized the batteries still were not charging.  I called Phil and he directed us to the Kennedy Point Yacht Club and Marina, where we tied up (no electricity).  He met us there and we tested the alternator (bad), and finally tracked down the battery isolator (buried deep behind panels in the port cockpit sail locker; likely bad).  Phil located a Balmar replacement for the regulator and a Pro-mariner replacement for the Guest battery isolator, and he had them the next morning.

We’d wired up the new alternator to the regulator and battery isolator per the manual, and it still didn’t charge.  After several phone calls back and forth with Balmar tech support, we discovered that the installation instructions for the new alternator were wrong.   We needed to run the sensing wire from the alternator and regulator all the way back to the battery isolator as well, and we had a good time trying to snake the wire back to beneath the cockpit through the bilge and along the prop shaft.

 But, finally, she charged … much better than the old alternator had when it was working.  I’ll send the old alternator back to Balmar for repair, and then I’ll have a spare.  An expensive repair, but I learned a lot working with Phil … he said, quite seriously, if I wanted some work when we got back from our cruise, he’d take me on as a helper.  A nice vote of confidence.

Mar-May - Engine oil and filter changes completed every 100 hours while cruising in the Bahamas.

May 25 - Bottom cleaned by Dive Guana, Guana Cay, Bahamas.


Jun 8 - Repaired upper leech where Dutchman eye was torn away and put tabling pieces over four areas of chafing on leech.  Work performed by True North Sailing, Daytona Beach.

Aug 3 - Replace Jabsco diaphragm bilge pump.  Work performed by Pro Boat, South Daytona.


Aug 8-14 - Repairs to Walker Bay dinghy - replace oar lock, repair leaks.  Work by Inflatables of Florida, Port Orange.

Aug-Dec - Monthly bottom cleaning and zinc inspections by Pro Boat, South Daytona.

Dec 26-31 - Boat neighbor Jon Amsden cleaned and polished hull and top sides.